Are Capital One charging me unfairly?

Q In February I took advantage of Capital One's 3.9% APR credit card offer, and transferred ?5,000 onto it from another card. Capital One wrote to welcome me and say it had set up a credit limit of ?5,100 (?100 more than I had requested). It told me I needed to make sure my direct debit was set up to take the money for the first payment.

I set up a direct debit for the minimum payment each month. On February 11, Capital One confirmed that the direct debit had been set up, and that the first payment was due on March 1. But when I received my statement, Capital One said I had not made the minimum payment by March 1, meaning that I would be charged ?20 for non-payment, and the company would take double the direct debit next month.

This is going to cause me severe financial difficulties. I phoned to ask why I was being charged ?20, when the direct debit had been set up 20 days before payment was due. Staff mumbled something about not being able to collect the money because of the Data Protection Act.

RH

A Provided you set up the direct debit correctly, and there was enough cash in your account on the payment due date, you can't be held responsible for this error - so you shouldn't be charged for it.

However, it may be that Capital One was prevented from collecting the payment - in which case your bank may be at fault, because it is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the running of your account. Contact your bank to see whether it refused to make the payment to Capital One. If it didn't, then Capital One itself is at fault, so you should inform it in writing that you want the ?20 late charge refunded. Capital One should have collected the payment on time, and must therefore bear the responsibility.

Unfortunately, there is no way around having to now make two payments, though presumably if the first one wasn't made at all you should still have excess funds in your account.

Finally, I can't see what any of this has to do with the Data Protection Act, unless your direct debit instruction wasn't properly filled out - if you forgot to sign it, for example. In that case, your bank, quite correctly, would have refused Capital One access to your account, and you would be responsible for the late charge. But you should be able to check whether this is the case by contacting your bank directly.