Credit card charge on probate fee.

Froglet

Paid and sent off the probate paperwork last week.Today,checking my credit card transactions online,I was shocked to see a cash fee charge .It was dated the same day as I paid for a few other items so not sure what it was for.

I rang my card provider and was told it was in connection with the probate fee,5% of £218 amounting to £10.90.Apparently it's a recent problem and is a bank error.(Not theirs,the probate office )  They were happy to refund the fee ,I don't know if it's with every card provider,mine is MBNA but thought it was worth posting the information so others could check up,just in case.

L8z

I had same thing with lloyds bank mastercard but they disputed that they are wrong in charging it, despite Probate saying they are! Lloyds changed T&C in October to say that any transaction from a Gov Court is liable to a Cash Fee if a Credit Card used.  The transaction is flagged as a "Fine" so that doesn't help things (don't know how or where). Explained to lloyds several times that it's no different, in mine or Probate view, than paying for a passport application etc except it goes thru the Gov Court. I only use a credit card as "safer" online and I think needs to be raised higher up the system to find out why categorised as a fine, as not sort of thing to be lumped with at time of bereavement - esp as Probate say the can't /shouldn't charge it!!

DullGreyGuy

Froglet said:

Paid and sent off the probate paperwork last week.Today,checking my credit card transactions online,I was shocked to see a cash fee charge .It was dated the same day as I paid for a few other items so not sure what it was for.

I rang my card provider and was told it was in connection with the probate fee,5% of £218 amounting to £10.90.Apparently it's a recent problem and is a bank error.(Not theirs,the probate office )  They were happy to refund the fee ,I don't know if it's with every card provider,mine is MBNA but thought it was worth posting the information so others could check up,just in case.

Each company has its own definition of a cash like transaction, that definition is then applied to the classification of products/services made by the merchant's acquiring bank linked to their merchant code. This can mean a couple of things:

1) Merchant has used the wrong merchant code - some organisations have multiple codes depending on which part of the business you are engaging with 

2) The acquiring bank has applied an inappropriate code to describe the activities but this is done only once when the account is open so would be a long term issue

3) Your bank considers certain activities to be cash like in nature which you are unaware of... as noted below, Lloyds are very clear that paying fees, costs or fines to governmental agencies or courts count as cash as far as they are concerned.

L8z said:

I had same thing with lloyds bank mastercard but they disputed that they are wrong in charging it, despite Probate saying they are! Lloyds changed T&C in October to say that any transaction from a Gov Court is liable to a Cash Fee if a Credit Card used.  The transaction is flagged as a "Fine" so that doesn't help things (don't know how or where). 

As has been discuss on here before, Lloyds state that cash like transactions include:

• Paying government or court fines, enforcement penalties, fees or costs

So paying a government fee (as well as fines) is counted as a cash like transaction and hence the probate office fee counts as cash. 

Savvy_Sue

I have a feeling that paying for vehicle excise licence (road tax) incurs a fee of £2.50 if credit rather than debit card used. I don't think it makes any difference which bank is used. 

DullGreyGuy

Savvy_Sue said:

I have a feeling that paying for vehicle excise licence (road tax) incurs a fee of £2.50 if credit rather than debit card used. I don't think it makes any difference which bank is used. 

Its illegal to charge a fee for paying by personal credit card or to differentiate between card types.

There is also a difference between what a merchant charges you to cover their costs, HMRC charges 1.98% for corporate credit cards for example, and what your bank charges if they consider the transaction cash or cash like.

Savvy_Sue

Of course, just realised the last time I did this was with the work credit card, and it did differentiate between personal and corporate cards. Apologies for the confusion. 

durks

Ouch. I have just had the same thing happen to me, and I wish that I had known about the risk before. In my case, I paid the 'Confirmation' (i.e. probate) fee over the phone to a Scottish Court, and I see that I have been stung for an 5% 'Cash Fee' by my credit card provider, the Bank of Scotland. Since the Confirmation fee is nearly £700, that's an extra 35 quid.

Looking at the fine print of my credit card agreement, I see the same clause as mentioned above for Lloyds. Namely, Cash equivalent transaction type:  "paying government or court fines, enforcement penalties, fees or costs." [My italics]

This seems a very nasty charge to levy: for security reasons, I never use my debit card for such transactions; but I wasn't expecting to be penalised for using my credit card.