Tesco CC allowed purchases to my CLOSED credit card account

Mobility151990

Just received a letter for a Tesco Credit card I paid in full and closed in January 2012. Immediately rang Tescos and the agent informed me that yes the account was closed in January but somehow they allowed a purchase of £136 to be made against the credit card this June and as I hadn't then made a monthly payment they slapped with a £12 late payment fee?!

I am gobsmacked, waiting for their manager to ring back. Is there some law or could someone help me out with CC T&C's, surely it is completely illegal for a credit card company to allow purchases to a closed account then chase the account holder, otherwise any credit card i have ever owned in my life could do this?!

tomsco

Mobility151990 wrote: »

Just received a letter for a Tesco Credit card I paid in full and closed in January 2012. Immediately rang Tescos and the agent informed me that yes the account was closed in January but somehow they allowed a purchase of £136 to be made against the credit card this June and as I hadn't then made a monthly payment they slapped with a £12 late payment fee?!

I am gobsmacked, waiting for their manager to ring back. Is there some law or could someone help me out with CC T&C's, surely it is completely illegal for a credit card company to allow purchases to a closed account then chase the account holder, otherwise any credit card i have ever owned in my life could do this?!

Depends on if it was a CPA. If that's the case the merchant or (these days) the credit card company needs to be informed to stop these authorities. Do you know if it was a recurring payment?

Mobility151990

I'm sorry to sound silly but what is a CPA? And I have to cancel every agreement I've ever held on a credit card even after cancelling a credit card, if i am reading you correctly?

exel1966

If you have given your card details and instructed a company to take a recurring payment (Continuous Payment Authority) then you have to advise them to cancel it otherwise they will continue to take your payment.

Until recently you could only cancel a CPA by calling the company concerned. You can now do it via the card company as well.

When cancelling a card account you will usually be instructed by the sales advisor to cancel any regular payments you have set up. An account is NEVER fully closed whilst you still have outstanding CPA's attached to it. This applies to ALL credit cards and can also apply to debit cards if you have given them the 16 digit card number rather than account number.

Was it a subscription or an insurance policy ?

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Sticky thread here.

chattychappy

In fact a CPA is just a particular case of this.

In principle, any transaction that you have authorised can be charged to the account. In this era of online systems and PDQ machines etc, transactions typically go through instantly. But there can be delays - eg you put your card details on a form, a far flung places uses an imprinter machine and banks the vouchers some time later, or simply there is a processing error.

An account is closed subject to authorised transactions still being chargeable to the cardholder and CPAs often catch people out. The Payment Service Regs 2009 means that you can cancel such a transaction with the CC provided it hasn't already been processed.

If you do manage to stop such a transaction, it doesn't mean that you don't still owe the money to merchant. That will come down to the underlying contract.