MBNA spoiling for a fight

mountainofdebt

Back in March when I realised I was paying 24.9% in interest I wrote telling them what I thought of the situation and threatened to close my account.....with the result that they dramatically reduced the interest rate and after the promotional rate the interest rate went up to 7.9%. Not brillant but alot better than what I was paying.

I've come home tonight to a letter from MBNA sayng that following a review of my account, my interest rate will be going up to 14.9% in January :mad: :mad: :mad:

I've phoned them up and have told them very nicely that if they don't offer me a lower rate then I'm taking my ball home .....I'm not putting up with this.

Any thoughts as to why my rate has gone up and my chances of getting it reduced again????

Rafter

A lot of card companies are raising these 'special' rates to recover the losses they are making for bad debts.

14.9% is a pretty standard credit card rate.

I suggest you try going for a life of balance transfer card, a zero % offer or a loan somewhere to get the rate down.

MBNA can change their rates at will. Probably worth reminding them of the deal you cut in March and that you were led to believe the rate was ongoing.

MBNA do have an account with a 6.9% rate I think - why not just ask for your account to be changed to one of those!!!!

R.

ti1980

Hiya Mountainofdebt, do you have another credit card that you could transfer the balance onto temporarily?
Having spoken to several people on this board, and friends who have MBNA cards, it would seem as though the best thing to do would be to clear your balance with them as that is when they play ball with good offers.
I as well have had so many problems with MBNA, the last offer I got with them was a BT at 2.9%. This was offered when I cleared the card to zero, did this by BT to another card. I did nothing and they phoned me up a few days after to offer me the 2.9%.
Incidentally, I have just BTed my MBNA card back to zero in the hope that they will phone me back again so am waiting to see what happens there.

Hope this helps.

mountainofdebt

is a standard rate but I'm not accepting a 100% increase!!!!!

As I also said to them tonight, I'm not paying this interest rate to cover their losses not only on bad debt (why should I pay for their bad decisions????) but to cover the interest they are losing because of card tarts either!!!

Unfortunately I recently got turned down for a 0% card basically because of the amount of credit I have at the moment even though I have reduced limits on all my cards and continue to do so as I make payments.

In addition to that another deal on another card has come to an end and they won't play ball either so I've used alot of my cahoot flexible loan facility in clearing that!!! I do have some credit left and I know where I can get hold of some funds so you never know I might just be able to clear the mbna card...hopefully to give the appearance of carrying out my threat, lol!!

fruityslh

You're luckier than me, MBNA refused to reduce from 24.9% despite me threatening to move, so I did I was able to move the debt to Life of BT with Texaco.

Won't be dealing with them again, they ahave a habit of enticing you in and then increasing your rate

ti1980

I know they only reduced my rate when they thought they were going to lose my business. Otherwise they were saying they could only reduce it to 22.9% but I would have to pay £25 for them to do that. What a joke!

mountainofdebt

Phoned them up and threatened to take my ball home if they didn't reduce the rate.

As a result I got it down to 10.9% - still not ideal but better than 14.9%.

I do have £2200 on my cahoot flexible loan and hubby has £2000 so I will be able to transfer 90% of the MBNA balance and once it has been paid off I will close my account.

Obviously loyality counts for nothing - even though I was told my business was appreciated !!!

ti1980

I have just managed to get a balance transfer from MBNA for 1.9% for 6 months so if it is possible for you to do so I would clear the MBNA to zero and then phone them up and see what they have to offer you. I bet they would give you the same as I have just got.

I know its tempting to close the card after they have messed you around so much but don't cut your nose off to spite your face, do what I have done. I was never going to keep the balance at zero due to the debt I have on other cards but they don't know that!
If it wasn't for you and others on this site I would still have debt on this card at 24.9%. I shudder when I think of that.

Edna_Bucket_2

mountainofdebt wrote:

...Obviously loyality counts for nothing - even though I was told my business was appreciated !!!

Bit of an odd comment to make, especially on this BB! Is there anyone here who is "loyal" to any card company?

I doubt it - if so you clearly haven't been following Martin's advice! (and on the converse side, why, in the age of the stoozer, would any card company be loyal to a customer - they never have been before)

They've stated their case and what they want to charge - you've stated what you want and they won't give you. That's not a "fight" - it's a simple business negotiation and discussion.

Rather than post an extremely provocative thread title, why don't you just take your business elsewhere?

novice_money_saver_2

I can't stand MBNA - my OH has a CC with them and pays it off every month (yes, people like that really do exist!).

They are forever sending him credit card "cheques" with enticing literature about how easy they are to use and in very small print there is all of the nasty information about it being a cash withdrawal and accruing interest at a ridiculously high rate from the date of use. They phone him at least once every 2 weeks trying to sell him repayment insurance. He is in a very fortunate position in that he is not desparate for credit but I can only guess at how many people get drawn in to these tactics.

My mission is to get him to close his account in 2006!

mountainofdebt

Edna_Bucket wrote:

Bit of an odd comment to make, especially on this BB! Is there anyone here who is "loyal" to any card company?

I doubt it - if so you clearly haven't been following Martin's advice! (and on the converse side, why, in the age of the stoozer, would any card company be loyal to a customer - they never have been before)

They've stated their case and what they want to charge - you've stated what you want and they won't give you. That's not a "fight" - it's a simple business negotiation and discussion.

Rather than post an extremely provocative thread title, why don't you just take your business elsewhere?

I have tried to get another cc so that I could transfer to a 0% card but was deemed that I was already stretched (even though I pledged to close said MBNA account) so I am doing the next best thing in shuffling the debt so I AM taking Martin's advice for a person in my situation.

I'm hardly in a position to stooze - I would have thought my username would have given that away - I'm just trying to reduce the amount of interest pay so I can reduce the debt mountain sooner rather than later so why should a person in my position pay for another person to stooze???

If you are in a position to stooze all well and good - its perfectly legal to do after all but don't expect me to make up the short fall in the company's profits

Not sure why you consider the title provocative though.....MBNA certiainly weren't out to impress with with their actions!!!