Barclaycard "returned" my Direct Debit - then charged me interest!

bengalknights

http://ask.barclaycard.co.uk/help/brochure/1_creditcards/pay_statement

doesnt say anything there about minimum.

chattychappy

Oh dear... another DD horror story.

I pay my Barclaycard either by debit card on their site, or via internet banking from my Nationwide account. Clears same day, either way and you are certain it has happened.

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

footbag wrote: »

The details about payments less than a pound are in the section on payments

ask. barclaycard .co.uk/help/account/2_pay_bill/howto
though this page is about payment generally and may only apply to making a web payment from BC's site. BC do seem very vague about things...

Re OP's commernt about possibly being overdrawn, on 13th Dec when my BC statement shows £0.59 coming in and then going back out as a refund again, I had over £3k in my bank account. My bank statement shows no sign of a DD. Looks like a BC error.

Here you are...
http://ask.barclaycard.co.uk/help/account/2_pay_bill/howto

Although as footbag says this is not specifically about DDs. This is getting interesting.

aidy_b

chattychappy wrote: »

Oh dear... another DD horror story.

I pay my Barclaycard either by debit card on their site, or via internet banking from my Nationwide account. Clears same day, either way and you are certain it has happened.

I normally pay via Natwest internet, but twice in the last 6 months the payment has been credited to an unused BC account I have. It's never been used and I no longer have the card.
BC say I have entered the wrong number in my payment - which I haven't as the payment has been set up on my list of payments for a couple of years. Late payment charges both times, although refunded, but they tell me that a 3rd late payment will be flagged against my credit rating.

footbag

I think I know what happened.

Did you know that if a DD is unused for 13 months, your bank cancels it?

To quote wikipedia:

Any direct debit mandate that has not been used to collect funds for over 13 months is automatically cancelled by the customer's bank (this is known as a "dormancy period"). This can cause problems when the mandate is used infrequently, for instance, taking a payment to settle the bill for a seldom used credit card. If the credit card company has not collected a payment using the Direct Debit mandate for over 13 months the direct debit mandate may have been cancelled as dormant without the customer's knowledge, and the direct debit claim will fail

This is what I suspect happened to me.

As BC do not take the minimum payment DD if one has already made a manual payment, the DD I set up some time ago was unused and "expired". Then, when I needed it, it wasn't there, so the payment was taken and then recalled by the bank.

This only happens if one repays in full every month for at least 13 months and then relies on the DD which will have expired.

Another "feature" of the BC approach to DDs which gets you into trouble in a way most other card companies don't.

I won't rely on the DD again with BC.

Thanks to all the interest, hope I've helped you avoid paying some of your own!

chexum

footbag wrote: »

Another "feature" of the BC approach to DDs which gets you into trouble in a way most other card companies don't.

You mean Barclays the bank, not BC? I actually had something similar some time ago with Barclays - a company set up a DD, and Barclays seemed to let them, but apparently bounced it, without actually charging me for it - then, I paid the company differently, but a few days later there was the same DD, bouncing again, now with a charge, as it was more than the overdraft I had at that point...

Then it dawned on me, that this "bouncing without a charge" is Barclays' way of saying "hey, someone submitted a DD, but less than 10 days ago, which is invalid, so we stopped them, we're so good, eh?". The trouble is, that some companies (not banks) that use direct debits simply re-send the DD when it fails without checking what happened.

Fun things like this are the only reason I grew fond of having an overdraft...