Unable to pay credit card bill due to bank doing maintanence

ethan

ethan

ethan

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I'm away for a few days as well without a near-by branch and despite the bank saying credit card and debit cards should still be working as normal,they are not (even for paying by phone). The due date for payment is Wednesday the 21st. I have been trying to pay the bill since Saturday evening. Due to the maintenance I am going to get stung by interest due to a late payment as a consequence of the maintenance work and the company I owe the payment to having lousy payment facility that sends the payment to a holding bank prior before it reaches them? Does anybody know if I am within my rights to get the bank to reimburse me for the extra charge/late payment?
 
set up your CC to pay off the minimum by direct debit each month, wont help you this time but it will if it happens again
 
Might be worth phoning the CC company if the bank doesn't reimburse you.

They may be able waive any fees as a goodwill gesture. Had a similar issue when Paypal wouln't release my fees.
 
You’re most definitely, certainly, 100%, within your rights - to pay the bill earlier, knowing you were going away for a few days.

As for the actual question, recommend phoning your CC provider up and explaining the situation.
 
Kenai said:
"despite the bank saying credit cardand debit cards should still be working as normal,they are not (even for paying by phone)."
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Seems hard to belive that no debit cards have been working for days. That would mean a lot of people who have a single bank wouldn't be able to do anyshopping at all for days.
 
Glaucus said:
Seems hard to belive that no debit cards have been working for days. That would mean a lot of people who have a single bank wouldn't be able to do anyshopping at all for days.
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Depends what he means by 'since Saturday evening'. If he means last week you'd expect things in the news by now. If he means last night, a lot of people won't have noticed yet.

It's not worded very clearly but the few days was just referring to being away, not his card hasn't worked.
 
There's a very good reason why not to setup a DD to clear the balance each month, case in point is American Express - they take the DD payment up to 15 days before the statement date. That's ridiculous. I travel a lot so rack up significant bills, the money is in my account to pay, but when they take it that early it means its in their account earning interest and not in mine offsetting my mortgage. If I couldn't pay the bill due to their site maintenance I'd be looking for things to be put right.
 
Mysterae_ said:
There's a very good reason why not to setup a DD to clear the balance each month, case in point is American Express - they take the DD payment up to 15 days before the statement date. That's ridiculous. I travel a lot so rack up significant bills, the money is in my account to pay, but when they take it that early it means its in their account earning interest and not in mine offsetting my mortgage. If I couldn't pay the bill due to their site maintenance I'd be looking for things to be put right.
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Minimum by DD, that way you can't forget or have other issues. Also most are only a few days in adavnce.
 
Shouldn't most banks and credit card providers support faster payments? As in you could pay it on Wed and it'd be there in 2hrs or something? I know I can pay all of my bills on the day with no issues, not that I make a habit of it.
 
Glaucus said:
Minimum by DD, that way you can't forget or have other issues. Also most are only a few days in adavnce.
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Yes, that's what I do now but it's still around 15 days in advance for AMEX. I set reminders to clear the rest and if I forget to then that's my fault, the interest rate is eyewatering! I think Barclaycard is around 5 days in advance.

Most credit card companies are quite understanding.
 
Mysterae_ said:
There's a very good reason why not to setup a DD to clear the balance each month, case in point is American Express - they take the DD payment up to 15 days before the statement date. That's ridiculous. I travel a lot so rack up significant bills, the money is in my account to pay, but when they take it that early it means its in their account earning interest and not in mine offsetting my mortgage. If I couldn't pay the bill due to their site maintenance I'd be looking for things to be put right.
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Then do not use AA.
If enough people move away from the card, they will change policy.

Of the cards we have, they are set to auto full pay each month.
In the statement that is sent, it gives the exact date they will take the payment.
Usually one day before payment is due.
Payment due dates changes slightly given the month, after Feb the March date is away slightly later than usual, to allow for one additional weekend.
This is Halifax, Ulster Bank, Debenhams, and Santander.

Autoful pay works just fine, and they clearly tell you weeks in advance what date they will take the money.
If you manually pay of a card early (say to save interest on cash withdrawals) as long as it is 3 days in advance of the auto full payment, they will adjust the auto full payment appropriately.
In my view, this works for the customer every time.

What bank and card do you use OP?
 
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