Not upheld: account administration and credit file reporting following direct debit date change complaint against MONEYBARN NO.1 LIMITED (trading as Moneybarn)

Decision detail

Summary

Miss L complained that Moneybarn incorrectly added missed payment markers to her account after she changed her direct debit date from the 1st to the 15th of each month on 1 January 2026. This change inadvertently caused the January 2026 payment to be scheduled immediately rather than on 1 February 2026, resulting in two payments becoming due in January 2026. Miss L only made one payment in January 2026 and the second payment bounced. The ombudsman found that Moneybarn correctly reported this as a missed payment and had adequately informed Miss L of the risk through an email sent on 2 January 2026, telephone conversations, and website information. The complaint was not upheld as Moneybarn acted within the contract terms and had provided reasonable notice of the consequences of the direct debit date change.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that when Miss L changed her direct debit date from the 1st to the 15th of the month on 1 January 2026, this caused the payment billed on 15 January 2026 to be scheduled immediately rather than on 1 February 2026, resulting in two payments becoming due in January 2026. Since Miss L only made one payment in January 2026, she missed a payment, which Moneybarn correctly reported to her credit file. The ombudsman concluded that Moneybarn had adequately informed Miss L of this risk through an email sent on 2 January 2026 (which reached her spam folder), telephone conversations, and website information. The ombudsman also noted that the contract terms remained unchanged as Miss L would still make the same total number of payments, merely shifted forward by approximately two weeks.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website