Virgin CC problem

snowmaker

Hi,

Last month I transferred a credit card balance to a virgin card with 0% for 15 months.

I set up a direct debit over the phone and was advised to make it £120 each month. I recieved a statement today saying that I failed to pay the minimum payment of £122 and therefore incurred a late payment charge and have lost the 0% for 15 months facility.

Surely this is unfair, I would have been happy to pay £122, why did they not round up my direct debit to cover this.

I am seriously regretting transferring to virgin as I find them hard to get on with & this has surely done my credit rating no good at all

Any advice?
Steve

snowmaker

Ok - I have managed to get through to someone at Virgin who has cancelled the charge & restored the 0%.

Just out of interest he said Virgin would soon be removing the monthly fixed amount payment option for everyone & just allowing minimum payments to be made, I can see why they are going to do this as it will mean peoples balances will take longer to pay off .

i.e. - my next months minimum payment is £27 whereas I want to chip away at the balance while it is on 0% interest so will continue to pay £120 per month until they remove this option.

I should imagine the only way to pay a fixed amount once this changes would be to pay a standing order on top of the minimum payment direct debit each month.

Steve

TheAnalyst

snowmaker wrote: »

I should imagine the only way to pay a fixed amount once this changes would be to pay a standing order on top of the minimum payment direct debit each month.

Steve

Debit card over the phone or online?

turbulentfurball

snowmaker wrote: »

i.e. - my next months minimum payment is £27 whereas I want to chip away at the balance while it is on 0% interest so will continue to pay £120 per month until they remove this option.

I've just opened a Virgin CC for the exact same reason. You would be better off by just paying off the minimum payment and then putting the remainder that you would have paid in to a high interest savings account, and then using that to pay off as much as you can just before the end of the interest free period. That way you're earning interest and you'll pay more of the debt off.

YorkshireBoy

snowmaker wrote: »

i.e. - my next months minimum payment is £27

It should be £25, according to the T&C's. It's probably showing £27 because there's a little bit of interest to be added?

clio

You will still be allowed to make over payments on top of the min DD. i do it that way.

HeadInSand_2

I had DD for minimum amount each month and used their online facility to overpay whatever I could each month with debit card, that was one I was seriously glad to pay off, they increased the IR every month it felt like!

DestroyingAngel_2

snowmaker wrote: »

Just out of interest he said Virgin would soon be removing the monthly fixed amount payment option for everyone & just allowing minimum payments to be made, I can see why they are going to do this as it will mean peoples balances will take longer to pay off .

I should imagine the only way to pay a fixed amount once this changes would be to pay a standing order on top of the minimum payment direct debit each month.

Steve

The real reason Virgin stopped fixed amount dds is because lots of people forget that if they spend more on their cc, they have to make a bigger minimum payment. The knock-on effect is that when people find out their fixed amount dd hasn't covered the minimum payment requirements and that they haven't bothered to make any additional payments, they lose their promotions and start incurring late fee charges and interest ... and then they end up ringing Virgin and having a go (although obviously it's their own fault and not Virgin's). Virgin have stopped setting up fixed amount dds and are now only offering minimum amount dds and full amount dds...though obviously you wouldn't want a full amount dd to be set up if you've got the card for BTs!

Setting up a standing order with your own bank to handle any additional payments on top of a minimum amount dd is a very sound idea.