Citi card to Opus: Will existing Life of Balance transfer be honoured?

spainfan

Have been looking into who is behind Opus, and have found this:

It seems to be a combination of CC Asset Management, Bank of Scotland and SAV Credit Limited, but I'm unclear on the roles of each.

Can anyone clarify?

Am thinking of cutting up my card unless credibility can be confirmed.

pen1

From SAV Credit's website:

SAV Credit – the name behind aqua, marbles and Opus

http://www.savcredit.co.uk/

Who we are

SAV Credit is a specialist provider of credit cards to near prime customers in the UK.
Founded in September 2000, SAV Credit was formed by Richard Langstaff and a management team drawn from a number of leading UK credit card issuers. Since our formation we have focused on credit card lending to those individuals largely overlooked by traditional providers due to their circumstances, which is estimated to represent some 9.5 million individuals in the UK.
In addition, we have acquired portfolios from prime credit issuers in the UK, such as HSBC and Citi, developing and implementing strategies to manage these customers more effectively.
We own and manage the aqua and marbles portfolios. Support for the growth of SAV has been primarily through its Private Equity investors – Palamon Capital Partners, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investments and Electra Partners Ltd. In March 2010 we completed a transaction involving the purchase of the Citi-branded credit card portfolio in the UK, now branded Opus. The deal was made through CC Asset Management, a special purpose vehicle managed by SAV Credit and backed by Värde Parters.

http://www.savcredit.co.uk/about-sav/who-we-are.asp

22 November 2010 – SAV Credit Completes Opus Switch

.....Service support for Opus is provided by Bank of Scotland, which issues the cards, working with First Data International on the FirstVision platform. ....

http://www.savcredit.co.uk/media-centre/press-releases/11/

salvyria

My rate has incresed too. the guy on the customer helpline gave me speil about the way interst is charged ans written down.

Not convinced.

Dian wrote: »

I rang Opus today and asked if the special offer interest rate I received for the life of the balance was still in place after the transfer from Citibank. The customer service rep checked my account and said that the interest rate was 5.9%. When I told her it was supposed to be 3.9% she said that 5.9% was what Citibank had told them I was being charged. I now have to find proof (luckily I have the original confirmation letter) and send it to their customer service centre to appeal against the 5.9%.

I would recommend that you don't take it for granted that the interest rate from Citibank is being honoured and take the time to call and check the rate you are being charged.

mrwurzal

just to put the cherry on the cake...

Tesco have told me they cannot to a balance transfer to my tesco card from OPUS as they dont recognise them as a bank!!!

THIS IS CRAZY!

Seb07

MSE_Dan wrote: »

Hi folks,

We have been in contact with Opus, who alerted us to these threads, and want to pass on some information from them, and a phone number if you wish to ask them any further questions.


2) It is guaranteeing that all promotional life of balance deals on debts shifted to Citi cards will be honoured in full, unless you break the cards T&Cs (this is standard)

Great news, thanks! Thanks to all who have responded to this thread!

hur575

harbinger13 wrote: »

Thanks to everyone for their insights.
Here is one which is troubling me - I am not too keen to hold Opus card which is basically crap according to me - although I have a zero balance.

What happens to my credit history if I close this card - do I lose the past history I have built with CitiCard? Or is that gone irrespective as the card management has been transferred. I could just keep this card in a dead mans chest and keep the history - but I would then be extending my credit limit with the outstanding credit cards on the history - meaning an unused credit of XXXX amount which would again (may) bring my credit score down

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Rgds
Harbinger.

Not sure if you get your reply but I was with citi, and been transferred to OPUS, I have monthly access to my credit file in Equifax and all sudden all my history have disappeared regarding citi, I am thinking maybe they report to Experian! But I would thought my payment history should have stayed at least.

Hax

My Citicard record has also disappeared from my CallCredit records.

Still showing on my Experian report though - although, Experian don't seem to have updated this month yet so maybe it'll vanish from there too yet!

BirthdayGirl

I rang Opus today to pay off my balance and to close my card.

Got through fairly quickly, explained I wanted to cancel my card and everything went smoothly!

mrbobbyboy

I have a city card but when the APR went up i oppted out and they kept me on the old rate of 21.9%, Today i got a statment from opus and it says my APR is 24.3% after ringing them they say i am still on the old rate but the statment says i am not has any one come across this and what do i do next.

Can they just up your APR when you have an agrement for the life time of the balance.

pen1

As I understand it, Citi were expressing a simple interest rate, which did not include the impact of paying interest on interest.

Many people, including myself, initially thought that Opus had hiked the rates, whereas what they had actually done was to reflect the same rates that Citi were charging in a arguably more realistic manner (APR rather than simple interest).

In reality, I think this has resulted in many people recognizing that some of the interest rates being charged are very high, but where the confusion has occurred is that many thought Opus had hiked the rates whereas they were actually expressing the rates that Citi had been charging.

On the Opus credit card agreement of a relative, that I've seen, Paragraph 3.3 showed the APR. In smaller print at 3.4 the equivalent simple interest rates, that show how Citi reflected the rate, were shown.