Missed Payment mark with Tesco Bank AFTER settling account in full

DazzyBe71

Hi all,

On 14th November I initiated a full balance transfer of £3,543.83 from my Tesco card onto my new Barclaycard. As far as I was concerned, the Tesco card account had been settled in full and the balance was at zero so I also cancelled my direct debit.

On 21st December my wife and I went to Germany for Christmas. Upon returning there was a letter through the post stating that I had been charged a £12 late payment fee. I was shocked. I went onto the app and noticed that there was a £70.73 amount outstanding which confused me. I paid this straight away.

A few days ago I checked my credit file and was horrified to see that they had placed a missed payment mark on my file which has reduced it by 152 points!

I have just spoken to them on the phone and they have raised a complaint for me, asking that the mark gets removed.  I was NOT notified that there was still an outstanding amount on the account, either by text, email, or letter.

Has anyone else had dealings like this? What's the chances of this mark being removed?

flaneurs_lobster

Presumably the £70.73 was a purchase using the card prior to 14th Nov that had not made it onto the full card balance when you transferred? Can only have been made a couple of days prior - was it not pending?

If this was a phantom payment that you hadn't made then you would have grounds for complaint. Otherwise you have responsibility to monitor your spend on the card and make sure (at least) minimum payments are made.

Did Tesco provide the usual monthly statement prior to making this charge? Don't think that they would make any special provision just because you have made a transfer, all they see is a credit to your account from the provider you have swapped to, to them the card is still active.

Ayr_Rage

You should have checked at your normal statement date that the balance was zero.

Did you do so and is the statement still available in the app?

Have you now checked that the balance is zero, trailing interest may still be owed depending on your statement date and when you paid the sum owed.

If it was trailing interest that was owed then Tesco are correct and will not remove the marker.

CliveOfIndia

To echo the above, the two most likely causes are either (a) a transaction that was pending at the time you did the BT, or (b) trailing interest from the previous statement if you don't always repay in full every month.

If either of these 2 scenarios apply then the £70.73 is likely to be correct.

If it turns out that this is the case, a very polite phone call to Tesco may well see them waive the late payment fee as a gesture of goodwill.  They're unlikely to remove the marker from your file, as it's simply a record of the facts.

You can ignore the effect on your score, as that's just a meaningless marketing gimmick that's only visible to you.  The late payment marker will be visible to other lenders - however, a single late payment in an otherwise unblemished record will be of very little consequence to most lenders.

penners324

Probably interest on the balance that wasnt included in the balance transfer.

So Tesco would be correct.

Nasqueron

Don't cancel direct debits on cards, not sure why anyone does this anyway as you could always accidentally spend on it e.g. via a saved payment method or phone pay. At the very least it should be 2 months after the card is closed to clear any balance and any trailing interest.

The marker as above - you paid late, that is a factual statement, they may or may not remove it, there is no requirement for them to do so