Aqua Credit Card-Help please

maddieseren

Hello all, apologies for this post, but I require some help as I'm so angry I can't think straight

I used to hold an Aqua Credit Card but closed the account in November 2012 via their website, by paying the balance in full and requesting the account be closed.

Then in July 2013, whilst on holiday in Italy, I recevied a call from a withheld number, saying it was Aqua and that I owed a balance of £1.27.....seemed petty, but as I didn't recognise the number I was not willing to give out Card Details over the phone. Then on checking my Credit File in Sept 13, I saw that Aqua have hit me with two late payment strikes, thus affecting my credit rating.

I was furious, I rang them and Customer Services stated that they would not do this for such a small amount, and they reduced the balance to zero and closed the account. They also said they would remove the two strikes.

However, on checking my file this week, they have now added two more strikes for November and December 2013, all for £1.27

I've rung them (as stated above) and written to them. I am absolutely furious and was wondering if anyone can offer some guide to legal recourse I can take against them, and any details of who I can complain to formally

Sorry for the long winded story, hopefully someone can help

Hooloovoo

No outstanding balance is petty.

It is your responsibility to ensure your required payments are completed and everything is settled.

What did you do in between refusing to pay in July 2013, and checking your credit file in Sept 13?

Presumably immediately after your return from your holiday in July you phoned Aqua to query if the call was genuine and check if any payments were due? What did they say during that call?

grumbler

maddieseren wrote: »

... I am absolutely furious and was wondering if anyone can offer some guide to legal recourse ...

What legal recourse - unless the outstanding balance was an error? They contacted you and you ignored them.
Be happy that it's just late payments, not a default, although for the latter they would have sent you a written notice.

maddieseren

Hooloovoo wrote: »

No outstanding balance is petty.

It is your responsibility to ensure your required payments are completed and everything is settled.

What did you do in between refusing to pay in July 2013, and checking your credit file in Sept 13?

Presumably immediately after your return from your holiday in July you phoned Aqua to query if the call was genuine and check if any payments were due? What did they say during that call?

I received no correspondence, and closed my account online paying the balance in full...is that responsible enough, or do I need to ring everyone making sure there is no extra £1.27 that I owe

Call from a withheld number, asking for my debit card details...I wasn't going to pay it..and I refer back to the point above

Why would I...yet again I refer to the point in the first paragraph

maddieseren

grumbler wrote: »

What legal recourse - unless the outstanding balance was an error? They contacted you and you ignored them.
Be happy that it's just late payments, not a default, although for the latter they would have sent you a written notice.

A call from a withheld number asking me for my debit card details contacted me...no correspondence by post ever received from them.

Or is the advice here to everyone on this forum that you should give out your Debit Card over the phone to anyone who asks??

Hooloovoo

maddieseren wrote: »

I received no correspondence, and closed my account online paying the balance in full...is that responsible enough, or do I need to ring everyone making sure there is no extra £1.27 that I owe

There was probably some trailing interest still to pay. Just paying the final balance in full doesn't cover any interest due up to that date. Or you might have a continuing-payment authority set up on the card which would have gone through even though the card was closed. Aqua would have contacted you about this to ensure your account was settled. Oh, wait, they did.

Call from a withheld number, asking for my debit card details...I wasn't going to pay it..and I refer back to the point above

No one has said you should have given out your card details over the phone to an unknown number. I agree you were right to be cautious.

But I'll ask again - Presumably immediately after your return from your holiday in July you phoned Aqua to query if the call was genuine and check if any payments were due?

What did they say during that call?

Or did you just ignore the possibly-genuine call from Aqua until September?

Twisted_Cherry

I am just wondering: I understand you paid the balance in full in November 2012, could the £1.27 not be delayed interest or a transaction fee / currency exchange? It might be worth checking your statement with them from November 2012 and to see if they produced a statement in December 2012.

I would also correspond with them via the mail, using recorded delivery, call centre staff can have a habit of lying or using tactics just to get you off the phone!

Ask Aqua to send you a copy of correspondence they sent to you about the £1.27, such as letters, statements etc.

