Credit Card Late Charges

X

X

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Just a quick query

Its a long complicated story but I'll give you the basics

I have a Barclay Card (English) which almost a year ago I spent some money on about £100, in Dec I received a statement for £188, which would be £100, plus £20 each month late charges and interest. I paid off what I believed was the amount I spent plus interest and started a dispute with them regarding the late charges.

In March I received a statement for £140, to which I cut-up the card posted it back, with comments that I had still not received a statement for the money they are asking for and had clearly stated back in Dec that there was issue with the card.

Yesterday I get a letter from Mercer saying that they are going to send baliffs around for the outstanding balance.

In between all these there was no other communication or statements. So my question is - can they really expect you to pay for something when you don't know that you have to pay? Do they have to give you a responce to a letter sent? Why is it only barclay Crad that I have postal issues with (all other post from the UK arrives no problem) - do I have no choice but to pay the outstanding balance?
 
Why is it only barclay Crad that I have postal issues with (all other post from the UK arrives no problem) - do I have no choice but to pay the outstanding balance?
In general, the small print on most credit cards clearly puts the obligation on you to pay the debts regardless of whether they ever send you a statement or not. So the claim of 'I didn't get the statement' probably has no legal standing.
 
credit cards

I will start off by saying I dont work for them or have any connection to them whatsoever. I am with MBNA who I believe have serious late payments charges, but on the back of the card is a number which you can call at any time any day,its one of those automatic answering machines, and its asks you to key in your account number and usually date of birth. Then this 'voice mail thingy' informs you of your balance. You can take your actual card into any billpay post office any day and pay off whatever you want. ie €20 on Friday and €10 the following week. you still get your monthly statement but even if it missed you can still do above and avoid charges. Did you have a reason for taking out an English credit card as you will be paying some sort of exchange rate evertime you spend euros.? If I use my card down the north I get a statement with a conversion rate.
 
Bank of Ireland Credit Card

Hi,

Beat this one. I got a letter from BOI credit card services last week telling me my payments were late and advising me to contact them if I was having difficulties.

Now I was more than surprised as I knew for a fact that my previous month had been paid in full well before the due date and I had not received any statement for the current month.

I looked up my account on the internet to see that bank charges (interest) of €18.40 had been levied on my account even though payments had not been late and in fact were not due for a few more weeks.

I phoned them up to be told that they were having problems with a new computer system which caused the glitch. I asked if the glitch made mistakes soley in the banks favour or did it ever favour the customer.

Needless to say the girl kicked for touch better than Ronan O Gara on his best day ever.

I intend to pay my bill on time less the incorrect interest charge and await with interest as to how this situation will develop.

I bet the computer will insist on spitting out nasty reminders to me to get my act together and pay the nice kind bank the money I owe them.
 
Re: Bank of Ireland Credit Card

It will help your case if you put your position in writing to them now, rather than waiting for things to get really nasty somewhere down the line.
 
Put your pen away, Late my Eye.

This BOI computer foul-up points yet again to the key issue for most customers of most financial institutions (currently being discussed elsewhere on AAM)....if Late my Eye had a person in BOI with whom he/she had a history of dealing, all of this could be sorted out with a quick (pleasant) phone call.

Rainy is correct in advising to get it all recorded on paper ASAP but think of the waste of resources involved in writing, sending and reading the letter. Not to mention the time and stress Late my Eye will expend on this problem.
 
Re: Put your pen away, Late my Eye.

Hi X

Now that the Barclaycard is available in Ireland, I would expect they have joined the scheme for the Banking Ombudsman in Ireland. This should be your first port of call, in writting, advising them of the problem & asking for assistance.

While the problem occured with a UK credit card, you should at least get a decent point of contact at Barclaycard. You will also be on record as having sought some advice / guidance, even if it is only a contact at Barclaycard or perhaps, the UK address for the UK Ombudsman.

Get everything done in writting, asap & register the letters to be sure they are being delivered & that you have a record of same.

I'd suggest you also write to Mercer and advise them that there has been a dispute ongoing and that you have again written to Barclaycard to try and resolve the matter - even copy them the letter to Barclaycard.

Regards


G>
www.Rpoints.com/newbie
 
Update on my situation

I phoned the credit control office of BOI Mastercard last week and was told that because I had an outstanding balance of €40 from my April account I was charged interest on that amount (€40) plus all purchases made in May which are not due to be settled until June.

ie If a client has an outstanding balance from a previous month he/she is charged interest on that outstanding balance AND is also charged interest on all purchases made after that even though such purchases may be settled on time.

I tried to challenge this logic but was told that was the way all credit card accounts were handled.

If I still was unhappy I would have to write to customer service.

Any opinions on this. Could this possibly be true?
 
Update on my situation

I think that approach is standard. If in doubt check the detailed terms & conditions of the credit card agreement that you signed up to in the first place.
 
credit cards

I think that is the way all credit cards work. If you don't clear the account each month then any new purchases attract interest straight away. MBNA supply cheques as well but you have to have credit in your account if you don't want to attract interest when you write one. Say you had €100 in credit and wrote a cheque for €100 and the cheque was cashed straight away and then you used the card to pay for something else -you are ok, but say the person getting the cheque didn't bother to cash it immediately and you went and purchased the second item with you card, the €100 might be used up before the cheque came in, and in that case you owe interest on the cheque AND on any other purchases until you clear the account.
 
BOI have changed the way they charge...

Late My Eye: I also have a BOI card (VISA) and about 4 months ago I got a letter from them telling me that they were changing the way they charge interest in June.

Now as far as I am aware there is a certain order in which money paid into your account is paid off, and I think interest is paid off first, which means if you spent 1000 and paid off 900, but owed 100 in interest, the interest would be paid, then 800 off the 1000 and you would then be liable for interest on the rest. You might want to ring the bank again and find out exactly what the interest was charged on.
 
The detailed terms & conditions of a CC agreement should clarify how payments are used in such cases.
 
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