Processing a debit?
Our membership was due for renewal on1st November and we had a letter in early October reminding us about the renewal.
We went Online and paid the membership in early October but it took the CC three weeks to process the debit! Whycan't the CC do the debit within 2 -3 days instead of waiting 3 weeks to process the payment.
Is this another IT faulure or just poor management? Next year we will wait until we are chased for payment before making a payment. We try and avoid unnecessary DDs especially if it is only once a year.
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It is probably because they are all set up for DD and anything outside the norm confuses the system. Although only once a year I prefer to pay by DD, I get little enough out of my bank as it is (
but that is another thread) So they might as well do something to earn all the interest they
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I seem to remember someone asking the same question last year. Is it that the CC cannot (or will not) take payment until your actual subscription is due. We pay by DD and get the same reminder with the date when payment is taken specified and it is usually
the subscription date itself.Don't do internet banking myself so it may be different, but that might be a possible reason?
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I agree, iI think they won't take payment until the anniversary. I must admit that I pay by DD so never really think about it much.
David
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I also pay by direct debit and have internet banking so I'm able to check my bank statement daily so it doesn't matter to me when it's collected.
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I note if you are a new member, they make it almost certain you will agree to direct debit, by slapping on a £10 joining fee if you don't.
Perhaps this is the reason why the CC take over 3 weeks to process a payment as they want to lock you into paying by DD.
The way around not paying the £10 joining fee is to agree to the DD being set up to get the discount and then to cancel the DD at a later date. I think it is very unfair to slap on a £10 joining fee if you opt out of having a DD set up.
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I note if you are a new member, they make it almost certain you will agree to direct debit, by slapping on a £10 joining fee if you don't.
Perhaps this is the reason why the CC take over 3 weeks to process a payment as they want to lock you into paying by DD.
The way around not paying the £10 joining fee is to agree to the DD being set up to get the discount and then to cancel the DD at a later date. I think it is very unfair to slap on a £10 joining fee if you opt out of having a DD set up.
Many other organisations do exactly that.
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I have now made a note of my calender not to pay until after the 1st of Nov. Probelm solved. Next time I buy something from the CC I don't expect them to debit my card until the goods are delivered. Fair enough?
BTW the question was about why the CC take 3 weeks to process a debit and not about DDs and discount, but thanks anyway.
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I have now made a note of my calender not to pay until after the 1st of Nov. Probelm solved. Next time I buy something from the CC I don't expect them to debit my card until the goods are delivered. Fair enough?
BTW the question was about why the CC take 3 weeks to process a debit and not about DDs and discount, but thanks anyway.
Surfer, you might find that if you pay after the renewal date it will be considered as a new membership!
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The £10 is nothing more than good business sense. Quite simply the automatic renewal is cheaper to operate than having to manually process a payment each year, that is why lots of businesses do it.
It's nothing to do with being cheaper to process the payment. Quite the opposite, actually.
I don't use DD for CC membership, so I guess that my payment has to be 'manually' processed........but the only person 'manually' doing anything is me. I do it on-line with no involvement of any CC staff.
No, the real reason for a reduction for DD membership is the same as they operated at a sailing club where we were once members (Mrs H was memberhip secretary).
They realised that many people who set up DD's never actually get around to cancelling them. We had members who had long since decided not to participate in the club anymore.......but many were still paying their DD payments many, many years after they had effectively 'resigned'.
It was such a good wheeze that they offered a discount for paying by DD.......which goes against all the logic of good cash-flow (because that club allowed members to spread the cost over the year), but in the longer term they made thousands of pounds from people who had long since forgotten about the sailing club, but clearly never looked at their bank statements (an alien concept to me, but there you go........)
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If you have too many monthly direct debits, they can add up to quite a lot going out each month. I recently changed my method of payment for National Trust and WWT to pay of the entire balance for the year by card payment and cancelled the two monthly direct
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Smaller things we pay anually.
If it saves money we pay anually.
Our DDs are mainly for our credit cards or charitable donations.
Several bank accounts that pay interest require at least 2 monthly DDs, so we pay our small monthly DDs from them.
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Smaller things we pay anually.
If it saves money we pay anually.
Our DDs are mainly for our credit cards or charitable donations.
Several bank accounts that pay interest require at least 2 monthly DDs, so we pay our small monthly DDs from them.
Write your comments here...Some banks give you a cash gift if you switch but you must have two direct debits to qualify for that too! I'm not sure what the reason is for them requiring you to have DDs.
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Surfer, you might find that if you pay after the renewal date it will be considered as a new membership!
We had a letter yesterday to remind us that our membership had expeired on 31st October - a week ago - so I paid by card and the number has stayed the same and the bookings are still there so presumably you get a few weeks grace.
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Smaller things we pay anually.
If it saves money we pay anually.
Our DDs are mainly for our credit cards or charitable donations.
Several bank accounts that pay interest require at least 2 monthly DDs, so we pay our small monthly DDs from them.
Write your comments here...Some banks give you a cash gift if you switch but you must have two direct debits to qualify for that too! I'm not sure what the reason is for them requiring you to have DDs.
I assume the point is you have to prove you mean it and it is only on the second payment the saving start.
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i do not think they will chase you if you forget to renew .thats one reason we did DD malc
They send you a letter.
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With NT and WWT, you get a free gift if you sign up to a DD when you first join. They hope they can reduce their admin costs in not having to chase for payment. However, if later you choose to pay annually by card they'll accept it.
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With NT and WWT, you get a free gift if you sign up to a DD when you first join. They hope they can reduce their admin costs in not having to chase for payment. However, if later you choose to pay annually by card they'll accept it.
Off topic here sorry .
Malcolm do you get your moneys worth being a member if these two organisations?
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We've always paid most regular things by monthly DD, electric/gas/phone/council tax etc. If its a one off like house or car insurance then its paid in full but not on DD as we like to compare prices each year. Credit cards are paid by DD but the whole amount
each month. We both keep one eye on the bank accounts with us being away so much, so if anything comes out that shouldn't we are onto it usually within a few days. Wish our boys were as vigilant, both of them have made mistakes with not cancelling car insurance
DD's when taking out a new policy, hopefully they will have learnt from that but I wouldn't bet on it0 -
One of the reasons I don't like DDs is that several or more years ago when I was working, payday arrived which was the last day of the month and no cash into the bank. We were then informed the next day that the company had gone into administration and
no pay.In the meantime several DDs bounced and the fees amounted to over £300. The last thing you need when you have no ready money in the account. It took a lot of begging and pleading to get the bank to reverse the fees and that took about a month.
Although it should not happen again in the future, I am still wary of too many unnecessary DDs on my account, however the posting was about why the CC take 3 weeks to process a debit.
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