Make sure you take note of what direct debit or monthly standing orders you have linked to your credit or bank card or cards if that is the case. Read on.

I had the misfortune of losing my card before the end of the year. It is not just the inconvenience of not having ready access to cash or money, but also the amount of monthly payments that must be cancelled too.

The key of course is to write down what monthly bills are paid through which card. But who thinks of doing that? Anyway, I thought I’d covered all of them until I received a demand with a penalty from a well-known company for non-payment of my account. It was the one I had missed. I immediately went online, changed my card details and paid what I thought was the outstanding sum via my online account. I checked sometime later that there were no more penalties before tearing up the paper demand and putting it in the bin.

It was a relatively small fee that had ballooned x 100 including fees and penalties

A couple of weeks ago, I checked the same account and all was fine. Then last week much to my shock, I opened a letter with word “solicitor” jumping out of the masthead. I quickly cast my eyes to the bottom line to see that I owed almost 100 times the original amount. It was a relatively small fee that had ballooned x 100 including fees and penalties.

I scrambled online again to double check that my account was not in arrears. All was above order. “Surely some mistake,” I consoled myself.

I immediately called the company rather than the number on the solicitor’s letter which was written in bold-red figures. I explained my situation fully thinking of course that indeed there had been some mistake or that the solicitor’s letter was a very genuine looking fake.

After confirming some of the usual personal details, the young man told me that I did indeed owe them this money for an unpaid bill topped up with fees and penalties

The lady could find no problem but put me through to what must have been the credit control office. After confirming some of the usual personal details, the young man told me that I did indeed owe them this money for an unpaid bill topped up with fees and penalties.

Then the verbal tennis match began. I explained I had fixed it up online, him responding that I hadn’t. And just as with some tennis rallies, it got heated and loud, me being the John McEnroe of the piece admittedly and uncharacteristically.

The original missed payment had gone into their bad debt office and out of sight of my online account, or something like that

By the end of the conversation when I had decided to actually stop ranting and listen, the young man explained that my account had been shut off when the payment could not be made and what I had subsequently paid online with my new card must have been the following month’s fee with a penalty attached. The original missed payment had gone into their bad debt office and out of sight of my online account, or something like that.

I had overstepped the line so I apologised

Still feeling really hard done by, I was also chastened by the fact that I had been rude and aggressive in my frustration towards the young employee who was nevertheless very firm and not overly sympathetic to my cause.

But I had overstepped the line so I apologised, told him it was not his fault, that he was only doing his job and that my beef was with the extortionate penalty and rather flimsy manner in which the original missed payment had been conveyed to me.

Apart from having to pay up, getting angry on the phone with this employee was just as regrettable. Lessons learned.

Pare it back

How many more hammerings need to happen before the Six Nations will become the Five Nations once again? For a professional tournament, Italy’s continuing participation and subsequent humiliation is a farce at this stage. They are going backwards.