Not Allowed To Pay Friend's Bill

penniestopounds_3

I tried to help out a friend who didn't have enough cash in her bank to pay for her Barclaycard so that she didn't get charged for late payment. She phoned up to pay and then passed the phone to me so I could give Barclaycard my bank card details and verify I was card user (Switch guarantees payment).

I was told they do not accept payment from third parties. I was amazed that I could not help my friend and now she will have extra charges on next statement. Has anyone else come across this with Barclaycard or any other companies.

I don't usually get told I'm not allowed to pay most people grab your payments.

Bokken_2

This is beacause of the Data Protection Act,the Credit agency or Bank is not allowed to pass any details at all about your friends account unless she has written to them requesting that they can.
Next time she will have to write ,the request can only be accepted in a written format e-mail does not count.
But,American Express,A&L and Texaco have all breachedThe Data Protection Act because they have discussed my wifes seperate bank account details with me.

Tahiti

The other reason may be Money Laundering. I've had issues paying off my wife's credit car before, just before we got hitched, and that was the reason given to me.

zzzLazyDaisy

penniestopounds wrote:

I was told they do not accept payment from third parties. I was amazed that I could not help my friend and now she will have extra charges on next statement. .

I can't do you a link, but do a search on MSE for bank charges. When she gets her next bill she should write to them, explaining what happened and quoting the various legal arguments (there is a draft letter on there somewhere).

I got all my charges refunded, it is definitely worth a letter.

penniestopounds_3

It just seemed rather silly that they could not tell my friend what the amount was to pay (she did know),which then would have given her the choice to tell me the amount and then for me to pay over the phone. I did not feel this would have been against the Data Protection Act as it could have been my friends choice with her being present. But rules are rules with Barclaycard.

Just felt unhappy that i couldn't help her.

King_Of_Fools

You may not have been able to pay by debit card, but you should have been able to make a bank transfer to Barclaycard from your bank.

Bokken_2

penniestopounds wrote:

It just seemed rather silly that they could not tell my friend what the amount was to pay (she did know),which then would have given her the choice to tell me the amount and then for me to pay over the phone. I did not feel this would have been against the Data Protection Act as it could have been my friends choice with her being present. But rules are rules with Barclaycard.

Just felt unhappy that i couldn't help her.

Yes it is annoying,but at least you know how to get around it next time.

mariejader

could you not pay the amount into your friends bank account by cash and then the payment would go through with normally

Rafter

How do the bank know it was your 'friend' that you were paying for and you weren't actually trying to pay your own bill with a stolen debit card?

Just because you are honest, there are loads of people out there who try tricks like this.

R.

devils_spawn

This isn't against DPA, if you called and told the amount you wanted to pay without discussing the account then in thoery this would be ok.

However, it is to prevent money laundering.

I'd suggest that you use the tear off slip that comes on the statement to pay by cash in a bank - they'll happily accept your money then!

dchurch24

Yet, if you are three months in arrears they will happilly take a third parties credit card details over the phone for payment.

I had a similar chat with Barclaycard - I was attempting to pay it off in full, or rather my partner was but they wouldn't let her, so I asked why and she said "security reasons". Then she said if the card was in arrears that they would accept her card.

My reply was "So, you no longer care about security if Barclaycard feel they are in danger of not getting their money back?"

No answer.