Help - Capital One

HarrySpodder

Hi everyone,

I'm a new member, in need of some help. I apologise in advance if I have posted in the wrong thread...

Ok, I have a credit card with Capital One. My credit limit is £200. The card is just six months old and my reason to get this card was to purely build a credit file taking into account the dates they report to CRA's and credit utilisation.

At first I thought that the information they passed to CRA's was duplicated from my last bill.

Example:
Bill Amount last month: £100.
Payment: £100.
Balance: £0.00.

Then so on for the following months. My understanding was that the balance on the CRA report would be £0 if I paid in full, a duplicate of my statement if you like.

Anyway, waiting a month like a coiled spring to see my credit score go up and credit utilisation £0.00 I logged in to my CRA account only to find that my hard work and determination was all a waste.

It seems that Capital One do not actually send the information from the bill per-say, what they actually do is send a "screen dump" of the account on the 1st day of every month.

So, if like I who waited for the new bill to be printed before spending on my card, the information sent to the CRA's showed a balance of £181, as this was the balance on the 1st, therefore taking my credit utilisation to an all time high and my credit score from Good, to very poor. They didn't tell me this and I'm not sure if the onus should have been on me to find this out for myself or whether Capital One should have advised me. After all, they give these cards to "rebuild your credit history".

Can anyone comment or advise how you feel/ think? I'm annoyed that they didn't tell me the information they send is not from the bill per-say, but a screen dump on the 1st of each month.

Anyway, moving on.

I'm a member, ironically, to creditexpert. I use my Capital One card to pay for this "service" by way of "continuous payment authority" to the sum £14.99.

During the last month I spent £190 on my card purposely so to demonstrate to Capital One that I can handle the account successfully, pay in full etc in the hope that being it's the sixth month I may have had a Credit Limit Increase.

At the time I knew creditexpert would likely be requesting money for my membership however, a) admittedly I didn't call them to close the account as I'm sick of paying £14.99 a month, especially when they do a service for free, and b) I knew the card payment would decline as there wasn't enough available credit on my account.

I also "assumed" that my creditexpert membership would immediately cancel as obviously I wouldn't have paid the subscription.

Anyway, bearing in mind I worked so hard trying to get a good relationship with these guys to get a "higher credit limit" as this shows negatively on my report as it's my "highest credit limit" £200 (below £1000 apparently is more "risky"?), Capital One took it upon themselves to authorise the payment, forcing me over my credit limit and, to add insult to injury, charge me £12.

This seems to me like Capital One have intentionally authorised this payment, knowing the account was close to its limit, to purposely force the account overdrawn and earn a sneaky £12.

Is it just me or can anyone else see it? If I'm being stupid please someone tell me where I'm going wrong...?

So, I immediately complained because I was really upset about this having a negative impact on my account, not my credit file this time round, because I know going over the credit limit is a definite no for any consideration of a credit limit increase.

They have wrote back to say basically, tuff on the hard work, it's all my responsibility, that they have taken a business decision to authorise some payments for mitigating circumstances, if I'm overseas (which I never am) petrol and a weekly shop. Also, there is now no chance of an increase anytime soon and they can't confirm whether or not I'll ever be entitled to one.

I have asked for the Clause from my T&C's to say that they will authorise payments regardless of whether it will force the account over its limit and surprisingly they can't provide one. They have told me that they won't communicate with me about the matter again and as far as their concerned the matters now closed.

They authorised the payment! So because of this now I just feel frustrated and punished. I really want to leave them and perhaps try and get a Tesco builder but for now I have no chance I doubt, I'm just forced almost to stay with £200 forever it seems. Pointless.

Are they allowed to do this and is there anything I can do? Is it worth going to the Ombudsman? The bottom line is if I'd have wanted creditexpert to have gone through, I wouldn't have spent so much on the card in the first place! I just can't believe they authorised the payment and charged me £12.

Please help!
Thank you, Scott.

[Deleted User]

The snapshot is correct. Generated a few days after my payment date, which for me falls to approx 1st, as my DD is last day of each month but it may well be 1st for everyone.... a bit annoying but won't make any real impact. Bear in mind the CURRENT balance is as of snapshot date, but the history, which is largely what your are aiming to build, is based on statement balances

I'd also not pay before the statement is generated (e.g. Utilisations of 0, which appears to be what you are doing) - LET the statement be generated THEN pay after (even manually if you want). By having statements generated at 0 its arguably not as useful (many people can leave a CC In a safe, or cut it up etc) - what you want to show is a balance each month, preferably not too high especially as you have a small limit, and that you can pay it off (preferably in full)

Regarding the 190 and authorising extra - they can and will. Most banks etc do the same, you essentially have a 'emergency' limit above your credit limit that the provider know and you don't. They'll charge you an arm and a leg to use it, but it's allowed and potentially cheaper than say a PAyday loan - but does demonstrate extremely poor management of the account etc etc as you know.

I used to work in a bank, a customer had a reserve limit of nearly 1k, due to miscommunication and misunderstandings with the customers accounts, wages etc - said customer racked up a 1k bill on an account that had never had a penny paid into it, as per the reserve policy, and got charged hundreds. I got them refunded via appeals to head office etc, but banks really don't care if you go so far overdrawn, if they think they'll get it.... plus charges.... back. = £££££

You needed to cancel the subscription with the site, failure to do so unfortunately isn't their or Cap Ones issue.

