I know it’s stealing….but…..

[VidalSass]

Im going to be Annihilated here……

i took out a store card to pay for a large tech purchase, interest free, over 36months. This was four months ago

I set up a direct debit straight away for the monthly payment and then cut up the card.

I checked my account and noted direct debit not come out, so I logged on to the store card account and the charge is still ‘pending’ - therefore minimum payment is 0 as the charge has not been processed by the merchant.

would I be unreasonable to just ignore it and therefore avoid the repayments? Surely it would eventually just be cancelled? Although it’s already sat there for four months….

i don’t want to call the merchant as obviously they will then just process the charge…..

im worries that eventually it would just be charged but a part of me is excited at the thought that an error may have occurred resulting in me getting free stuff. I know it’s technically stealing but it’s a huge company (probably not paying corporation tax in the uk) and I’m not exactly rolling in it

AIBU - should call the merchant to process the charge and start paying it back

NBU - technically it’s stealing but fuck the man and ride the freebie wave

Am thinking my LLB, part-qualification in accountancy, and banking (law/finance) qualifications probably mean I have a better understanding of the law than you do? And an understanding of how a credit control department might wish to interpret the law when it comes to recovering funds they are owed.

Have also checked with my hubs (a global head of finance, with a very extensive understanding of both contract law and that relating to both international and domestic finance) and he also agrees the OP should reach out to the CC and get it sorted: just because the debt has not been collected does not mean it is ‘extinguished’ and, in fact, the unpaid monies - and the interest due thereupon - will now also be accruing interest. I’ll take his word over @ random anonymous poster.

It’s not about the morals, OP, it’s about exposing yourself to significant risk unnecessarily.

Are you sure it’s not like an Argos card? You don’t need to make monthly payments, and it’s interest free, but unless you pay the whole amount at the end, you get clobbered with all the interest due from the beginning.

OP not sure why you have posted. You argue against all the reasons for contacting to arrange payment, so it sounds like you’ve made up your mind

I was just about to say the same thing. The DD is pending as you don't have to pay it yet but if it does go over the 36 month period you will be charged all the interest for the period for the whole period.
If you want to reduce the balance and pay it off before that time you will need to send the money/make payments to the account as they will not request it as you are still in the buy now pay later period. Don't think they have forgotten it as they haven't !!!

I remember that one. I'm sorry, but I laughed my arse off the whole way through.

So did I!

I am usually an honest angel - I’m always the person who finds a purse or mobile phone on the floor and tries to find the owner and once I walked out of Boots and realised the cashier hadn’t scanned my spendy shampoo and conditioner right and I even went back to pay for rather than thinking ‘yesssss saved myself £30 there, thank u universe!’. But in this instance I really could not be fucking bothered over a pair of £4 leggings. I even tried to make it a good deed by giving them to someone else! But no. I’m still waiting for the police to knock on the door!

Common thievery, do the right thing and contact them

But you’re contracted to paying by direct debit, right? And you aren’t making payments regardless of where the error is. Call them.

🤣🤣🤣 very true!!

There is no contract to pay by direct debit, OP set up a direct debit for ease of paying a store card, if it is a usual store card you just have to make the minimum repayment each month which at the moment is £0 as the purchase is still pending

Put the money into a savings bank each month and by the end of the payment schedule
If they have not contacted you then you will
Not only have a a free tv but a lump
Sum too. If they do co ya t you then you can pay what you have saved and continue ur making the payments. It's a win win.
Although I will say if it's interest free for a number of months they will probably expect you to pay them and will not take a dd as they want you too pay more.

Definitely sit tight. If you hadn't have checked you'd be nonethewiser, some people never check their bank balances!
They may catch up with you but they could never blame you for anything, they'd just start the payments from then.

I can't speak for other MNers, @gurnerandpooch, but I would definitely own up to this. I've been back into a supermarket to pay for a chocolate bar that had slipped under my handbag in the trolley, and been overlooked at the checkout.

Also - this 'freebie' for @VidalSass will actually be paid for by everyone else who shops at that shop. Losses like this come under shrinkage, and shrinkage is paid for in the prices charged for every item in the shop - it doesn't come out of company profits.

I don't like stealing but I don't like incompetence either.

This isn't like you've asked for a refund against stuff you actually got, you bought it in good faith, you provided your end and they have failed at theirs.

Saying that I would tell them, but phrase it as a complaint because chasing companies up to take your money is counterintuitive, inconvenient and annoying and not a normal part of what you signed up for

I remember that one. It was funny but at no point did I think the OP or the comments were actually sincere. Did you honestly think the frothy replies were genuine ? 😅😅 People just type shite for fun.

I'm not disputing it happened but no one, not even the OP cared really.

I was the OP of the leggings post.

I didn’t ‘care’ as such (as I did whatever i felt was right) but I found the response interesting - everyone was queuing up to tell me what a moral failure I was. it was silly!

@Allthatwegotisthispalebluedot

I didn’t ‘care’ as such (as I did whatever i felt was right) but I found the response interesting - everyone was queuing up to tell me what a moral failure I was. it was silly!

Exactly, it was just people being silly for the sake of it. No one was actually hoiking up their bosums. If you thought they were genuinely concerned about your moral failure then I think you need to worry more about being gullible that having poor morals (which for a £4 pair of leggings you don't!!)

Like you said it was just a silly entertaining thread with lots of fake OTT comments

No it isn't. She has set up a direct debit and done her part. The rest is on the company

You set up the DD to repay in good faith
So in my opinion it's on them to collect the payments so I would put the money aside and wait and see how long it takes for them to realise
Lots of people wouldn't even notice the payment hadn't been debited
My conscience would be clear

Oh and if they tried to charge me interest I'd check with CAB first

Is it heck. It's up to the merchant to process it, not up to the OP to chase it up.

I'd just put the payments in a savings account and keep an eye on it.

So? That's 5 minutes I could spend doing something else.

It's not the specific amount of time in this scenario though, it's a general principle. I wasted hours of my life sorting out an issue with a phone contract once (I did nothing wrong, someone in a phone shop pressed a few wrong buttons, the person who was meant to fix it made it ten times worse, it took me multiple phone calls and emails to resolve. I couldn't leave it because it would have affected my credit rating. I got a measly £20 as an apology. Never again will I spend time fixing a company's mistake if there is zero benefit to me.)

In the OPs case, the company have her card details, they can charge her card at any time. So the company can fix this issue, IF they bother to uncover it.

I don’t feel bad about keeping it at all.
I also don’t need to post it here to ‘convince’ myself either way…. I’m just interested to hear other peoples opinions and ethical viewpoints.

yes I am potentially going to keep something I haven’t paid for which is technically stealing, but I don’t frog March myself down to the police station every time I accidentally creep over the speed limit which is also breaking the law.

I was fully aware of the righteousness I was gunna be smashed with here but I am fascinated as to how high some people put themselves on a moral pedestal…..