S/O not paid and "late payments" on my credit file

azc

Hi all,

Being self employed and very busy, sometimes I find it hard to make sure money is in my account on the day that DD's come out. I have never paid ANYONE late though - if a DD has not been honoured due to insufficient funds, I transfer money over from my business account and pay the bill straight away with whoever I owe money to.

I have two gripes that I would like to ask about please - any input is very much appreciated.

Firstly, where First Direct have not paid a DD, I have got a black mark on my experian record for a "late payment".

The people that the DD's were supposed to go to are happy that I have NEVER paid them late, because if one has bounced, I have just transferred money over same day and paid with my debit card.

Experian say that FD has told them specifically it is a "late payment", and FD say they have reported it as a "direct debit returned unpaid".

I am hacked off that they show as late, as they definitely are not late!

Next thing is, this morning, FD didn't honour a standing order to one of my other bank accounts because it would have taken me 3% past my overdraft limit (yes really!) FD have charged me £25 for this, AND they are informing experian as well! So I am getting charged because a transfer failed from one of my bank accounts to another bank account!

Can anyone advise me on the above please - I am not disputing the fact that the DD's bounced, just how they are represented on my credit file. Also with the S/O to my other account, I do not see how they can get away with charging me £25 AND putting a mark on my credit file, for not transferring money from one of my accounts to another.

Help please!? Thanks in advance for any replies!

rb10

By setting up the standing order or direct debit, you agreed to have sufficient funds in your account to cover the payments.

You didn't get the money into your account in time (i.e. it was late), so you have been charged in accordance with the T&Cs, and they have reported to Experian the fact that you didn't put the money in your account in time, again, in accordance with the T&Cs.

FD don't care whether you then settled up with the person who the money was going to - all they care about is the fact that you agreed to have £x in your account so that they could pay the SO/DD, but didn't.

simone1

Sorry to hear that. I think if you need to do some transfers from one account to another, it would be a great help if you do that earlier and not just when needed in the circumstance.

cottager

FD will not be aware of your payments to the companies concerned so will not know you've paid on time outside the DD system; and it is FD who report to the CRAs, not the organisations you settle up with. I doubt there's any means to check if manual payments from your a/c 'make up for' missed DDs, and wouldn't expect it to be any part of their responsibility to you anyway. As far as FD's system is concerned, the payments are not honoured/returned unpaid: end of story. Unfortunately that's just the way it is, and it's being reported to the CRAs accordingly. You're incurring charges and your credit will be suffering.

I can appreciate the situation as OH runs a small business, and if it was only him who could log into the accounts online, keep track etc, I'm sure there'd be good reasons not to keep on top of it; but in our case I'm authorised as well and can do it instead. It's important for us to keep our bank on-side as we couldn't have carried on through some tough periods without them, so they're always high on the list of priorities.

If there isn't someone who can be mandated to keep an eye on these things for you, maybe there are other ways if it's happening regularly.
-- Keep a buffer in the FD a/c to cover DDs going out instead of playing catch-up?
-- Is it possible to cancel some DD arrangements and pay them by manual/online bank payments or debit card instead, after transferring funds over to cover them? (essentially what you're doing now after missing a DD).

Or, if you're a sole trader and your business a/c is less problematical, why not pay some of these DDs from there and put them through your accounts as drawings? We do this with a few personal payments, and as long as they're clearly recorded as drawings and not being passed off as business expenses, and the accountant can see this, there's no problem.