"billing day 4" can be previous month?!

flippet

Last Winter I signed up for a Barclaycard with 0% on balance transfers to avoid paying so much interest on 2 or 3 credit cards I was slowly trying to pay back. During the application I remember selecting payment to be taken on the 4th billing day every month since I'm paid my monthly salary at the end of the month.

In July, however, my direct debit was returned on the 29th, a day before I had been paid - so not only have I received a late payment fee from Barclays and a returned direct-debit fee from Santander, but much more seriously I've triggered the full monthly interest charges for the previously 0% account, despite making the payment manually on the 31st.

I obviously realise now that the "4th" is just a window which could vary by up to a week, and I should have selected the 6th if I wanted to be safe (and have now changed it to this), but I didn't think too deeply about it at the time since it's so common to set up direct-debits for a specific date each month. Was I particularly dumb? If so I'd bet I'm not the first one to make such a mistake, and I feel I'm being punished not for financial mismanagement but for an easy bureaucratic error that is very poorly highlighted during the application process!

I've written to Barclaycard asking for this to be investigated and the account to be returned to interest-free, with a vague threat of the financial ombudsman... am I in with a chance? Would love to hear from anybody else who has suffered a similar circumstance.

opinions4u

Yes, you're in with a chance that Barclays will be nice.

But the direct debit collection date is very clear on each statement.

Hominu

From experience, if you be nice to them and explain the situation they are likely to refund charges.

If you threaten them with cancellation or the FOS, they are likely to reply as follows:

Direct Debit payments will be credited to your Barclaycard account on your payment due date.

Your payment due date is shown on your statement or can be viewed in mybarclaycard online account servicing.

We are unable to revert the charges already applied to your account.