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Sainsbury’s credit card - paid full statement balance in advance but they still took money by DD

Hi all. Interested in views on this as I’m wondering whether to complain to Sainsbury’s Bank. I have a direct debit set up to pay the full statement balance. This month I had quite an unusually large statement balance of £3000+ and the money came into my bank account to pay it off so I did just that because I didn’t want to tempt myself by leaving the money in my current account. 

After that I paid for a meal on the card so I had an account balance of £126 when the direct debit came due. I was expecting them just to skip the direct debit but  Sainsbury’s took a payment of £126. Remember I’d paid off the full balance of the previous statement already and this transaction hadn’t yet appeared on a statement. 

I raised this with them and they said that’s all fine “ thanks for getting in touch I have looked at the account I can see that you did pay the balance off, however because you made a purchase before the D/D it still takes the balance that's on the account”. I queried this and got “I can see your direct debit is set for the statement balance each month, so it does only collect for the transactions that are on that months statement. it is the main way of paying the account so if you make additional payments on top of that we still have instruction to take up to the statement balance value if there will still be a balance after you make manual payments, the way to avoid paying more than your statement balance would be to let your direct debit collect your statement balance with no manual payments being made.”

I think this is wrong. A direct debit set up for the statement balance shouldn’t take money if the full statement balance has already been paid. My Amex would just adjust the DD to a nil payment effectively. And the bank should take payment for transactions that have yet to appear on a statement. That’s a basic principle of how credit cards work. You pay for things, you get a statement, you make a payment. In that order. 

Fortunately I didn't go overdrawn or get into difficulty but it just feels wrong. Please tell me if I’m overthinking this! The sums aren’t really important, it’s the principle. 
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Comments

  • born_again
    born_again Posts: 16,886 Forumite
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    Plenty of others do this (Halifax for one). Make a payment & they will still take the DD.

    But the £126 will not be for the meal, as they will not account for any payments after the statement date. They go to the next statement. So someone at their end has not understood your query.

    Always remember to allow at least 10 working days from a manual payment, before DD is due, or it is possible that there is not enough time to adjust the DD.
    There is no complaint. It's in the T/C.
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  • Gandalf644
    Gandalf644 Posts: 92 Forumite
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    edited 1 May 2023 at 7:36AM
    Virgin Money credit cards are another who do this as well.
    As ba says above it is in the t&c's.
  • grumbler
    grumbler Posts: 58,629 Forumite
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    edited 1 May 2023 at 7:41AM
    ... I was expecting them just to skip the direct debit but  Sainsbury’s took a payment of £126....
    I think this is wrong. A direct debit set up for the statement balance shouldn’t take money if the full statement balance has already been paid. ...
    It's wrong to may assumptions.  AFAIK, some cards do adjust DD payments if extra manual payments are made well in advance, some don't.
    E.g. my Barclaycard clearly says in the online account:

    "You've paid £250.00.
    A payment of £1.75 will be collected by Direct Debit on 15 May."

    My other card even sends me SMSes with the amount due to be taken by a DD.

    The same applies to refunds. Some cards treat them like payments and adjust DDs accordingly, some don't.
  • surreysaver
    surreysaver Posts: 4,340 Forumite
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    If you've spent the £126 after the statement was produced, then this seems wrong to me. That should appear on the next statement.
    As others have said, some credit card providers adjust the direct debit to account for additional payments; others don't. It'll say on the statement and in the T&Cs. If they do adjust the direct debit, you will still need to allow enough time between making the additional payment and the date the direct debit is due
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  • etienneg
    etienneg Posts: 506 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts
    If you have a DD set up to pay the balance in full, why make any manual payment? Just leave the DD to do its job. People seem intent on complicating things and then complaining when something doesn't go quite as they expected!
  • daveyjp
    daveyjp Posts: 12,944 Forumite
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    etienneg said:
    If you have a DD set up to pay the balance in full, why make any manual payment? Just leave the DD to do its job. People seem intent on complicating things and then complaining when something doesn't go quite as they expected!
    Exactly this.  Leave the system to do what it is designed to do.  Small print can catch you out if you don't.
  • eskbanker
    eskbanker Posts: 33,429 Forumite
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    Hi all. Interested in views on this as I’m wondering whether to complain to Sainsbury’s Bank. I have a direct debit set up to pay the full statement balance. This month I had quite an unusually large statement balance of £3000+ and the money came into my bank account to pay it off so I did just that because I didn’t want to tempt myself by leaving the money in my current account. 

    After that I paid for a meal on the card so I had an account balance of £126 when the direct debit came due. I was expecting them just to skip the direct debit but  Sainsbury’s took a payment of £126. Remember I’d paid off the full balance of the previous statement already and this transaction hadn’t yet appeared on a statement.
    This does seem odd, can you clarify the exact dates please?

    Statement generation date
    Date of manual £3K+ payment
    Date of £126 transaction
    Date that direct debit was taken
    Statement due date
  • born_again
    born_again Posts: 16,886 Forumite
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    I would add the the above requests
    Min payment & estimated interest.
    Life in the slow lane
  • DullGreyGuy
    DullGreyGuy Posts: 13,982 Forumite
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    You need to read the T&Cs, each bank is different on what it does to the DD if you make a payment before the DD is taken. The worst ones are those that stop the DD totally no matter what you've paid. You may have the DD to take the minimum payment, let's say £100 for simplicity, but you have some extra funds this month so pay £50 by debit card. They then stop the DD and sting you for a missed payment because the minimum £100 wasn't paid.

    It seems very odd that they took the exact amount of an unstatemented transaction and personally I'd speak to them to clarify as it seems more likely be coincidence that the minimum payment was approximately equal to the mean and that's what they took.

    At the end of the day if you have the DD setup to the full balance then simply let it do its thing. If you cannot trust yourself with the funds then change the DD to take it from an account from which you dont have a debit card etc 
  • MrFrugalFever
    MrFrugalFever Posts: 1,273 Forumite
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    Seems like it could all be due to a matter of timing. Had your DD not have been adjusted then the DD should have taken £3000+ as original statement implied. This would suggest something has happened but how/why is the mystery.

    As eskbanker has suggested, please provide further info for advice.
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