£12 over limit fee for going 73p over for 2 days

RogerBareford

moneymoner said:

RogerBareford said:

FaceHead said:

As above, I miscalculated the credit available on a card, which pushed it 73p over it's limit after buying a few things.

If your going over your limit then your limit isn't enough and you need to ask them to increase it or spend less money on that card it's not exactly difficult. The bank has said to you here is a card where we will let you borrow £X but if you go over £X for any reason then we will charge you £X so it's pretty clear. It's like if you were in someone's house and asked to borrow £2 and they said "sure, just take it from the bowl of spare change over there". So you go to the bowl and find £5.50 in there and take it all and when they say "why have you taken so much when i only said you could borrow £2?" would you then say "well it's your fault for having more than £2 in the bowl"... I really don't think that would go down well...

When your on an airplane or cruise ship or anywhere else where a connection might be interupted it is quite good they don't require checks for every single transactions to make sure you have enough money. 

This is very good advice to give the OP when all they made was a mis-calculation not deliberate attempt to obtain more than the supposed so called limit on the CC. So for a forum that offers advice with credit and debt problems, your solution is to increase your debt. The CC provider failed to provide a buffer around the limit and therefore could prevent issues like this from ocurring.

Your anology is incorrect also because that is stealing but in the OP's instance he/she clearly stated they mis-calculated the limit and did not intenionally do this.

If you would like a more valid anology consinder this. We drive around in cars without speedometer's can can only check our speed via SMS. The highway agencies impose lot's of fines on drivers who are 1Mph over the designated speed limit. The only advice they have is to drive 10Mph below the limit or ask the Highway agencies to increase the speed limit. The Highway agencies will not put a buffer in place becaus it is not pratical to do this or the loss in revenue from fines.

It's clear as mud who is right and who is wrong.

A higher limit doesn't mean a higher debt, it's only debt if someone spends it. Anyone spending up to their limit each month either has too low of a limit or has a budgeting problem, but that isn't the fault of the credit card company.

Your analogy doesn't work because without a speedometer, there is no way for someone to know how fast they are going. But they can work out how much they are spending by simply adding on the amount they spend each time they use the card. This can just be to the nearest £10 if they have an adequate limit.

Going back to your car analogy, it's like saying my car has a top speed of 160 MPH so i'm going to drive flat out on the motorway whenever i can even though the limit is only 70 MPH because there is nothing stopping me doing that. But your saying people should only be sold cars which can only go 70MPH so they don't speed. This isn't a long term solution to controlling debt and doesn't resolve the root cause, which is a budgeting issue.

If you want to go back to my borrowing £2 analogy, then let's say the bowl of change is full of 10p coins. Instead of counting them out to borrow £2 you just grab an amount you think is about £2 and end up taking more. Do you think that is acceptable? Because personally i don't.

phillw

Sandtree said:
Most don't do DD because they can pay by debit card or BACS later not that the DD isnt early enough.

In my experience, DD is the best.

Debit cards take at least a day & if it misses the due date then you are late.

Faster payments are ok, but it's your responsibility if you forget or faster payments are down etc

If anything DD are often taken after the due date, but it's not my problem.

phillw

eskbanker said:
As I said, the available funds check is made,

I'm not sure that contactless credit card transactions take long enough for the card issuer to be contacted.

Cards reported as lost or stolen could be used contactless for months, if they weren't able to check if the card was cancelled then they surely aren't checking a balance.

born_again

phillw said:

eskbanker said:
As I said, the available funds check is made,

I'm not sure that contactless credit card transactions take long enough for the card issuer to be contacted.

Cards reported as lost or stolen could be used contactless for months, if they weren't able to check if the card was cancelled then they surely aren't checking a balance.

ALL contactless payments have to be authorised and have been for several years. One of the reasons for the change was to stop payments coming through after a card has been stopped. 👍
There are certain exceptions but not within the usual retail environment where most cards are atolen.

eskbanker

phillw said:

eskbanker said:
As I said, the available funds check is made,

I'm not sure that contactless credit card transactions take long enough for the card issuer to be contacted.

