can anyone help with information on my rights against MBNA

maddiemarshall

To whom ever will listen to me,

I have been trying to contact many places on the internet for advice or help and keep getting to the end of the conversation and they say we will just take a payment of £XXXX and then we can start a case, so I am un-sure if I actually have a case or not.

|MBNA credit card informed me Jan 08 they would increase me APR to 34.9% and I did NOT have the option to opt out, i have had no other way to pay this off so have just had to live with it for 2 years, whenever able clearing more than the minium payment- how ever this year I felt so stressed that the minimum payment still was not covering the interest so although I never use my card to make purchases the balnce is increasing, I have complained and said the statement on my card is false as it reads "if you only pay the minimum payment it will take you longer and cost you more to clear your balance" this is not true for me as it should read "if you only pay munimum payment your balance will still increase and you will never clear your balance" I first wrote an officially complaint March 29th 2010 and after months of sending me letters dancing around my complaints, one letter even saying I have always paid timely and never gone over my limit they will drop my interest to 24.9% as a courtesy (in the same letter it says they charge higher interest for customers who miss payments etc-so why was I being charged it in the first place)
I phoned monday and they said ok we will drop it to 13.9% and if it rises you will have the option to opt out.
I am grateful at the drop but am I missing something big here? have they made an erra and are thinking quick shut her up and it will be over- I just feel so sick at 2 years of 34.9% interest on a 8K card- I have paid it back several times I'm sure.

Thanks for your time. Maddie.

Tixy

Do you want to know if you have a case because you were not given an option to opt out?
Or because of the sentence that was written on your statement? or something else?

The agreement to give an opt out option came into force in January 2009.

maddiemarshall

Thanks for replying to me, well I guess that answers about my opt out because they did it in 2008, so they have me over a barrel, it just seems so currupt that you can say now you must pay 34.9% the end- but that's the way it is.
I did wander if the statement they right actually applied to my account as it was false I can only afford to pay minimum payment and every month it has been going up- so the words "it will take you longer and cost you more" are false- it will cost me more and never be clear if i continue to make minimum payment- it seems strange they don't just up the min payment so it atleast goes down a £1??? what do you think? x

ILW

maddiemarshall wrote: »

Thanks for replying to me, well I guess that answers about my opt out because they did it in 2008, so they have me over a barrel, it just seems so currupt that you can say now you must pay 34.9% the end- but that's the way it is.
I did wander if the statement they right actually applied to my account as it was false I can only afford to pay minimum payment and every month it has been going up- so the words "it will take you longer and cost you more" are false- it will cost me more and never be clear if i continue to make minimum payment- it seems strange they don't just up the min payment so it atleast goes down a £1??? what do you think? x

You could have paid a little over the minimum payment if you wished. Would you had prefered if they had increased it and not given you the choice?

maddiemarshall

If it ment the balance was decreasing even if slightly then wouldn't that be more ethical? makes sense, i paid directly from my bank minimum payment for all my cards since our hours have been cut and our mortgage has risen, some months I have paid extra off and it is still higher now then at the beginning of the year and it hasn't been used for 6 years.

maddiemarshall

maddiemarshall wrote: »

If it ment the balance was decreasing even if slightly then wouldn't that be more ethical? makes sense, i paid directly from my bank minimum payment for all my cards since our hours have been cut and our mortgage has risen, some months I have paid extra off and it is still higher now then at the beginning of the year and it hasn't been used for 6 years.

You could have paid a little over the minimum payment if you wished. Would you had prefered if they had increased it and not given you the choice?

maddiemarshall

ILW wrote: »

You could have paid a little over the minimum payment if you wished. Would you had prefered if they had increased it and not given you the choice?

If it ment the balance was decreasing even if slightly then wouldn't that be more ethical? makes sense, i paid directly from my bank minimum payment for all my cards since our hours have been cut and our mortgage has risen, some months I have paid extra off and it is still higher now then at the beginning of the year and it hasn't been used for 6 years. (excuse me i'm new to this)

Tixy

The minimum payment percentage is in the T&Cs. MBNAs is low I agree but its all clearly written in your agreement. You do need to understand when you sign up that you need to pay more than minimum to make a dent in your debt.
If your interest rate is more than 12% APR and you only pay back 1% a month then your balance will rise.

maddiemarshall

Tixy wrote: »

The minimum payment percentage is in the T&Cs. MBNAs is low I agree but its all clearly written in your agreement. You do need to understand when you sign up that you need to pay more than minimum to make a dent in your debt.
If your interest rate is more than 12% APR and you only pay back 1% a month then your balance will rise.

But my APR is 34.9% they state what my minimum payment is and it goes out of the bank, I do actually always round it off to the greater amount, and the balance still increases- shouldn't my statement say "if you only pay minimum payment each month your balance may not decrease" rather than take me longer- as it is actually going up every month.

maddiemarshall

Tixy wrote: »

The minimum payment percentage is in the T&Cs. MBNAs is low I agree but its all clearly written in your agreement. You do need to understand when you sign up that you need to pay more than minimum to make a dent in your debt.
If your interest rate is more than 12% APR and you only pay back 1% a month then your balance will rise.

Also if my interest rate was not massivily high the minimum payment would be clearing some debt off- I have called them and they said "oh yeah sorry we will drop the rate to 13.9% for you" she wouldn't say about why it was high for the last 2 years and said she can see we are always timely with our payments and have never gone over our limit so is happy to do that- but i have paid over 5K in interest in 2 years on the card and have about 5 and half left to pay- i feel robbed.

Tixy

I don't think you have a claim against them.
They get to choose the APR they think is right for you at the time (except now there are the new guidelines on opt out and not increasing more than once a year). The thing is the economy has changed such a lot over that time that they can justify pretty much anything, if you tried to put in a claim.

You could try complaining by letter if you want, see if that gets you anywhere but no way would I be paying out fees to anyone to try to get this altered - your money would be better spent on reducing down the debt.