£0 balance - can cc company still take direct debit?

gbwqzh

I set up a firect debit with mbna to make sure I never miss a monthly payment.
I cleared the full balance this month, however they have proceeded to take the min £25 monthly direct debit.
The balance was cleared over 10 working days ago and on my statement is states £0.00 due.

They have promised to refund the money however my account is now overdrawn and sbject to bank charges.
Are the credit card company liable for the charges?

dazza.mk

Depends on the t&c's of the card, some adjuts the Direct Debit for payments received in time, a lot don't. For those that don't the t&c's are clearly laid out and you signed up to them as such they wouldn't be liable

bethyblue612

My MBNA statement says words to the effect of "your direct debit will always be taken, regardless of any additional payments made".

gbwqzh

I know they have continued to take my direct debit when I have made additional payments in the past, but I assumed when the balance was £0 they wouldn't be able to take anymore if £0 is due.
Can't see anything in the t&c's regarding a zero balance.
Might not get the charges due to the wording you mentioned but think I will give it a go anyway.

Thanks

david39

Credit card companies will always take the sum shown on your statement if they indicate they propose doing so.

That is - on your last statement that had a balance due, it will have said words to the effect "On such-and-such a date we will be taking £xxx by Direct Debit".

If you, in the meantime, cleared the account manually, it will not have stopped the DD being taken because this is automatic once the statement is produced.

I can't speak for MBNA but on my Mint statement it says immediately under the notice of how much is being drawn that it will be taken even if you also pay into the account manually before then.

In any case, that point will be covered by MBNA's t&cs

the_insider

And remember if you were carrying a balance for more than a month then there will be trailing interest to pay so it might not be a bad thing that they've taken another payment.

needahol

I had a similar thing with MBNA but in my case I caught the direct debit on the day it was leaving my account so contacted the bank to stop it

Imagine my surprise when I recieved a statement with a £12 charge on it! I rang them to query why they'd charged me for not being able to take payment when I had a nil balance.

Their explanation was exactly as david39 decribes above, ie if your last statement shows a balance and a date when dd will be taken, they will take it irrespective of whether you clear the balance before that date - they reversed the £12 charge for me though.

Good luck

thenudeone

david39 wrote: »

Credit card companies will always take the sum shown on your statement if they indicate they propose doing so.

I know mbna do but not all cards do.

For example, If you normally pay in full by direct debit then Egg will deduct any payments made into the account (including supplier refunds) from the direct debit amount, as long as they are received 5 days before the direct debit is due.

thenudeone

bethyblue612 wrote: »

My MBNA statement says words to the effect of "your direct debit will always be taken, regardless of any additional payments made".

mbna have done nothing wrong. The direct debit was taken correctly and in line with then information you had been given, so I would be very surprised if they refunded your bank charges.

bethyblue612

If you haven't been overdrawn in a while, you could maybe phone your bank, ask them nicely and they might refund the charges "as a guesture of goodwill".

fozmcfc

My Natwest card currently is 0.79p in credit lol.

I did make this mistake with my Tesco card last year, I miscalculated and paid it off fully, then remembered they take the DD regardless.

Would have ended up about £7 in credit, so made a £7 purchase before the DD was taken and ended up with a zero balance on the next statement.