Marks & Sparks Credit Card - penalized for early payment

arfurdent

I have just had a warning letter from M&S Bank about not paying the minimum amount for three months in a row. I had however settled the bill in full for each of these three months the day after the statement was issued. There was also a backup Direct Debit in place to cover for any memory loss on my part.

When I called M&S the call centre agent said the letter was issued because I had paid too quickly which had confused the computer.

He could not confirm whether my credit rating would impacted.

I was told to delay paying to quickly.

Now looking to use other credit cards instead

[Deleted User]

That wouldn't have caused missed payments, so there's something else going on re timing of payments which you need to look into. It could be the letter was issued in error.

Whether your credit rating is affect doesn't matter. You need to check to see if missed payments have been recorded on your files.

kaMelo

You haven't been penalised, it's an administration problem on their part that issues letters when it shouldn't do. They can't report anything negative on your credit report as there is nothing negative to report on.

I know it's not the point but, why do you pay it so promptly and could you not just delay payment a week or so or just use the direct debit method in place?

arfurdent

I pay promptly for balance management purposes. That I will have to adjust.

Just suprised at the call centre response implying it was my fault for paying promptly.

NoodleDoodleMan

I know that M & S credit cards cannot go into a positive balance by paying money in before a purchase transaction has been posted on the account - not sure if that has any relevance to this issue.

Chino

NoodleDoodleMan said:

I know that M & S credit cards cannot go into a positive balance by paying money in before a purchase transaction has been posted on the account

Interesting - how do you know this?

Movie_Star

I was told by Barclays a long time ago that Credit Cards cannot go into positive balance. It’s the wrong product if you want to do that. Credit Cards provide credit for which the bank obtains fees from merchants or interest from you. To solve the problem you simply need to move your payment date on a bit. There is a grace period or due by date which provides some days or weeks to pay after the statement date. You can collect a little more interest on the money on your side if you wait a bit😀

northernstar007

i always pay the day after statement day (works for me) and in full
never once had any issue

arfurdent

northernstar007 said:

i always pay the day after statement day (works for me) and in full
never once had any issue

that is what I was doing, but obviously the computer said no

[Deleted User]

Movie_Star said:

I was told by Barclays a long time ago that Credit Cards cannot go into positive balance. It’s the wrong product if you want to do that. Credit Cards provide credit for which the bank obtains fees from merchants or interest from you. To solve the problem you simply need to move your payment date on a bit. There is a grace period or due by date which provides some days or weeks to pay after the statement date. You can collect a little more interest on the money on your side if you wait a bit😀

They can do, it's just against the terms of the account to deliberately put it in credit. Things like a refund or a typo on a balance transfer card can put you in credit but they'll usually refund if you ask

NoodleDoodleMan

Chino said:

NoodleDoodleMan said:

I know that M & S credit cards cannot go into a positive balance by paying money in before a purchase transaction has been posted on the account

Interesting - how do you know this?

I bought clothing in a local M & S store which put my credit card zero balance into "the red" - next day I transfered the amount in question by faster bank payment - it was rejected and bounced back - the transaction was still pending and M &S bank explained the reason, as explained above.