Ladies and gentlemen
I’d like to make you aware of an expensive problem I have!
The story so far:
The fuel card I use makes a £3 monthly charge, I have no problems with this.
A direct debit is set up to take whatever I spend on a fortnightly basis, ok with me
In June, a direct debit for £3 bounces, my ■■■■ up, sorry. Too much flow, not enough cash.
The next invoice has a £55 (yes fifty five pound) charge for the bounce, plus the next £70 of fuel, plus VAT, grrrr
This one also gets returned, (planned for £75) but I’d spoken to them and asked the to resubmit as the funds would be there.
Paid, no problem.
Fill up with diesel on Friday (£57) to be told my card is on stop and “have you another method of payment”.
No, I haven’t, give name, and address, pay on Sunday
After a 20 minute call to the fuel card company, it transpires if two direct debits bounce, card goes on stop.
BUT, there is no phone call/email/text to tell me! Although I rung them on Monday to discuss the problem.
And, because of the second failure, I still owe them for £3 card fee plus £55 bounce fee plus VAT. Aaaaaaaaargh.
All for the original £70 of fuel. I’m getting cross now
I asked for the terms and conditions I signed, still waiting…
Moral of the story, read the small print.
What next? If they produce the terms and conditions signed by me, I’ll pay.
If they can’t, I’ll fight as their charges are very unreasonable.
If anyone can share some advice, please feel free as I’m just a bit fed up! (and skint)
Cheers
Paul
PS I’ve avoided the “name and shame”, unless a Mod would like me to?
Funny how fast they can stop it when they want to. When one of mine got nicked the thieving gits continued to draw on the card for 24 hrs after it was reported stolen
sonflowerinwales:
PS I’ve avoided the “name and shame”, unless a Mod would like me to?
Thanks for respecting the site rules as you did.
If you were to name and shame in this instance, everybody would only have your side of the story as above. However, you’ve acknowledged the possibility that the charges might be in the small print. Naming and shaming might have even left you with egg on your face.
dar1976:
I had the same issue with a card and would assume it’s the same one as the figures tie in.
No phone call or email. Just put on stop.
But £55 + vat for a bounced DD. How can that be classed as a reasonable admin charge??
Needless to say I changed provider very quickly.
Unreasonable as it may be, if it’s in the T&Cs (as I suspect it is) then no-one else to blame but oneself. By signing the contract for the card you are agreeing to their T&Cs. Don’t like the T&Cs, take your business elsewhere.
Fuel cards are a rip off anyway. For the amounts of fuel mentioned, it would be way cheaper to use a mainstream credit card with cashback facility attached.
I have 9 assorted cards in my wallet, debit, credit, store & fuel. On the back of every card there is a statement that use of the card is in agreement with the terms and conditions. (Worded in various ways)
So if you use it, you have agreed, they don’t even have to send them to you, just tell you where they are or when they change.
With one of my cards that I stopped using 3 years ago I only get statements when the T&C’s change, and no need to sign in agreement, just use it and I have agreed!
I had a Key Fuel card through Bernard Brogun Fuels, the dd was supposed to have been collected every mon.
So, transfer money into the current account on mon morning, jobs a good un, simples .
Until Broguns must have been a bit short one week and went in a day early and tried to collect the dd on the previous fri, and surprise surprise, not enough to settle the account .
Some bint chewing on her haggis was on the phone mon morning giving me grief because the dd had been returned and the cards were now on stop, so to keep things sweet I paid over the phone with a credit card. A letter appeared a day or two later itemising what we had been charged, in addition to the fuel there was £40 for the bounced dd, and £12 fee for paying over the phone with the card. Into the bargain our bank charged us £35 for bouncing the dd [zb]s.
I rang them up and got into a fair old row with Broguns as they’d caused all this, and I wanted some money back, but the office ■■■■■ was having none of it. I told her she could have the cards back but she didn’t seem to care if we never bought fuel through them again, so we didn’t. Several weeks later Broguns sold out for big money.
As rob k says most owner drivers and small firms if circumstances allow it are probably better of shopping round the credit card Market and using one of them for buying fuel
kr79:
As rob k says most owner drivers and small firms if circumstances allow it are probably better of shopping round the credit card Market and using one of them for buying fuel
Yes, I’ve a Shellcard, but never use it unless I’m really short as I can buy it cheaper by shopping around on the credit card. petrolprices.com/
After I told Broguns where to swipe their card, for several weeks after their sales office kept ringing me to ask why I wasn’t using them to buy fuel
Big Joe:
I had a Key Fuel card through Bernard Brogun Fuels, the dd was supposed to have been collected every mon.
So, transfer money into the current account on mon morning, jobs a good un, simples .
Until Broguns must have been a bit short one week and went in a day early and tried to collect the dd on the previous fri, and surprise surprise, not enough to settle the account .
Some bint chewing on her haggis was on the phone mon morning giving me grief because the dd had been returned and the cards were now on stop, so to keep things sweet I paid over the phone with a credit card. A letter appeared a day or two later itemising what we had been charged, in addition to the fuel there was £40 for the bounced dd, and £12 fee for paying over the phone with the card. Into the bargain our bank charged us £35 for bouncing the dd [zb]s.
I rang them up and got into a fair old row with Broguns as they’d caused all this, and I wanted some money back, but the office ■■■■■ was having none of it. I told her she could have the cards back but she didn’t seem to care if we never bought fuel through them again, so we didn’t. Several weeks later Broguns sold out for big money.
Brogun didn’t actually do anything wrong. Even if the T&Cs actually state that they’ll take payment each monday, the way DD works allows them to ‘call’ for the money a business day in advance. When I used to work for Midland Bank (now HSBC) we used to deal with this issue on a frequent basis but if you read the full DD guarantee spiel there’s some blurb about it.