With the 12 quid charge. Complaining isn't the way to get it refunded.... ring up Customer Services, give them a sob story and go on about how quick you repaid to bring it under limit, you were only a few quid over and feel 12 quid is too high, your first card and you didn't understand properly etc.....and they'll usually refund for first occasion. If they don't, email in a sob story again. If they still don't, then start the complaints process - where someone will probably refund to shut you up, but strictly speaking you 100% deserved the charge.

Don't ride so close to the limit in future, and always cancel (particularly CCAs) properly.... preferably in writing. Good luck

boo_star

Somerset_La_La_La wrote: »

Regarding the 190 and authorising extra - they can and will. Most banks etc do the same, you essentially have a 'emergency' limit above your credit limit that the provider know and you don't. They'll charge you an arm and a leg to use it, but it's allowed and potentially cheaper than say a PAyday loan - but does demonstrate extremely poor management of the account etc etc as you know.

I used to work in a bank, a customer had a reserve limit of nearly 1k, due to miscommunication and misunderstandings with the customers accounts, wages etc - said customer racked up a 1k bill on an account that had never had a penny paid into it, as per the reserve policy, and got charged hundreds. I got them refunded via appeals to head office etc, but banks really don't care if you go so far overdrawn, if they think they'll get it.... plus charges.... back. = £££££

Whilst true of some current accounts it's typically not the case that credit cards have a reserve limit.

In this case the payment to Experian was almost certainly via a Continuous Payment Authority and so Capital One are obliged to pay it regardless of it taking the customer over their limit.

HarrySpodder

Thank you for the replies.

I take responsibility.

So, if I did apply for a Tesco and got rid of this one, would it show up on a credit check I went over on an existing credit account even though balance was paid in full?

Thanks.

[Deleted User]

Strange I thought all CCs had reserve limits, especially those with offline contactless etc - pre-bankruptcy I was over limit on all cards I think, but may have just been the banks I was with

If you got under limit quickly, it probably won't show up. It really depends on the company - technically a status code of 1 can be used to indicate bounced payments or overlimit during the month for current accounts, even if it's brought up to date in a reasonable time. Cards may do the same as it's a breach of the agreement even though it was rectified.

It's a bit like Russian roulette to be honest.

If you want the Tesco, or anything else, I'd apply to try and get it ASAP... with a recent 1 on your file (if it happens in the coming weeks) your chances will probably be reduced.

Then run them both properly, don't max out either card etc, and you'll quickly recover whatever happens

redux

Any credit card or bank overdraft may have a sometimes undeclared tolerance band, that they may authorise payments which take the account slightly over the limit.

Bear in mind also that contactless and some other low value transactions may be cleared without any online checking.

I'm a bit surprised at them refusing to refund the fee, as they can be lenient on stuff like this the first time.

Don't be too wound up about this though. Keep going with the same card, spending about £100 a month and paying in full.

And definitely cancel the paid credit report subscription. You can get some of the info free from Noddle and Clearscore. And don't take much notice of what they call credit score.

boo_star

Somerset_La_La_La wrote: »

Strange I thought all CCs had reserve limits, especially those with offline contactless etc - pre-bankruptcy I was over limit on all cards I think, but may have just been the banks I was with

Contactless and offline transactions are a different kettle of fish, in those systems the bank doesn't authorise the transactions when they're made so having a "reserve limit" or not wouldn't make any difference.

I've never had a reserve limit on any of my cards but on the current account side, they almost all have. I guess it's just a case of YMMV. There's certainly no technical reason why a credit card can't have one.

Dobbibill

Credit Expert is taken via a CPA (continuous payment authority)

You should cancel it for it not to debit.

The bit of their T&Cs that refer to this is here

http://www.capitalone.co.uk/creditcards/classic-mastercard-credit-card.jsf

7. Recurring transactions
If you have authorised a recurring transaction (such as a magazine subscription), the retailer may continue to take payments from your account until you tell them or us to cancel it. You may withdraw your authorisation at any time up to the end of the business day before the recurring transaction is due to be paid. Once you have told us to cancel it, we will use our best efforts to stop these transactions from being charged to your account. As recurring transactions are initiated by the supplier, you may wish to contact the retailer as well to stop the recurring transaction from being initiated. If the recurring transaction is taken from your account after you have withdrawn your authorisation we will refund the transaction amount together with any related charges or interest. Recurring transactions are not covered by the Direct Debit Guarantee.

while it doesn't say about taking you over your limit, that is still your responsibility.

Don't worry too much for a first time, it happens.
As suggested above, ask nicely for a refund of the charge, explain it was a misunderstanding. Make sure you have brought it back within the credit limit too.

The CRAs are updated once a month and you don't want that to show 0 otherwise it may be perceived that you are not using the card. That said, stay well away from your limit.

If you have arranged a DD to pay off in full, it could include your last month's spending plus approx 3 weeks of the current statement.

Try to use it for a small amount each month so that even if it falls at the time when your highest balance is on it then it's still only showing approx 50% - 60% utilisation.