Halifax Unpaid item charge

Rockafella_2

Hi, hoping someone can give me some advice, i just received my credit card statement and there is a unpaid item charge of £12 for a direct debit that has failed to go through. The direct debit is set for the 14th of each month

Basiclly i had a balance of £665 at the beginning of December which was owing and i paid this off on the 3rd of December after i received my statement. i continued spending on the card and built up another balance of about £200. Now the direct debit tried to take the original balance of £665 which was on the statement and not the new balance and as a result of me not having that much money in my account the payment got refused and i have been charged even though i had paid the £665 off and had a much smaller balance left on the card.

Is there anything i can say/do to try and get a refund? iv called up and the advisor wasnt much help so iv complained and should be getting a call back.

I feel its pretty harsh being charged for a balance that iv paid. If the charge was a late payment or going overdrawn then fair enough but for fully paying off a balance??

Thanks in advance for any advice

Azrael_1701

If you have a DD to take the full amount, then it will take a payment based on the full balance on your statement, regardless of whether you have paid more into the card. On the statement it says something like "£665 will be taken by direct debit on or around [enter payment date]" - This is what will happen.

roonaldo

You have instructed Halifax to take the full balance by direct debit. Theres not a lot else to say.

You decided to pay an additional £665. If you are going to make manual payments then you need to cancel the direct debit or call Halifax to ensure that the direct debit is adjusted.

Im not sure why you are complaining as Halifax have made no error.

You will hopefuuly get the £12 refunded on this occasion as a gesture of goodwill (as your error was with good intentions).

Rockafella_2

Got a call off Halifax, without much of an argument they offered to refund the £12 unpaid item charge plus the interest which is about £1.88 AND they also offered me £50 as a gesture of goodwill and to cover any bank charges!!

Thats my complaint resolved!

YorkshireBoy

Rockafella wrote: »

Thats my complaint resolved!

So that just leaves the damage to your credit file then, assuming your bank reports the transgression?

Rockafella_2

It shouldn't effect my credit file, iv checked it and there's nothing on there so far.

YorkshireBoy

Rockafella wrote: »

It shouldn't effect my credit file

Why not? You've breached your current account T&Cs. They've had to return a DD unpaid and that kind of activity can be, and often is, reported to the CRAs by the banks...

http://www.experian.co.uk/downloads/consumer/creditfileexplained.pdf (3rd bullet in the '1' section in the table on page 11)

iv checked it and there's nothing on there so far.

They'll report and the end of the month/statement period for all customers in a batch, not as and when you breach the T&Cs.

If it's still not there after 2 months or so you can rest easy!

roonaldo

Rockafella wrote: »

It shouldn't effect my credit file, iv checked it and there's nothing on there so far.

it can take 30-40 days to update on your credit file!

roonaldo

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

So that just leaves the damage to your credit file then, assuming your bank reports the transgression?

and deserved

Rockafella_2

If is going to damage my credit rating then at least iv managed to get a refund and a £50 goodwill gesture off them, better than nothing at least.