Credit Card Company taken payment for £5500 instead of £500

Mrsacj

:mad: I pay my credit card in full every month by direct debit.

This month the card company took £5000 more than they should have, this has left me £2500 overdrawn on my current account.

They admit this is their mistake but say the only way they can pay it back is by sending me a cheque which will take at LEAST 7 working days. I will be out of the country for 2 weeks meaning it could be 3 weeks before I can pay the cheque into my account.

They have also said they will pay the charges I incur from my bank if I provide my bank statement to them in the post. They will then send a cheque for that amount - so who knows when I'll finally get that back.

Surely this is not acceptable? If they can take money out of my account why can't they make payments into it? Even if I get the money back and the charges paid there is not compensation for the intersest I'm losing (although I accept this is not much) or the fact that I've had to call them twice a day about this for the past 3 days to get anything done. Each time I call taking between 10 and 20 minutes. Or the fact that this is so worrying and inconvenient.

If I had underpaid them by £5000 I'm sure there would be punative measures levied on me by them - this seems a very one way relationship.

Does anyone know what I'm entitled to and what I can do in this situation other than write to the credit card co and complain?

I'm sooooooo angry!

thanks

eddddy

Isn't this covered by the Direct Debit Guarantee given by your bank? (The Guarantee is offered by all banks and building societies that accept instruction to pay Direct Debits.) Here's an extract from the guarantee:

"If an error is made in the payment of your Direct Debit, by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are entitled to a full and immediate refund of the amount paid from your bank or building society"

("The Organisation" = the CC company)

I think you have to contact your bank, rather than the CC company to activate this. My understanding is that your bank must reimburse any od charges etc that result from an error - and they (not you) can chase the CC company for these costs, if they want.

There is lots of info on this if you google "Direct Debit Guarantee". (I can't post links.)

Mrsacj

I did telephone my bank straight away - funny how they didn't mention they have some responsibility..........:eek:

Fiddlestick

Mrsacj wrote: »

:mad: I pay my credit card in full every month by direct debit.

This month the card company took £5000 more than they should have, this has left me £2500 overdrawn on my current account.

They admit this is their mistake but say the only way they can pay it back is by sending me a cheque which will take at LEAST 7 working days. I will be out of the country for 2 weeks meaning it could be 3 weeks before I can pay the cheque into my account.

How did they take it - was it direct debit?

If so then your bank is obliged to indemnify you and return the money without argument.

Mrsacj

I did call my bank to tell them what happened but all they did was increase my overdraft! I'll try them again today.

xyellowx

op dont forget sleepless nights on that list

INT1

Funny how it would be a Direct debit error as it would only take min or full payment?

Fiddlestick

Mrsacj wrote: »

I did call my bank to tell them what happened but all they did was increase my overdraft! I'll try them again today.

If it was direct debit then tell them you are saying it is an error and they must indemnify you under the dd guarantee.

They are legally obliged to return the money *in full* within 24 hours.

Don't take any excuses from them - if they tell you that they need to "claim it back off the company" or it will take "5 working days" or whatever then they are lying.

JohalaReewi

You can claim a full and immediate refund from the BANK under the direct debit guarantee scheme. You might have to hunt around to find someone at the bank who knows what this is. Quite often the bank staff only know about the indemnity scheme which is the internal system banks use the get thier money back.

The bank are only obliged to refund the DD NOT any charges you have incurred. You will have to recover those from the CC company and any loss of interest. Also, if you get the DD refunded using the guarantee scheme, you will still owe the CC company the month's payment AND you will not have made it so you will probably take a hit there.

If the bank have given you an extended overdraft to cover you, and the CC have said they will sort things out, I would let the CC company refund you and pay you for all expenses (including time and phone calls) and lost interest incurred.

choc_mouse

Anyone going to name the credit card in question? (I hope it's not...Santander! Truly awful if it was.)

Mrsacj

I finally spoke to someone sensible this afternoon instead of the numpties who kept ringing me assuring me there had been a system 'blip' and no other customers had been affected.

I kept trying to explain that why and how it happened was an internal matter and I just wanted my money back!

The lovely lady transferred the money immediately plus £50 to cover any bank charges and £50 for my inconvenience. I don't think £50 covers my inconvenience but at least I've got the money back and it's the end of it.

Well almost. It's a Lloyds TSB Airmiles card and I pay it from a different bank, so they couldn't transfer the money there. But as I have a joint account with Lloyds they have put the money into that account. All I have to do now is write myself a cheque and pay it in to the right account........... and decide if this is the final straw with Lloyds and take my business elsewhere!

Thanks for all the advice though.