Barclaycard Late Payment Charge

Oswaldtwistle · 5 October 2017 at 3:56PM

Hi guys,

Apologies if this is commonplace and discussed ad nauseam. I made a credit limit-equaling payment on my card mid-September, in the belief that my balance was clear and this would help build the old credit rating.

Turns out a car battery I bought in late August meant my balance was not clear. I assumed my early September direct debit would cover this, but that only took care of "August's" payments.

Long story short, I always clear anything I put on there with a direct debit, but I'm worried this one oversight could cost me dearly.

Some call centre rep just told me he'd get rid of the £12 late fee they've charged, but couldn't confirm if my credit rating will be affected.

What do you guys reckon?

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the necessity of using a credit card to build up a credit rating is farcical......

[Deleted User] · 5 October 2017 at 4:06PM

If they apply a late payment marker, it will be on your file for years. It's impact will quickly diminish though, assuming its a one off.

However - if you have a DD in place, there should be no way that you could have missed a payment. A DD means it is the lender's responsibility to collect payment, assuming you have funds in your account.

You don't have to use a card to build a credit history, but it's by far the cheapest and easiest means of demonstrating you can handle credit (or not).

Vortigern · 5 October 2017 at 4:12PM

Sounds more like an over limit fee than a late payment fee?

Terry98 · 5 October 2017 at 5:14PM

Yes the £12 could be any one of these if ....

You make a late payment.
You miss a payment.
You pay less than your minimum amount.
You go over your credit limit.
Your payment is returned, for example if a Direct Debit doesn’t go through.

https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal/credit-cards/card-fees

chattychappy · 6 October 2017 at 9:53AM

I think the OP expected the September DD to clear August's transactions, rather than only clearing the balance that fell due in August.

If the OP had checked the statement (perhaps he did and misunderstood), it would have shown the balance and the amount to be taken by DD - and he would have noticed that the car battery hadn't appeared yet.

The car battery will appear on the first statement to be generated after the purchase. It can be paid off at anytime, but if a DD for the full balance has been setup then, in the absence of additional manual payments, it won't be paid off until 2 or 3 weeks after statement generation.

The signficance of a one-off late payment or overlimit marker diminishes after a few months. Best to ask them for a limit rise if this is likely to happen again.

Oswaldtwistle · 6 October 2017 at 11:42AM

Thanks a lot for your time in replying to me. Sounds like it will affect me, but I hadn't planned on getting a mortgage etc. so it shouldn't be a big deal. It's just the principle. I've plenty of money and now in using the credit rather than debit I've done the exact opposite of what I had intended to achieve. Life in a nutshell.

I message Barclaycard about this, so for the edification of anyone as daft as me (can't be that many out there surely) here's what they replied with:

"Thank your for your email.

I am sorry to learn that you are concerned about the recent fees charged on the account.

I called you today but was unable to reach you on the numbers held on the records.

I have checked your account and found that no late fee was charged on the account as your payment is upto date. However, you were charged with an overlimit fee of £12.00.

The credit limit on your account is £2000.00. When you make a transaction it is only payable when billed on your statement.

Your September statement balance was £117.91. You made the transaction of £2000 which took your account overlimit and therefore, overlimit fee of £12.00 was charged.

After direct debit collected the payment of £117.91 on the 02/10, your October statement balance is £2012 which includes the overlimit fee of £12.00.

We report the billed balance to the Credit Bureau and unable to comment how it will effect your credit file.

However, in view of your experience, when you contacted us earlier, we have refunded the overlimit fee of £12.00.

I trust this information is of assistance.

As part of our complaint handling procedure, we would appreciate your confirmation that this response has fully resolved all elements of your complaint. Please let us know by clicking ?Accept?. If you feel that our response doesn?t fully answer your complaint, please click ?Do not accept? and let us know how we can resolve it for you.

One of our customer service advisors will also try to contact you by phone in the next 24 hours to discuss your complaint and our response, to ensure we can resolve it as quickly as possible - unless you?ve already let us know that it has been resolved.

If we do not hear from you by the end of 23:30 (GMT), 10/10/2017, we will assume that we have not been able to fully resolve this for you and full details of your complaint will be forwarded to our Customer Relations Unit for further investigation.

Kind Regards,

XXXXXXX
Customer Service Advisor
Barclaycard Customer Services"

I agree with chattychappy, raising the limit seems the common sense route but that £2000 was a complete one off for veneer work (if it's not the car it's the teeth...)

Thanks again guys

StopIt · 6 October 2017 at 11:55AM

So, as stated above, it's not a late payment fee, but an over limit fee.

That wont be marked as a late payment on your credit file anyway, so as long as you've sorted the card limit out, you'll be fine.

However, it is not a good idea to use all of your credit limit, as it looks like you're struggling, so as long as that's cleared, it'll be fine also.

Oswaldtwistle · 6 October 2017 at 12:41PM

Yeah that's fair. In my head, making a large payment like that and clearing it straight away would be effective for credit score purposes, but clearly more hassle than it's worth if you fall foul of being a numpty.

Just cleared the balance so hopefully that's the end of that. Think I'll only use that card as an emergency now.

Thanks a lot!

[Deleted User] · 6 October 2017 at 12:44PM

Oswaldtwistle wrote: »

Just cleared the balance so hopefully that's the end of that. Think I'll only use that card as an emergency now.

As long as you have another card that you use regularly and clear in full each month, as you're looking to build a credit history.

Oswaldtwistle · 6 October 2017 at 12:55PM

Deleted_User wrote: »

As long as you have another card that you use regularly and clear in full each month, as you're looking to build a credit history.

Might just be a case of being more vigilant and checking the balance halfway through the month to be safe. I would say 95% mistakes of my life are borne out of assuming something which turns out incorrect. I'll learn one day...ha

Don80 · 10 October 2017 at 11:49AM

Oswaldtwistle wrote: »

Might just be a case of being more vigilant and checking the balance halfway through the month to be safe. I would say 95% mistakes of my life are borne out of assuming something which turns out incorrect. I'll learn one day...ha

With Barclaycard you can set up a limit alert, so they will send a text your balance reaches a certain amount - which is helpful. You can also set up a weekly balance email.

Barclaycard Late Payment Charge

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