Are Nationwide pulling a swift one?

JustAnotherSaver

My sister has asked me to find out about this on here as the numbers on her statement aren't stacking up...

She was using her credit card to build her credit rating & she had the direct debit set up to take payment in full.

So she'd spend on her card, the direct debit would be due, she'd keep on spending, the balance would be taken but there'd still be an amount to be paid on the card (probably due to payments in between statements/direct debits i'd guess).

Anyway, she recently decided to stop spending on the card & use her debit instead. So she let the payments begin to clear the credit card until she bought an iPod the other day (so used her credit card).

So in theory the only amount left to pay on her card would then be her iPod purchase.

Turns out the difference is massive.

Her allowance is £1250. Her available balance is something like £700. The iPod cost £114.99, which doesn't equate to £550.

She's been in touch with Nationwide to ask if she's been charged interest at all & they said not.
She asked why then did her statement mention interest payments of around £5 on the past few.

They gave her an explination (can't remember what) but reiterated that she'd NOT been charged interest & confirmed that if she had, then it would show up as a debit on her statement, which it hasn't.

The numbers just don't add up when being cross referenced. She should have £114.99 left to pay on the card, not over £500.


I've never had such a problem with my C/Cs, so can't help her.

Any wise folk on here able to put their finger on it?

YorkshireBoy

JustAnotherSaver wrote: »

She asked why then did her statement mention interest payments of around £5 on the past few.

It's probably an "estimated interest next statement" figure.

This is based on a couple of major assumptions:

1. No further transactions are placed on the card, and

2. She makes the minimum payment due on the due date.

JustAnotherSaver

I understand that

but what i can't get my head around is the fact she has a £1250 allowance, everything has been paid off to date bar her iPod @ £114.99, yet her available balance is £500 less than her allowance & not £114.99 less. It doesn't make sense to me.

She's also shown me ALL statements & there's no entry for an interest debit, or late payment or any of that.

JustAnotherSaver

Right, we've just gone through her statements, transaction-for-transaction.

Since (& including) May's statement (it was £0.00 before May)... she has had £2112.80 of debits to the card.

Surprise surprise, including today's direct debit payment, she has made £2112.80 worth of direct debit payments to the account.

This then only leaves the £114.99 at the weekend for the iPod as the only outstanding debit, which has not been covered by a credit.

So why then does the difference appear to be £500 between available balance & credit allowance i wonder.

grumbler

It doesn't make much sense to guess.
Wait for a few days until mysterious authorisation either clears or drops off.

JustAnotherSaver

She's sent off a private message to Nationwide telling them of the calculations & asking them to explain. They either will or they'll tell her to call up.

Should make sense at the end of the week or start of next week i'd imagine.

brendon

How recent was the repayment taken from direct debit? On my credit card statements the "available balance" can be a few days ahead or behind the repayment. I wouldn't stress too much over it. Just wait to see what gets put on the statement.

[Deleted User]

Nationwide repayments can take a few days to fully go through the stage between actually showing.

I wouldn't start panicking yet.

JustAnotherSaver

It was taken today.

But even still, things don't add up. The way she runs it is so...

She has a Halifax account & she only uses it to deposit money for the credit card. So, she buys something for £10, something for £15 & something for £25 (for example).

She'll transfer money to her Halifax for the exact amounts. Even if the above was spent on one day, she'd transfer 3 individual transfers rather than a total of £50 in one transaction. This is just to make cross referencing easier in the event anything went wrong.

So, she's cross referenced ALL debits entered on her statements with ALL transfers sent to her Halifax account and ALL of them are accounted for.

Also sent over has been the £114.99 for her iPod which will be taken on NEXT month's statement.

When today's direct debit payment was taken, it left her with something like £106 .... not enough to cover the iPod when that payment is made next month. In fact, it should've left her with £115.99 (as she always leaves £1 in the account).

This has been double checked by her & double checked by me. She has never failed to send over a payment to her Halifax account, not a single penny.

So while the Nationwide card may take a few days to right itself, the Halifax one should be true .... but it's not.

agrinnall

You and your sister seem to be worrying far too much. While it's definitely right to keep track of what's happening with all your accounts, you have to understand that some parts of the banking system, particularly credit cards, work quite slowly so balances visible online may not be what you expect. I have had Nationwide credit cards for many years and they are always eventually correct.

I should also say that my statements always mention interest, for example:

Estimated interest £7.87 (please see overleaf for explanation)

But because I, like your sister, have a DD set up to collect full payment I have never actually paid any interest. I suspect there is a legal requirement for an estimate of interest to be shown, even if there is no likelihood of it ever being charged.

By the way, which Nationwide CC is it? If it's one that provides cashback on purchases have you checked to see if the accumulated cashback has been credited to the account; if it has that causes the amount of the DD to be lower than you might expect.

aleph_0

Ok, so today the DD has left Halifax, and 'arrived' in Nationwide. But it might take a day or two for the DD to be reflected in the available balance with Nationwide. So if the available balance is out by the DD amount, this would be the explanation.

Another possibility is that there is a pending authorization affecting the available balance for a transaction which didn't occur in the end, or was for a different amount. When you use your card, the retailer gets an initial authorizaton. This affects the available balance. This is then completed by the actual transaction being posted up to a few days later.

However, sometimes the actual transaction doesn't reference the authorization properly. Or the provider requests an authorization for a greater value initially (e.g. I believe some Pay@Pump fuel systems pre-authorize at £99). Or the transaction might get the initial authorization, but fail to complete.

Either way, it's best just to wait a few days. The DD should process, any unused authorizations will drop off, etc.. If a fraudulent transaction appears, or interest is incorrect added to the statement, then it's worth worrying. But I expect things will fix themselves in a few days.