Charles on… anything that comes along

I was travelling last month, and in the midst didn’t pay my Barclaycard bill by their arbitrarily-set time. Ding! Late payment charge of £20.

Oh well, it’s time to ring them up, because those charges are not legally enforceable (as I’ve demonstrated to myself, before). It’s the same method: just stay calm but remain insistent. Know your point - that although they may have put that in the terms and conditions, they cannot enforce it, because they haven’t had to do anything to chase that “late” payment. They’ve already imposed interest on your outstanding debt, which is fine - you agreed to pay interest on an outstanding debt.

Poor lass with a cold on the other end who kept repeating the stuff about Ts&Cs. I responded by calmly, politely, repeating the stuff about unenforceability, that I’m sorry, but I’m not going to pay that. And in the end she caved. “Of course, it’s only this once - if you do it again we can’t take it off.”

Uh-huh, sure. That’s what they said the last time I rang to say I wasn’t paying the late payment charge.

Of course, the credit card companies are seeing the pincers tighten as the OFT investigates this. However, the OFT is moving, as always, incredibly slowly; glaciers leave it in the dust. It started this stuff in 2003 (according to the BBC article) and only now, in 2005, is it saying that the credit card companies have three months to “reduce” their charges.

I’m sorry, but - “reduce“? This is just rubbish. The credit card companies incur *no* costs when you don’t pay for a month. They don’t have to send out a separate letter. They don’t have to send someone round to knock on the door. They incur no costs except those involved in the development of the software that spots that no payment has been made by a particular date, which must have taken, ooh, a whole afternoon to write in 1967 and has surely now been amortised. In fact it’s earnt the cost back a million times over.

So, repeat after me: don’t pay it. Get on the phone and tell them so.

These posts might be related (the database thinks..):
• "Late payment charges" on credit cards: you don't have to pay, and I'm the living proof (2 March 2005; score: 103.4%)
• If your credit card imposes a penalty payment, don't pay it: it's not legally enforceable (26 September 2004; score: 88.18%)
• When even the head of the Financial Services Authority doesn't understand contract law... (1 April 2006; score: 45.95%)