Will this leave a mark on my credit file?

clhs

Hello
I have an old credit card balance with M&S and I pay off £100 every month on the 15th of each month as I have been for the last two years. Evidently in May I paid one day earlier than normal, on the 14th, which meant two payments were recorded in May and none by 8th June.  I called M&S and they acknowledged what had happened; they can see I religiously pay every month so they reversed the £12 late charge but said that was all they can do.  So will this 'late' payment (IE they didn't then get a payment from me until 15th June) materially affect my credit score or credit file?  Does anyone know?  TIA.

PRAISETHESUN

Technically it is an accurate representation of what has happened so there's not much you can do - you're entirely reliant on M&S to remove the marker as a gesture of goodwill. Moving forward it'd probably be a good idea to modify the date you make your payments so you don't pay so close to your monthly cycle cutoff date - a direct debit for a fixed amount may also be possible, which would avoid the issue entirely.

The good thing is that a single missed payment in isolation will make basically no difference to your credit file, particularly if you have an otherwise solid repayment history.

[Deleted User]

Good news - you don't have a credit score so don't worry about that gimmick number changing

If you are paying off a BT card at 0% then that is fine but if it's an interest bearing card then not paying it off every month is also pretty damaging to your file just as a technically late payment - they can choose not to record the late payment if you ask them nicely, but may be their policy as a company to do it. You'll find hit and miss examples on this forum of people who successfully got a late payment marker removed by asking nicely if it was just a matter of days or whatever

clhs

Thank you both for the useful information and for taking the time to reply.  Much obliged.

xlnc99

Doesnt make any sense! if you had no missed payments then it would be marked as a green tick on your reports regardless of paying early or not.

Furthermore i cant believe they took two payments for the same month just because you paid one day before the due date. Thats impossible. 

Payments and due dates are generally worked out through statetments and the statement dates

marks and sparks talking cobblers im afraid

yksi

It makes perfect sense. The OP is paying on the first possible date of the billing cycle. The early payment meant that it went onto the earlier month and then they didn't make a payment that month, followed by the very first day of month three.

Just adjust your payment to the 19th and this will never happen again - four extra days will take care of any possible bank holidays etc. You'll still be making your payment in plenty of time, in fact probably three weeks before you need to. And as noted, taking so long to repay it won't look great in your history and might eventually be classed as persistent debt. See if you can add a bit to your repayments even if it's an extra £10.

xlnc99

Yes - you are correct. The odds of what the OP has done is so low.

Its all to do with the statement date with the CC. With credit cards there is no EXCAT date the statement. buts its generally the same every month - + a few days. Once statement is generated then payment is due but generally a DD is set up to make payment after 10-14 days of the statement date.

He pays on the 15th every month
One month he paid on the 14th

So basically it means the statement date was the 15th for that month and he paid on the 14th thus making two payments for the previous cycle.

However, generally takes 24-48 hours for payments to clear so still should show on the next statement date

OP - check the statement date for your CC - is it 15th every month?

[Deleted User]

OP just needs to set a direct debit to pay whatever sum, if not clearing in full, a few days after the statement is likely to be generated, not the next day.

My normal cards pay in full by DD, always about 2 weeks after the statement is issued e.g. with one, statement is always 13th or 14th of the month and payment is due by 1st or 2nd of the following month. If I set the payment date as the 14th and the statement was generated that day, there would be a problem. If it was the 15th it would probably be fine unless it was a weekend.