Unfortunately Vanquis tell me they only accept either direct debit or debit card payments. As the cards come with a fairly small limit I sometimes need to clear my balance more than once a month and so direct debit doesn't work for me as my credit limit would need to last me nearly 60 days. As soon as my credit file clears up I will switch to a better card and ditch Vanquis. It's a shame though as it will be one of my oldest accounts on my credit file and I expect it to hurt my score. Thanks for your reply though

I'm new to this forum, so forgive me if I have posted this in the wrong section! I have over the last couple of months had a problem with Vanquis - Luckily it hasn't legged me up, but I wanted to share my experience with you all to warn you of a 'trick' I think they may be playing. I have had a vanquis card now for nearly 18 months to help me repair my credit rating. I have never had any real issues other than them constantly trying to sell me PPI, but have never carried a balance past my statement for them to charge interest on either - so I suppose I am unlikely to ever have anything to complain about. They have regularly put my limit up and the card has worked well for my credit file. HOWEVER - over the last couple of months, when I have tried to pay my balance of using my debit card through their website, they have randomly failed to take the payment even though I have been given an authorisation number by their site and advised it will credit my card within 3 working days. A call to the bank confirms no request for payment received. When I called Vanquis, they advised me that the payment had been 'challenged' for security reasons and would credit my account once they had satisfied their security checks. This once took them 2 weeks. The first time they did this it didn't concern me too much, just frustrate me. They advised that the security check was because I had paid a large amount and so I decided I would simply pay more regularly in smaller amounts in future to avoid the problem. Since then however they have challenged the smaller payments as well and I have started to see a pattern to it. I believe this is nothing to do with security or the amount of the payment, but more likely the timing of the payment. It seems to line up with a payment being made towards the end of the 60 day interest free period! I'm guessing, by challenging the payment and therefore delaying it, the payment lands outside of this period and your balance is therefore subject to interest? I'm lucky, I don't carry a balance forward and have each time cleared my balance in full within a day or so of my statement; therefore it hasn't caused me to be charged interest. Had I not have done that though I'm sure I would have been charged!! My concerns are two fold, obviously anyone taking advantage of their rights to up to 60 days interest free as per their contract may be caught out by these 'challenged' payments, and secondly, if they are not authorising payment electronically online as I enter them, are they storing the 3 digits on the back of my debit card for use later when they have finished challenging (or delaying) my payment? If they are, this is against Visa's rules isn't it, and as a Visa Card Issuer this really concerns me! They are trusted with a lot of important personal data; surely out of anyone that accepts debit / credit card payments you would expect a credit card company to respect the rules? I genuinely hope I am wrong with this as to date, their card has been good for me and now, as one of the oldest credit accounts on my credit file, I would be disappointed to have to cancel the card to ensure my details aren't being compromised on a regular basis! Has anyone else had the same experience? Again sorry if this is in the wrong place.