Help - Virgin have charged interest on 0% card

Vin2300

My girlfriend recently took out a Virgin card with 0% for 16 months.

She balance transferred £3,000 immediately, which as she knew incurred a £120 fee. She then set up a standing order to pay off £195 per month with the payment to be made on the 1st of every month.

She opened the card on 15 Aug and did the balance transfer immediately.

The first statement dated 14 Sept showed her payment made on 1 Sep and the next payment due by 2 Oct.
The next statement dated 14 Oct showed her payment made on 1 Oct and the next payment due by 01 Nov.
The next statement dated 14 Nov showed her payment made on 2 Nov and a late payment fee of £12 and interest charged of nearly £40. Next payment due 30 Nov.

I assume she will now have lost her interest free status and will be charged every month from now. It has disappeared from the latest statement.

Why is the payment due date getting earlier every month? She was not advised of this.
Can she do anything about this? I would have said it was not made clear enough to her that the 1st of each month would not be a good payment date if she wanted to meet every payment.

We are both really !!!!ed off about this, as we thought everything had been done right to avoid something like this.

noh

The payment due date is not fixed.
The date is notified to you on each statement.
The only way to ensure you don't make a mistake is to set up a direct debit for the minimum amount. Then make additional payments by other means.

Your girlfriends best course of action is to call them explain that she made a mistake ask them nicely to reinstate the 0% and set up a DD for future minimum payments.

Vin2300

I see your point about it being on the statement, and im sure it is what they will say. However in reality people dont always look at the minute detail on statements.

The salesperson advised her to set up a standing order, but failed to tell her that the due date isnt fixed.

Will get her to give 'asking nicely' a go.

If that doesnt work, i guess its get the next best balance transfer card and hope they match the credit limit Virgin gave.

td_007

Vin2300 wrote: »

Will get her to give 'asking nicely' a go.

Usually this works provided you can show a genuine reason for the delay - which is appears to be in your case. The cc company may want to hold on to the charge but reinstate the 0% deal - which again is not too bad! To avoid this in future set up a direct debit for the min amount and then you can relax for the period of the 0% deal.

jonesMUFCforever

Vin2300 wrote: »

I see your point about it being on the statement, and im sure it is what they will say. However in reality people dont always look at the minute detail on statements.

The salesperson advised her to set up a standing order, but failed to tell her that the due date isnt fixed.

Will get her to give 'asking nicely' a go.

If that doesnt work, i guess its get the next best balance transfer card and hope they match the credit limit Virgin gave.

Sorry but a due date on a statement is not a minute detail!!

MarkyMarkD

And it's not a "genuine reason for the delay" if you simply erroneously set up a standing order to get there on EXACTLY the due date of the first ever statement.

Obviously it's not the same date each month - for one thing, what if it's a weekend?

Vin2300

Good news! She rang up and persuaded them to reinstate the 0% interest period and the interest charge has been refunded.

She has also set up a direct debit to make the minimum payment now to avoid it happening again!

Jemma-T

Vin2300 wrote:

Help - Virgin have charged interest on 0% card.

Hmmm. You forgot the bit... "After we broke the contract".

Glad you sorted it and you were lucky.

NickX

Vin2300 wrote: »

Good news! She rang up and persuaded them to reinstate the 0% interest period and the interest charge has been refunded.

Nice Result. Happy Days :beer: