Vanquis Direct Debit Problem. Advice Please.

Truegho

My mum has just had a terrible problem with Vanquis in regard to a direct debit, and I was wondering if any of you could advise on this. Here is what happened.

Back in March this year, my mum ordered a chair off Asda and used her Vanquis card to pay for the chair, which cost £200.00. Asda immediately took the payment off her Vanquis account. However, due to the lengthy wait for the chair, my mum decided to cancel the item, and so Asda refunded the £200.00 they'd taken off her Vanquis account, bringing it back up to its full credit balance. However, just this morning, my mum was shocked to see that Vanquis had still taken the direct debit payment out of her Halifax account, leaving her overdrawn.

My mum had to phone Vanquis immediately to point this error out to them, and was told that Vanquis could not refund the money into her Halifax account, and that she would have to go to her local branch to claim a direct debit "Indemnity payment" (whatever that is). As you can imagine, my mum was furious over this, especially when Vanquis told her she would still have to pay them the money, even though Asda had refunded the amount back onto her Vanquis credit balance.

My mum now has to phone Vanquis back in the morning to confirm that they can go ahead and process the payment they erroneously took out of her Halifax account, and she will then have to wait three working days for it to go back in. What has puzzled my mum, however, is that Vanquis told her she would still have to pay them the £200 back, even though Asda has already refunded the money back onto her Vanquis balance.

She is really confused over this. Why did Vanquis say to her she would have to still repay them, even though her account is now up to date? That means they are getting an extra £200 doesn't it?

Tixy

Hi

Was the vanquis card empty before the asda transaction?

What was the date of the purchase?
What date was her vanquis statement then generated?

Did her vanquis statement show the refund had been processed? or did this happen after the statement?

What date was the DD taken out?

Truegho

Hi. Thank you for your reply re. my mum's Vanquis card DD problem. To answer your questions:

1. Her Vanquis card had the full balance of £200.00 before ASDA took their payment, which was around mid March.

2. Date of purchase was the 17th March 2014

3. The first online Vanquis statement was generated on the 18th March. The second statement was generated on 9th April, which is the date when ASDA refunded the money back onto my mum's Vanquis credit balance, bringing her back up to date (yet Vanquis still took out the £200 from her Halifax DD this morning!).

4. Her Vanquis statement DID state that the ASDA refund had been processed.

5. My mum first set up the DD in her Halifax account for Vanquis sometime last year, when she first opened the Vanquis account.

Tixy wrote: »

Hi

Was the vanquis card empty before the asda transaction?

What was the date of the purchase?
What date was her vanquis statement then generated?

Did her vanquis statement show the refund had been processed? or did this happen after the statement?

What date was the DD taken out?

Tixy

1. Her Vanquis card had the full balance of £200.00 before ASDA took their
payment, which was around mid March.

Do you mean her limit is £200? and that she had a £200 balance on the card? and then the Asda payment was for a further £200 taking her to a balance of £400?

Truegho

No. What I meant was prior to ASDA taking their money in mid-March, my mum had her FULL credit balance on her Vanquis account of £200. Then, when ASDA took their money, it left her owing Vanquis £200, which would be taken from her Halifax account as a DD to Vanquis on the 14th April 2014. However, as I said, ASDA refunded the £200 on the 9th April 2014, bringing her Vanquis balance - or available to spend - back up to £200. Then Vanquis go and take the £200 from her Halifax account this morning, leaving her overdrawn on her Halifax. This is why she is so annoyed.

So, in short, she does not owe Vanquis any money at all, following the ASDA refund. It is Vanquis that owe my mum the £200, as they took the money even though ASDA paid it back on to her Vanquis account.

Do you understand now?

d123

Truegho wrote: »

No. What I meant was prior to ASDA taking their money in mid-March, my mum had her FULL credit balance on her Vanquis account of £200. Then, when ASDA took their money, it left her owing Vanquis £200, which would be taken from her Halifax account as a DD to Vanquis on the 14th April 2014. However, as I said, ASDA refunded the £200 on the 9th April 2014, bringing her Vanquis balance - or available to spend - back up to £200. Then Vanquis go and take the £200 from her Halifax account this morning, leaving her overdrawn on her Halifax. This is why she is so annoyed.


Do you understand now?

Surely your mother received notice of the DD 14 days before the DD was due so she should have been aware the DD was coming?

The refund on the 9th was only 4 days before the DD was taken, too late to be taken into consideration for the payment that month.

Your mother should have contacted Halifax on the 10th-13th and arranged for the DD to be cancelled for that month if she didn't want it taken.

Truegho

d123 wrote: »

Surely your mother received notice of the DD 14 days before the DD was due so she should have been aware the DD was coming?

The refund on the 9th was only 4 days before the DD was taken, too late to be taken into consideration for the payment that month.

Your mother should have contacted Halifax on the 10th-13th and arranged for the DD to be cancelled for that month if she didn't want it taken.

I take your point. However, my mum erroneously thought that once Vanquis saw that ASDA had refunded the £200 back onto her Vanquis balance, they would not have taken the DD. It was just unfortunate that my mum did not cancel the DD in time.

Truegho

Truegho wrote: »

I take your point. However, my mum erroneously thought that once Vanquis saw that ASDA had refunded the £200 back onto her Vanquis balance, they would not have taken the DD. It was just unfortunate that my mum did not cancel the DD in time.

Anyway, having said that, Vanquis still should have replaced the money back in my mum's Halifax. She should not have to go through all this messing (e.g. ringing Vanquis back tomorrow, wait 3-4 working days for them to refund etc. etc.).

john1002

Trueglo,

Unfortunately most credit card companies operate in this way, as has been said if the refund happened before a set cut off date normally 5-7 days then the DD would still be taken, as is the case here. Vanquis again like all credit card companies use automated systems that dont have the capacity to take your line of thinking regarding the refund.

It is clearly shown as well in the terms on how DD payments are processed.

As such it is a lesson for your mum to learn but it is not the fault of the credit card company.

john

stclair

All's you need to do is claim the DD back under the direct debit indemnity scheme then the payment will be reversed from the credit card statement the refund will be immediate then.

leeroy2009

refunds in general do not count as payments to a credit card, it is a refund, your mums credit card are in the clear they have done nothing wrong, they sent a direct debit request for £200 as that's the amount she owed them on the statement they sent her for £200 to be paid.


never assume anything when it comes to banking and credit cards - especially credit cards.