How to pay M and S credit card when it fails confirmation of payee checks.

Voyager2002

To avoid interest, I need to pay off my card today using faster payments. This ought to be simple, but neither Nationwide nor Virgin money will allow me to make the payment since M & S Bank fails their 'confirmation of payee' checks. Is there a way round this?

And yes, I know I can make a debit card payment but they say this takes three days to reach them. I don't want to pay interest for that period.

lr1277

I can't tell from the timing of your post whether the payment was due yesterday (Saturday) or today (Sunday).

You could call your bank;s customer service desk and get them to make the payment. This won't be the first time they have been asked so will be able to sort out any problems both for themselves and any problems you have with this method in the future.

Doing a quick Google, I note that Virgin CS is open later today but Nationwide CS is closed today.

If the payment was due Saturday and you are paying today on Sunday and this is your first late payment, I would call the credit card customer service and outline your problem and ask if they will cancel the interest charge JUST THIS ONE time. But be very apologetic and ask nicely. This has worked for me the one time.

In the past I have taken the view (possibly incorrectly) as long as the credit card's website and hence company knows you made the payment by the due date then no interest would be charged. It didn't matter if the money actually arrived a day later, it was the act of making the payment and this act being recorded on the credit card's system. However I could be completely misguided about this. I never had any interest charged when I did this with the old John Lewis card.

I now avoid this worry by paying by direct debit.

HTH

TadleyBaggie

Strange I recently made a faster payment to my M & S card from a Nationwide account, can't recall having any confirmation of payee issues.

The payee name I used was "M&S Bank".

glennevis

Virgin allowed me you to make a payment when the CoP didn't match. You just have a couple of extra steps to confirm the payment details.

Lumiona

Do you have an app or online account where you can pay by debit card?

Dandytf

Natwide should allow OP to continue to make payment after the Non Auth Retailer Screen.

Voyager2002

TadleyBaggie said:

Strange I recently made a faster payment to my M & S card from a Nationwide account, can't recall having any confirmation of payee issues.

The payee name I used was "M&S Bank".

I tried again, and that name was accepted (without spaces between the M and the &). However the reference (card number) was "not recognised" so I was still not allowed to make the payment.

EarthBoy

Voyager2002 said:

TadleyBaggie said:

Strange I recently made a faster payment to my M & S card from a Nationwide account, can't recall having any confirmation of payee issues.

The payee name I used was "M&S Bank".

I tried again, and that name was accepted (without spaces between the M and the &). However the reference (card number) was "not recognised" so I was still not allowed to make the payment.

References are not normally checked/validated.  Did you go over the character limit?  There's usually a limit of about 18 characters.  If you included the spaces in the card number it would take it over the limit.  Remove the spaces and and try gain.  I.e. instead of 5555 4444 3333 2222, put 5555444433332222

born_again

Voyager2002 said:

To avoid interest, I need to pay off my card today using faster payments. This ought to be simple, but neither Nationwide nor Virgin money will allow me to make the payment since M & S Bank fails their 'confirmation of payee' checks. Is there a way round this?

And yes, I know I can make a debit card payment but they say this takes three days to reach them. I don't want to pay interest for that period.

That will be because it is a internal holding account. Which ALL credit card payments go to any are then moved to your account.

Often banks have a pre-set list for these types of payments. With ACC details already set & all you need to add is your reference (card number)
So you do not set it up as you would to a new person.

Gerry1

You can usually choose to ignore the warning if you are absolutely sure you have entered the details correctly, e.g. if they are shown on your statement or on a paying-in slip.

I had to do this when paying a tradesman who uses Metro Bank.  Amazingly, they don't participate in the Confirmation of Payee system. This wasted a lot of time because my bank still tried to verify the account.  Having double checked, I sent a small test payment first.  This workaround might be realistic if the available credit on your card updates in real time.

DullGreyGuy

Voyager2002 said:

To avoid interest, I need to pay off my card today using faster payments. This ought to be simple, but neither Nationwide nor Virgin money will allow me to make the payment since M & S Bank fails their 'confirmation of payee' checks. Is there a way round this?

And yes, I know I can make a debit card payment but they say this takes three days to reach them. I don't want to pay interest for that period.

What name were you entering as the payee? 

The card is issued by M&S FS who is owned by HSBC