Am I being done over by Virgin?!

sarahmarie

I had a Virgin credit card with 18 months interest free on balance transfers. Now that the interest free period has come to an end I transferred my balance to another credit card and cancelled my direct debit payments to Virgin through my bank. Now that my balance has been paid off, I didn’t expect Virgin to claim another payment from my account because I didn’t have anything outstanding. Unfortunately for me they did, and it was rejected. Now they have charged me £12 (return payment default) and then £25 (unpaid direct debit).

So after I cleared my balance with Virgin, they are now trying to charge me a total of £37. Is this right? Should I have to pay this?

Please help me

Thank you in advance

Sarah

Peeky

I would guess it is interested. Do you transfer away within your 18 months or at 18 months?

p00hsticks

The answer is probably gong to depend on the timescales, which you don't mention - did you wait until you had got a statement showing a zero balance from MBNA before cancelling the DD ?

sarahmarie

Hi Peeky, I set a reminder a few weeks before my 18 months interest free ended so i know i didnt go over that.

Hi p00hsticks, i have online banking with virgin so I waited until i could see that the balance had been paid off and then i cancelled my direct debit to virgin as a payment was due and didnt want extra funds on my account.

it seems they have charged me for cancelling the direct debit even though i had already cleared my balance.

Eydon

sarahmarie wrote: »

so I waited until i could see that the balance had been paid off and then i cancelled my direct debit to virgin as a payment was due and didnt want extra funds on my account.

And herein lies your mistake. With Virgin, additional payments do not affect the direct debit that they will take. So even though you had paid the balance, Virgin (as per their T&Cs) will still try and take the direct debit (and from what you have said above, you were expecting them to try). So according to their T&Cs they have done nothing wrong, and you are liable for the £37.

However, if you phone them up and explain things in a calm, friendly manner, they may very well refund the charges.

euronorris

The OP does state though, that they cancelled the DD.

OP, did you cancel it with your bank, or the CC company or both? And, did you do this over the phone or in writing?

sarahmarie

I cancelled the direct debit via online banking with my bank (nationwide). I didnt tell Virgin that I was cancelling the direct debit. I assumed that they would see my account had no outstanding balance and not take anything out.

-I had a clear balance as of 31st May, the next day I cancelled my direct debit.
-On the 7th June, Virgin attempted to take out a payment and by then the direct debit was already cancelled - 6 days earlier.
-9th June Virgin whacked a £12 and a £25 charge for unpaid direct debit.

Thank you for all your help.

bengal-stripe

sarahmarie wrote: »

I assumed that they would see my account had no outstanding balance and not take anything out.

Once MBNA has compiled a statement and this statement states the payment due (either minimum or total) will be deducted by DD on a certain date it will be taken, unless the DD instruction gets pulled manually. The DD sits around and waits until it’s time to go out - three or four days before the due date. That’s the way MBNA works, other cards will cancel a DD if a payment is received. Whichever way the bank does it…….there will be complaints here from people who “just assumed”.

Had you informed MBNA. that you wanted the account closed and the DD due to be cancelled, the DD could have been removed in time, but you preferred not to do that.

In financial matters….never assume!

euronorris

Unfortunately, as bengal states above, you can never assume with financial matters. Always best to cancel the DD with both the bank and the collector, in writing.

Although, I am confused as to why Virgin would collect anything, if nothing was due. Was there a small amount of interest that hadn't been applied yet? Or did you have a DD set up for a set amount each month?

However, if the DD was cancelled, not unpaid due to insufficient funds, then I would also recommend you read the T&C's of the DD to see what your rights are there.

Either way, I think it may be worth complaining to VCC as they may refund the charges as a gesture of goodwill. They did this for me once as it was a one off, not a regular thing, so they may do the same for you.

bengal-stripe

euronorris wrote: »

Although, I am confused as to why Virgin would collect anything, if nothing was due. Was there a small amount of interest that hadn't been applied yet? Or did you have a DD set up for a set amount each month?

I would assume (I know, one shouldn’t assume) that MBNA has no system in place to monitor DD, once they have entered the system. When the statement gets compiled, the DD gets initialled and all the DD just wait in a queue until they are due to be sent out. With MBNA, DD have to be pulled manually if they should not go out or if the amount to be taken needs to be modified. In the OP's case, when the statement got compiled, something was due to be taken out by DD. As the OP failed to contact MBNA, the DD went out regardless of the changed balance in the account.

Other cards cancel DD when a payment has been received, which equally can lead to problems. “My additional payment plus the DD, would have been the full balance. They didn’t take the DD, so they balance has not been cleared and now I got charged interest.”

Whichever way………banks can’t win.

Bob_the_Saver

Sorry, I saw "am I being done over by Virgin?" but I think I googled the wrong thing!!!!
ah well, back to the seach engine.