Amazon Credit Card free Voucher

BigSofty

Call Centre monkey. I find it hard to believe that the bank rep saying there is no fee is not binding on the bank because I assume that me saying please transfer £x is legalling binding on me! Basically my instruction was "If there is no fee please transfer £x".

If the bank can retrospectively add a fee can I retrospectively cancel the transfer?

tee_pee_2

hchalk wrote:

This is what mine says Teepee, does yours not say the same?

"We MAY charge a handling fee of 2% (At least £2) for balance transfers and cheques offered at special promotional rates other than a special rate you received when your account was opened"

When we opened are account the promotional rate was zero!

it says

we make a handling charge of 2.5% for cash advances and 2% ( but not more tan £50) for BT.

also looked in the sumary box and it is there again 2% BT fee.

I have never been screwed over by a credit card before and if I am honest have never understood how other people have. That'll teach me cos I ahve just joined the Q of " people screwed over by banks":mad:

BigSofty

tee_pee wrote:

I have never been screwed over by a credit card before and if I am honest have never understood how other people have. That'll teach me cos I have just joined the Q of " people screwed over by banks"

Me too. But don't give up yet. We might as well make them work hard for their money.

hchalk

Call Centre Monkey

It wasn't just the one call service operator saying this and getting confused I have spoken to several people now who have all had the call service operator saying the same thing! Is it our fault halifax cannot train their staff properly! Or do you think that we were all talking to the same person!

HazelEyes_3

Call_Centre_Monkey wrote:

So the t&cs make the point that it is indeed different when the account is opened. That could mean that the charge is always applied at account opening instead of just maybe being charged at other times. It doesn't explicitly say there will be no fee for BTs when you open the account. It's all just down to interpretation.

I understand the wording is terrible, but I'm sure Halifax would have consulted their lawyers before sending out these letters about the fees to make sure it's all above board.

BigSofty, it's probably the case the person you spoke to wasn't aware of the fee. With all the products that are available, it's very hard to keep track of which cards dont have fees, and which do (and if so, how much and are they capped). The call centre agent probably looked at the account, and saw no mention of the fee, therefore told you that. The bottom line is that you can be told anything under the sun over the phone, but it doesn't change the t&c's you've agreed to.

I've come to learn that it's best to get everything firmly in writing, because call centre staff aren't going to be correct 100% of the time. They are just going by the information provided by that organisation - they are infact a link between customers and the bank itself.

Certainly, the Amazon BT fee problem is regretable, and in a way I'd be angry too. But legally speaking, I'm reasonably confident Halifax will have checked into it, and these fees being applied now are being correctly applied.

How naive to assume that big companies are always right - surely one of the tenets of this website is that they aren't always even though they will tell their customers that they know best!

As an example the company that launched the M&S credit card were breaking the law in the way that they automatically sent out new credit card to existing store card holders and they were reprimanded (at least) by the Financial Ombudsman. So the biggest customers can and do get things wrong.

No one should accept the change in terms and conditions on an existing BT almost 6 months after the event.

I would also recommend sending letters of complaint with the responses received so far to the financial journalists at the national press such as Capital Letters at the Guardian. There is a great story here (from a journo's perspective, though Amazon and HBOS won't agree!)

Although HBOS administer the card for Amazon, complaints should still go to Amazon as they may want to consider moving their affinity card to another supplier after this major c*** up.

And to suggest that Call Centre Staff are not responsible for what they say is outrageous and IMHO would not stand the test of "fairness" in a court of law.

Good luck to all who have complained so far - keep going

HazelEyes_3

Forgot to mention in my "rant" in response to Call Centre Monkey's post that the Advertising Standards Authority should also receive copies of your letters of complaint if you responded to a printed advertisement for fee free BTs. ASA doesn't actually have a lot of teeth but they do cause more aggravation for companies who are obliged to respond to complaints.

Complaints can be made on line

http://www.asa.org.uk/asa/how_to_complain/

BigSofty

I just received my Amazon credit card statement printed 2/10/2006. The threatened balance transfer fee is not mentioned on it. But I have, for the first time, noticed that there is a balance transfer form at the bottom of page 1. This form points out that if you transfer a balance today it will be charged at 0.00% for 9 months from opening the account. It also points out there is a 2% fee (£2 min, £50 max). ON THE SAME PAGE in the summary of charges it says the transfer fee is 3% min £3. The left hand still doesn't know what the right hand is doing!!!

I looked back to my previous statements and they have a balance transfer form as well. The note on all of the transfer forms (pre Oct 2006) says the interest is 0%. There is no mention of a transfer fee.

KPD1

I was the one who recorded the call we originally made to Halifax/Amazon. We are a business, and all our calls are recorded and we do inform everyone, thus meeting our legal obligations. As I phoned Halifax, they also informed me the call was being recorded, and this statment I also recorded. The point is that I only ever apply for cards that have zero balance transfer fees, and Halifax offered this when I applied. I did read the T & C s which was why I phoned them up, because the T & C's were unclear, as an earlier reply also picked up on. I recorded this call because I know from experience, what is said over the phone cannot usually be proved, and lets face it, all companies involved in money matters record calls to prove to us that we get it wrong when giving info over the phone, so now I can prove that Halifax gave us the wrong info when we arranged the balance transfer. I have the entire call recorded, and if Halifax do not agree to remove the £50 charge from the account then they will pay dearly as it will be provided legally to the financial ombudsman as indisputable evidence. When a representative of halifax makes such a clear statement that there will be no BT fees, then they must honour that statement, no use hiding behind ambiguous T & C's. I've got them by the goolies, and now I'm going to start squeezing, my advice is do not pay off the debt, keep getting the zero rate interest, and do not pay them the BT fee, if necessary take it to the ombudsman.

BigSofty

Amazon have replied to my complaint. They have said,

"I have forwarded the information on your previous email to the manager and our legal department who have assured me that your query on the Amazon Mastercard is being investigated."

So it sounds like Amazon are taking it seriously. I'll keep you posted.

tee_pee_2

I have checked my online statement again todau and nothng has appeared to date, but I haven't complained becuase my T& C seem quite straight forward and I don't think I can argue because I did it onine and never spoke to a amazon memeber of staff to verify the BT fee.

Think when it comes on my statement I am gonna have to pay it.