Virgin Master Card Trying to Rip Me off!

jamesh316

I paid for my double glazing by using Martins tip of transferring a balance transfer to an empty credit card and then having the money refunded to my bank account, I did this with the Virgin (MBNA) Credit Card and took advantage of their 15 months or so interest free on balance transfers.

The bill was around £4500 and I worked out that if I set my direct debit payment for the maximum I could afford per month £275 then I would be almost paid off by the time that the interest free option ran out, and then I could either try and pay a bigger final payment or take the interest on the sum that remained for the last month or 2.

This was all going well until in November I had a letter from Virgin informing me that they were changing my Direct debit to minimum payment, either 3 or 5%. I was a little concerned however my normal payment came out as expected in December so I figured that I must have read the letter wrongly and they were offering this, this month though I noticed that I had a little more money than expected so I checked my bank statement and found that in January they had only debited £25!

I rang Virgin and said "I would like to change my direct debit back to £275 per month please" to which they told me "sorry we cannot change it we are now only taking direct debits for minimum payments and will not allow you to change it". Obviously I was not happy about this as my plan was to pay off this debit in a steady fashion, so I asked if I could pay this months £250 shortfall over the phone with my debit card, to which they responded NO, we cannot accept phone payments from anyone with direct debit set up.

I think that this is a dreadful and deceitful, and see this purley as a way of trying to hamper my efforts to pay back my debit and infact to try to force me into paying off as little as possible so that they can nail me for interest as soon as my interest free period runs out.

Has anyone else had this problem? I have now set it up as payee for my internet bank account and plan on checking to see how much they take out on my direct debit each month and then to pay the difference manually so that I can keep up my £275 a month plan, but I really do think that they are trying to rip me off.

vet8

I agree, it seems strange to change your DD without your consent and then refuse additional payments on top. They are trying to get people into more debt.

Great in the current climate!

moneybuster

jamesh316 wrote: »

I paid for my double glazing by using Martins tip of transferring a balance transfer to an empty credit card and then having the money refunded to my bank account, I did this with the Virgin (MBNA) Credit Card and took advantage of their 15 months or so interest free on balance transfers.

The bill was around £4500 and I worked out that if I set my direct debit payment for the maximum I could afford per month £275 then I would be almost paid off by the time that the interest free option ran out, and then I could either try and pay a bigger final payment or take the interest on the sum that remained for the last month or 2.

This was all going well until in November I had a letter from Virgin informing me that they were changing my Direct debit to minimum payment, either 3 or 5%. I was a little concerned however my normal payment came out as expected in December so I figured that I must have read the letter wrongly and they were offering this, this month though I noticed that I had a little more money than expected so I checked my bank statement and found that in January they had only debited £25!

I rang Virgin and said "I would like to change my direct debit back to £275 per month please" to which they told me "sorry we cannot change it we are now only taking direct debits for minimum payments and will not allow you to change it". Obviously I was not happy about this as my plan was to pay off this debit in a steady fashion, so I asked if I could pay this months £250 shortfall over the phone with my debit card, to which they responded NO, we cannot accept phone payments from anyone with direct debit set up.

I think that this is a dreadful and deceitful, and see this purley as a way of trying to hamper my efforts to pay back my debit and infact to try to force me into paying off as little as possible so that they can nail me for interest as soon as my interest free period runs out.

Has anyone else had this problem? I have now set it up as payee for my internet bank account and plan on checking to see how much they take out on my direct debit each month and then to pay the difference manually so that I can keep up my £275 a month plan, but I really do think that they are trying to rip me off.

Hi all how dose this work then ?????? or is there a link to Martins advice

Regards Moneybuster

jjwhittle1981

With the virgin card , have you not set up an online account? I know that you can send a payment that way. Or can you not used the slip on the bottom of your statement to pay the extra in at a bank?

Only a thought.

ILW

You are probably costing them money.
Make the most of it but don't expect them to make it easy.
Yous can just send a cheque every month.

Trembling_Turnip

Why don't you just pay Virgin the minimum amount and then pay the £275 into a higher interest bank account for the duration of the 0% BT period?

Then you can withdraw the lump sum (plus interest hopefully) and pay it off in one go?

Trembling_Turnip

Although I agree, it IS ridiculous you can't choose your own DD amount...

Mozette

I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't pay the extra into an interest bearing account, then clear the balance just before the 0% expires.
That's what I'm doing anyway.

jamesh316

Trembling_Turnip wrote: »

Why don't you just pay Virgin the minimum amount and then pay the £275 into a higher interest bank account for the duration of the 0% BT period?

Then you can withdraw the lump sum (plus interest hopefully) and pay it off in one go?

Thanks for that, its such an incredibly obvious idea, yet it hadn't even crossed my mind! I guess I was worrying too much about paying it all back within the interest free period and didn't think about banking the cash instead, cheers!