Barclaycard bill payment of £800 taken twice.

Kin5

Hi, I'm curious to know what my rights are here. Barclaycard took my bill payment from my bank account twice in error. Only one payment was allocated against my Barclaycard account, the other went somewhere else in their organisation and it took 7 working days until I got it refunded back into my current account. They have reinbursed me with £50 for the cost I incurred in phone calls and faxes raising my complaint with them but should I be entitled to any further compensation for the inconvenience of being £800 down for a week? They say unless I can show that I experienced any costs as a direct result of their error they can not reimburse me. How do I show direct costs for the time and stress it took whilst getting the error rectified?

This is how their error happened. I rang up Barclaycard to pay off my credit card bill in full which I do every month. I got the automated bill payment phone line. You don't get the choice of speaking to a real person so I went ahead and entered my current account card details to pay the bill but instead of the transaction completing and giving me a transaction confirmation number I got put through to a customer advisor. They told me my payment had not gone through as their system said it had not been authorised. I expained that I couldn't see why there would be a problem like this as I had the funds in my bank account so they said I could try again and put me back through to the bill payment line. This time I got a transaction confirmation number. However, when I checked my current account the following day I noticed that BOTH payments had been taken by Barclaycard. I rang them straight away and I was told they had only received one of the payments and that the other payment wouldn't acutally be debited from my current account. However, I then rang my bank and they confirmed that in fact both payments had gone to Barclaycard. It then took a series of phone calls and faxes to get Barclaycard to admit that they had actually received both payments but only allocated one to my Barclaycard account. 4 days after the error occured the additional money was put back against my Barclaycard, it then took a further 4 days to credit back into my current account.

Has anyone else experienced this problem as the woman I spoke to in their complaints department admitted that they had had a big problem with their phone bill payment technology and that lots of people would be affected.

marksandsparksgal

Don't take this the wrong way, but I think you were lucky to get £50 out of them. I assume you didn't incur any bank charges for bounced direct debits or overdraft fees? If this is the case, then £50 I think is more than fair for the loss of interest of money from your current account, and fax / phone calls.

I don't believe that there is anything else they're required to do in terms of compensation. Obviously if you've incurred charges from your current account they should pay those back, but it doesn't seem the case. The only other advice I have is if you're that angry with them, take your business elsewhere.

Sorry I can't be of more help.

nzseries1

Me too - I think you were lucky as well. I'm surprised you got anything. I'm not saying you don't deserve more, but in my experience that's how things go in this country.

lynxptc

Similar thing happened to me a few months ago.

Made a payment online a few months ago using their online service and the money was taken twice from my bank account but only credited once.

Spent ages on the phone to their Indian call centre who gave me the usual fobs saying it wouldn't be debited and saying it was only an authorisation on my bank account when it was clearly a charge.

In the end got it refunded. Well - it was put on my Barclaycard account.

Didn't get offered any compensation and didn't think of asking either.

barak

Kin5 wrote: »

.....This is how their error happened. I rang up Barclaycard to pay off my credit card bill in full which I do every month.....

If you pay it in full every month, why don't you set up a Direct Debit to do just that without having to make a phone call and thereby avoid any problems of this sort?

allan673

i pay mine off every month in full too, by internet banking.

Kin5

I know I'm lucky to have got £50 out of them to compensate me for the inconvenience and phone calls and hassle but the thing that bothers me most about this is that they had my money for 7 days to do with as they like, if they do things like this on a large scale they could be potentially gaining millions to invest for a week before eventually refunding it to the customers a week later. I just can't believe that the money really takes that long just to transfer back to my bank when it can go the other way instantly. They must be doing things with it in that time. Or as in the case mentioned above they don't even refund the money back to the bank account after the mistake but simply put it against the Barclaycard account. If the customer just leaves it there then Barclay card have that extra cash for even longer to invest. Maybe Im just paranoid as I was so annoyed and put out when they took it.

barak

allan673 wrote: »

i pay mine off every month in full too, by internet banking.

Safer to set up a DD

ian360

Kin5 wrote: »

I know I'm lucky to have got £50 out of them to compensate me for the inconvenience and phone calls and hassle but the thing that bothers me most about this is that they had my money for 7 days to do with as they like, if they do things like this on a large scale they could be potentially gaining millions to invest for a week before eventually refunding it to the customers a week later. I just can't believe that the money really takes that long just to transfer back to my bank when it can go the other way instantly. They must be doing things with it in that time. Or as in the case mentioned above they don't even refund the money back to the bank account after the mistake but simply put it against the Barclaycard account. If the customer just leaves it there then Barclay card have that extra cash for even longer to invest. Maybe Im just paranoid as I was so annoyed and put out when they took it.

I agree with you. It shouldn't take this long and yes they will be investing/gambling with your money. But unfortunately they are a big uncaring shark and you are a little fish. I don't like your chances...

nzseries1

barak wrote: »

Safer to set up a DD

Some people, like myself for instance, have a deep-seated, irrational fear of direct debits. To me, it's like signing a piece of paper that says "here's my account number, feel free to take any amount of money you wish, at any time, for any reason, without notice, with some flaky thing called a 'direct-debit guarantee' which probably isn't worth the paper it's written on".

I would quite frankly rather saw my own arm off than set up any more direct debits than I have to.

epsilondraconis

Kin5 - if you feel £50 is insufficient - what do you believe you should receive as compensation?

Sometimes mistakes happen. Did they deliberately take this money twice, maybe, but I very much doubt it.

I and many others believe you have done well to receive the £50 compensation. As you feel this is insufficient, contact them again and say that you require £x additional compensation.

Maybe you should just count yourself lucky and move on with your life.

Good luck with whatever you decide.