Virgin Credit Card - Help Please! A bit long winded!

fatavril

Hi
I've had a Virgin Credit card for over a year. I've had a Standing Order setup to pay £30 per month on the 1st of every month, this is more than my minimum payment and has worked fine for over a year. I do not use this card, it's just a reducing balance that I transferred when it was a 0% BT deal.

Having just looked at the online statements I noticed that my payment wasn't covering the minimum anymore which is strange as the 0% BT deal hasn't yet run out.

Digging deeper I've found this is because they wanted me to pay a September bill on 2nd October - which I made by SO! - Then the October bill was due to be paid by 31st October - this was missed as my SO goes out on the 1st of the month and doesn't account for 2 bills being paid in the same calendar month.

As I setup the SO with their own Virgin downloadable form, which does not say anywhere that I need to ensure payments are made every 28 days etc, is there anywhere I can go with this?? I have had 2 x late payments charges PLUS my 0% BT deal has voided because I missed a payment so I've also been charged 2 x a months interest.

Do I have a leg to stand on if I ring in the morning to argue this. I can't see that it's fair asking me to pay twice in 1 month without any suggestion in their payments terms that I will be asked to pay every 28 days rather than calendar monthly.

JKSandy

Your standing order is controlled and set by you. You should have arranged the payment dates to match payment due dates on your bill.

You can explain to them the error and they should hopefully waive any fees and maybe remove late markers on your credit file.

[Deleted User]

You need to make payments in line with minimum payments and payment dates. Dates will always move around due to working days etc. So entirely your fault, unfortunately.

If you phone and grovel, they may throw you a goodwill gesture, if you're lucky. You may also want to set up a min payment DD to stop this happening again.

YorkshireBoy

fatavril wrote: »

Do I have a leg to stand on if I ring in the morning to argue this.

Unfortunately not. The best you can hope for is some goodwill. This normally comes in the form of a new 1.9% APR rate going forward.

I can't see that it's fair asking me to pay twice in 1 month without any suggestion in their payments terms that I will be asked to pay every 28 days rather than calendar monthly.

Your T&Cs state they'll send you a statement each month. The same T&Cs state you MUST read your statement. The statement will tell you the payment due date.


Credit card's, especially those with 0% BT offers, are not 'set up and forget'...unless you opt for payment by DD.


Best of luck tomorrow!

fatavril

Ah Damn

Are they allowed to bill me twice in 1 calendar month? Ergo charge me interest twice in 1 cal monthly period?

[Deleted User]

Yes, if that's how your payment dates fall.

Nebulous2

Dates often vary slightly. One of my credit cards is due around the 1st of the month, after I have been paid. Once or twice a year the payment is due before I have been paid, so I need to make sure there is money in the account to cover my DD.

Although they charge interest for 28 days they will only charge you 28 days interest. When the dates fall differently you might have 34 days - but the interest charged will reflect that.

SuperHan

fatavril wrote: »

Ah Damn

Are they allowed to bill me twice in 1 calendar month? Ergo charge me interest twice in 1 cal monthly period?

But they only charge interest once on any given day, so there's no additional interest to pay where calendar cycles fall like this.

It often happens as billing dates are not fixed. Always read your statements.

You should set up a DIRECT DEBIT (not SO) to pay the minimum amount each month, and then an SO to top up these payments to however much you want to spend to stop this happening in future.