Late payment penalty

chattychappy

Fireblade wrote: »

I've never been in arrears on anything in my life ....

I'm guessing you are feeling a little insulted by all this - a bit of a blot on your reputation or whatever. But try to see it this way. Yes, the missed payment will show on the record. But so will all your recent "on time" payments. It's not a stain on your character. It's not a "real" default. It's not a CCJ. It's not an entry showing fraud. It just says you missed a payment, so try not to overreact. One single missed payment will have a little if any effect on your rating because credit worthy people (especially busy ones) often forget the odd payment. It just reflects that you messed up that month.

Fireblade wrote: »

...Yeah that's probably fine for a non-busy person but I simply forgot, and as you don't recieve statements when you owe nothing I assumed I owed nothing.

Now... lots of people are busy and remember their payments, just as you usually do. I'm paranoid about missed statements from usually-dormant accounts, so I check everything monthly. You know "you don't receive statements when you owe nothing I assumed I owed nothing" is flawed. Weren't you aware that you'd put transactions onto the card?

Fireblade wrote: »

the guy.. didn't give a toss ... I'm customer they probably wouldn't want to lose, just seems like an !!!!!! move to me.

This reminds me of a bar I know. A wealthy guy goes in and asks for the wine list. He doesn't know much about wine and simply points to the most expensive bottle saying "bring me this one". He starts to drink the wine and tells the barman to change the music. The barman refuses as the owner has specified the kind of music that should be played at that time of the evening. The wealthy guy says "I've bought the most expensive wine in the house, so I get to choose the music." The owner is called and refuses to change the music. The wealthy guy threatens not to pay if the music isn't changed. The owner doesn't bargain, the music keeps playing and the guy leaves (without paying).

That was about 8 years ago. The bar is still doing very well.

Fireblade

If that's the way credit history is dealt with then maybe it's not so bad, I'll wait a month and get a credit report anyway as I've never had one, just to see what it says. I was just concerned it was going to have a major impact for one tiny little mistake.


As for me not realising there was a payment on the card, it was a bit complicated, the card was paid off, but it had been used as a security on a rental car in the states, the company charged an upgrade to the car to it after i'd come back so wasn't aware, I assumed it had been paid at the start. I check my statements when they come in but had overlooked the fact that hadn't been charged initially. The reason I realised it all was because I decided to check the account as a matter of course, unfortunately it was 2 days too late.

As for the last thing, my comment probably came across wrong, I'm simply saying most companies will let you off minor mistakes or oversights when you have a good history with the company and conduct the majority of your business with them, it seems fairly off to not be lenient in one slip up. I also bank with Lloyds for other things but used them primarily in the past and found their customer service to generally be apalling, however a similar situation on an unplanned overdaft with them actually resulted in "don't worry, we'll waive the charges and so on this time as it's never happened before".

I've set up the direct debit now to avoid it happening again, at least now I know the consequences and the fact Royal Mail frequently can't find my house are reason enough to make doubly sure I check it.

chattychappy

Fireblade wrote: »

I'm simply saying most companies will let you off minor mistakes or oversights when you have a good history with the company and conduct the majority of your business with them, it seems fairly off to not be lenient in one slip up. I also bank with Lloyds for other things but used them primarily in the past and found their customer service to generally be apalling, however a similar situation on an unplanned overdaft with them actually resulted in "don't worry, we'll waive the charges and so on this time as it's never happened before".

You did say before "it's not the £12 charge i'm bothered about, just the credit mark,"

I would hope that a goodwill thing, they would refund the £12 for a "first offence". I think many CC companies will. Perhaps they didn't in this case because the conversation didn't focus on this.

I don't think they can/should change the history thing. It would be a misrepresentation to third parties if Nationwide changed the report to say you had paid on time when you hadn't. If banks started agreeing special cases, it would undermine the system which would make it worse than it already is.

I'm convinced as a one-off it won't make real difference to your credit status. But you should do the report anyway - there could be more serious issues lurking that you aren't even aware of.

merrymary

hi,
this happened to me recently with tesco c/c. i always pay my bill on time and never missed a payment but i geniuinely forgot to put a reminder on my calendar so when i checked my online statement i was a a day late so paid straightaway and phoned them.

They waived the £12 charge (relieved because my bill that month was only for £10.++)
They'll do it once but never again. It wouldn't affect your credit history because it's less than a month and you've paid the balance.

Hope you sort it out.

PS. i get monthly statements whatever the bill is zero balance or negative, if i overpaid.

ACG

They have a legal obligation to show an accurate reflection of your account.
1 late payment over however many years isnt too bad. Everyone has a bad month occasionally. However with RBS when i was there, if your bill was due on the 10th for eg, if you cleared the bill late but before th end of the month, it would not be applied to your records because they only update the credit reference agencies at the end of each month.

They can usually refund the fees but short of you being in hospital for a heart and lung transplant you will struggle to get it taken off your records. You can contact the likes of experian/equifax and attach a note to your records but most companies dont really take any notice of them.

argonout

I had a late payment on my mortgage.

I took some money out from the cashpoint but remembered that I might have been close to my overdraft limit due to a cheque clearing in my account.

I rang the telephone banking straight away who advised me that by the end of the financial day it would be fine.

I think they had mistaken the cleared funds and available funds.

I was over by £30 for 2 days, that next day they didn't honor a mortgage payment for a few hundred pounds.

When I tackled them there was not much proof of what they had said.

I argued that I had never missed a payment and had thousands in another account with the bank.

They still said it would be a late payment but previously refunded me the charges.

Should I take this as a lesson or spend time per suing it?

I would rather not have a black mark but does not years of good banking not in my favor?

I have learn't to leave a bit as a back up for future!