Dealing with Devious Behaviour from MBNA (?)

What2DoNext_2

Called MBNA again to try and resolve issue. They had already added a ~50 pound interest based on the 19.5% APR for August but my payment had gone in so I was going to get them to revert to 4.9% APR offered and make sure that no late payment fee was added (as they promised). I was then planning to just pay off the card.

New rep. said that she could put it back to 0.0% until Feb 2011 but that any incurred charges would not be paid. I said that there are no late payment fees on the account and in any case the rep. from my previous call said that late payment fee would be refunded. She said that any fee that came onto my account regarding this banking error could come onto the account up to 4 months from now? What are they talking about? Still 0% was coming back on so I thought - OK... Then she said I could set DD up again but would have to pay August manually. I said so that is the minimum payment and you will take off the interest of 19.5% (~50) as well? She said No. So essentially it is the same penalty in a different payment set up!

I said no thank you. I have now paid off the amount I borrowed from MBNA and they said that once the payment goes through, they will remove the interest and no late payment fees and they will put back the 0% (for what purpose I have no idea). I intend on closing the account after this. If they don't keep their end of taking away the interest and fees, they will have to spend money and take me to court.

The sense of entitlement they seem to have on charging interest and fees even though it is obvious that a particular customer is not purposely evading paying back is incredible! I am not naive about the CC companies being a business but the their ethics and morals leave me in no doubt as to why they suffer such a terrible image currently.

To top it off, when I asked the rep to take payment for the full amount, she said she can't do that. I would have to go to my bank to do it! LOL!!! I just did it on MBNAs' website! AMAZING!

What2DoNext_2

twist-and-shout wrote: »

... I can see how the rep got confused as you can be like a machine sometimes in the call centre...

I actually have the feeling that the rep is trained to be as elusive with information and as unhelpful as possible. No offence intended. I spoke to 3 reps and got different answers of what they can do with their systems. As I mentioned in the previous post, this rep. could revert to the 0% but then she wouldn't take the fees off. They just want money which is what CC companies are about anyway. However, to do it when the customer has been made aware of things and defaulted due to customer-initiated issues is one thing. To do it even when they agree that the customer was not at fault is just sneaky. At least I have it in writing on statements that the DD was set up and a letter saying that MBNA (not the bank) cancelled the DD according to BACS regulations after the payment date will help if they want to fight the issue.

twist-and-shout

Im sorry to hear all the trouble you have had, but atleast paying it off now you know all charges will be refunded.

Up to 4 months for a late fee to be added?!! Thats a little long but MBNA are have some system updates at the moment where things are taking longer to go through and be added onto accounts like refunds are normally done instantly but these are taking longer to be updated at the moment. If a fee is going to be added it will be by the end of the month though as all updates will have been resolved then, after that it would never appear.

In relation to them still putting it back to 0% after payment clears this will be to stop any trailing interest for the next month, and yes stupid as it is they can only take min payment over the phone but there olb service you can make whatever payment you like to account.

YorkshireBoy

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

If you feel aggrieved...

http://www.mbna.co.uk/contact/complaints.html

So, a couple of questions...

1. Have you formalised your complaint with MBNA?

2. Are you speaking with a member of the customer loyalty team on 0800 783 1116 or a different Tom/!!!!!!/Harry each time you ring the 'general' number?

What2DoNext_2

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

So, a couple of questions...

1. Have you formalised your complaint with MBNA?

2. Are you speaking with a member of the customer loyalty team on 0800 783 1116 or a different Tom/!!!!!!/Harry each time you ring the 'general' number?

I have got all the letters and relevant dates and information (keeping track of it) as I talk to them. I am not planning to send in the formal complaint until Tuesday which is when they are meant to refund the interest and fees. I intend to close the account anyway but I don't want to give them a reason to not refund because I am not going to stay with them anyway.

I have been calling their 0800062062 number and speaking to Mr. E then Mr. K and then Miss L.... and I suspect another person later on. Are the customer loyalty team any better trained at common sense or giving proper information out?

What2DoNext_2

twist-and-shout wrote: »

Im sorry to hear all the trouble you have had, but atleast paying it off now you know all charges will be refunded.

Up to 4 months for a late fee to be added?!! Thats a little long but MBNA are have some system updates at the moment where things are taking longer to go through and be added onto accounts like refunds are normally done instantly but these are taking longer to be updated at the moment. If a fee is going to be added it will be by the end of the month though as all updates will have been resolved then, after that it would never appear.

In relation to them still putting it back to 0% after payment clears this will be to stop any trailing interest for the next month, and yes stupid as it is they can only take min payment over the phone but there olb service you can make whatever payment you like to account.

In all the unwanted stress (albeit minor in the grand scheme of things) I overpaid what I owe them by 25.00 pounds so I will have to actually wait to get my charges refunded and then go out and spend exactly 25 pounds before closing the account. Oh life.

Out of curiosity, when a complaint letter is made out to MBNA, is anything ever done about it? Or is it just a waste of time and postage on my part?

twist-and-shout

If im being honest the loyalty team would probably wouldnt be able to do anything different, espically as you have paid the balance off.

