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I recently missed a credit card payment because the Direct Debit from my bank bounced. This was because some Visa payments came off before the DD was paid, unfortunately my bank does not have a very good way of informing you of this and the payment was missed.

I would like to state I take full responsibility for missing the payment, after all I am a grown up and I must manage my own finances.

My issue stems from the credit card company; according to my bank the money was never released, but my credit card statement shows a payment and the dashboard for my account showed the "last payment" was the payment I actually missed. I had received a text from the credit card company that said "Your payment is due, if you have already paid please ignore this message". So I logged on to my credit card dashboard and seen that I had paid on the day I expected, and it was on my statement. It was only when I went further on my statement I seen that the payment was reversed and I still owed them the money.

Had it not been for this payment appearing on my statement I would have known right away the payment hadn't been made, but now it has been days since the payment was missed and I have charges, interest, and I have lost all the benefits that came with the card.

I guess my question is: is this standard practise? Do credit cards put payments that never took place on statements like this? I am annoyed as I find it very misleading, if I knew the payment had not been made I would have paid it on the day it was due, but the dashboard wrongfully re-assured me that I had paid.

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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is a questions for the customer service department of your credit card company. Dec 18, 2018 at 16:12
  • Depending on how long you've been with your credit card company, and how forgiving they're feeling, you could call and explain your situation, and see if they'll refund the fees or reinstate the benefits. If you're a longtime customer with no history of missed payments, you might catch a break. Dec 18, 2018 at 16:12
  • I have spoken to them and even filed a complaint that the information was misleading. However their "policy" is unless I can prove this was the bank's error, there is nothing they can do as I simply did not pay. Dec 18, 2018 at 16:21
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    I generally get credit for payment immediately for the credit cards I currently use. They money actually coming out of the bank account (or not) happens days later. Also they apparently try 3 different times before they give up and charge you for the chargeback. (I've actually been charged for the chargeback even though they got their money on the 3rd try, which I disputed with them).
    – xyious
    Dec 18, 2018 at 16:27
  • That is the only way to indicate in the statement that the direct debit failed because of lack of funds. Otherwise it becomes difficult to distinguish the direct debits not initiated
    – Dheer
    Dec 18, 2018 at 16:50

1 Answer 1

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I think that what happened to you is logically similar to a bounced check.

Here is the order of operations:

  1. Made direct debit
  2. Credit card company accepted payment instantly (this is logically equivalent to receiving a paper check)
  3. Credit card company trusts you and assumes the payment will clear and updated your account information
  4. Bank account was reduced from other transactions
  5. Credit card company sends their automated notice because the payment has been received but not cleared (this could happen before or after the processing payment step)
  6. Credit card company processed the payment (this is logically equivalent to cashing a paper check or a paper check fully clearing)
  7. Credit card company rejected the payment because the direct debit was underfunded
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  • Just to clarify, #2 and #3 are fairly universal from my experience. Payments show up on the statement immediately (maybe as "pending") but the actual money isn't pulled from bank account until a couple days later.
    – Nosjack
    Dec 18, 2018 at 16:43

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