Anyone else have trouble paying Aqua?

lexbubbles

So I recently got an Aqua CC (£250 limit, 49.9%APR) to build up my credit. The only credit I even have on my account is a British Gas account, and nobody else will give me any kind of CC since my report is basically devoid of life so Aqua it is!

Plan was to spend & pay it off each month in full, build everything up nicely, then get a better CC from someone else later. I've only had it a month, and my balance of £182.72 was due to be paid on Oct 31st. Which also happened to be the day I got money in. So far so awesome.

I tried paying by debit card on the site and got declined. I tried again, thinking I maybe made a mistake entering my digits, and was declined again. When I phoned them I was told they have "no information whatsoever" about it and I'd have to wait "at least 24 hours" to try again as I'd exceeded the maximum amount of tries in one day. Which, apparently, is 2. Waiting 24 hours puts me past my due date.

After waiting my 24 hours (Sat), I call Aqua again. Nothing. No information. Try again tomorrow (2 days past due)

I phone the bank, who say they approved the transaction but that Aqua haven't taken it. Which, to be fair, is more information than Aqua could give me about it. It will take 3-5 working days before the funds are automatically released and I can try again. So the funds are sitting there, approved to fly off to Aqua, who haven't taken it.

Next day (Sun) the funds are still held at the bank. Phone Aqua again. There's no record of a payment and are still unable to give me any information whatsoever. They know nothing. At all. About anything.

So, I phone the bank back and ask nicely if they can release the funds early so that I can make the payment via direct bank transfer instead since Aqua apparently have no intention of taking it themselves. They do so, and I make the bank transfer.

Technically 2 days late at this point through no fault of my own (and I still don't even know the reason for it!) although not even really 1 working day - it was due Friday and I paid Sunday after many many phone calls.

My 'available to spend' money increased on my Aqua account and reflects the £182.87 I had paid them, although there are no credits to my account showing as yet.

Today I got a call from a woman at Aqua demanding to know why I hadn't paid. When I pointed out I had, yesterday by bank transfer, she gets very snippy with me wanting to know why it was 2 days late and also saying there is 'no record' on their system of a payment being made even though, I stress again, my available balance reflected my payment.

Anyway we got disconnected and I called back and got a different person who says the bank transfer was made and it would be fully cleared by tomorrow but that the previous woman had put me through to collections even though she "absolutely shouldn't have"

tl;dr I have paid them now, but anyone else had serious issues giving Aqua money? Is this some kind of ploy to rake in more money in interest/fees or something? Are they prone to this sort of behaviour? I'll make all future payments by bank transfer rather than debit card to be on the safe side, but sheeesh...

SuperHan

Setting up a direct debit is always best if your intention is to pay in full each month, as it stops any issues like this.

Also worth paying at least 48 hours before the due date as the payment needs to be cleared by the due date, not just sent, and this can sometimes take a few days.

lexbubbles

SuperHan wrote: »

Setting up a direct debit is always best if your intention is to pay in full each month, as it stops any issues like this.

Also worth paying at least 48 hours before the due date as the payment needs to be cleared by the due date, not just sent, and this can sometimes take a few days.

Duly noted, thanks.

Just got off the phone to another person. We have discovered why the debit card failed. They... don't seem to have a house number for me. Well, they do and they don't. Obviously they do because they sent me my card by post but the lad on the phone said:

"I don't know who keeps doing this, but somebody keeps putting the house number in the house name field, which means the addresses on people's Aqua cards and other cards aren't matching up. You're the 5th one today I've had"

So my address for Aqua was just showing up as "street name, city, postcode" with no house number. Seems someone is being a doofus and messing up all the databases leaving people unable to pay by debit card (or, until the funds are released again, bank transfer).

He also assured me I wouldn't be charged any interest this time, as it wasn't my fault and I also arranged for the bank to release the funds early and pay them ASAP rather than waiting the requisite 3-5.

So that's nice. There is at least one person working at Aqua who can provide information on why stuff didn't work, even if it took me 3 days and 5 phone calls to find him! :rotfl:

YoungTrafford

Nice to hear that Aqua have been helpful. On both my cards I have a direct debit set up for the minimum payment, and this has never been drawn on as I pay by bank transfer a week before the due date, but it is useful to have in place just in case there is an issue with Internet banking or my debit card is stolen etc. Aqua were my first card providers and faster payments tend to go through to them super quick compared to my other card. My available balance goes up within two hours and my balance then changes on the next working day, though it was once the day after that. Somehow on my other card a bank transfer has failed to show on my account for 5 days once.

thebritishbloke

Good it's been cleared up, just make sure you have a direct debit set up from now on to stop this mess. I'd check your credit report in a couple of months time to see if they log a late payment marker etc, as you'll probably be able to get them to remove it.

DalePie

Same happened to me. I only learned I hadn't paid my bill when card wouldn't work.

Thankfully it was a big misunderstanding, no DD even for minimum setup. Called then up, paid the bill and setup a DD for full balance over the phone.

Sorted, to be fair Aqua does have reasonable customer service, even if the APR is frighteningly high!

lexbubbles

thebritishbloke wrote: »

Good it's been cleared up, just make sure you have a direct debit set up from now on to stop this mess. I'd check your credit report in a couple of months time to see if they log a late payment marker etc, as you'll probably be able to get them to remove it.

Good call - I'll definitely do that.

System

Best paying by Faster Payment not debit card as once the payment is sent to the details they've supplied, it's not your problem.

If there is ever a payment problem with a debit card, they will invariably blame your bank and there is no real way to disprove this.