Complaint Regarding Excessive Unpaid Fees

Elgire

Hello,

My Credit Card payment of €278 was due on the 2nd of May.

According to the bottom of my Credit Card statement it states that if a payment is made before this date the payment to be collected by Direct Debit will be reduced by that amount.

I paid €1500 on the 27th of April and a further €200 on the 29th of April to completely clear the balance and put my Credit Card balance into credit.

However on the 2nd of May the €278 Direct Debit was still requested but was returned unpaid as I was waiting for a cheque to clear. My Credit Card was then charged an unpaid fee of €3.17 despite my Credit Card account having a credit balance.

Also my Current Account, also with Bank of Ireland was charged an unpaid fee of €12.70.

The total fee for this unpaid Direct Debit was €15.87.

Nowhere on my Credit Card Statement does it state that payment must be made 'X' amount of days BEFORE due date, which I'm guessing is the problem here.

I'm asking Bank of Ireland to acknowledge this mistake and refund these fees to my Current and Credit Card Account. Also please confirm to me that this will not show as a missed payment on any current or future credit checks?

Alternatively, I plan on closing both accounts by the end of the month. Feel free to call me to discuss if you wish.


Thanks.

Bank of Ireland: Tara

Hi Elgire,

Thanks for your post and sorry to hear you are unhappy and wish to raise a complaint. As per our social media guidelines we cannot formally respond to customer complaints here or on any other social media site. For information on how to do this, please see here.

I've checked our Credit Card T&Cs and under Payments to your Account in section 11 it states the following:

(c) Where you have a direct debit set up to make payments to your Account and you make other payments to your Account

(i) more than 4 Banking Days before the Direct Debit Collection Date or
(ii) more than 7 Banking Days before the

The amount to be collected by Direct Debit will be reduced by the amount of any such additional payments made.
Any additional payments made after the deadlines set out above will not reduce the amount to be collected by Direct Debit.

As you made a transfer on Friday 27th April, this wouldn't have allowed the required four working days for the direct debit to adjust for Wednesday 2nd May. If you still wish to have the fees reviewed you would need to raise a formal complaint.

Thanks
Tara

Elgire

Hi Tara,

Thank you for the reply. Yes I wish to raise a formal complaint and have these fees reviewed.

I have read the Terms and Conditions today however I feel the Credit Card statement should mention how many banking days are needed for a payment to take effect. The current wording simply says if a payment is made before the Direct Debit due date it will be reflected in the next payment.

Also as I cleared my entire balance and put my account into credit surely you must have a system in place to show this and not proceed further with another payment. The terms and conditions make no mention of this in the event of a balance being cleared before the Direct Debit due date.

You also didn't answer my question regarding if this will show up on my credit rating?

I have opened an account with another bank today and will start the transfer shortly. It's silly little things like this that leave a bad taste in loyal customers mouths.

Bank of Ireland: Tara

Elgire wrote: »

Hi Tara,

Thank you for the reply. Yes I wish to raise a formal complaint and have these fees reviewed.

I have read the Terms and Conditions today however I feel the Credit Card statement should mention how many banking days are needed for a payment to take effect. The current wording simply says if a payment is made before the Direct Debit due date it will be reflected in the next payment.

Also as I cleared my entire balance and put my account into credit surely you must have a system in place to show this and not proceed further with another payment. The terms and conditions make no mention of this in the event of a balance being cleared before the Direct Debit due date.

You also didn't answer my question regarding if this will show up on my credit rating?

I have opened an account with another bank today and will start the transfer shortly. It's silly little things like this that leave a bad taste in loyal customers mouths.

Hi Elgire,

To raise a complaint, please see the link provided in our previous reply and our Complaints Team will be happy to investigate this further.

We'll ensure to pass on your suggestion to include the timeframe needed for a direct debit to adjust on foot of a manual transfer.

Our T&Cs, as per previous reply, do outline the timeframe for the direct debit to adjust and this is the same whether you're paying it off in full or a smaller amount.

To query if this will show up on your credit report, please mention this in your complaint as we can't comment on account specifics here.

We are sorry that you're unhappy about this and hope you reconsider your decision to move your account.

Thanks
Tara