Ended up paying British Gas bill twice

deadendwaterfall

At the start of this month, I paid a combined gas/electricity bill over the phone with a credit card. It showed up on my monthly statement as proof I paid. However, this morning I received a letter asking me if I'd forgotten to pay my bill. I discussed it on the phone, and they say it's overdue by 10 days, and it would be in my best interests to pay it now, which I did, using the same credit card.

I've just tried disputing this with them, but they say the only payment they have on record is the one I've just made today. Do I try and dispute it further with them, or with my credit card issuer, (Halifax)?

Is there a process where I could send a copy of my credit card statement to prove I've paid before the due date, and get a refund to my credit card?

Robin9

When you've resolved this - just set up BG to set up a variuable DD. One thing less to think about.

deadendwaterfall

Robin9 wrote: »

When you've resolved this - just set up BG to set up a variuable DD. One thing less to think about.

Also, when it's resolved, will it leave a mark on my credit file?

Robin9

What does your credit card statement say ? Is it possible that the payment was made but then rejected ?

badmemory

Robin9 wrote: »

What does your credit card statement say ? Is it possible that the payment was made but then rejected ?

And if it was rejected is it going to happen again? Do you have access to your ongoing cc bill? Or even your on-line BG account?

deadendwaterfall

Robin9 wrote: »

What does your credit card statement say ? Is it possible that the payment was made but then rejected ?

It definitely appears twice on the statement.

Dobbibill

Are the 2 payments for identical amounts?
Do you have an online account where you can see/pay your bill or are you paper bills only?
If it is showing as leaving on your credit card statement and not just pending then dispute it again with BG.
If you get no joy, raise a dispute with your CC provider too.

Do you have the date/time you called BG to make the payment? - they may have a recording of the call.

Robin9

I've just had something similar with a TSB Debit Card - my first attempted purchase of Premium Bonds came back as Certified by Visa as Failed; a second one was Successful.

However my bank account was debited twice but the purchase only wne through once.

After being bounced between Premium Bonds and TSB I raised a dispute with Premium Bonds and a few days later my payment was credited.

My advice OP is to preserve with BG - write (no email or phone) headed COMPLAINT .

The_Big_Bamboo

Robin9 wrote: »

I've just had something similar with a TSB Debit Card - my first attempted purchase of Premium Bonds came back as Certified by Visa as Failed; a second one was Successful.

However my bank account was debited twice but the purchase only wne through once.

After being bounced between Premium Bonds and TSB I raised a dispute with Premium Bonds and a few days later my payment was credited.

My advice OP is to preserve with BG - write (no email or phone) headed COMPLAINT .

ditto;
I had a very similar issue just recently with my CapitalOne creditcard;...I made a payment to large online organization but the payment aborted and it gave me the message ‘transaction failed to complete’.

I immediately re-input my details and at the second attempt the payment went through normally.

A while later I noticed on my credit-card statement that I’d been charged twice for that single transaction.

I contacted CapitalOne directly and to be fair they quickly sorted it out. I was credited with the over-charged amount within a day or two.

However, I’ve no idea how far that so-called ‘failed transaction’ actually got;...did the payment make it all the way to the payee?,...or did it just sit as a debited amount on my CapOne statement?...also, if I hadn’t noticed the ‘double’ payment would it eventually have been credited back to me?....I really don’t know. :doh:

I’ve been making card payments online for as long as it’s been possible to do that, but I’ve never encountered this double payment issue before;

....or maybe I have and I’ve not noticed! :eek:

chrisw99

These days you can usually see pending payments and authorisations straight away on your online banking or credit card. So if a web transaction ever fails to authorise, you can usually check with your bank if it went through.

I know it sometimes happens when the session to the bank takes too long to complete - you know those awkward moments when you are in a shop paying by card and it seems to take 2-3 minutes to authorise and everyone is stood around twiddling their thumbs - it's exactly the same. The company's web server is contacting the bank and gives up, usually after 30 or 60 seconds. You get the failed message. In the meantime the bank finally authorises the transaction, but nothing is now listening for the reply.

The problem with this situation is, although the money has now been deducted from your account, the original order never went through so you end up in a mess. You contact the company about your order, and they have had no response from the bank so have no idea your payment went through, so they're not likely to fulfil it. They'd have to go through their bank statements which for a big company isn't going to happen easily.

And if you contact your bank, all they see is that you made a successful payment to that company, so are not always going to refund you on your word alone that the transaction timed out.

Thinking about it, it's probably easiest to order it again and then complain about the duplicate amount on your statement and get it refunded then!