Virgin Credit Card's Cheeky Charges!

CannyJock

mabainborough wrote: »

They tried to take a direct debit of £25.00!

This was my previous minimum payment.

You must have made another payment to them before the £ 1.29 in the same statement period then i.e. £ 1.29 wasn't the balance carried forward from the previous statement - their minimum payment policy is:

• Your balance (if this is less than £25); or
• whichever is the greater of: £25; or 1% of your statement balance before any default charges and interest (to which we'll then add the default charges and interest).

udydudy

IMHO, I am unsure you have a stand. As per the terms and conditions of most card companies, in cases where you are paying interest on oustanding balances, you will always be charged interest in the month after you have paid current outstandings. This interest is what has been accrued from the last statement date to the date you cleared the oustandings.

Whenevr you have balances which accrue interest it is always advisable to keep the direct debit until the following payment due date. Also you should convert the direct debit from minimum payment to full outstandings.

This way on the dd date they would have taken the £3.11 out.

But if you had specifically asked for the account to be closed then you may have a leg to stand on as they should then have advised you that the account cannot be closed until the next statement is generated.

Like other posters I would say pay the oustanding under protest so that you do not incur any more charges which AFAIK if the ombudsmans decision goes against you you will be liable for all charges levied until the decision is taken.

CannyJock

mabainborough wrote: »

Can you explain further for me?

In their T&C's under charges they state:

Default chargesIf your payment is late, if you exceed your credit limit, if your payment fails.£12

Because you cancelled the direct debit authorisation it caused their DD submission to fail.

It's still worth arguing this because you should have been advised how making the payment and closing the account would affect any DD requests that were being processed.

It'll also cost them £500 if it goes to the Ombudsman, but to me you've got a legitimate case to argue that you would hope they see sense on and resolve. Just be sure to pay the amount even if you disagree with it to avoid further problems.

NickX

CannyJock wrote: »

Continue to dispute the £ 15.11 and ask for it and costs (telephone calls, correspondence and your time) with interest to be repaid.

Actually I wouldn't pay the £15.11

I suspect that they will actually be in the right here and that the Terms and Conditions will state that it is the customers responsibility to inform them that the Direct Debit has been cancelled. I am not 100% sure on this because personally I avoid Direct Debits like the plague because of precisely this sort of issue.

However, if you pay the £15.11 and they are covered by the Terms and Conditions, it is going to be much more difficult to get them to repay that. For the sake of £15.11 and the cost of an ongoing dispute, I think given some pressure, they are much more likely to simply write off the £15.11 and clear the account.

P.S. Its worth checking the Terms and Conditions regarding Direct Debits closely to see just who is at fault here.

YorkshireBoy

CannyJock wrote: »

It's still worth arguing this because you should have been advised how making the payment and closing the account would affect any DD requests that were being processed.

OP was...on the original DDI confirmation letter that MBNA sent.

One of many, many, threads on the subject...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1166127

mabainborough

CannyJock wrote: »

You must have made another payment to them before the £ 1.29 in the same statement period then i.e. £ 1.29 wasn't the balance carried forward from the previous statement - their minimum payment policy is:

I did try to make extra payments each month. I set up the dd to make sure that i didn't miss a payment and then paid an extra £18 off per month to make it up to £43 via online banking. I did this every month since i opened the card in order to pay it off quicker. They wouldn't let me choose my own rate for the dd, they said it had to be £25.00.

Ah, so their computer did not register that i had only £1.29 left to pay which explains why they tried to take the full £25.00.

mabainborough

CannyJock wrote: »

In their T&C's under charges they state:


Because you cancelled the direct debit authorisation it caused their DD submission to fail.

It's still worth arguing this because you should have been advised how making the payment and closing the account would affect any DD requests that were being processed.

It'll also cost them £500 if it goes to the Ombudsman, but to me you've got a legitimate case to argue that you would hope they see sense on and resolve. Just be sure to pay the amount even if you disagree with it to avoid further problems.

Thank you for all your help and advice. i will see what the Supervisor says over the next couple of days. Be sure to pay it, if it cannot be resolves before hand and then start to try and argue my case. It is si hard, you think you are doing all the right things, paying it off, closing the account etc and then BAM!, they get you again in a completely underhand way!

YorkshireBoy

The best number to ring is 0800 783 1116 during office hours. Be apologetic (through gritted teeth if necessary) - not aggresive - and you stand more chance of a favourable outcome.

mabainborough

Guess what i won and Virgin Credit Card have issued me a cheque for the full £15.11 today!

I wrote to them complaining about the charge, the wrote back and said they understood my 'situation' and as a gesture of good will here is a cheque for £15.11.

Thank you to all that replied.

The value of the cheque may be small but the moral victory was huge!:T

Moggles_2

mabainborough wrote: »

Guess what i won and Virgin Credit Card have issued me a cheque for the full £15.11 today! I wrote to them complaining about the charge, they wrote back and said they understood my 'situation' and as a gesture of goodwill here is a cheque for £15.11.
Thank you to all that replied. The value of the cheque may be small but the moral victory was huge!

Congratulations & thanks for your feedback
:beer: