Warning - MBNA removing credit facilities

thenudeone

I had 3 MBNA cards (Virgin, play.com, Amazon) with a total of £5k unused available credit; £500 of that on a Virgin card. All payments on all credit lines are up to date with no missed or late payments.
Three weeks ago MBNA offered me various 0% deals on all 3 cards but the best was on the Virgin card (0% BT 13 mths, 2.9% fee).
I asked for a limit increase to use the offer, but following a "review", MBNA closed the Virgin account completely and removed all but a small amount of unused limit from the other two cards!
My overall current borrowings are about half my salary and I have given MBNA bank statements showing that I could pay the whole lot out of the balance of my Fixed rate ISA (earning 4%), but they are adamant in refusing to re-instate my limits!

In the past MBNA have happily moved available credit between cards but now I suspect that they will take any opportunity to reduce limits - BEWARE.

Obviously, they are no longer interested in lending to me because there is no chance that they will ever charge me interest once the 0% deals end. They are no better than drug dealers offering your first fix for free!

andyt8

I agree - WATCH OUT for MBNA or BANK of AMERICA run credit cards. I had 2 charity credit cards with MBNA and last week when buying some books on Amazon my checkout showed a £10.00 discount if I applied for their credit card.

I did this but the £10.00 discount then disappeared from my shopping basket - you have to wait till the application is approved and then use the credit card. So misleading to have had it included in the first place in the checkout as if it would apply to the current transaction.

Worse to come ........

Letters from MBNA arrive saying I have "asked for a review of my credit" by applying for a new card with the Bank of America group. In order to give the max credit limit to the new card they have reduced my existing cards limits by a total of £9000.00 and then eventually when the new card arrives it only has £2500.00. Not much of a deal.

As you say any oppertunity to reduce limits. I bet Bank America even funds the £10 Amazon discount just so they get the oppertunity to "review" peoples credit limit. I have always paid in full each month so I bet they don't like people like us who dont earn them interest.

Hard_up

I also have both MBNA and Virgin cards,not much balance on either,but when looking for a birthday present on Amazon I was flagged with an offer to save £10 if I apply for the card,like you it dosent appear in the checkout,and so when the cars arrived I rang MBNA and promptly canceled it,Two days later my 8k MBNA had been reduced to £500 and my Virgin card £1000,so thanks for nothing think I will be canceling those two now.

Debt_Free_Dreamer

I have MBNA cards and got offered the Amazon deal when buying some GHD's to get £10% off. It then said I had to wait a week to hear if I had been accepted. Getting concered now as I don't want the limit to be dropped on my MBNA card.

JA1000

MBNA cut my credit card from £7500 limit to £500 days after paying off an outstanding balance. Another card had interest rates raised by 8%!!!

This hit my credit score because it looks at total amount of credit available, this lowered my score!!!!

BE WARNED - the years of MBNA offers llok like they're over

Rupert_Bear

JA1000 wrote: »

MBNA cut my credit card from £7500 limit to £500 days after paying off an outstanding balance. Another card had interest rates raised by 8%!!!

This hit my credit score because it looks at total amount of credit available, this lowered my score!!!!

BE WARNED - the years of MBNA offers llok like they're over

For some perhaps!

pqrdef

JA1000 wrote: »

BE WARNED - the years of MBNA offers llok like they're over

Offers are a lot less lucrative now the OFT has made them switch to positive payment hierarchy. Could turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory. Thanks OFT.

thenudeone

They're at it again. I paid off several £k just before the 0% deal ended. Now they have removed that amount from my credit limits!

surfcat

pqrdef wrote: »

Offers are a lot less lucrative now the OFT has made them switch to positive payment hierarchy. Could turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory. Thanks OFT.

That's right, because its more important that you can shift your balance around endlessly than there being a repayment structure which forces repayment of the most expensive debts first.

PNPSUKNET

they are a business, people think they are there for you. If you were a loan business, what if you had a clause pay your payment in full 12 months later and get no intrest, would you lend again?

fozmcfc

Had a 6k limit, had a balance of £3600 at 0%, paid it off in July before the 0% run out and still have a £6k limit, so go figure.