Querying a credit card statement

May 4, 2012 2:14 AM

Confusing credit card statement. Is it possible for my credit card company to have made a mistake? What should I expect when I call them to clarify?

I pay off my credit card balance in full every month.

In April, for the first time, I made 2 payments to clear the balance - one in the middle of the month and one at the end. Both these payments have gone through. Theoretically my balance should be at zero.

However my credit card balance when viewed online still gives me a bafflingly high figure. For argument's sake let's say that figure is £500.

I keep track of what I put onto the credit card and I know I haven't spent more than, say, £100 onto the credit card since I made those 2 payments.

I called the credit card company and they were pretty dismissive, saying yes they had received those 2 payments in April but I still owed them £500. I asked how this could be, and they said my total outgoing payments using the credit card minus my total incoming payments onto the credit card equalled £500 and therefore that was what I owed them.

I then downloaded all the figures to Excel and did some adding up. Turns out that my total outgoing payments using the credit card minus my total incoming payments onto the credit card equal, as I thought, £100.

I don't see any transactions on the statement which I don't recognise so I am not worried about ID theft.

Where do I go from here? I want to pay off the full balance, but I don't want to pay more than what I owe. More importantly I want to know HOW they could have reached this figure of £500 when arithmetically it does not seem to add up.

What procedure do you use? I have found a lot of resources for credit card fraud and ID theft, but nothing for what to do when the numbers simply don't add up.

Thanks for your help MeFites.

posted by Ziggy500 to Work & Money (8 answers total)

Was your second payment for approximately £500? And did it perhaps arrive after the end of the "month" of April (the "month" as defined by your credit card company, e.g. my billing month runs from the 18th of one month to the 17th of the next)?
posted by caek at 2:58 AM on May 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

I pay my credit card off in full each month too - by direct debit. At the bottom of the statement MBNA says something along the lines of "the full payment will be taken on the due date notwithstanding any other credits to the account." So even when I could pay it off earlier, I don't because I know MBNA will still take the full amount its statement showed on X date, despite any other credit I might have made.
posted by essexjan at 3:01 AM on May 4, 2012

Response by poster: Caek - Both my April payments when added up come to "£500" - ie the amount that is apparently still outstanding on my credit card.

Essexjan - That's interesting. Does that mean that the credit card company just haven't updated the statement yet, and I should just wait for the May statement to worry about what I really owe them?

Sorry to threadsit, I wouldn't normally...
posted by Ziggy500 at 3:14 AM on May 4, 2012

Many companies now offer online access to your account, so that you don't have to wait for the next statement to arrive by mail to see what the current balance is.
posted by yclipse at 4:24 AM on May 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm not sure - does your statement say they'll take the full amount?

I just looked at my statement online. The payment for the April statement is due to be taken in May. The statement says:

The full payment of £X will be collected from your nominated bank by Direct Debit on or after 11/05/12.
Please remember: your regular Direct Debit payment will always be taken, regardless of any additional payments you choose to make

The current online balance shows the outstanding balance for April, as it's not yet been collected, plus the additional purchases I've made since the date of the statement.

I think the likely explanation is that if the date when your payment is due - according to your statement - hasn't yet been reached, the account won't be showing as cleared. This shouldn't make any difference to you, in terms of interest, charges, etc., because by paying each month in full you won't incur these. But I think it's the bank's way of ensuring that maximum interest is earned on the account by not applying payments made until the statement date.
posted by essexjan at 4:43 AM on May 4, 2012

Send them your working, ask to see theirs. Your next statement should clear everything up. Also consider that they may be using funky accounting (some credit card companies do).
posted by devnull at 4:55 AM on May 4, 2012

The statement you see online doesn't change. They generate it once, just like the bill you [used to?] get in the mail. But the recent transactions area should show you everything that happened after the statement was generated.
posted by gjc at 5:42 AM on May 4, 2012

Call them again. When I call a credit card company and talk to someone unhelpful, I just get off the phone and try again. You want someone to tell you your current amount owed, and if it's not what you think it is, go through the math you did with them, over the phone. They will be able to spot the error (on your side or theirs) or tell you the policy that's making it so your payment didn't apply, or tell you your check was off by a decimal, or something. And if it's their fault, they will also be able to correct it immediately.

Though if you're just looking at statements, I'd say they didn't receive your payment by the closing date of the month, and it'll be applied to next month's statement, is the most likely thing.
posted by DoubleLune at 7:20 AM on May 4, 2012