Virgin/A&L/MBNA

doogdavis

This is my first post so forgive me if I waffle on a bit.

Am I being unreasonable??

I have had a Virgin cc on 0% for around 6 months. Recently I unexpectedly got a new card through the post and bewildered by this I gave them a call. I was told that the week before a third party had called them to say that I was expecting to receive a new card but it hadn't arrived, so they cancelled my present card and sent me a new one! I assured them that I had not instructed anyone to call them on my behalf and why would I, I have a perfectly valid card that I pay off monthly by dd. I asked if they had the name of the third party, they told me it was my mother. Hmmm, very odd, seeing as my mum passed away 22 years ago. Well after much holding on,
assurances from them that this was exactly what had happened, and much disbelief of my behalf, they said they would pass it over to the security dept who would contact me.

A few hours later............it dawned on me. My daughter applied for an A&L card a few weeks before this all happened. As she was away for a while she asked me to look out for it, so I opened the first letter she received from A&L which contained some information it said was changes to her cc T&Cs. Knowing that she had not yet received her card or pin no. I called them gave them the account no. that was on the letter they had sent and very briefly explained that I was calling on behalf of my daughter, that I was aware they would need to speak to her directly but she wasn't available at the moment and if possible could they pls cancel the card as it has never arrived at our house and neither has the pin. That was it, I never gave them my name or any of my personal details other than that I was a mum.
When the penny dropped (both Virgin & A&L are MBNA) I realised that I was the third party mum whose call had prompted them to cancel my own cc!
I was furious, but what made it worse was that they couldn't work out what had happened, I had to tell them. I was told that whoever I spoke to when I called about my daughters card must have got my details from my phone no. (obviously caller display because I never gave it to them) and that this was a mistake and they were sorry I was so angry. I am still angry!!


This mail makes perfect sense to me but I am aware that when some people read it they will say 'What on earth is she talking about?'

If you get my drift, pls tell me am I being unreasonable??? Should I write a letter of complaint. I mean nothing bad happened. Had I gone on holiday and not been able to use my card thats another thing.

Galstonian

I think you could complain about the potential for security lapses and the hassle of having your cards renewed. If they are taking customer details automatically from phone numbers there is real scope for fraud there. Face it, if it is even possible to do this there are many operators who will use it even if they are not supposed to, it is just too easy instead of asking for identification details which they have to type in and then responding to all the subsequent security checks.

dc

You can add Abbey to your list. What I cannot understand is why they cancelled your card and not the A&L one.

It seems a common occurence to mix up accounts held by family members. I was at first rejected for a second card because my sons limit was mistakenly added to mine. Resulting in me having too much credit from them in their eyes.

Phone Number recognition is being increasingly used as part of proof of address.

For your peace of mind in future, MBNA always send out PIN numbers before sending cards.

HTHs dc