Nationwide credit card complaint - really need help!

eskbanker

TheBanker said:

eskbanker said:

I had a look around for FOS decisions in this area and came across this one, in which they came down on the side of the card provider (Santander) after a similar distinction between statemented and unstatemented transactions was explained in their Ts & Cs too....

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-2869521.pdf

Personally I wouldn't place too much reliance on a sympathetic agent 'agreeing' that wording wasn't clear, in the context of Nationwide's wording also making that same differentiation:

We allocate payments to balances which show on your current statement in a high to low interest rate order, then, to balances in a high to low interest rate order which do not yet appear on your statement.

but FOS can be a bit of a lottery sometimes!

To prove your point about FOS being a lottery, the complaint they upheld, that I was thinking of, was also Santander: https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/decision/DRN-4024727.pdf

Although in that case Santander don't appear to have helped themselves or their customer because it looks like they didn't really explain how the payments are allocated when he asked.

Yes, the ombudsman in that one certainly seems to have formed the view that Santander should be penalised for not being more forthcoming with an explanation to amplify on their Ts & Cs, but there also seems to have been focus on a quirk of Santander's system that retimes repayment transactions to the start of the day, which to a certain extent masked the real issue.

[Deleted User]

Altior said:

The transaction has to show on the account immediately, otherwise the available credit balance could be spent multiple times over. A transaction that hasn't been cleared can't be paid off. The algorithm will simply allocate an incoming payment to what can be paid off, if no outstanding balance it will become a credit balance (against t&c ordinarily). I hope that you didn't give the support agent a hard time. This is one to put down to experience, and mitigate as best you can as above.

It wouldn't be against the T&Cs assuming the payment was made after the actual transaction.

The issue here is the OP has mistaken a pending item (authorisation) for an actual debit which has only been an issue due to their balance transfer already on the card.

paul_c123

Altior said:

The transaction has to show on the account immediately, otherwise the available credit balance could be spent multiple times over. A transaction that hasn't been cleared can't be paid off. The algorithm will simply allocate an incoming payment to what can be paid off, if no outstanding balance it will become a credit balance (against t&c ordinarily). I hope that you didn't give the support agent a hard time. This is one to put down to experience, and mitigate as best you can as above.

That's not how they work. Pending transactions - AKA authorisations - should lower the available credit, so that you can't in theory spend multiple times over and go over your credit limit. BUT the T&Cs will be VERY clear that its the customer's responsibility to manage their account and stay within the credit limit, not the bank's.

I think the above phraseology "show on the account" is a bit misleading, since its important to distinguish between pending transactions, (settled) transactions; and statemented transactions.

born_again

paul_c123 said:

Altior said:

The transaction has to show on the account immediately, otherwise the available credit balance could be spent multiple times over. A transaction that hasn't been cleared can't be paid off. The algorithm will simply allocate an incoming payment to what can be paid off, if no outstanding balance it will become a credit balance (against t&c ordinarily). I hope that you didn't give the support agent a hard time. This is one to put down to experience, and mitigate as best you can as above.

That's not how they work. Pending transactions - AKA authorisations - should lower the available credit, so that you can't in theory spend multiple times over and go over your credit limit. BUT the T&Cs will be VERY clear that its the customer's responsibility to manage their account and stay within the credit limit, not the bank's.

I think the above phraseology "show on the account" is a bit misleading, since its important to distinguish between pending transactions, (settled) transactions; and statemented transactions.

This has nothing to do with OP's credit limit.