Amex early direct debits

Mature-Student

Hi

I'm fed up having to set up my Amex payment manually every month. Just because they want to take the direct debit a week before the payment date, or even earlier if you want to pay in full every month.

For example, my payment is due on the 28th. To set up a minimum or fixed amount payment dd, payment would be taken on or around the 21st. To set up a full amount dd, payment would be taken on or around the 17th.

As far as I'm aware no other credit card company takes direct debits before the payment date. In fact, I've had payments taken after the payment date with no penalty if the payment date fell on a non-banking day. Whereas manually I have to set up payment for the Friday as often their payment dates seem to fall on the weekend.

Anyone else irked by this and can we start increasing awareness of this shady practice which only benefits Amex, with increased cashflow along with a shorter interest free period, and actively discourages 'Payment. In. Full.'

lr1277

I don’t have am Amex so I ask this out of curiosity. I am wondering if there is a difference in dd collection dates between their charge cards and credit cards. Would you care to say the type of card you have? This may help if other forumites have a different type of card and whether they have the same experience as you on their did collection date.

Se1Lad

It’s the same on my BA Amex card - I’ve always thought it strange that payment in full direct debits come out earlier.

I do the same and pay manually- at least payment goes through immediately and shows on your account straight away if you use a debit card via the Amex app or website.

Mature-Student

lr1277 said:

I don’t have am Amex so I ask this out of curiosity. I am wondering if there is a difference in dd collection dates between their charge cards and credit cards. Would you care to say the type of card you have? This may help if other forumites have a different type of card and whether they have the same experience as you on their did collection date.

Credit card

Mature-Student

Se1Lad said:

It’s the same on my BA Amex card - I’ve always thought it strange that payment in full direct debits come out earlier.

I do the same and pay manually- at least payment goes through immediately and shows on your account straight away if you use a debit card via the Amex app or website.

I pay by internet banking and it goes through straight away. I just would prefer to pay by dd.

Se1Lad

Mature-Student said:

I pay by internet banking and it goes through straight away. I just would prefer to pay by dd.

Me too - I changed my statement date so that the payment due date falls a few days after payday.  Helps to remind me to pay as I always pay by debit card on payday 

blue.peter

Mature-Student said:

I'm fed up having to set up my Amex payment manually every month. Just because they want to take the direct debit a week before the payment date, or even earlier if you want to pay in full every month.

It doesn't bother me in the slightest. As far as I'm concerned, it's just down to the relative timing of the statement date and the day on which I get paid. And AmEx are amenable to changing the statement date to suit your convenience. They did exactly that for me. Like @Se1Lad, I've got it set so that my statements are generated about ten days or so before I get paid. (Statement produced on the 19th; payday is the end of the month.) It therefore doesn't matter to me whether the money due is paid to AmEx manually on the 14th or collected by DD on the 3rd. The money's there ready either way. I'm quite happy to have a DD set up to collect the full amount due. It's convenient to me, even if AmEx do collect earlier than other card issuers.

And the loss of interest on the payment is negligible. It might be £500 (amount due) x 0.5% (interest rate) x 10 / 365 = £0.06. I can live with that.

You said it yourself: other card issuers collect on the due date. If you don't like AmEx collecting earlier, you can just dump them and get a different credit card.

Storms and teacups come to mind.

Alex9384

For me it's a good thing. When I'm switching my current accounts to different banks for switch offers, or just changing my Amex DD, I can see if the DD goes out as scheduled or not. If it doesn't I still have plenty of time to pay off the bill manually without getting a late payment mark on my credit files. With other cards, if the DD isn't set up on time, or for some reason fails and it's weekend or bank holiday, you will only find out a couple days later, which is already too late.

kaMelo

I tend to agree with both Alex and blue.peter. Yes, Amex takes the DD around a week to ten days prior to payment due by date, but that is not a "shady practice" in the slightest nor does it "discourage payment in full".  I've had an AmEx over ten years and this is something it's always done in that time. If you know it always does it and your always paying the whole balance off then, other than running your interest free period to the absolute maximum then what's the actual problem?  

Jami74

My Tesco credit card is also taking direct debit about a week before payment due date.

Why does it matter? You've used their money and know you need to pay it back and they give you plenty of notice when they'll take the direct debit so not like it's a surprise. Is it a shady practice? I can't see how it discourages people from paying in full.

Jasonh2015

My statement runs from/to the 15th of each month. If I put down collect full balance they’ll try and debit on 27/28th. So I put a direct debit for a maximum/set amount I would put on the card per month and it’s taken on the 5th of the following month.