MBNA payment dates

henrik1971

Mbna are giving me "impossible" payment due dates on a regular basis. I've phoned them to complain, but they say all banks/providers are the same and they can't change the date.
Its just happened again last month - the payment due date was 27th Sept. It was only when the date approached that I clicked the 27th was a Sunday.
Now, you can only credit a payment to the account on a working day - in other words Mon-Fri, so the payment had to be made and cleared by Friday 25th (the last physically possible date), so surely they should be printing Friday 25th as the TRUE payment due date.
Its even worse when they make the due date fall on a Bhol Monday, then you have to count back to the Friday, and then count back another three days which is how long it takes for the online payment to clear.
I know ideally we should all pay by automated direct debit to save scrabbling around to get payments in manually and not be caught out, but this just seems like another cynical ploy by card companies to trip us up.

Has anyone else had this problem with MBNA or any other provider? I have several other cards and MBNA is the only one who I have this problem with.

jonesMUFCforever

Nobody is tripping you up other than yourself.
You hit the nail on the head when you say that you should have a direct debit for at least the minimum sum.
Why not pay using internet banking from your bank rather than going down the bank? (I presume this is what you mean by scrabbling aroung to get payments in manually)

henrik1971

Luckily I've not been tripped up, but its been a close shave a couple of times.
I log onto my account on the Mbna site and pay by debit card usually.

You're right, of course, a direct debit is the way to go to and that's what I'll be doing ASAP.

However, it doesn't change the fundamental principle that it is at the least unhelpful, and at the worst disingenuous, for a credit card provider to quote a "payment due date" that is impossible to pay on.

YorkshireBoy

henrik1971 wrote: »

However, it doesn't change the fundamental principle that it is at the least unhelpful, and at the worst disingenuous, for a credit card provider to quote a "payment due date" that is impossible to pay on.

The payment due date is not a target to achieve!...it's an absolute latest date if you haven't got the funds when you spent the money or 20 days previously when they produced the statement.

Fundamentally though, there's nearly always going to be a 2 in 7 (near 30%) chance the payment 'due by' date will fall on a weekend isn't there?

What would you rather do?...have them shorten the interest free period by saying 'pay by the previous Friday' (because they're not going to give you an extra day or three to pay)?...or set up a direct debit and pay the following Wednesday (when Xmas Day/Boxing Day fall on a Mon/Tues)?