Cards reported as lost or stolen could be used contactless for months, if they weren't able to check if the card was cancelled then they surely aren't checking a balance.

When contactless was first introduced, there was no requirement to go online for authorisation, but more recent regulatory changes (such as PSD2) have resulted in Visa and Mastercard insisting on online authorisation, with certain exemptions, so the vast majority of contactless transactions are now checked - technology improvements have masked this to a certain extent by minimising the time taken to process these.

https://www.lloydsbankcardnet.com/insight-series/regulatory-updates/changes-to-contactless-floor-limits.html

To enhance fraud protection for cardholders, Visa requires merchants to operate with a zero floor limit for contactless transactions no later than 14th October 2017. As all contactless payments are now authorised online, this may marginally increase the time taken to accept a contactless payment.

[...]

These changes will affect all merchants with the exception of charitable and social service organisations and unattended terminals in certain categories within the travel sector such as tolls, parking, and bus and rail fares including underground systems. The floor limit for all other merchant categories will be reduced to zero which means that all Visa contactless transactions will now require authorising.

and similar rules apply for Mastercard.

oldagetraveller1

"In my experience, DD is the best."

Yes, but it's still not a guarantee. I have a DD set up with Tesco CC for the full statement balance to be taken, when due.

They failed to take payment last month and added a £12 fee to my account. I phoned and that was returned. Again, this month, the DD has failed. I received a letter from them yesterday advising of non payment and suggesting debt advice!

I've now cancelled the DD in my Tesco account and made a manual full statement balance payment, plus another to now have a zero balance.

In the unlikely event I do use the card again I will rely on making payments manually. No point of a DD if they don't utilise it. I did phone yesterday, after receiving the letter, the lady made enquiries and they can't find out why this has happened. She did confirm that the DD was set up and active.

born_again

Only thing with a DD is if you do not use your card, then after 13 months the DD will not collect. Despite it still showing as active on the systems.
So it is always best to use your card every few months, or even once a month for one transaction, if you have a DD set up. If it then keeps failing you can raise a complaint with them. 👍

oldagetraveller1

Card was used regularly, at least once per week, for Tesco shopping etc..

DD is cancelled "I've now cancelled the DD in my Tesco account".

The letter was the most annoying part which informed me of being in debt when I'm not!

Also confirmed during the phone call.

booshya

Tesco credit card is, in my experience, perhaps not typical of most credit card providers. I've found numerous errors in their billing over the years.
The positive side is that they presumably know there are issues, as a quick phone call has always resolved the problem there and then.

e.g. a couple of years back, I took advantage of an interest free balance transfer they offered me.
The card had a zero balance at the time, and no other transactions (as is the MSE advice when using a balance transfer offer)
Guess what?
That's right, they added interest!
It was immediately removed when I questioned it.

So check your Tesco Credit card bills carefully.

Have long since cleared the balance transfer in full.

Used the card again for the first time since then at end Oct for a puchase in Tesco (£20.45). Bill arrived, and was paid IN FULL immediately, well before the due date.

Today I have received the next monthly bill.

It says:
Previous balance: £20.45
Payments in: £20.45
New balance: £0.00

But when I look at the detail, it says:

Balance from previous statement           £20.45
16 Nov - Faster Payment - Thank you   -£20.45
10 Dec - Interest - See Summary            £0.03
10 Dec - Small balance write off             -£0.03
New balance                                             £0.00

Referring to the Interest Summary, it says:

Purchases    1.385%
Interest included above  £0.00
Outstandinf balance       £0.00

So it looks like they now know they have issues, but rather than fix it properly have introduced a 'fiddle factor'

As I said, check your Tesco credit card bill carefully, and if you think it's wrong, tell 'em!
- they'll probably agree.

booshya

In regards the issue by the OP, I must admit I have not read the full thread, so this may have already been said, but most credit cards can be set up (or are set up) to alert you by email/text when you are within 10% of your credit limit, and so warn you to be particularly careful you don't exceed it.

Presumably they also email/text if you do go and bust it (I don't know as I've not done that). If you had resolved the issue the same business day, you may have had a good cause for complaint.

I've done a similar thing with a bank account in the past, and they didn't penalise me.