Samaira got in touch after she'd noticed on different occasions that payments for her credit card hadn't gone out from her bank account and she'd had to get in touch herself to make sure the payments were made.
What happened
Samaira's bank made an error processing her monthly standing order, set up to pay her credit card bill. Although the money left her bank account, it wasn't paid into her credit card account.
Samaira frequently checked her credit card statements online, and noticed that the payment hadn't been received. So she immediately made a manual payment over the phone to cover the minimum amount before the end of the month. She then contacted her bank and was told this problem wouldn’t happen again as everything had been amended. But she noticed the same thing happened the next month, so rang to make a manual payment again with her credit card provider and raised the issue with the bank.
After investigating the complaint, her bank accepted full responsibility. It apologised and refunded the additional payments (plus interest to reflect her being out of pocket) to Samaira's account. It also thanked Samaira for being so understanding and taking steps to avoid additional problems. By twice making a manual payment, Samaira had avoided being charged by her credit card provider and also avoided late payment information being added to her credit file.
Samaira said she’d been put to some inconvenience in having to make several extra phone calls to her credit card provider she wouldn’t otherwise have had to. She’d also spent time following up with the bank about the issue.
What we said
We recognised that Samaira took steps to mitigate the effects of the bank’s error and avoid further, negative consequences. We thought she had been put to some inconvenience because of the repeated small errors by the bank – particularly as she had to make several phone calls and experienced the frustration of being told it was sorted when, in reality, it wasn’t. We didn’t think an apology was enough to recognise the effort she’d been put to, so we recommended the bank pay her £100 compensation.