Bank account switching - direct debit failure

Roland_Sausage

In April I switched bank accounts from Smile to Nationwide and I thought it had all gone smoothly.

Now I'm kicking myself about this, but unbeknown to me I stupidly made a payment intended for my Capital One credit card account, to an account in the wife's name instead. Although annoying, this shouldn't be a problem as I have always had a direct debit for the minimum payment set up, just in case the payment was not made for any reason.

However, today I get a text message from Capital One saying payment not been made. I contact them and they have tried to take the direct debit on 6th May from the now closed Smile account which of course failed, and they have now charged a late payment fee.

Spoke to Nationwide about getting this refunded under the switch guarantee scheme, and they said it is not covered as Capital One confirmed to Nationwide they had the new direct debit details on 20th April, and it is therefore Capital One's fault as they didn't set up the new direct debit until the 8th May.

I appreciate my own stupidity has caused this situation, but I don't feel it is my fault that the backup direct debit failed. But with nether Nationwide or Capital One accepting blame, do I just have to swallow this late fee?

grumbler

Nationwide are fobbing you off.
This is covered and they have to sort everything out with C1, including making sure that the late payment isn't reported to CRA(s).

Call them again, and if needed take the name of the person giving you runaround and then make a formal complaint. Escalate it to the FOS if needed.

If anything goes wrong with the switch, as soon as we are told, we will refund any interest (paid or lost) and charges made on either your old or new current accounts as a result of this failure.

Nowhere does it say that it has to be their fault.

See also this thread: MSE News: Current account switching 'working well', but improvement still needed

Roland_Sausage

Thanks Grumbler. I shall try speaking to them again later.

The advisor did seem to think that they only need to refund charges on the old or new bank accounts, e.g. unauthorised overdraft charges or bounced direct debit charges, and not late payments fees by third parties.

However I will speak to them again and escalate if necessary.

Roland_Sausage

All sorted.

Before going back to Nationwide (as I appreciate it wasn't them that was at fault), I sent Capital One a secure message, and without admitting any sort of liability they have refunded the late payment fee and assured me there will be no impact on my credit record.