Shopping online with Next can still lead to credit problems, despite changing its site after our previous investigation, where we revealed it automatically set up credit accounts if your card was declined…
While Next does seem to have corrected this and now lets you choose another card or cancel the order like other online shops, we’re still getting reports of unwanted credit accounts being opened in other circumstances. Like Kay, who told us in January:
‘I was checking my credit report the other day and was shocked to find that Next had set up an account and given me £600 credit without my knowledge! I am really annoyed as having credit accounts open affects a person’s credit rating. Like the others I recently purchased something online and paid for it by debit card and not by credit card.’
Next’s confusing website
We think Next’s website is still too confusing. After you confirm your address and delivery method, the first words on the next page are ‘Order complete’. If you want to pay by card, you have to click on the inconspicuous ‘Pay now?’ button further down the page – otherwise a credit account will be opened and the order charged to that account.
Paying on a credit account could lead to you paying interest at 25.99% APR – more than most credit cards charge – if you don’t cancel the order or settle your account within a month of receiving the statement.
We’ve asked Next to fix this so that a credit account is only opened when the customer has actively chosen this option.
Next did not accept that the ‘Pay now?’ button was inconspicuous, but said it would be changing its website so that after confirming their address and delivery details, customers will see two very clear options saying ‘Pay now?’ or ‘Add to your account’ before they see the ‘Order complete’ message. We will monitor Next’s website to ensure these changes are made.
Have you had these issues with Next?
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