If you don't agree with the £1.27 balance then out this is writing asking for the charges to be removed. After you have solved the issue, you can write to the Data Protection Officer at Aqua (can't locate address right now!) and ask them to remove things from your credit file that should not be there.

You could also open a dispute with the credit reference agency saying you do not agree with the strikes on your credit file!

grumbler

maddieseren wrote: »

If you had read the story..I CLOSED THE ACCOUNT IN NOVEMBER 2012 PAYING THE BALANCE IN FULL....so why the hell should I have to pay them £1.27, when I'd closed the account paying them in full

"CLOSED" means nothing. A pre-authorised transaction can be processed within next 6 months and you have to pay it off.

"IN FULL" means nothing either as there can be, say, a trailing interest after the statement was produced or not added to the current balance if you paid before the statement was produced.

If you are sure that you didn't owe anything, then I made it perfectly clear that you didn't have any legal recourse only if it wasn't an error. However, in this case you should have contacted Aqua after getting home and asked them for the proofs/explanations.

maddieseren wrote: »

A call from a withheld number asking me for my debit card details contacted me....

Or is the advice here to everyone on this forum that you should give out your Debit Card over the phone to anyone who asks??

It wouldn't have changed anything if the number wasn't withheld.
Any reasonable person would have called Aqua back at the very first opportunity.

Hooloovoo

grumbler wrote: »

"CLOSED" means nothing. A pre-authorised transaction can be processed within next 6 months and you have to pay it off.

That's another good point.

Retailers don't necessarily charge transactions to accounts immediately. Sometimes there is a delay (over weekends and bank holidays for example) and other times transactions get lost for a while. Retailers have up to six months to process the transaction.

I always leave an account dormant and keep an eye on it for 12 months before finally asking for the account to be closed, once I am sure it is not still being used for something I have forgotten about.

Just paying the final bill and "closing" the account means nothing. You still have to repay any transactions that haven't been processed yet - and that could be several months after you consider your dealings with the account to be over.

They called you about it. You ignored them.

What other action do you expect to be taken?

Stabilo_Boss

maddieseren wrote: »

Hello all, apologies for this post, but I require some help as I'm so angry I can't think straight

I used to hold an Aqua Credit Card but closed the account in November 2012 via their website, by paying the balance in full and requesting the account be closed.

Then in July 2013, whilst on holiday in Italy, I recevied a call from a withheld number, saying it was Aqua and that I owed a balance of £1.27.....seemed petty, but as I didn't recognise the number I was not willing to give out Card Details over the phone. Then on checking my Credit File in Sept 13, I saw that Aqua have hit me with two late payment strikes, thus affecting my credit rating.

I was furious, I rang them and Customer Services stated that they would not do this for such a small amount, and they reduced the balance to zero and closed the account. They also said they would remove the two strikes.

However, on checking my file this week, they have now added two more strikes for November and December 2013, all for £1.27

I've rung them (as stated above) and written to them. I am absolutely furious and was wondering if anyone can offer some guide to legal recourse I can take against them, and any details of who I can complain to formally

Sorry for the long winded story, hopefully someone can help

Oh dear. Yes, you should have paid them, yes you should have called them when you got back. Everything is easy with hindsight. So many people on here are quick to chastise people for what they did or didn't do rather than actually try and answer the question and help the OP.
There must be some reason why you still owe £1.27 so I suggest you clarify this first and check the reason is correct. If it is then unfortunately they are probably well within their rights to log a missed payment against you. If this is the case I think the only option you have is to write to them and explain the situation and appeal to them to adjust the information. They can do this - it is whether they will or not...
You could always make a note on your credit file also but if you do this every credit application you make will be delayed as it will not be able to make a computer generated decision - a human will have to look at it so it might be more trouble than it is worth.
I guess the condition of the rest of your credit file should be a factor in what you end up doing.
Good luck

MFK_2

This problem is more common than you think. It happens because interest still accrues on a debt after the statement has been issued or even your payment has been sent off. It's a real problems when you want to cancel a card. The trick is to phone them before you pay the final statement and get them to guestimate how much more interest you need to pay off in order to be sure you will have paid the debt in full. That and all the other good advice above.