Tesco/RBS - determined to make me MISS payments?

M_Thomson

seanparkin wrote:

Why do they ask for payment on the 12th then, for any other reason than to plow the charges on? Surely they should just ask for payment by the 9th?

?:(

If they ask for payment by the 9th, it is still up to you to pay it 3 working days before, wether you pay by Debit Card or telephone or online banking with your bank.

Coupon-mad

I have had similar short-notice statements from cards (not Tesco though).

Firstly, if you pay at a Bank on Tuesday the payment will reach them on Thursday so that should be fine.

Secondly if you post the payment first class on Tuesday that should reach them on Wednesday (Thursday at the latest) so that will be fine too. It doesn't have to be cleared funds, the 7-10 days on the back of the statement is rubbish, just designed to cover them if they get busy/have any technical problems causing a backlog of post.

I normally post my payment 2nd class, 4 working days before the due date. Only once did I get charged a 'late fee' - by Shell Visa Card the other month. Anyway I checked my Bank A/c online and could tell by the date the cheque debited to my account that Shell HAD paid my cheque in on the due date (it takes 2 days for payments to reach an account, 3 days to be 'cleared funds' but that's irrelevant to such a bill payment...unless it subsequently bounces).

So I complained and they refunded me, plus £5 extra for phone calls & my letter/stamp.

No probs, you do have time to pay it, OP.

John7619

Speak to the Office of Fair Trading. It might be just something they are interested in.

tin

M_Thomson wrote:

Why do you persume that next Tuesday doesn't count as one of the working days? It is a normal business day. You could have set up a payment to leave on Tuesday with your online or telephone banking. And it would have got there on a Friday with no problem.

I'm assuming that paying at say 1pm tuesday + 4 working days = 1pm monday following week. As I say, I am presuming, and also as I say it's all of a moot point cos I've paid it, but I still think it's exceptionally cheeky by Tesco.

asharon wrote:

Is it because they send statments out at a set time each month and you have your billing date set at a certain time ?

I was pondering that might have been what it was. I am pretty sure I asked for the bill to arrive just after the start of the month though, not require payment at the start of the month, that makes it harder to afford!

seanparkin wrote:

So I called up, gave them my debit card details and asked to pay £100. Next statement? £20 charge, apparently I should have given it at least three days to clear.

That better not happen to me - I confirmed twice with the lady on the phone that the payment had been confirmed *today* and said I don't want to be phoning back next month complaining again. She could not provide me with a payment reference :mad: so I confirmed again and took her name. Surely a debit card transaction happens immediately (or maybe at a push overnight) wonder if tesco are sitting on the cash themselves for the 3 days? Check your bank statements for when it left your account!

Coupon-mad wrote:

Firstly, if you pay at a Bank on Tuesday the payment will reach them on Thursday so that should be fine.

Secondly if you post the payment first class on Tuesday that should reach them on Wednesday (Thursday at the latest) so that will be fine too.

I dunno about that seeing as they wanted 3 days for seanparkin's debit to clear (!) and that they still haven't processed my dd instruction even though they've had it for what must be 11 days or so.

savingstill

I have the same problem with Tesco (due on 3rd monthly), & I like to pay bills on 1st - since pay day is the last banking day of each month. Last month I phoned to make a switch payment - you don't speak to anyone just key in numbers of both cards & amount- it reached Tesco card on time, I checked the account online.
Hope this helps.

Coupon-mad

tin, please don't worry about it. The times I have given you are correct, I worked for a Bank for years....dead boring it was too!:o

seanparkin phoned up the day before to pay by debit card - that's cutting it fine and I am not surpirised it was not processed in time. It is not that it wasn't CLEARED in time, it's the time taken to process.

I think you should post it or pay at a Bank on Tuesday, as I mentioned above.

If you can get to a branch of your Bank on Tuesday then the credit card people will get the payment on Thursday - that's a fact. It may then take them one day to actually process the details and it may show on your next statement as received on Friday, but that's at the latest.

Unless you live on a remote island, posting it on Tuesday 1st class is also fine, it's one of those payments where sometimes a cheque is actually better than a debit payment because once they have physically received the cheque their systems will normally automatically pay it in the same day. Even if their 'processing' then takes another day they cannot say that it was late (as per the refund I got from my card, they didn't even try to argue).

HTH, don't try the debit card route as the timings are less predictable.

M_Thomson

tin wrote:

I'm assuming that paying at say 1pm tuesday + 4 working days = 1pm monday following week. As I say, I am presuming, and also as I say it's all of a moot point cos I've paid it, but I still think it's exceptionally cheeky by Tesco.

The timing during the day makes no difference. You can pay anytime during business hours on Tuesday, and the payment will reach the other account by Thursday or Friday.