minimum payment on virgin card

jwevo

Hi,

I have got a Virgin card with about £11k on it on a transfer.

This was 1 years interest free but they only took out £25 per month for the first year.

This obviously meant that I did not pay much off the debt in the first year and now the debt is killing me along with other cards.

Do I have any grounds to say only taking £25 per month is not enough on the grounds of responsible lending - it seems to me that this is nowhere near the minimum % charge and looks to me like they wanted to keep the debt as high as possible.

Should they have taken more out legally and do I have ground to say the contract was invalid?

NGlady

Not an expert, but surely if you was aware that this was happening and that it was the wrong amount, surely especially considering its a free phone number you should have had the idea to ring them and correct them on this?

Tixy

I think Virgin's terms & conditions are that the minimum payment is the greater of £25 or any interest, charges +£5. So whilst its on 0% interest the minimum payment of £25 would be right.

You'd need to check the original terms & conditions you signed to.

But if you signed to terms along these lines then no you cannot contest it. You had the opportunity to pay more at any time. MBNA did not force you to pay only the minimum amount.

DGJsaver

jwevo wrote: »

Hi,

I have got a Virgin card with about £11k on it on a transfer.

This was 1 years interest free but they only took out £25 per month for the first year.

This obviously meant that I did not pay much off the debt in the first year and now the debt is killing me along with other cards.

Do I have any grounds to say only taking £25 per month is not enough on the grounds of responsible lending - it seems to me that this is nowhere near the minimum % charge and looks to me like they wanted to keep the debt as high as possible.

Should they have taken more out legally and do I have ground to say the contract was invalid?

Its posts like this , dare i say it , that make me feel sorry for the banks

baxgttdi

jwevo wrote: »

Hi,

I have got a Virgin card with about £11k on it on a transfer.

This was 1 years interest free but they only took out £25 per month for the first year.

This obviously meant that I did not pay much off the debt in the first year and now the debt is killing me along with other cards.

Do I have any grounds to say only taking £25 per month is not enough on the grounds of responsible lending - it seems to me that this is nowhere near the minimum % charge and looks to me like they wanted to keep the debt as high as possible.

Should they have taken more out legally and do I have ground to say the contract was invalid?

........No

DarkConvict

No they shouldn't have taken more out, it is an interest free card, so you only have to pay the bare minimum which on some cards is usually as low as £5.

It is your responsibility to manage the credit card and pay it off. By having £11,000 on an interest free card you have probably saved over £1000 already!
What you should have been doing is putting all surplus money towards paying off your debts! 0% Credit cards are not debt management plans, they don't have to issue and manage your monthly repayments, that is your responsibility.

If you put £11,000 on a 0% card and used the saved interest on luxary items, you haven't made any moves to getting debt free. Because as above, the 0% runs out, you will get 15.9%-34.9% flat rate, which you are then going to be charged.
Getting 0% cards is no easy and if it has ran out you have wasted an opportunity many on here are seeking.

Butti

I feel maybe people on here are being a little harsh on you......but this is basically how it seems to work with Virgin. You balance transfer. They cut your minimum payment down to something Pathetic and send you lots of credit card cheques. Then after 16 months of having a spiffing time they whack the rate up to something horrific and make lots and lots of money from you. Its not exactly moral but it seems to work as a business plan.

Do a budget and start paying your debts off. Move your Virgin debt on to any cards you have with lower APRs ...and learn from this.

Credit cards are not your friend. They are in the market to make money from you.

B

Professor_Pat_Pending

I did a similar thing with Virgin and after just over a year at 0% they recently put my rate up to 34.9%, I am now about to start a DMP and they have actually been very supportive.
It is cases like this that make me think that a min payment of 5% per month mandatory is actually quite sensible.

jwevo

HI,

Thanks Prof and Butti.

This was just a question thats all, if we are to explore all avenues then there is nothing wrong with asking - if these questions were not asked then we would not have reclaiming for bank charges etc. Most people who ask these questions are not looking for an easy answer but an answer.

We all get into debt for different reasons and we will all agree that we should have acted as we agreed to the terms etc but life isn't as straight forward as although you think is a good idea at the time and have the best of intentions of paying it off before the 0% rate ends a lot of us fall into the same trap .

My only conclusion is that my cards are not to be used again and look forward to chipping away day by day at the balance - tha is my positive step in getting myself out of debt.

bertman

I would dearly love to be offerd 0% so I can transfer funds to pay them off. I have the same problem with a Virgin card, I have less than £3k on it but the rate is 34.9%. I ask every month if they can reduce the APR but they won't. The minimum payment is only £5, the rest is made up of interest so basically unless you can over pay or transfer you will never really pay off the card.

DarkConvict

Professor_Pat_Pending wrote: »

I did a similar thing with Virgin and after just over a year at 0% they recently put my rate up to 34.9%, I am now about to start a DMP and they have actually been very supportive.
It is cases like this that make me think that a min payment of 5% per month mandatory is actually quite sensible.

Higher repayments would only work on new credit.

Reason for this was higher repayments were considered in the new credit legislation that came out, problem is too many people are on minimum payments a forced increase would tip many into defaults. Even though its not an increase in interest, they just can't afford to pay more.

jwevo is right we do have to ask questions and my response probably was harsh, but the way i look at this forum is its a place for answers, the truth ans support, not some cushionly lies. At least you had the intention to try and pay it off, did you make use of the interest free time to pay other debts?

The rates are high that you can not get out of debt is the vicious circle, the harder it is for you to pay the higher the risk, so the higher the interest. They need to turn it around and insist on higher repayments instead of higher interest to get you paying more back before it becomes impossible.