Cahoot credit card - debit confusion...

NeoVR2k6

Arrrgggg!

Bit of a problem.

Ive recently got myself a virgin card to consolodate a couple of other cards..
anyway, i BT'ed from virgin to cahoot..
then selected the "pay full balance" so the last Direct debit would clear the outstanding.

Problem is, unbeknownst to me, the full balance = the full balance at the statement date.. so cahoot have put a DD through for 800quid which will come out of my account tomorrow..
so the problem is this will come out of my account, but its gonna cause alot of other things to bounce..
also it will put my creditcard about 700quid in credit... how can i get that money back into my current account pronto?

any help/advice would be appreciated

happyformonths

Hi,

Oh dear! Sounds like the sort of thing I'd do.

It doesn't help that it's a bank holiday, but surely most banks these days force their call centre slaves to work even bank holidays... so I'd a) ring the credit card co (Virgin? I got a bit confused) and explain your mistake, see if there's anything they can do (they will probably say no, not at this late stage) and then b) ring your bank and explain. They might be able to give you a very temporary overdraft extension, which you can assure them will be paid back straight away out of the credit balance which will be on your card.

In any case I'd get on that phone and do the "I'm such an idiot, please can you help me?" routine.

HFM

NeoVR2k6

thanks for the reply....

Have already checked.. cahoot are closed today

I guess my next step will be ring my main bank (A&L) tomorrow and plead for a temporary overdraft extention.

how would i go about getting the money back out of my cahoot credit card asap.. theyre crap for BTs and things and am trying to avoid racking up charges etc.

it was all going so well too :rolleyes:

NeoVR2k6

Update...

Rang A&L to ask for overdraft.. (who said no)
they then said that they didnt have a DD from Cahoot registered on the system... they can see 1 day in advance what DDs will come out..

so i tried cahoot again, and managed to get through this time. spoke to someone who nicely told me that there would be no DD this month because of the extra payment... THANKS FOR TELLING ME NOW!!!!:mad:

so.. panic over :j

cant wait to be rid of that card :T

happyformonths

LOL - well, annoying for you, but at least all's well that ends well.

I just closed my Cahoot flexible loan because I got sick of them, so I sympathise.

Hope you enjoy the rest of the day a bit more now!

HFM

Milarky

With cahoot (and many others) if a payment is recieved onto the credit card between the statment and DD collection date this can affect the DD amount as you have been informed. However DDs take time to set up (eg for the 'new' amount) so they impose a cut off of not less than 4 clear working days (if memory serves) so just paying an amount one week beforehand (allowing that it takes at least three days to reach there) probably would not be soon enough. As Virgin's payment (BT from cahoot) seems to have got there early you've been spared the embarrassment - but more by luck than judgement. In other words you cannot rely on 'manual' payments to override the DD in all circumstances.

At least have your cahoot set up to take the minimum payment from your bank to avoid late payment fees - the worst that will happen in that case is that the full amount plus min payment will go in and you will have a small credit balance.

Making changes for yourself:
Cahoot also allows you to change the DD amount within the same 4-day cut-off timescale. That means you could have gone to cahoot had you known that a Virgin payment would arrive later within the last four days. That way you are not relying on the payment to trigger a difference - you are relying on your 'knowledge' that a payment has already been made. Beware also that when you set up a payment ('full'. 'min' or 'fixed amt') method you have to tell it exactly how long you want that to continue. It's probably best to set it as a recurring payment (''until further notice'') and then come back to it immediately after to revert to 'full' in this case.

How are you using you cahoot card btw? Are you aware that they treat balance transfers in the same way as purchases? This can be advantageous (by allowing you add a period of 0% onto the end of a promotion period) but is tricky since if you get the payments back to cahoot wrong (by just 1p or 1 day) you will get charged back interest by them - altogether removing any benefit. That's why it's very inportant to understand how DDs work and can be amended to achieve the desired outcome.

If you have a cahoot current account:
You can make same-day payments from this to the credit card - allowing you to use the overdraft facility if you have to (and pay them back later). This - if it clears to balance on the card allows you to get charged interest only from that date foward (at a lower rate too) which is a nice feature . The credit card balance changes instantly when you do this - but the actual transaction won't show there for a day.

If you have savings (but not a current account) with cahoot and a flexible loan facilty you can still make payments to the card (I haven't tried this btw) on the same day by crediting the flexible loan from savings and then crediting the credit card from the flexible loan (i.e. saving straight to card is not possible for some reason)