Anyone with any experience of Very's BNPL?

Tropez

I'm not sure that this is in the correct forum but there is a little bit of venting anyway.

Basically, last year before I went on holiday I bought a few items from Very on BNPL with the payment due in September of this year. I emailed Very a few weeks ago requesting the date that the payment needed to be made in order to avoid paying interest and was informed that the due date was the 18th September. All good, or so I thought.

I logged into my account today and noticed that the items had been charged to my account plus the interest. I phoned up customer services and spoke to an individual who in all honesty didn't really know what he was doing. He just kept repeating that interest is charged from the day the purchases were made, which I was quite aware of as I have purchased from various stores on BNPL agreements and have never had any issues previously.

I repeatedly asked for confirmation that I still had until the 18th September to pay for the goods (I'm just waiting for my wages and new-cycle on my CC bill which is ~5th Sept) but received nothing more than a "I think that's how it works" and received a lot of silence on the phone, umm'ing, err'ing and arr'ing. I've never had a problem from Very before, but then I've never had to deal with their Customer Service department before, so I don't know whether poorly trained advisers are part and parcel of dealing with them.

Anyway, I've sent them another email but probably won't get a response for a couple of days so while I wait I thought I would ask the good people at MSE whether any of them have dealt with Very and the BNPL service that they offer, and whether it is standard practice to charge items and interests to accounts early but then, I would hope at least, revoke the interest charges if the payments are made before the due date?

exel1966

Rest easy, you won't have to pay the interest and it will be removed on the next statement.

When Very took over from Littlewoods Direct approx 12 months ago they changed their statement operating system to this rather confusing system of charging interest to the account before the BNPL period has ended. The interest is added on the statement before the BNPL ends and then it's removed on the statement after providing you have cleared the full amount by the offer end date which is clearly displayed on the statement.

When making the payment I find it's best to call them, make the payment over the phone by debit card and then ask for the interest to be removed (it should say this on the statement). It's then passed to the back office who usually remove it within 2-3 days. Your online account will confirm it's been done.

Krystaltips

Ooh, while this is being talked about... I bought my netbook on BNPL... My plan was to make monthly payments onto the account and then when the amount is due to be paid there will be sufficient in the account pay it off...

When I went to make a payment online the other day I noticed it said to pay off BNPL items to call an 0844 number... I'd rather not because of the cost, but I'm worried I'm going to end up with a £200 credit balance on my account and a completely seperate bill to pay off in April.

Do you know what the case would be exel1966?

exel1966

As in the other post it's best to call them 0800 180000 when dealing with BNPL's to be certain any interest that's been added will be removed.

If you want to put aside a monthly amount as payment then open up a savings account and put it in that where you'll also earn a little interest. It's pointless giving them the money when you don't have to.
Your statement gives you the exact date it needs to be paid for by before interest starts to accrue, but it will not be the 'Due Date'on that particular statement.

Tropez

exel1966 wrote: »

Rest easy, you won't have to pay the interest and it will be removed on the next statement.

When Very took over from Littlewoods Direct approx 12 months ago they changed their statement operating system to this rather confusing system of charging interest to the account before the BNPL period has ended. The interest is added on the statement before the BNPL ends and then it's removed on the statement after providing you have cleared the full amount by the offer end date which is clearly displayed on the statement.

When making the payment I find it's best to call them, make the payment over the phone by debit card and then ask for the interest to be removed (it should say this on the statement). It's then passed to the back office who usually remove it within 2-3 days. Your online account will confirm it's been done.

Thank you for your response, exel.

Happy to hear it is just a case of Very operating in a confusing manner as opposed to what I dreaded which was a typing error on the email I received from them meaning I'd be liable to pay the interest.