Warning - MBNA Rate For Life Credit Card

johnny_robinson

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Absolute nonsense!

You move £4K
They charge a fee of £60
You now owe £4,060

Each day you accrue interest on the debt (at the close of business each day) at the rate of:

closing balance x 5.75% / 365

(where 5.75% is the annual non-compounded rate, ie 12 x the monthly rate of 0.4789%)

The sum of these 30/31 days interest is the applied to your account on statement date and forms part of the new balance.

Read the T+C's they even say there is a charge of 5.9% per year on balances!

Customer services have confirmed this and the online chat!

The wording on the website is very misleading!

I am not talking nonsense, look into it!!!

Johnathon

johnny_robinson

mynameisdave wrote: »

Where is the incentive to pay back the money. They are a business and not a charity. THey make more money the longer you take to pay it back, you pay more interest the longer you take.

Its quite a fair deal, in reality. After all you are spending their money.

When it says 5.9% on money transfers for the life of the transferred balance I read it as just that with a 1.5% handling fee

Then it says no annual fee.

That is all rubbish! It's 5.9% per annum!

Johnathon

YorkshireBoy

johnny_robinson wrote: »

Read the T+C's

I've probably read and understood more T&Cs than you've had hot dinners!

they even say there is a charge of 5.9% per year on balances!

It's an APR (annual percentage rate). The percentage charged is 5.9% per annum...accrued each day...on that day's closing balance...at the equivalent calculated daily rate I gave you earlier.

Customer services have confirmed this and the online chat!

No they haven't.

The wording on the website is very misleading!

To you maybe. To the rest of us it's very clear. Has it crossed your mind at all in the last 45 minutes or so "hang on, I'm in a minority of one here. Surely they can't all be wrong?"

I am not talking nonsense, look into it!!!

I'm not wasting any more time on you, sorry.

mynameisdave

Its not. Its clear.

There IS NO ANNUAL FEE for this card if you do not owe money on it. Some bank accounts charge you £5, £10, even £20 a mont even if you are in credit. This is a fee relevant to the features it has - free mobile phone insurance, breakdown cover.

If you owe them money you pay a 1.5% fee to transfer the money (to advance the cash). Then you pay 5.9% interest for as long as it takes you to clear the balance.

Its as standard as standard can be in credit cards. If you are going to complain to a consumer protection group then don't stop at MBNA.

opinions4u

johnny_robinson wrote: »

I will be reporting them to consumer direct tomorrow

Please will you post a full transcript of the conversaion after you've spoken to them.

chattychappy

The website is not misleading. I've just taken a look.

At: http://www.mbna.co.uk/choose-credit-card/index.html, the first two columns for this product are:

MBNA Rate for life Credit Card – Website Exclusive
and
5.9% for the life of the transferred balances

Seems pretty clear to me - it refers to a "rate", not an "amount".

If you follow the link, it says:
5.9% on balance transfers made now for the life of the transferred balance (1.5% handling fee applies)

Again, "for the life". Ie not "once off". This is clearly distinguished from the handling fee which is a one-time fee.

opinions4u

The only vague thing I can see that supports the OP is the lack of the term APR, or annually, anywhere near the 5.9% rate.

While never in a million years would I have thought it was anything other than an annual rate, do the T&Cs actually make it absolutely clear?

It is possible that somebody could be silly enough to read it as "5.9% interest for as long as the balance exists .. e.g. borrow £1,000 over 10 years and only pay £59 for it". Although it would be one heck of a leap of foolishness to do so.

chattychappy

opinions4u wrote: »

The only vague thing I can see that supports the OP is the lack of the term APR, or annually, anywhere near the 5.9% rate.

Can't get to the T+Cs at the moment, but I considered this too. At least on the website, the card is called a "rate for life" card and I feel it's the use of "rate" (and use of APR, "annual percentage rate") that makes it clear.