Nothing to stop you from writing in with a complaint, but it may take a few weeks for you to get a first response from them then maybe a few more weeks for a final response. If all the charges are refunded it probably wouldnt be worth it but if they dont refund you i would go down the complaint route.

By the sounds of it the last person you spoke to was the most closest to the 'business rules' in what they offered you, but i can see your point of view in the issues with the Direct Debit. I hope everything gets sorted.

If you have overpaid they will do a credit balance refund back into your bank account but this wont be done until the credit had been on the account for 5 working days.....and it's free.

saftig

What2DoNext wrote: »

I have had a MBNA credit card from 2007. I got it to fund a holiday on an interest free basis for 12 months so that I did not have to pay for the holiday out my savings at the time. On November 2008, the promotion ended so I paid it all off. In the mean while I had a direct debit from my bank (Natwest) to pay off the minimum payment since a breach would mean charges and a cancellation of the promotional rates offered on the card. After paying it all off, I did not use the card since it offered no advantages.

Recently, I received a letter offering another promotional interest free thing on purchases on the card so I went ahead and used it to fund another holiday. I used the card in mid-June. I called up soon after and reset my online access to the account and checked with the representative to ensure that the direct debit was still active. The guy said all was fine. I was all set :beer:

Then, at the end of July, a minimum payment call was made but I did not worry since the direct debit would take care of it. WRONG! MBNA sent out the call to Natwest on the 29th July (Thursday) and MBNA sent me a letter on the 2nd of August (Monday) automatically backdated to the 31st of July (Saturday) saying that my direct debit has been cancelled. They also put it in my online statement only on the 2nd of August that the direct debit had not gone through. Normally they send me numerous text messages through their moneyalert service about my account but failed to send me a text message about a failed payment! I got the letter today (4th of August - Wednesday) and called them up to ask for an explanation and they said that Natwest "probably" cancelled the direct debit because it had been dormant for over 13 months. To which I said, in that case why did your representative say everything was active and ok with the direct debit. I also pointed out that this was not my fault. The representative then said it was not a banking error in other words not their fault either... He also said there were no notes on the system that I asked about my direct debit. Perhaps he meant to say we don't want to tell our customers that their direct debit might not be valid if we can get away with it especially when asked about it. I also asked why I did not get a automated text message atleast on the 2nd of August (Monday) to say this had happened. He said we do not offer that service :mad:

The representative on the phone then went on to say that he could reinstate the late payment fee charges when they come up on the system in a couple of days. I paid the minimum payment immediately but did not reset my direct debit because in my head I decided to take my business elsewhere since he couldn't reinstate the promotional rates offered to me on that account. He offered me their "current" promotional rate of 4.0% as soon as the minimum payment clears in a couple of days!!!

Then, I called Natwest and they said that yes the direct debit was cancelled because it was dormant but that it would not show as being active since it does not show anywhere in their system as existing! In the middle of my call with Natwest, I got a text message from MBNA moneyalert telling me that my direct debit had failed!!! :rotfl:Guess the service was made up in a hurry to deal with me!

JEEZ! As it stands, I am getting the charges refunded. They have refused to reinstate my original promotional 0.0% interest thing on my purchases though. So it will be their "new" promotional 4.0% in a couple of days. Now I am looking to transfer balance (~£3000.00) from the MBNA to another card and shall pay 2.9% fee on it but will I then be required to pay the interest charged on it between now and the date on which the transfer happens possibly in two weeks to account for the postal delays in sending in applications and so on?

Also is there a way to ask for recordings of the calls I made to them? Most of these calls are monitored for quality purposed or so I am told by some?

Hi, don't want to go too much into detail, however the circumstances in my case a pretty similar - just realised RBS CC-section charged me a whopping late payment fee and interest - and this happening after they forced me to use my account by sending out a letter to me that if I wouldn't use the CC account by a particular date, they'll close the account - also checked with them around the time as they were offering a balance transfer as an incentive for me to use the account, whether my direct debit setting would have to be changed from taking the whole amount to minimum amount in order to make use of the balance transfer and they confirmed this.
To cut the story short - after complaining with the CC-section about the late payment fees they promised to refund these and reinstate my DD to the previous settings. However as I wasn't aware of the 13 months dormant-rule by that point I got really furious as I thought they are just trying it to see whether they can get away with it, particularly as the CSA claimed the 13months (I think they even said after 3!!! not 13 months of the CC account being dormant!!) rule is stated in the T&C-just checked all downloadable docs on the RBS website and couldn't find anything! RBS CC section tries to get away with it in a similar fashion to MBNA in the previous example in this thread here as they simply refer me back to my branch claiming my branch is allegedly responsible for the resetting the DD settings to default but I can't believe this because I'm pretty certain I had long periods in the past when I didn't use the card and it wasn't reset.
Unless one of the repetitive RBS monkey heads can point out to me where to find this in the T&C, I'll raise a formal complaint with RBS regarding this as it's stated nowhere in the printed docs - maybe someone on this forum can point me in the direction of the particular section of RBS' T&Cs where it states that DD settings on dormant CC accounts are set back to default after 3 or 13 months...????

Thanks