MSE News: Barclaycard to fix Egg credit card transfer problems

pammiemurray

I've just phoned the call centre (used 08009177277) to ask them about my £9 interest charge when I paid in full by DD. They said it was a 'trailing interest charge' to do with the fact that I received a refund during the statement month and even though the refund shows on my statement they don't take it into account until the next month, therefore it looks like I underpaid by the amount of my refund!! She immediately offered to refund me this as I had been unaware of this Barclaycard policy as it wasn't the same as Egg's, and has assured me now that this won't affect me in the future if I get another refund. I can already see a pending amendment for the amount in questionon my account so at least they acted fast. Looks like you just need to make a phonecall to them the first time it happens to you and they will fix your account. Here's hoping this helps everyone else.

Geodesic66

Sounds like an incompatibility with the old Egg D/D system method and the Barclaycard way of doing things that they didn't properly appreciate.

The Egg card was unusual in that when you got a refund to the card, this reduced the D/D, whereas this doesn't happen with any other card I have - with these the D/D is what is on the statement, regardless of subsequent refunds before the payment date. Some card companies will also reduce the D/D if you make an extra payment, but others will not, and some will even charge you for a failed D/D that you cancel with your bank, even if you make a payment by another means (e.g. MBNA).

So it seems like the Egg "refund reduces D/D" system has caused the Barclaycard system to interpret the reduced D/D amount as not making the full payment, hence interest has been charged.

I've just checked my statement to which the interest charge was applied and sure enough on the previous statement dated 20 October (i.e. before the switch) there is a refund from Amazon on there for a book I returned, which reduced the D/D by £13.58. Then I guess Barclaycard took over on 7 November, and looking back it sees that I paid £13.58 short of the full balance the previous month and hence applies interest to that balance.

This should be self-correcting in subsequent months I guess as presumably the Barclaycard system won't reduce the D/D by the value of any refunds going forward.

It's nice of Barclaycard to refund the interest because "you were unaware of the difference in policy" but surely if Egg's system was different to theirs in this regard then they should have made provision for it by cancelling any interest charges where the previous month's D/D had been reduced by a refund. It's ridiculous to expect customers who pay in full to spot this quirk of the switchover. It's more likely that no-one at Barclaycard thought of it!

oldfella

I should make sure the effect of this doesnt carry forward, on most CCs you need to have more than 1 month with a full payment in order to qualify for no interest

nick1977

Geodesic66 wrote: »

If you go into the account online you can vary the existing Direct Debit to collect (i) Minimum payment, (ii) Full balance or (iii) A fixed amount (or min payment whichever is greater). You can also make additional payments by debit card which will reduce the D/D taken. What you can't apparently do is choose the payment date, but this is not uncommon with other credit cards.

Hang on, with Egg I used to have a fixed direct debit set up of £250, and then for any amount the bill went over this I made a separate debit card payment.
I've done that this month with Barclaycard -statement was roughly £700, so paid £450 by debit card today and expecting the remaining £250 to be taken by direct debit on 5th December.
Is this not going to happen then, leaving me with ANOTHER interest charge?
Surely the point of a fixed direct debit is that it's FIXED, unless the outstanding balance is less than the fixed amount?

Nick

Geodesic66

Nick, not sure how it works with the fixed payment option, I was just quoting what it says in the D/D box on the front page - what does your box say?

In common with most credit card Ts and Cs, the Barclaycard ones simply don't cover the exact mechanics of how D/Ds, refunds and overpayments interact.

Can I ask what is the advantage in paying a fixed amount that you top up to the full balance? Wouldn't just paying the full amount be simpler and you then have full use of all the payments right up until the payment date?

oldfella, I'm fully expecting to have to make a similar phone call next month as you say!

nick1977

Thanks for the info.
The reason we do it this way is that my other half always gets paid on the 31st of the month. The payment dates with Egg varied from 3rd to the 7th, so if it was the 3rd, we wouldn't have enough time to make the payment manually before the cut off, so money would have to come from previous months earnings.
Without going into too much detail, we have a joint account that all our bills come out of (including the £250) which we each transfer a set amount into. Anything more than that (such as the extra for the credit card during some months) we pay half each from each of our own accounts (or one of us pays it and then the other pays them back).

In the past this has worked fine but I have a feeling the change to Barclaycard is going to screw our system up!

Might have to switch to full payment by direct debit and then transfer the additional payment required into the joint account I suppose....

Nick

NBOATER

We complained about the confusing emails from customer services and the lack of clarity re the DD date, got email assuring us DD will be taken on 30th in full.

Logged on to the online account today and the payment option doesnt say we are paying by DD in full on 30th anymore - it looks like we should be sorting out the payment ourselves and says we have 4 days to do so.

I have several emails assuring us a DD is being taken - the DD is live on the bank account - what am I meant to do - seriously this is making me feel ill having to check and re check whether payment will be taken.

Just rang them the DD was cancelled by barclaycard!!!! I give up cancellation of card is the only answer

Geodesic66

Not sure how the D/D can be live on your account if it has been cancelled by Barclaycard. I didn't even know this was possible - I've never had an organisation remove a D/D from my account - they simply stop taking money and it is me that has to physically remove it. I'd treat this info with a pinch of salt if your bank shows it's still there.

You might well decide to cancel the card, but short term I'd suggest waiting until the 30th, then check that morning to see if the payment has gone out that day from your bank account, and if not make a Faster Payment to Barclaycard using 20-04-15 / 38290008 with your card no as the reference, assuming your balance is under your bank's Faster Payment daily limit. This should reach Barclaycard almost instantly (within 2 hours officially).

Faster Payments don't seem to show on C/C accounts until the next day at the earliest because of the way the accounts are updated on the web, but when they appear they are generally dated with the date you actually made the payment, so you should be protected against any failed D/D or late charges. You could use the debit card method on the site, but this is never same day and often takes 1-2 working days to reach the account, even though the funds are generally authorised and reflected in your available balance immediately by your bank.

oldfella

You might well decide to cancel the card, but short term I'd suggest waiting until the 30th, then check that morning to see if the payment has gone out that day from your bank account, and if not make a Faster Payment to Barclaycard using 20-04-15 / 38290008 with your card no as the reference, assuming your balance is under your bank's Faster Payment daily limit. This should reach Barclaycard almost instantly (within 2 hours officially).

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are you sure of this, I thought CCs were excluded from faster payments. Payments I have sent have been dated the next day.

Geodesic66

Some CCs are and some aren't excluded from Faster Payments. From the FAQs on the Barclaycard site:

How long will a payment take to reach my account?

Faster payments - To ensure a payment to your Barclaycard account reaches us on the same working day, submit your payment by 6.00 pm if paying from a Barclays Bank account or 4.00 pm if paying from another bank or building society participating in the Faster Payments scheme.