2015 - 2016
Payment systems
Internet banking
Mr G made his monthly payment credit card payment as a ‘bill payment’ on the due date. Bill payments aren’t processed instantly so his bank didn’t receive it until the next business day. As this was after the due date Mr G was charged a late payment fee and interest.
The bank explained the reasons for this and that its system automatically detects this and reimburses any late payment fees incurred. It reimbursed the interest after Mr G contacted the bank. It also provided a list of alternative payment methods so that Mr G could avoid the problem reoccurring in the future. These included:
Mr G said the bank’s terms and conditions were misleading as they indicated the bank would backdate a payment if there were any delays in crediting it to an account. He wanted the bank to change its system. The bank said this was not possible and Mr G brought his complaint to our office.
We considered the term “delay” was intended to cover situations other than the normal processing times for payments and so the bank’s terms and conditions were not misleading.
However, we suggested the bank could make this clearer and it agreed to update its terms and conditions to reflect the potential for late payments when using the bill payments method.
