Change in interest rate

Daisycoo1973

Hi,

I've just been advised by MNBA that the interest rate on my credit card has been increased from 18.9% to 27.9%. They say they wrote to me but I never received any letter from them.

Problem is that now the minimum repayments have gone up by £40 a month.

The lady I spoke to tonight said that because I hadn't responded to their letter there was nothing she could do and now I'm worried sick. I have a debt of just over £5,000 and was trying to clear it ASAP but with the interest going up by almost 10% it's going to take monger to clear.

Don't want another credit card (it's how I got into this mess) and don't want a consolidation loan.

Since I didn't receive their letter advising me of this (having a problem with Royal Mail at the moment) is there anything that I can do to get my credit card back to the original interest rate.

I've had this card for years but all these problems appear to have begun since my card switched from Alliance & Leicester to MBNA.

Just want some advice before I speak to them tomorrow to try and sort it out.

Thanks in advance.

stephane_2

Write a formal complaint explaining what happened and see how it goes....otherwise you might just be stuck with it.
Did you not get any warning on any of your statements about the increase?

Daisycoo1973

Thanks for the reply.

Having spoken with MBNA tonight they've confirmed that I needed to notify them by 11/9 if I wanted to stay on the same interest rate but without the option of putting any further purchases on the card (suits me fine) but I didn't get the letter - no reminders or anything which I am really angry about.

Got the phone number for their Account Review team as the new monthly payments are really stretching my finances and will struggle to meet them, especially with Christmas coming up.

Really hoping they put me back down to the old interest rate since I didn't get their correspondence but failing that I'll need to look at a loan as I don't relish the thought of paying 27.9% APR!!

chattychappy

How's your credit history? Could you get a new card with a decent BT deal?

twist-and-shout

If you call the Customer Retention (loyalty) team within 60 days of the rate actually changing then they will still opt you out.
The number is 0800 783 1116 and open mon-fri 8 till 7

They won't refund any extra interest you have been charged though.

markperky

If they use normal post to notify that is not guaranteed to get to you. I think you could very well argue their notification was 'lost in the post', a court would probably say if they wanted to ensure you got the notification it should have been done at least by recorded delivery.

[Deleted User]

A court will only ask that they confirm you were in the mailing file to receive the letter and that it was produced.

markperky

Deleted_User wrote: »

A court will only ask that they confirm you were in the mailing file to receive the letter and that it was produced.

A defence laywer would say "you are penalising my client because they did not act on information that you sent them by an insecure manner. You could have sent it by recorded delivery, but chose instead to send it by normal post which is not guaranteed to reach my client."

[Deleted User]

Threy've never reached that conclusion in the past. And customers really don't want to incur the cost of every 200k mailing being sent recorded delivery - even if there was such a business service, which I'm not aware of.

Even the White Paper changes only specified that reprices should not be delivered through statements, but through a solus pack.

markperky

Deleted_User wrote: »

Threy've never reached that conclusion in the past. And customers really don't want to incur the cost of every 200k mailing being sent recorded delivery - even if there was such a business service, which I'm not aware of.

Can you prove that statement? If the credit card company wants and chooses to save money by not sending by recorded delivery then they have to accept that they cannot penalise someone for not receiving the letter, which was sent by them knowing it could get lost in the post. I think if it were fought in a court (especially a Small Claims Court) the defendant would stand a good chance of winning that argument.

[Deleted User]

markperky wrote: »

Can you prove that statement?

Not really. It's impossible to prove a negative. Just like I can't prove the Loch Ness Monster doesn't exist.

Just that they haven't yet ruled it that I'm ever aware of. Right or wrong, posting the communication is considered acceptable and I have never seen a case where that has been used as a justification for overturning the reprice. If a defendant has tried it and won, then they've kept it quiet.

But please let me know if you know of cases - would be very interesting to know.