Help - Argos card interest charge

watchingthepennies_2

Hi,
I wondered if anyone could offer any advice on this situation. My husband had a BINPL card - 12 months interest free for £399. Pay off date was 5/12/13. I arranged, in advance, via online banking for the balance to be paid off to arrive by the date of 5/12/13. We bank with First Direct, it was deducted from our bank on the 4/12/13, paid via the faster payment system.

So statement from Argos received, dated 8/12/2013, payment not listed as received and when queried with Argos the payment was not applied to account until 9/12/2103. We have therefore incurred £106.

From my husbands only conversation with Argos they are not interested and says the charge stands. I am disgruntled as the payment would have been in their bank account on the 4/12/13, yet they just quote you must allow 5 days for it to reach your account. This may well be the case but itseems very unfair if they don't apply the credit the day it was received, after all I thought that was what the faster payment system was all about.

I would be grateful to hear from anyone who knows whether this is normal practice and any suggested wording to use to dispute this.
Thanks in advance
WTP

YorkshireBoy

You need to ask them via letter/formal complaint (and copy in First Direct) why they're not meeting their obligations under the Payment Services Regulations, which clearly state funds must arrive by close of business the next working day.


Because the 4th and 5th were normal banking days, they can't even say that a weekend got in the way.


But to your own involvement...having had 358 days to save up, did you really need to eek out another 7 days?


The good news is people only usually get stung with this (deferred interest) once.

watchingthepennies_2

Thanks YorkshireBoy that is useful info to use. The timing is the most annoying part really as the money has been sat in the bank all year...kicking myself most definitely!

chanz4

Their terms clearly state 5 working days

opinions4u

chanz4 wrote: »

Their terms clearly state 5 working days

But are invalid if non-compliant with payments legislation.

bengal-stripe

chanz4 wrote: »

Their terms clearly state 5 working days

opinions4u wrote: »

But are invalid if non-compliant with payments legislation.

But payment legislation only refers to the arrival of the payment at the bank, not how long it subsequently takes Argos to allocate the payment to the appropriate account and book it.

Who knows, they might need five days as they employ carrier pigeons for that task.

YorkshireBoy

bengal-stripe wrote: »

But payment legislation only refers to the arrival of the payment at the bank, not how long it subsequently takes Argos to allocate the payment to the appropriate account and book it.

The FSA (and the Regulations themselves) seem (or at least did 4-5 years ago) to say otherwise...

Who do the PSRs affect?

The PSRs affects firms providing payment services and their customers. These firms include:

• banks;
• building societies;
• e-money issuers;
• money remitters;
• non-bank credit card issuers; and
• non-bank merchant acquirers.

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/doing/regulated/banking/psd

Argos Card Services Ltd and Home Retail Group Card Services Limited are "non-bank credit card issuers" aren't they?


That said, there seems to be a 'get out' in the Regulations whereby if a Payment Service User "agrees" to it (ie via acceptance of the T&Cs and the relevant 5-day clause specifically), a different timescale may be used which would then override the PSRs. Maybe that's how they're trying to get away with it?

watchingthepennies_2

Thank you for all your comments. I've sent off an initial email complaint and will see how we go. What is useful for me is that looking back at the account the last payment we made to clear a 6 month BINPL plan the payment was credited to the Argos Card account the next day.

I have also noticed that our statements from August have stated payment was required by the 5th Dec, yet earlier statements state the 8th Dec, the latter is 12 months from the initial purchase date recorded on the first statement, so I think that is the official due date. I have no idea why the date has changed but have added this to the email.

boopopps

I too have an Argos Card. I received a letter from them a few months ago saying that the way interest is charged is going to change. It is all now very confusing. The payment date used to be 12 months from the purchase date, but now it relates to a specified payment due by date they fix. I think it is all very unclear and confusing now and a lot of people will incur interest due to the complicated ways they have now adopted.

watchingthepennies_2

I have checked the terms of the account and whilst it does say please allow 5 days on the statement, the terms and conditions on the account are as follows:

2.6 When you make a payment, we will credit it to the account on the day we receive cleared funds but it may then take up to 14 days before the payment increases the amount of credit you have available to spend.

Hoping that is relevant to me.

watchingthepennies_2

boopopps wrote: »

I too have an Argos Card. I received a letter from them a few months ago saying that the way interest is charged is going to change. It is all now very confusing. The payment date used to be 12 months from the purchase date, but now it relates to a specified payment due by date they fix. I think it is all very unclear and confusing now and a lot of people will incur interest due to the complicated ways they have now adopted.

I can't recall seeing anything like that, but will have a look.