reclaiming pre paid credit card fee?

xanderd

Hi,

I have a pre paid credit card which lets me top it up using a debit card online for a fee of £1, or in cash in shops for a 3% fee.

today i urgently needed to top up £800 to buy flights. The credit card website was down so i was unable to top up by debit card. When I phoned them up they said the site will be down for several days and they cannot take debit cards over the phone, i must go to a 'payzone' in store.

i asked if they would then refund me the difference between the £1 I would have paid if their site was up, and the 3% (£24) that I now have to pay because their site is down, and they refused.

It seems to me that they should refund me as they must be breaking some kind of law by not allowing me the payment options that I agreed to when I signed up to the card.

Is this correct? if so what laws etc do i cite in my letter of complaint?

many thanks

alex

lincroft1710

The only "law" they may be breaking is the law of contract. But they are not refusing to honour the contract, it is just that one service is temporarily unavailable.

Check your Terms and Conditions very, very carefully, they may contain a paragraph to the effect that "occasionally it may be necessary to withdraw one of the top up methods for a short period of time". If it does then you can't really claim anything. If it doesn't then write to the head office asking to be recompensed for the £23 difference. But don't be too surprised if they still say no.