late payment fee on credit card after getting a ppi claim and cash back,

shanouck

Hi there just checking to see if any one else had this?

I got a lot of cash back from my credit card after i claimed back my ppi, last year and i had only £36.88 left to pay on it - i paid the full amount on the 22/12/10 by cheque first class post, and it had to be there by 7/01/11.
On the statement i got today they said they got it on the 14/01/11.

So now i have to pay £13. This is for £12 late default sum and £1 for the interest.:mad:
The credit card is for Mbna, I have just wrote a complaint to them about it, as i feel that because i claimed back the ppi from them i feel that they are being funny with me to put it a nicer way. I will pay the amount under full protest.
Even after bad weather conditions and christmas period i feel this is wrong for them to do this.
Any one else had this problem?

Tixy

Quite a few people paying by cheque over the Christmas period have found they didn't leave enough time to post their payment and get it credited to their accounts. Its always a danger of paying by post & cheque which is the slowest method and the one you can least control.

I don't think its anything to do with the PPI reclaim.

YorkshireBoy

Between 22/12/10 and 7/1/11 there were only 8 working days.

Add in the bad weather, Xmas post, and cheque clearance...and the cheque value was never likely to get credited in time now was it!?

If you have a chequebook presumably you also have a debit card? If so, and you'd used that over the phone on the 22nd, then your payment would have cleared on Xmas Eve...a full 2 weeks early.

If you have internet access you may also have online banking? If so your Faster Payment would have credited same/next day.

Crikey!...even if you'd gone to your bank branch and paid over the counter with the BGC tear-off slip the payment would have been made in time.

chattychappy

shanouck wrote: »

i feel this is wrong for them to do this.

You're assuming they're "doing something". The question is, did they receive the cheque on time? If you didn't get it to them on time, then it's your responsibility. If, on the other hand, a pile of mailsacks were delivered to MBNA towers and they just didn't open them for several days - well that's a different story.

I don't suppose we'll ever know - but you're not the first to report this. I would ask them nicely to refund the charge. Short of a whistleblower from MBNA admitting they had a problem there, most people would guess it was postal delays during the weather, so it's difficult to insist on a refund.

I would also double check your bank statement. Obviously if they presented the cheque well before the deadline then you're on firmer ground.

fozmcfc

I would ring them and explain. The computer system has processed the details and automatically applied a charge no doubt.

If you ring them and explain and it's the first time in particular there is a good chance of them giving you a gesture of goodwill by refunding it.

chattychappy

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Between 22/12/10 and 7/1/11 there were only 8 working days.

Yep it was rather late. But bear in mind MBNA are saying they didn't get it until a further week after that. (And the post office, unlike the banks, do tend to shift things around on Saturdays too.)

I suspect that the ordinate delay has something to do with handling at MBNA.

Burridge60

I agree with the comments above about allowing enough time for it to reach MBNA. It was widely publicised that Royal Mail had a backlog of mail due to adverse weather, the volume of Christmas mail and late posting of cards by customers. The responsibility lies with the payer to get the Cheque there on time.

You could have paid by debit card by telephone or automated service in most cases and that would have reached them almost immediately and you would not have had the late payment fee.

YorkshireBoy

chattychappy wrote: »

But bear in mind MBNA are saying they didn't get it until a further week after that.

By "it" do you/they mean the piece of paper or the value?

(And the post office, unlike the banks, do tend to shift things around on Saturdays too.)

Well the first two saturdays after posting were Xmas Day and New Years Day...so pretty unlikely on those particular saturdays?

chattychappy

fozmcfc wrote: »

I would ring them and explain. The computer system has processed the details and automatically applied a charge no doubt.

If you ring them and explain and it's the first time in particular there is a good chance of them giving you a gesture of goodwill by refunding it.

Yep. Although £12 has become a de-facto standard (because the OFT once said they wouldn't presume unfairness at this level or below), all penalties still have to be a reasonable estimate of the costs faced by an organisation in the circumstances. In fact the OFT was a pains to point out that charges below this level could also be unfair and the charges above this could be fair - it is down to circumstances.

If MBNA don't budge and the OP wishes to take it further, I would argue that against the background of about £37 overdue for one week during a time of disruption, a charge of £12 is disproportionate unless they can show they took some action to recover the money. (eg letters, phone calls etc.)

The principle is that penalties shouldn't be a source of profit.

Dawning

If MBNA still process their mail through Chester or Widnes, I am pretty confident to say that they may well be genuinely having delays with their mail.
I received a letter from HMRC last week, that had been posted early in December. I got two Christmas cards this week that had been posted in mid December. Mail that I'm sending is seriously delayed too. Royal Mail, certainly in Cheshire, are still having problems. (incidentally there was an item about this on our local tv news on Thursday- RM strenuously denying and insisting that all their deliveries are now back to normal).

This is an unfortunate situation for the OP but I don't think in case that MBNA are doing anything 'wrong'. I agree with the posts that have suggested to ring them and ask them to reconsider. IME sometimes they will agree to waive the fee.

chattychappy

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

By "it" do you/they mean the piece of paper or the value?

It might have changed now, but when I used to post cheques to MBNA (a long time ago) I used to get two dates on the statement. One was the date they received it and one was when it was cleared for value. The first date was generally the day after I posted it, the second two banking days later. So really I suppose it depends what the OP meant by "got it".

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Well the first two saturdays after posting were Xmas Day and New Years Day...so pretty unlikely on those particular saturdays?

Yep, though there was Sat 8th in that period. If MBNA "got it" for value on Fri 14th, then based on my previous experience they would have banked it on Wed 12th - ok be more generous, say Tues 11th. Did the post really take from 22nd Dec to 11th Jan to deliver it? Well, perhaps it did. I remember there was heavy snow end of Nov in SE London and mid-Dec more generally though I left the UK then. My office told me that the post had got back to normal by the end of the first week of Jan. Also the only other complaints I've noticed on this forum is for cheques not reaching MBNA, not other CCs. But I accept even that might not be their fault if Chester (or wherever the cheques go) was badly hit.