HSBC put me onto Debt Collections when I'm not in debt?!

DevCoder

With the amount of transactions happening per hour they are certainly not going to call every customer or send an automated warning for those that go over their limit. You went over your limit so your account was marked for "collections" to retrieve the amount between your limit and the amount you went over.

The CC vs DC discussion is bizarre, for anything under £100 (which I'd hope your GiffGaff transaction was!) then there is no difference.

On a side note, all the millionaires I have sight of have wealth planners / relationship managers (bank side) looking after them.

Lokolo

OK Bob I will explain how credit cards work.

With a credit card you get a limit, for example, £500.

This means the balance of your credit card can not (or charges apply and it gets rejected or blocked as you have found) go beyond this limit.

Each month you must do 2 things with your credit card, usually done via a direct debit. You can choose to pay the balance in full, or pay the minimum balance, which is usually 3% or a minimum of £5, whichever is highest. When paying by direct debit, the full/minimum payment is taken on X date of each month, my credit card is the 1st of every month.

Should you want to spend more than your limit in any given month, you would need to either request a higher limit or pay off some of your balance early, usually by a balance transfer. If you request a higher limit then it will show on your credit report as a credit request.

So it seems in your case, you have spent up to your (for example) £500 limit, not paid any of it off yet, as your direct debit date hasn't occurred yet, and tried to spend more money. This has then caused this problem.

In future, if you want to use your credit card to spend lots of money, you should keep an eye on your credit card balance. If you want to spend more than what's left on your balance, you would need to pay some of the credit card off beforehand (or request a larger limit).

bobwilson

krisdorey wrote: »

With the amount of transactions happening per hour they are certainly not going to call every customer or send an automated warning for those that go over their limit. You went over your limit so your account was marked for "collections" to retrieve the amount between your limit and the amount you went over.

The CC vs DC discussion is bizarre, for anything under £100 (which I'd hope your GiffGaff transaction was!) then there is no difference.

On a side note, all the millionaires I have sight of have wealth planners / relationship managers (bank side) looking after them.

wealth planners and relationship managers play a different role, they won't warn of cc going near limit.

bobwilson

krisdorey wrote: »

With the amount of transactions happening per hour they are certainly not going to call every customer or send an automated warning for those that go over their limit.

Why not? You get automated texts and emails for other things all the time, computers can handle big numbers you know

bobwilson

Lokolo wrote: »

In future, if you want to use your credit card to spend lots of money, you should keep an eye on your credit card balance. If you want to spend more than what's left on your balance, you would need to pay some of the credit card off beforehand (or request a larger limit).

I have auto limit increase enabled so cant understand how this happened.

My limit is £6500 at the moment.

DevCoder

bobwilson wrote: »

wealth planners and relationship managers play a different role, they won't warn of cc going near limit.

Yes they do, just not intraday/every payment.

But once a day they do.

DevCoder

bobwilson wrote: »

Why not? You get automated texts and emails for other things all the time, computers can handle big numbers you know

Thanks as a programmer for 20 years I wasn't aware of that.

The cost to code and implement against the benefit wouldn't even pass feasibility stage in the financial sector.

bobwilson

krisdorey wrote: »

Yes they do, just not intraday/every payment.

But once a day they do.

Mine didn't and I've never met one who does!

DevCoder

bobwilson wrote: »

I have auto limit increase enabled so cant understand how this happened.

My limit is £6500 at the moment.

The auto limit increase is only upto a certain point, at which it is deferred for manual review.

bobwilson

krisdorey wrote: »

Thanks as a programmer for 20 years I wasn't aware of that.

no probs

krisdorey wrote: »

The cost to code and implement against the benefit wouldn't even pass feasibility stage in the financial sector.

re-read the thread, they used to do it.

If you can get google calendar to text you limitlessly for limitless events, for FREE I might add, considering the millions of users they have, then I'm sure the banks could at the very least do it for a tiny fee.