Now Santander want to charge a dormancy fee on my Debenhams store card

Roger1

R34GTT wrote: »

Are you sure you can only use your card at Debenhams?

Yes, it's the store card. I imagine the MC doesn't (yet?) have the dormancy penalty.

Deleted_User wrote: »

Most Debenhams cards are Mastercards these days. Those who don't make the cut for the Mcard get offered the basic storecard.

Not sure what you mean. Ours is not the basic storecard and we get discounts not available with a MC. We have other cards for use outside Debenhams.

[Deleted User]

Roger1 wrote: »

.Not sure what you mean. Ours is not the basic storecard and we get discounts not available with a MC. We have other cards for use outside Debenhams.

I mean they all used to be storecards, then the Mastercard was introduced. Some existing customers were upgraded to Mastercards, then the in store application procedure filtered applicants into getting either Mastercard or storecard depending on credit score.

Benefits and discounts are largely the same for both, but the Mastercard can be used anywhere, not just Debenhams.

Roger1

Yes, I know that.

Ours wasn't 'upgraded' because it wouldn't have been an upgrade for the reasons I mentioned. In any case, ours is no longer available to new cardholders.

molerat

Roger1 wrote: »

Do you know of any other cards that charge a dormancy fee, other than the Santander Zero card? I don't.

It is in the t&c's of my MBNA Platinum Visa.

collectorbux

For me the issue hear is that I receive an arty farty piece of paper that looks like junk mail if ever I saw any-it runs to 400 lines plus of very small print. Its not even a letter in the conventional form which then goes on to inform me, rather cynically and calculatingly on page 1, the purpose of the document is to change the terms and conditions of the card "in response to changes in the law".
Since when has the law required a dormancy fee to be charged I would like to know? This is briefly referred to on page 1 but not developed until page 6 some 300 lines of small print later.
Like others here, I am a regular buyer at Debenhams, not always on the card, and I do not want to have to make diary notes to avoid their charges by stealth.They can keep their card, it's being cancelled tomorrow.
Don't give me all this rubbish about administration costs and reserves needed to be maintained. They should stop paying out huge bonuses if they need to retain reserves just like those of us in private business have to do to avoid being accused by the banks of milking our business should we dare to take a small dividend.

Chris2000

I had one since about 1996. Never got 'upgraded' to a full credit card.

Beware they will close the account after 12 months of inactivity. I no longer work anywhere near a Debenhams and don't shop there in my lunch break any more, so it happened to me recently. They gave a month's notice and said they would keep it open if I used the card within the next month. They even included a discount voucher with the letter. If I'd been that bothered, I could easily have bought a cup of tea in their cafe (with 20% gold card discount!) to keep it open but I decided that if I haven't used their card for a year, I can live without it.

I agree that a dormancy fee on a store card, set at just 6 months, is rather ridiculous. It's unlikely to have been instigated by Debenhams themselves, who were still mailing me about in-store offers and vouchers almost every other week, right up until Santander decided to close my account.

Dr_Cuckoo3

You have to wonder why Santander bought the GE Capital portfolio:question:

They seem to have shut down most of the store cards since aquiring GE Capital :eek:

Harrods , BHS , Time card B&Q ,Bentalls have gone and Mothercare are not taking new applications


I buy stuff using a free P&P code and return it free via the courier - avoids the fee and keeps the card active

I don't care - they don't care

I've had about £60 of free stuff from Debenhams this year (travel isurance for £3 with £3 topcashback and £10 voucher):D


I opened the account at the time that GE Capital were upgrading storecards to mastercards purely to obtain a mastercard via the back door , however they seem to have stopped upgrading since someone complained to the newspapers that they didn't want a mastercard and it was a great injustice to them being able to use the card in more shops than one:idea:

They also have a credit balance fee on their cards and charge a fee for credit balances:think:

POPPYOSCAR

I have just received this as well.

It says they may charge a dormancy fee if card not used etc.

Very short sighted of them I would have thought in these difficult economic times they would have wanted to hang on to every potential customer.

Perhaps if they gave better customer service more people would use their card. I rarely use my Debenhams card now because it was refused one time because they telephoned me, left a message and because I did not reply they put a hold on my card. After a long conversation in which I told them I had had no call and they insisted I had when I asked for the number they had rung it was a completely different telephone number not even close!

They also wanted to charge for a duplicate statement that I never received.

Looks like I will be canceling my card as well.

fozmcfc

I haven't used my store card after the initial purchases, IIRC in December 2009.

I got it cause they gave me 10% off my £300 odd purchase and I had 3 months to pay for it, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered as I very very very rarely even go into Debenhams, let alone buy from them.

So if I don't use it in the next few months, think I'll close it, no point in paying a domancy fee.

vixen1500

Hiya

I have also got a debenhams card, only use it thou when I get the extra 10% off offers.

They have also introduced this with the Outfit card too, which I have just received notification of, hence why I was checking out the site to see if anyone has actually been charged and if people feel it is just best to get the cards cancelled.

Thinking it might be a good idea to start a diary with dates to remind me to use or cancel about five months after last use. Need to enter dates of savings/bank account interest rates offers that are running out too.

But I suppose a lot of you are already well organized and already doing this