Lloyds TSB card and minimum payment hassle

sitroenn

This is more of an observation than a request for help but I'd be interested to know other people's experiences::mad:

I have had a Lloyds TSB card for something like 6 years. I use it regularly and always pay off the full amount every month. Over Xmas I was very busy like everyone else, we were all poorly, like everyone else, and we also had a big family birthday celebration. The result of this was that I forgot to pay the balance on my December statement (the incredibly large sum of £64.88;) ) and I forgot to pay the minimum £5 too -- because I don't have a DD to do that for me.

I didn't worry about it. I knew I'd incur a late payment fee (£12) but it isn't the end of the world. HOWEVER yesterday I received a phone call from LTSB's Indian call centre's Collection dept. asking why had I not sent the minimum payment, was I going to pay it NOW ? I paid the full balance there and then to get them off my back. Lo and behold they phoned again two hours later asking the same thing and when I gave them my ref. no from the first call said it had been their mistake.

This worried me, as I had never heard of someone receiving unsolicited phone calls about failing to pay the minmum payment so I phoned TSB's Customer Services and they verified that all was OK.

This morning I received a letter (which is heavy handed and, I think, quite threatening in its tone) asking, again, why I have not sent the minimum payment and threatening to take away 'privileges' if I don't send it now.

Never before had I realised how heavy handed such Companies can be. As it happens I had £64.88 to hand yesterday and could pay them but what if I was in real debt ? What if some tragedy had befallen me and that was why I had forgotten to pay ? ( I had a similar experience with my Abbey card 4 years ago when my mother had just died after a long and gruelling 2 weeks. Abbey were extremely unsymapthetic, even thoug I had banked with them for 20 years at that point so I cut up their card and sent it back to them )

I know a lot of this tsuff is automated now. I know that we are all dealing with huge faceless multinationals but, even so, I am appalled by all the hassle and heavy handedness TSB shows for the sake of £5. This cannot be right or justified or any way to treat people.



*(I am setting up a DD today so that this never happens again --learnt my lesson)

Mr_McGoo

Just a recommendation............

Use a Standing Order for the minimum payment, NOT a DD; you stay in control and there is no opportunity for the CC provider to make an error, deliberate or otherwise, which you then have to spend months sorting out.

YorkshireBoy

Mr_McGoo wrote: »

Just a recommendation............

Use a Standing Order for the minimum payment, NOT a DD; you stay in control and there is no opportunity for the CC provider to make an error, deliberate or otherwise, which you then have to spend months sorting out.

Not a good idea IMHO.

If the statement date/payment due date changes you could miss a payment (in effect, you may end up paying twice in one month) as has been reported on here many times.

The DD guarantee means you will not have to "spend months" sorting problems out, since you're entitled to a full and immediate refund for any DD's collected in error.

CannyJock

Definitely worth a letter back to Lloyds telling them you're a long-standing customer who has always operated your accounts with them with great care that even a cursory glance at your history will confirm.

Mention that you understand that their "standard" letter is automatically produced but also state that their over-zealous repeated phone-calls about such a small sum to demand immediate payment over the telephone is disproportionate and intimidatory.

Mention that you now have a DD in place (to clear the full balance even if you're hardly using the card and don't like giving these muppets interest charges)

Ask them to refund the charge to your card.

They could wave two fingers in your face and tell you that they were withing their rights etc etc etc, but I did something similiar a couple of years back and got my money back. Still shows as a blip on your credit file, but at least you get the cash back - and it only costs the price of a stamp.