Why does it take 3 days to make a payment to my credit card?

Malices

Why does it take three days to make a payment to my credit card when I can make payments to other accounts within two hours, or even instantly?

Is it just me or does this seem like a swizz?!

Went £3 over my credit card limit due to having to make an emergency payment on it, called up instantly to pay it off with my debit card account, and was told it'd take 3 working days to clear so I'd get charged £12. If only banks were always that slow to take my money...

Is there a good reason for this or is it just a money making scheme?

balmk

Some cards allow you to make faster payments from your bank account, e.g. Barclaycard or MBNA which are credited the next working day.

Others can state up to 5 days for processing a payment. Which card do you have?

Hominu

You'd be charged the £12 as soon as you exceed your credit card limit, not because it takes 3 days to clear.

But typically, paying off a credit card with a debit card also seems to take several days, where as paying with a bank transfer can take hours, depending on when you make it. Aqua are particulary good at the later - I made a payment on a Sunday and a few hours later they had adjusted my balance.

planteria

it depends what card you are using.

payments to Amex, via americanexpress.co.uk are received immediately.

i always use DDs to pay Min for BT'd balances and Full for Spending balances. and other than Amex i always make other payments by FP from Barclays.

eskbanker

Malices wrote: »

Went £3 over my credit card limit due to having to make an emergency payment on it, called up instantly to pay it off with my debit card account

I know that hindsight is always 20/20 but could you not just have made the emergency payment with your debit card? Apologies if that's just stating the obvious but just in case you find yourself in a similar situation in the future....

ricky_v

Alot of CC companies *might* waive the £12 fee for the sakes of going over by £3 if it's your first infraction, kept the account in good order, offer to pay instantly, and not an a*se to the person at the other end of the phone

PeacefulWaters

Stop paying by debit card and send a Faster Payment.

It's faster.

lisyloo

Have you thought of doing on-line payments from your bank account?

Maybe you weren't in a position to do that at the time, but it tend to work pretty quick.

Malices

It was a Tesco Clubcard credit card - I phoned first to pay it off and they said it would take three days so I asked if paying online would make it any faster and they said no, it would take three days however I did it.

I tried calling and was very nice (I've been in tele-sales & customer service roles, I'm NEVER rude!) and explained what had happened but unfortunately the girl on the end of the phone was unsympathetic & downright miserable. The time has passed now so I've written this one off, but found the template letter on here in case it happens again in future...which it hopefully won't!

(I didn't have my debit card on me when I had to make the card payment, but I know the number & details by heart so could have paid off the credit card over the phone)

yangptangkipperbang

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Stop paying by debit card and send a Faster Payment.

It's faster.

It is only faster to get the finance house's main account - they then take "several" days to credit it to your card account.
You can draw your own conclusions as to why their in-house procedures take days whereas it takes seconds to get the money to them from another bank .....................

Gromitt

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

It is only faster to get the finance house's main account - they then take "several" days to credit it to your card account.

Which will still be quicker than a debit card payment.

I made a debit card payment to Tesco Card Services on Saturday (easier than moving money into my normal account and doing a faster payment), the money didn't even get taken out of my account until Tuesday this week and on Wednesday Tesco Online still had not received the payment. I'm assuming they got it today although I've not checked (don't really care, not due until next week)