Paying Too Early?????

AMUK786

Paying Too Early?????

I have a credit card with a £9000 balance transfer at a rate of 0% until May 2011. The agreement started in February 2010 and I have always paid on time and sometimes more than the minimum payment.

In July I have been mysteriously charged £126 for interest charges and £12.

I contacted Virgin on 14/7 and was given the option to pay the interest charges and get the 0% back or not pay the charges and be put on an extortionate rate(with all the anger I didn't take note of the rate offered). I was then told that I had to wait 48 hours for a manager to call me. I contacted them on 15/7 and was told that managers are unavailable and will have to wait - two of the advisors hung up. After 48 hours I called them again and was put through to a manager. The manager has advised me that I paid too early in June???

My statement date for June is 7th June and the payment due date is 25th June. My payment cleared on the statement date 7th June. Therefore I believe that my payment cleared between 7th June and 25th June.

I am now being put through thier complaints department. I don't think this is correct and it is a system error.

What do you think?

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

muhaimin786 wrote: »

What do you think?

I think that you should set up a Direct Debit to take care of the minimum payment.

oscar52

With the new(ish) faster payments system, it is quite possible to pay too early. Chances are, your payment cleared on the same day your statement was printed. If the call had come through to me, I would have refunded that.

chattychappy

I think it comes down to the exact wording in your T+Cs. If it is "between" my interpretation would be that it excludes the statement date. Also I think it's fairly clear that in accounting terms a statement produced as at a date (no time mentioned) includes transactions on that date - ie it's generated at close of business and would therefore include your payment.

Does the June 7th statement show the payment going through 7th June? If so I think you're a bit stuck. The minimum payment demanded would then be calculated on the basis of this payment having been received in the period ending 7th June and you failed to make a payment in response. MBNA could also say that you should have checked your statement and had time to query this.

So, unfortunately I think they are right. It seems they've made compromise offers - perhaps you should pay the interest and keep the 0% deal if they don't come back with a better offer.

No need to sign DD. Plenty of threads here about DDs going wrong. Plenty of people like them. Fine. The issue at hand is what has happened. Obviously next time around you can pay a bit later - whether by DD, manually, by standing order etc.

brians_daughter

i have just gone through the same thing with my cc provider. It took them 4 weeks to sort it out.

My situ was slightly different in the fact that i rang them, explained i was going away and wanted to make my payment asap. I was told i could make payment on the 23rd, so i did. My statement should have been produced on the 22nd.

When I got my statement it was infact produced on the 24th so i had made 23 payments in the same month and none for the period in question. My statement was showing late payment charges and arrears, and more inportantly (to me) my credit report showed a late payment marker - After several phone calls i got my credit report amended and the interest rate sorted, and the late payment fee refunded. I was told they were only doing this as they located the call i made into the office and they could clearly hear the rep advising me to pay on the 23rd. I was told without this call they would not change my credit report, interest rate or refund the late payment charges.

If your payment has cleared before your statement is produced it simply means you have made 2 payments in that month and are, in effect in arrears.

I would write a letter to the complains dept stating you made payment that cleared teh date your statement was produced, also put in there about being told someone would call back etc and how disappointed you are in the customer service. Lean on the fact you have never missed a payment etc and they may rectify the situation to your satisfaction.

AMUK786

chattychappy wrote: »

I think it comes down to the exact wording in your T+Cs. If it is "between" my interpretation would be that it excludes the statement date. Also I think it's fairly clear that in accounting terms a statement produced as at a date (no time mentioned) includes transactions on that date - ie it's generated at close of business and would therefore include your payment.

Does the June 7th statement show the payment going through 7th June? If so I think you're a bit stuck. The minimum payment demanded would then be calculated on the basis of this payment having been received in the period ending 7th June and you failed to make a payment in response. MBNA could also say that you should have checked your statement and had time to query this.

So, unfortunately I think they are right. It seems they've made compromise offers - perhaps you should pay the interest and keep the 0% deal if they don't come back with a better offer.

No need to sign DD. Plenty of threads here about DDs going wrong. Plenty of people like them. Fine. The issue at hand is what has happened. Obviously next time around you can pay a bit later - whether by DD, manually, by standing order etc.

The June statement does show the payment on 7th June and also shows the statement date to be 7th June.

I don't sign up to DD as when things need to change or you want to cancel the agreement something always gets missed and you end up paying too much or too less or not in time.

AMUK786

brians_daughter wrote: »

i have just gone through the same thing with my cc provider. It took them 4 weeks to sort it out.

My situ was slightly different in the fact that i rang them, explained i was going away and wanted to make my payment asap. I was told i could make payment on the 23rd, so i did. My statement should have been produced on the 22nd.

When I got my statement it was infact produced on the 24th so i had made 23 payments in the same month and none for the period in question. My statement was showing late payment charges and arrears, and more inportantly (to me) my credit report showed a late payment marker - After several phone calls i got my credit report amended and the interest rate sorted, and the late payment fee refunded. I was told they were only doing this as they located the call i made into the office and they could clearly hear the rep advising me to pay on the 23rd. I was told without this call they would not change my credit report, interest rate or refund the late payment charges.

If your payment has cleared before your statement is produced it simply means you have made 2 payments in that month and are, in effect in arrears.

I would write a letter to the complains dept stating you made payment that cleared teh date your statement was produced, also put in there about being told someone would call back etc and how disappointed you are in the customer service. Lean on the fact you have never missed a payment etc and they may rectify the situation to your satisfaction.

I'm thinking of contacting the FOS if the complaints department do not completely clear the charges.

the_insider

You're thinking of contacting FOS based on what? You paid too early. If they refund the charge they will be doing out of goodwill. And unfortunately as you were told that you would get a manager call back within 48 hours and called 24 hours later you might have effectively knocked your account out of the callback queue and that's why you didn't get a response.

redordeadtom

I agree with the_insider unfortunately there has been no wrongdoing by MBNA, they have offered you a compromise after you paid early. I'm pretty sure the FOS ruling would not be in your favour.

Curt.

But make sure they ammend any missed payment mark too, otherwise the goodwill gesture is worth nothing - what is £12.00/a few pounds of interest compared to a permanent mark on his credit file?? If any record has been made, that is...

molerat

muhaimin786 wrote: »

I don't sign up to DD as when things need to change or you want to cancel the agreement something always gets missed and you end up paying too much or too less or not in time.

Which has happened by not having a DD and cost you £138. A DD for minimum payment saves a load of aggro.