Very.co.uk please beware!!

Evawebb28

Hi all,

Was informed this was in the wrong forum so have moved it to here!!

Just letting everyone know about the issue I had with very.co.uk yesterday.

I noticed on my online statements that I had been charge interest for a buy now pay later balance of £119.28! However that month I had made a payment of £300! When I called yesterday to explain this to very I was told it was my fault as I hadn't directed the payment to the right area!! There was nothing they could do to help me!!

I have since found out I have been charged more interest in the next month for the same issue when I have now paid in total £450 in payments from 20/5-13/07.

I have now cancelled my account as this seems unfair as I am a loyal good paying customer and they appriopiate payments to their benefit not mine!

If the very statements are also not very clear so anyone who has a very account please be vigilant as they may be charging you unfair interest. It is yet another example of the big companies taking on the individual!!

Evawebb28

Ok just adding a bit more from the other forum I posted in:
so basically when ever I paid online there was 3 options minimum payment, take 3 payement where is had a specified amount or "other amount" option as I always paid more than the above amounts I clicked other amount.
What I don't see as fair is that they do not allocate my payments in my favour but in theirs. The example of this is the month where there was an BNPL payment of £119.28 I chose to pay an "other amount" of £300 and they didn't take it off the BNPL.
Not to mention I looked at my email statments from very today and never once have they said what the BNPL balance was in the statement only my minimum payment amount.
What is so crafty is the lack of clarity in the statements that are sent and the performance of making payments. Effectively very told me that I would have to make 2 payments one to a BNPL and then One to my minimum payment. I wouldn't mind but I always pay large sums each month and feel I have penalised for this.

takman

A lot of people seem to make the same mistake from the amount of posts I see with the same compliant.

I wonder if you or someone else could post a screenshot of the payment screen or an example of the statements?, so people who don't use the site can see what the problem is.

bod1467

What do the Very T&Cs say regarding payments? I'd be surprised if they don't have this covered.

HOWEVER ... I recall reading not so long ago that companies providing credit were now obliged to assign payments to the highest interest bearing part of any credit arrangement (i.e. to be in the consumer's favour) rather than assigning payments in the company's favour.

BNPL might present a subtle loophole in this.

sheramber

from the FAQ page

Unless specified when paying via My Account, through the ‘Pay Buy Now Pay Later’ tab or when speaking to one of our advisors, payments will be applied in a specific order. This order can be found, listed on your statement.

Did you pay through the Pay Buy Now Pay later tab?

powerful_Rogue

Cheeky blighters! Glad I saw this thread. Thought I was paying 0% interest for 12 months, but just noticed in the first month they charged me £15 interest.

Just went and cleared the balance.

m4rc

powerful_Rogue wrote: »

Cheeky blighters! Glad I saw this thread. Thought I was paying 0% interest for 12 months, but just noticed in the first month they charged me £15 interest.

Just went and cleared the balance.

If you have interest free then you have interest free - check the details. They are not 'cheeky', if it was a large item it could be a delivery charge. Or it may not have been 0%. Your statement (online and paper) will explain.

I could post screen grabs if people didn't believe me but trust the below is true, it's easy to find, nothing is hidden, it's hardly a complicated site.

To the OP, I psted in your other thread but wanted to make sure you saw it.

Sorry, I try to be supportive on here but your post is factually incorrect. I just logged on to my Very account, and clicked 'make a payment'. Sure it has the 'Take 3' 'minimum' and 'other' payment options, but on the left it clearly says 'pay buy now pay later' and 'setup direct debit'.

They hide nothing, why would they? To annoy people? What good would that do?

Next, the statements. Clearly on the main section not the summary at the beginning, at the end under the total it lists all your Buy Now Pay Later details. This is important because for each BNPL transaction it clearly says 'you can avoid the interest on these buy now pay later item(s) by paying the balance by [date]. It tells you the amount and the date.

It then says at the bottom of this page 'If you do not pay off the full amount outstanding, we will allocate your payment to the outstanding balance in a specific order, which is set out on the reverse of your account statement. The way in which payments are allocated can make a difference to the amount of interest you will pay until the balance is cleared completely.'

Subsequently on the reverse of the statement it lists these payment priorities.

This is on the statement you get through the post, and if you download it online. If you don't get paper statements and don't download them, when online you go to 'Transaction History' and choose any month it will tell you your main statement details in a summary, and below the BNPL details - what you need to pay by what date to avoid paying any interest.

Lastly, when you first opened your account you will have confirmed that you had clearly read the terms and conditions. Your answer will be 'well nobody reads them' and I'm afraid the answer is 'well maybe they should'.

Very is not out to get you, this isn't a conspiracy, nothing is hidden, you've made a mistaken, you've run up a debt and didn't make a note of when you needed to pay it back by. You can't tell everyone to BEWARE OF VERY for a mistake you made, I buy items in the sales and when they have offers and send me promotions, I get them on BNPL plans and never pay a penny in interest, I just need to note the dates they have to be paid by as the one thing Very won't do is let you go past the date and not pay interest, they are 'very' strict with that.

Don't stress about it, it's done. I just don't hink it's fair to make out they have mislead you or done anything out of order, unless hey have given you a completely different online account interface and a different version of the statements, but we both know they haven't.

Evawebb28

Thank you for your detailed explanation. However I never ran up a debt the month I was charged interest my BNPL balance was £119.28 I didn't want to just pay that amount I paid a "other" amount of £300 expecting this to clear the BNPL and then some of the balance. Very however didn't do this yet people have raised the question that they should allocate payments to the highest earning interest.
It was my mistake but people should be aware because when I called very explaining the situation I wasn't allowed to speak to anyone more senior than the advisor I couldn't even speak to a team leader. They were not sympathetic or even trying to understand my point of view. They just gave me a blanket response which is fine they have now lost me as a loyal customer.

deanos

If you have an amount on BNPL there is no interest until the date given , so if you had money outstanding on the account it will allocate it to that first not the BNPL i presume you had an outstanding balance and a BNPL balance ?

circuit

Sorry to bump an old thread, but just wanted to say thanks to the OP. I've had exactly the same problem.

I paid off the amount to clear a BNPL balance, but this seems to have been allocated to the part of the balance that is paid using Take 3, which isn't actually stated anywhere.
I'm certain that I used the right tab to pay for the BNPL balance.

I decided to pay everything off, and I've now got a Buy Now Pay Later balance of -£550, and an overall account balance of -£145. So clearly something isn't adding up!

I looked carefully at the T&Cs, and the section on allocation of payments at Very is complicated. It has 9 different scenarios based on the amount paid, the date of payment, the date of purchase, the balances outstanding and various other factors.

Additionally, the non-BNPL balance doesn't seem to be stated anywhere. You are given the BNPL balance and the total outstanding on your account, and you can only find the 'missing' (non-BNPL) balance by subtracting one from the other.

I'm not surprised people are confused by this. IMO Very has gone out of its way to make it unintuitive and I'll be closing my account once my 'missing' £405 appears.

fleshandbone

Thank you for telling us you are very kind person indeed x