Very.co.uk - payment problems

GrandDrive

I am doing my best to clear about £1,000 I owe to very.co.uk and I am having a bit of a worry. I had £200 to pay them in my current acount yesterday, so I thought - lets pay some of this off:

Tried doing it online, didn't work - error message on website.
Tried phoning them and talking to a machine, didn't work - declined.
Tried phoning and speaking to a real person to pay, as I knew I had the money in my account to pay it - declined.
Rang my bank (Alliance) and they said they didn't OK the payment due to fraud issues with very.co.uk.

Finally I thought "right, I'll just add them as a payee and do a bank transfer to them". I got their bank details off their website and set them up as a payee. The account number it says to pay the money into is 00000000. Sort code is like any usual sort code.

So I set it up and paid the money and it has gone.

Why is it that when I look at my payees, does it show Very's account number as 99999999 when I entered 00000000? I deleted them as a payee and re-set it up to make sure I hadn't made a mistake and the same thing happened. It's not a typing error - the payee details are different both times.

I am worried now that I have made a direct payment to some random company. Alliance and Leicester weren't able to help on the phone, and neiither could Very who have asked me to email them, but while I await their resposne, I need the mind putting at ease. I am really nervous. I have been paying off about £10k worth of debt, this is the last debt I have, and I don't want it to go wrong.

I'm hoping it's normal, but I'm panicking, so if anyone has any advice/experience that would be great. need the mind put at ease ahead of the weekend.

Sorry if in the wrong forum - feel free to move.

DarkConvict

I'm not sure on this, can you ring them up in a few days to see if they have received payment. Take a copy/print of there web page with the bank details on so you have a hard copy.

Its not easy to pay the wrong person, as the name of the payee, account number and sortcode all need to match up otherwise the payment is bounced back to the sender of the funds.

GrandDrive

I can and will chase it and see if/when it goes into the account, but that can take about 4 days, so it's the short term worry.

But what you say about payments bouncing if it doesn't all match up certainly puts my mind at ease. Thank you.

DarkConvict

GrandDrive wrote: »

I can and will chase it and see if/when it goes into the account, but that can take about 4 days, so it's the short term worry.

But what you say about payments bouncing if it doesn't all match up certainly puts my mind at ease. Thank you.

We had an incident when a friends salary was meant to go into my mom's account, their manager but two numbers the wrong way round, sure it takes like upto 5 days to get there, and 5 days to get back. But it was bounced as the account it went to, the name of the account holder and the name of the payee, didn't match up.

Although i have seen it happen, that money goes into the wrong account it was just that both account holders did actually have the same name, but that is going to be pretty rare.

onlypaddy

sorry OP, but why would you persist at trying to pay a company when it had not worked and then your bank told you they were having fraud issues with them? wouldnt that be a pretty big warning??

if it does turn out to be fraud you wont get this back now as the bank warned you and you did it anyway!

GrandDrive

I have been paying this company for years - it's what used to be Littlewoods Direct, not some fly by night little organisation! Alliance and Leicester don't like them because they recenty changed name and are relatively new in that guise, is what the bank said.

Oh, and the reason I persist in trying to pay off the balance is that the interest rate is a ridiculous 39&!!!

GeorgeUK

39% APR?

Can you get a 0% card that does money transfers as part of the promotion?
Or is your credit rating shot?