Virgin Credit Card - Extortionate Interest

GirlieQ

Hi All

Just wondering if i could have some advice. I have a Virgin Mastercard with a balance of around £3870. I pay £120 a month and my interest is charged at a whopping £103 per month, which means im technically only paying off £20 a month.

What can i do to reduce this? The card is already suspended and its going to take me years to pay it off. Is there a measure in place for this?

I find it unbelievable that they can charge so much interest. They are making £100 profit from me a month!

cifpower

As it is suspended I doubt there is much you can do. Why is it suspended? Is your credit file good enough to apply for another 0% card so you can transfer your balance?

GirlieQ

It was suspended beacuse i missed quite a few payments, stupid i know.

My credit score is horrendous so cannot get a 0% card. Is there anyway i can enter a payment scheme with them? or is that unheard of?

mcrfan

:mad:

Me too!

They are evil and so are Barclaycard, both these cards have hiked up their APRs this year, Virgin twice. They have just put mine up to 34.9%.
Unless you can tart to another card you are stuck with it. Like me - I can not get any more credit I have tried. They are evil and I think they deliberately pick customers who they know from credit checks can not transfer their balances away. I have not had any problems with my account to justify a hike I have not had any late/missed payments.

When I got my first APR hike from Virgin I called and managed to argue it down a bit so you could try this if it has been increased recently?

GirlieQ

mcrfan wrote: »

:mad:

Me too!

They are evil and so are Barclaycard, both these cards have hiked up their APRs this year, Virgin twice. They have just put mine up to 34.9%.
Unless you can tart to another card you are stuck with it. Like me - I can not get any more credit I have tried. They are evil and I think they deliberately pick customers who they know from credit checks can not transfer their balances away. I have not had any problems with my account to justify a hike I have not had any late/missed payments.

When I got my first APR hike from Virgin I called and managed to argue it down a bit so you could try this if it has been increased recently?

Thanks i will definitely try that!

mcrfan

Guess you could try going down the DMP route with them. Maybe try calling one of the debt charities listed on this site.

I personally am not trying this as I don't believe they will freeze their interest they are so evil and greedy that I don't see why they would!

Bitter? Moi?

mcrfan

GirlieQ wrote: »

Thanks i will definitely try that!

Give it a go but I think they will hard to budge now. If they do give you a reduction be careful aswell because I got my rate down around April time but they did say it would be reviewed in approx 3 months time and here we are in Aug and they have put it up to 34.9%.

Grr

Staciep88

Hi,

my OH is in a very similar situation, in the end I took out 2 0% BT cards to transfer some of the debt, unfortunatly they didnt give me enough credit limit but I still managed to transfer £1700 of his previous £4700, which is great as that £1700 is now not having any interest charged and we are just in the process of looking for another card for this last £3k balance. Do you have a partner (or even better - a family member) with a good credit rating who would be willing to take out a 0% Balance Transfer card for you?

Stacey x

salesadmin

I have just recieved a letter today from Virgin saying my interest rate is being more than doubled to 34.9%!! They offered me 5.9% until October for purchases made before June and have now said from October the balance will be charged at 34.9%. I shouldn't have fallen into the trap but more fool them as I've just come into some money and was going to pay off the balance anyway, so now I'll just cancel the card when my 5.9% rate ends.

battyboimatt

Well your not the only one, I have only had my plat card with MBNA for 9 months and yes they have raised the APR to 29.9% APR silly thing is they have jsut given me another one of there branded cards last month for A+L for 15.9% lol so work that one out, I called up to try and lower it but she was having none of it, company decision apparently well im lucky I only owe £145 on it, so I can pay it off and just let it collect nice little green 0's on my credit report to Jan, then I can call and cancel it and hopefully get a better deal else where

MABLE

GirlieQ wrote: »

Hi All

Just wondering if i could have some advice. I have a Virgin Mastercard with a balance of around £3870. I pay £120 a month and my interest is charged at a whopping £103 per month, which means im technically only paying off £20 a month.

What can i do to reduce this? The card is already suspended and its going to take me years to pay it off. Is there a measure in place for this?

I find it unbelievable that they can charge so much interest. They are making £100 profit from me a month!

For them to suspend the card I assume you are very high risk. This is why they are charging a big apr because they want there money back asap.

I would try and negotiate with the company.