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

A more accurate description would be 'honest' really but whatever 🤷

I cannot get over the state of some comments on here.

Have the money to pay just in case. Otherwise, sit tight and hope they have messed up!
This is their error not yours.

We are continuously screwed over,shafted left right and centre in this day and age, so a miniscule opportunity to get something free from a corporate provider sounds just fine to me. The low morals comment is laughable.

I wouldn’t. It’s not your job to sort out their mistakes, if you made a mistake and lost your receipt etc. are these firms helpful? No! You’ve not done anything wrong and if/when they ask for the money pay it. Accidentally shoplifting is different as in that scenario you have done wrong.

They will charge you once the period is up, maybe slapping on high intrest rate. I have an Argos card, which is intrest for up to 12 months. We brought a washing machine and put it on the argos card, we are putting some money on the account each month, so when 12 months is up, we have paid it off, if we don't, we get charged interest and it's a high intrest.
So I if I was you get paying it, ours doesn't have a minimum payment each month. We have just worked out how much, we have to pay each month, so we know come the end of 12 months it's paid off.

@FigAndOlive I have the same policy. I don’t do unpaid admin either!

They’ll charge even more interest for the time you haven’t paid when they realise.

Nope…
<rolls eyes>

Could it be that there is 6 months before you start to pay? Just a thought...

Although its their fault I don't think that makes it ok to just not pay it. My conscience wouldn't let me do something like that and I kind of think karma would visit in the future anyway. One of my friends had a games console delivered a number of years ago, the driver put it in their porch which had a patio door, and closed it over, friend claimed it wasn't received and she got another new one, totally didn't sit right with me. Different scenario I know but same principle.

I’d hate to say this but be prepared for a letter before action from the company who will seek to place legal responsibility on you and your failure to report to them and your bank that the DD was not taken.

This might be a case of negligent activity by your bank or the company bank and by not reporting it you are going along with what might be a larger fraud.

worse case scenario is that the money is mistakenly being taken from someone else’s account.

you owe the money under a contract and failure to pay means you are in breach of contract.

daft to cut up the card in case you have to make a claim because the product breaks during guarantee period

I'm shocked at all the posters saying not to contact, ignore, it's the company's fault, don't do their job for them, etc.

I'd have contacted them the minute I discovered a DD hadn't gone out, and I have done exactly that. Just in the last couple of weeks I've ordered one pair of shoes, and the company have sent me three pairs! Of course I contacted them, and arranged for a courier to collect them, even if I had to go to a shop or the PO to do it, I'm disabled and I don't drive, it's not always easy for me to get out. It's just wrong to not pay for anything, and for those who are saying you wouldn't notice if a DD was going out or not, it must be nice to have enough money to not have to check your bank account!

Just do the right thing OP, and contact them.

Are you sure it is not one of those payments which start after x years. So you have 3 years for example interest free to pay back and after that they charge you some ridiculous amount?! You might get hit with a huge bill unexpectedly if you ignore it.

Couldn’t live with myself, lose sleep over it, potentially go to jail 😂 oh I do love the dramatics of mumsnet

I once ordered something online, paid, item was delivered. About a week later, I was sent a reimbursement for the item that I did receive. Wasn't a massive amount (under $100). But I kept it. Wasn't my error. Sometimes you take little "wins" that come your way.

OP, I think in your instance, they will eventually discover their mistake & payment will start. But it's not up to you to chase them.

To all saying that something "wasn't their error"

What about a bank/company or whatever had overcharged you, bet none of you would happily accept that.

You should check the agreement.
It will probably say
A. the customer is obliged to ensure payments are kept up to date.
B. Failure to do so will result in immediate payment being due and the standard store card interest rate of 120% per annum will apply.

Misrepresentation is fraud too 😉

The full wording is 'failing to disclose information to another person where there is a legal duty to disclose the information'.

Honestly, I would just contact them and sort out the payments.

They will likely realise eventually and you may then get charged interest. Plus, you'd need to save the money anyway, just in case, so it's just easier to sort it now. I wouldn't want to live with the 'what if' in my mind but that's me.

Errors/things do happen though.
My dad bought a newish car (say a year old) on finance in the late 90s. Agreement was sorted, direct debit set up and the first monthly payment taken. All good. The next payment wasn't taken so he tried to contact them but couldn't get hold of them- tried calling/recorded letter but no luck.

I think the finance company had gone bust - he tried every which way to contact them/try to solve the problem for about 6 months but to no avail. He'd done all he could so just had to keep records and save the money in case.

25 years on, he has never heard another thing (and no longer has the car!)