Beware of Virgin BT and monthly interest rate rises only being displayed

Codswallop

I've got a Virgin card at a promotional rate of 5.9% for BTs. I had a bit to spare on the card so I decided to make a BT to another card and pay it off.
I thought that by calculating 90% of what was available it would cover any fees and charges and all would be fine. Wrong. Upshot is a £21 charge for going overdrawn and loss of the promotional rate. Urrgggh. I am, officially, an idiot. I checked that the promotional rate would be the same when I transferred the amount online, I checked again. I don't understand how it has happened.

After making the BT, they text you and you have to confirm that you wish to make the transfer. It would have been a courtesy if they had said "You are aware, that by making this transfer, you'll exceed your credit limit, incur fees over and above the 3%transfer fees and lose your promotional 5.9% rate as a consequence ,aren't you?"

Well, why should they? They're a business and not a bloomin' charity. I know. This is a warning to others to be aware when making a transfer online, get an operator online as you're doing it and check that you won't exceed your credit limit, even if it looks like you won't, double check with them and get their name.

I will have to go over my paper statements, to work out how this happened.

Just as Martin says in this week's alert regarding only credit card monthly rates being displayed, Virgin are using this very tactic. My online statement has dropped displaying the yearly rate and is only displaying this month's current rate, which is now 2%. Be on the lookout for this tactic.

NickX

Codswallop wrote: »

It would have been a courtesy if they had said "You are aware, that by making this transfer, you'll exceed your credit limit, incur fees over and above the 3%transfer fees and lose your promotional 5.9% rate as a consequence ,aren't you?"

Why would they want to do this ??

They would be losing out on the overlimit fee and the extra interest from removing the promotional rate.

They HAVE to detail all the Terms and Conditions by law, but expecting them to warn you before you actually break them is wishful thinking. Remember they want your money

GeorgeUK

Have you asked if they can reinstate the 0% as you had made an error in calculating how much you could BT and offer to pay off the extra immediately?

DestroyingAngel_2

Codswallop, your calculations would have worked perfectly if your promotion had been at 0%, but not at 5.9%. My guess is it would've been the interest charged on your existing BT PLUS the new BT you did and the fees, that knocked you over the limit.

The rule of thumb is, if in doubt, get the rep to do the work for you, then, if there are any errors, it's the bank's fault and not yours.

If you can give more details of the promotion, your credit limit, how much you transferred etc, perhaps someone on this forum who's a whizz at number-crunching could work out exactly where you went wrong?

kitkat84_2

any balance transfers requested with mbna should be cancelled if this exceeds the 95% of your available credit. did you make any other transactions a few days after requesting the BT?

if you haven't made any late payments on this account before, they should be happy to reinstate the promo once you are back within your limit.