Minimum payment 1p

Why didn't you just phone up the credit card company and ask them if they really expected you to do all that for a penny. I'd have told them where to go!

Simon

Don't be daft. The phone call would have cost far more than 1p, and the person making it would probably have wasted as much time listening to "your call will be answered shortly" as walking to the bank.

Also walking to the bank is good for one's health.

In practice, some of them do have an amount below which they don't expect a payment to be made. I had 21p owing on an A&L Visa for years, which they didn't bother to collect. There was a DD set up so they could have had it back any time they wanted, but presumably the cost of processing a DD made it not worth the trouble. When I eventually cancelled the card they wrote the 21p off. I did try paying it by online bank transfer at one point, but my bank wouldn't allow a payment of less than £1 to be made.

Of course sod's law dictates that if you hadn't have paid the 1p, they would have charged you £20......

In your case of the direct debit the credit card company couldnt penalise you because they didn't attempt to take the amount.

Cost (a little) and time (a lot) were my reasons. Someone was going to the bank anyway.

The minimum cost of a phone call is 5p.

You don't spend 500% of the amount of the invoice challenging it.

Not if your phone company allows 0845/0870 in your free minutes it won't!

Walking is good though ;)

Depends which phone company you use! 1p for us.

But back to the original question, instead of going to the bank and paying the 1p ... why not go to the bank and pay 2p ! That will of course put the account in credit ... and cause the bank to send monthly statements telling you that!

I like it!

I've been a bit slow this time but maybe I can use the credit card again and then make an overpayment of a 1p so it will have the same effect.

You're with the wrong company then! I pay 1p per call (fixed) to UK landline.

Most CC's allow you to pay online with a debit card. Or set up a DD to pay off either the full amount or the minimum payment.

True, but for very small amounts this could still be relatively costly. I would have felt that there would be a de minimis rule under one pound or similar figure if there are other ways of easily paying higher amounts.

But not to non-geographical numbers like 0845 and 0870, surely?

Had a similar problem a little while back when the late payment charge exceeded the amount outstanding. A quick telephone call, mention of illegal penalty and Small Claims Court, had it reversed faster than you could say Matt Barrett. :)

pay them 2p and then they'll have to keep sending you a statement to tell you they owe you 1p?

But you do spend 50000% of the amount visiting the bank when you could be earning sensible amounts?

Jim.

I didn't rush round to the bank with my 1p ready - I waited until someone was visiting the bank for another transaction so it only added a few seconds to the time.

John beat you to that idea!