Credit card payment....time to clear??

discharged_2

Hi all,
I'm a bit confused.
On the 3rd December we made an online banking payment to my wife's credit card account paying the balance in full.
This was shown as recieved on the 5th December with the outstanding balance shown as zero.
On Saturday the 8th December my wife went shopping but the card was declined when she tried to use it.
She went into the bank and the girl at the desk checked the account, she agreed there was no reason for the card to be declined.
The credit card company was contacted and said that although the payment was recieved on the 5th it would take an additional 4 days to clear!!!!!
I thought that an online payment went in as cleared funds. I've never heard of this before and nor had the girl in the bank who thought it was rediculous!
Anyone else come across this before?
Cheers.

jonesMUFCforever

Was she up to her limit before you made the payment or are they arguing that the card was blocked as they had not (yet) received a monthly payment?

discharged_2

The card was up to the limit prior to the payment but the money was there for 3 days before we tried to use the card. It was not paid by cheque but by online bill payment. I fail to see why the money wasn't available.

discharged_2

ejones999 wrote: »

Was she up to her limit before you made the payment or are they arguing that the card was blocked as they had not (yet) received a monthly payment?

They said they had recieved it but it hadn't cleared yet!

YorkshireBoy

Who are the current account/credit card providers?

darich

Could it be that the bank has made a "promise" of sending the money in 4 working days but it's effectively shown as being paid immediately?

That way you'd see the payment as having gone, the card company will have "received" a promise of the money and accept is but they won't actually deduct it from the balance of your card until they receive it from the bank.

The above is just an idea and may be nothing like the way it works in real life!

discharged_2

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Who are the current account/credit card providers?

Money sent from a co-op account by online bill payment to the Nat West credit card.

jonesMUFCforever

I would say that this is similar to someone paying in a cheque and having to wait for it to clear for value.
Credit card systems may not recognise the difference between electronic systems, cheque or cash payments. The result is that they lump them all together.

How to avoid in future - pay a few days earlier?

Mikeyorks

discharged wrote: »

The credit card company was contacted and said that although the payment was recieved on the 5th it would take an additional 4 days to clear!!!!!
I thought that an online payment went in as cleared funds.

It does go 'in' as cleared funds. But it has to then go from their 'payments in' system ... and onto your wife's account.

So - they've either misconstrued the input stream and taken it as a cheque payment (instead of BACS / CHAPS / GIROetc) . Or they have been having problems with their update processes and were in arrears with the updating of customer records from their input money streams.

Bit unusual to misconstrue a payment stream - as the records are usually coded to avoid that. So sounds like they have had a, possibly mild, update problem - put out an explanatory message to their call centre people ..... and we all know you can then get told anything

taless

This problem occurs very often with Natwest Credit Cards. Used to happen to me when I pay by BACS, at the Natwest counter using Cash and so.

When I call they will normally fix the problem - but you wonder why on earth in today's world of computers, such things will happen. It will be good if when such things happen, they allow customers to reverse call charges.

discharged_2

ejones999 wrote: »

I would say that this is similar to someone paying in a cheque and having to wait for it to clear for value.
Credit card systems may not recognise the difference between electronic systems, cheque or cash payments. The result is that they lump them all together.

How to avoid in future - pay a few days earlier?

The payment was made well before the payment date!