The vast majority of people believe that if the direct debit mandate states a specific date each month for the payment that that is the earliest they can take it. It’s not actually true at all, especially if the date falls on a weekend. Easter and Christmas were always the ones that caused us the most complaints - especially Easter, as the funds due to debit on Monday would actually go on the previous Thursday.
Personally I don’t agree with it and my opinion is that if the date happens to fall on a weekend or BH then tough [zb] you’ll have to wait until the next business day for your money, but unfortunately this is how it is.
Big Joe:
I had a Key Fuel card through Bernard Brogun Fuels, the dd was supposed to have been collected every mon.
So, transfer money into the current account on mon morning, jobs a good un, simples .
Until Broguns must have been a bit short one week and went in a day early and tried to collect the dd on the previous fri, and surprise surprise, not enough to settle the account .
Some bint chewing on her haggis was on the phone mon morning giving me grief because the dd had been returned and the cards were now on stop, so to keep things sweet I paid over the phone with a credit card. A letter appeared a day or two later itemising what we had been charged, in addition to the fuel there was £40 for the bounced dd, and £12 fee for paying over the phone with the card. Into the bargain our bank charged us £35 for bouncing the dd [zb]s.
I rang them up and got into a fair old row with Broguns as they’d caused all this, and I wanted some money back, but the office ■■■■■ was having none of it. I told her she could have the cards back but she didn’t seem to care if we never bought fuel through them again, so we didn’t. Several weeks later Broguns sold out for big money.
Brogun didn’t actually do anything wrong. Even if the T&Cs actually state that they’ll take payment each monday, the way DD works allows them to ‘call’ for the money a business day in advance. When I used to work for Midland Bank (now HSBC) we used to deal with this issue on a frequent basis but if you read the full DD guarantee spiel there’s some blurb about it.
The vast majority of people believe that if the direct debit mandate states a specific date each month for the payment that that is the earliest they can take it. It’s not actually true at all, especially if the date falls on a weekend. Easter and Christmas were always the ones that caused us the most complaints - especially Easter, as the funds due to debit on Monday would actually go on the previous Thursday.
Personally I don’t agree with it and my opinion is that if the date happens to fall on a weekend or BH then tough [zb] you’ll have to wait until the next business day for your money, but unfortunately this is how it is.
Actually, just thinking back, it’s not actually anything to do with the DD agreement, it’s down to the bank. A lot of banks roll up non-banking days into the next banking day so if it’s due to go on Monday then you’ll often find it debits on Saturday on a standard week. If yours did actually go on Friday when it wasn’t due til Monday (assuming a standard week with no BHs) then you’d have had a good case for complaint with your bank, not Brogun.
Rob K:
Actually, just thinking back, it’s not actually anything to do with the DD agreement, it’s down to the bank. A lot of banks roll up non-banking days into the next banking day so if it’s due to go on Monday then you’ll often find it debits on Saturday on a standard week. If yours did actually go on Friday when it wasn’t due til Monday (assuming a standard week with no BHs) then you’d have had a good case for complaint with your bank, not Brogun.
On the invoices Broguns used to send out the previous week, it used to state the date the dd would be presented, always a mon unless there was a BH, then it was tues. We did talk to the Bank, but they explained that Broguns bank would have instigated when the dd was sent to be collected, and they went in a day earlier for some reason. This had happened in the past but my missus had spotted it on the day it was presented and moved money to cover it, but on this day she went out for a jolly .
Broguns customer service left a lot to be desired, they had no desire to help out and be accommadating so they had their cards back, the woman in the accounts was some scary cow
Rob K:
Actually, just thinking back, it’s not actually anything to do with the DD agreement, it’s down to the bank. A lot of banks roll up non-banking days into the next banking day so if it’s due to go on Monday then you’ll often find it debits on Saturday on a standard week. If yours did actually go on Friday when it wasn’t due til Monday (assuming a standard week with no BHs) then you’d have had a good case for complaint with your bank, not Brogun.
On the invoices Broguns used to send out the previous week, it used to state the date the dd would be presented, always a mon unless there was a BH, then it was tues. We did talk to the Bank, but they explained that Broguns bank would have instigated when the dd was sent to be collected, and they went in a day earlier for some reason. This had happened in the past but my missus had spotted it on the day it was presented and moved money to cover it, but on this day she went out for a jolly .
Broguns customer service left a lot to be desired, they had no desire to help out and be accommadating so they had their cards back, the woman in the accounts was some scary cow
Despite appearances on your bank statement, the funds do not actually debit on the date shown - they do in fact debit on the agreed date. What happens is that payee reserves the funds on the evening of the previous full banking day (ie. not a Saturday, so if it’s due to go on Monday it would show a debit on your statement late on Friday) but the way the banking system works it will automatically show as a debit on your statement at the same time. In a way it’s a safeguard to stop you from using those funds. Natwest are particularly bad for this and if even if you go into a branch on a Saturday morning to deposit cash to cover to deficit they will refuse to refund the insufficient funds charge. It’s BS and as I say above, I don’t agree with it at all.
Nothing to do with fuel cards, but banks and cheques. I have just paid a small cheque into Barclays, my own bank, but it was drawn on a Nat West cheque, it was paid into a London City branch on Monday morning at 10.20am. Even with 3 working days it should have been clear by Thursday / Friday. It didn’t clear until Tuesday of the following week. No BH inbetween, yet a payment from my bank leaves immediately.
Naming and shaming might have even left you with egg on your face. 
.
