Virgin Credit Card Promotion

granny_grey_hips

hi i am new to this sight so be patient with me
i recently transferred from lloyds credit card to virgin and have discoverd that if you are a day late with your payment they scrap your 15months interest free promotion you pay the standard £12 late payment fee and you have to pay interest on what you owe. i did contact them and they said they would half the late payment and interest and i had to set up a direct debit.

my payment is made on the 6th of the month to reach them by my due date of the 11th but this particularl payment they changed the due date to the 9th which i did not notice until my new statement which reads once again my due date is 11th.
are virgin trying to rob me because i am a new customer or are they right to change my due dates when they want to.

also i make the same payment amount everymonth but my minimum payments are always different sometimes its high and then its really lowthen high again i have not spent on this card and i dont intend to .
can anyone help and tell me if virgin are leagally in the right.
i am waiting for them to send me the terms and condions so that i can read though it.

lukese

exactly the same thing happened to me mate. was late with one payment and got the 12 pound charge, but didnt notice till the month after they wher charging me intrest. i think i looked into it and it says in the terms that if you do not upkeep your side of the deal they revoke all there deals. fair enough really but when they change there dates you might have a case.

granny_grey_hips

thank you i have just checked through my old natwest statements and all my due payments are the same so i think i will be enquiring about it tomorrow .

lukese

goood luck

lukese

could it be though that the other payments fell on a saturday? making them default to the next monday?? migh be worth checking before you go in guns blazing! nothing worse than being shot down in flames by a call centre 12 year old.

granny_grey_hips

one of my payments was due on a sunday the others have been a monday or a friday ? i might just send a letter to the financial ombudsman and see what they say. fingers crossed.

YorkshireBoy

granny_grey_hips wrote: »

one of my payments was due on a sunday

Therein lies your problem. Had you had a DD set up it would have been collected the day after on Monday (and 3 days after if Xmas Day/Boxing Day fell on a Monday/Tuesday. As it was your payment had to CLEAR by the preceding Friday if paying by anything other than DD.

The above, coupled with the number of days in each month, explains why you were late.

Just checking my own Virgin payment due dates here and I see that they range from the 2nd to the 5th of the month, so they're not doing it to you deliberately.

i might just send a letter to the financial ombudsman and see what they say.

They'll probably say "check your T&C's, specifically 1b, 2c, 7b, 7c, 8a, et al".

You'll have more luck by speaking with customer loyalty on 0800 783 1116. Be nice to them...after all, it's YOUR fault - NOT theirs.

Good luck!

PeteHi

Im just transferring mine from lloyds to virgin as well, to take advantage of the 0% for 15 months...

Whats the minimum monthly payment on the virgin card or how is it worked out. My interest at the moment is about £70 a month with Lloyds and I pay off about £100 a month (£3k balance). So just wondering what Im likely to be saving with Virgin

YorkshireBoy

PeteHi wrote: »

Whats the minimum monthly payment on the virgin card or how is it worked out. My interest at the moment is about £70 a month with Lloyds and I pay off about £100 a month (£3k balance). So just wondering what Im likely to be saving with Virgin

First payment is 3% of the balance. Second and subsequent payments are £25.

Suggest you continue to pay (at least) £100 though, so as not to create problems 15 months down the line when you've only reduced your balance by £350 or so.

How they work it out is detailed in your summary box/T&C's.

PeteHi

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

First payment is 3% of the balance. Second and subsequent payments are £25.

Suggest you continue to pay (at least) £100 though, so as not to create problems 15 months down the line when you've only reduced your balance by £350 or so.

How they work it out is detailed in your summary box/T&C's.

cheers YB, havent had the card and terms through off them yet

DestroyingAngel_2

Granny Grey Hips,

When you did the BT, you would have been advised that the promotion rate would stay at 0% provided you did not pay late or go over the limit. Late is late, even if it's by just one day. Over the limit is over the limit, even if it's just by 1p.

So, when you were late, you got charged the late fee and you lost the 0%. Hence you started seeing interest being charged. This is perfectly legal, as it is within the t&cs when you first took out the card. No case here.

With regard the payment due dates, you'll notice that the payment dates vary every month, within 3-4 days. Eg. in May it could be the 9th, then in June it's the 10, in July it's the 9th again, in August it's the 8th. Virgin/MBNA have not changed the dates. If you'd set up the DD correctly, it would naturally take the money a few days beforehand, in order for the payment to clear by the due date. So, if there's a bank holiday or weekend before your due date, the DD would take that into account and take the money out a bit earlier. Again, Virgin/MBNA have not done anything unlawful, so no case here, either.

Your monthly minimum payment is £25 for a Virgin card. However, you can of course make additional payments whenever you want to...just go to www.virginmoney.com and enrol, or login if you're already enrolled. You can also set up a DD for a fixed amount, so you can pay off your balance faster.