Are credit card overcharges regulated?

Q I have a Morgan Stanley credit card, which I pay off in full each month. But on my latest statement I found an interest charge on my account. I rang customer services to find out why I had been charged and was told it was due to a computer fault. I asked whether I could pay the balance less the charge for the interest and was told that I should pay the full amount and have the overcharge repaid the subsequent month.


Although the overcharge was a small sum, if this was applied to a large number of customers, as could happen with a computer fault, it represents a considerable amount of money Morgan Stanley could hold for a month at no cost. I have written to suggest that it takes this 'windfall', applies its current cash advance interest rate to it and pays the sum to a selection of charities. But is there anything else I could have done?
PJ

A According to industry body the Association of Payment Clearing Services there are no strict guidelines covering this issue. As long as Morgan Stanley let you know what it intended to do to rectify the situation, ie apply the overcharge to your next bill, it wasn't doing anything wrong.


You could have insisted on the overcharge being refunded to you in cash, or more likely a cheque, but the amount of time it would have taken Morgan Stanley to organise this is probably as long as the length of time that would elapse before your next bill, so there would be no real benefit to you to do so.