Watch credit card companies. They aim to steal your money

John-a_3

Is it a policy of these companies to steal money from consumers by charging them unfair interest?

I am absolutely appalled by the lengths I have had to go to in order to micro manage what should have been simple management of my account with your company!

I transferred a balance of £2849.05 on the 1/10/10 to take advantage of a 12 month 0% offer. I paid £54.13 for doing this, which was added to the loan. My first minimum payment of £29.03 was made on the 25/11/10, payment reference 31073. Your company lost record of this. Your banking missing payment team eventually traced this payment months later.

I was happy to let this go once, but what leads me to believe that MBNA is systematically set up to steal money from people is that it keeps happening! This is total theft. No doubt you will say this is human error. Well, let us test that theory:

On the 22/12/10, I spoke to Customer Services, Chester. She apologized for the error in losing the payment, promised to reinstate all promotional rates and (because it took 20 minutes out of my day) £25 ‘compensation’ was offered and authorized by her manager, [name removed by MSE]. I see the £25 has been credited to my account, but interest has been added to my account. Did she make an error or is it your system that basically is geared up to take exorbitant interest?

Today, I spoke to Customer Services, Chester. Another 20 minutes on the phone, another promise to do as Kelly had, another promise of £25 authorised by [name removed by MSE]. Well, let me see if ‘all promotional rates will be restored’ this time… When I said this was promised the last time, all she could offer was: ‘all I can do is give you my word.’

It is not good enough and your Chief Executive must not only apologise, he must ensure this does not happen again and give assurances that this is not part of company strategy. Your company has to be watched like a hawk. Curb your Capitalism.

A token apology from a customer service lead will not suffice. I will patiently abide by, and exhaust, your internal complaints procedure, but really, this should be a matter for the Financial Ombudsman and the Business Secretary of State. You are not to be trusted.

thecableguy12

i got them and had no problems at all, guess im lucky

izools

MBNA never lost a payment of mine when I was a customer. They never lost any of my mothers' payments in her 10 years of being a customer. In fact, in 2008, she once missed the deadline, and no charges were incurred, nor was a late marker left on her credit file.

Guess mother & I must be lucky, too

Jigga

John-a wrote: »

Is it a policy of these companies to steal money from consumers by charging them unfair interest?

No

John-a wrote: »

I was happy to let this go once, but what leads me to believe that MBNA is systematically set up to steal money from people is that it keeps happening!

Do you really, really, believe this?

John-a wrote: »

It is not good enough and your Chief Executive must not only apologise, he must ensure this does not happen again

Yep, can see this happening. I should imagine that both Ian O’Doherty and even Charles O. Holliday himself will be round your house with a bunch of flowers and a card then be personally monitoring the Atwell account for the next five years. Charles will more than likely let you call him ‘Chad’ and give you his personal mobile number rather than having to go through his useless call centre.

John-a wrote: »

I will patiently abide by, and exhaust, your internal complaints procedure, but really, this should be a matter for the Financial Ombudsman and the Business Secretary of State. You are not to be trusted.

Or perhaps you could simply do what any rational individual with a full time job would do, which is of course close your account and go with a different organisation that doesn’t have an explicit policy of stealing from you. However, whilst Chad is round at yours, perhaps you could invite Sir Christopher Kelly and Vince Cable too and perhaps hold a summit to look at your account and perhaps persuade MBNA to drop this ‘Stealing’ policy.

Perhaps the barrister you were looking for earlier or the two that live in your street may be able to assist you with your quest

I wish you well my friend. Let us know how you get on.

dp176

Hi, I have struggled for years with a Virgin credit card. I finally borrowed the full amount interest free from a family member and got it paid off in full. I received a letter today telling me there will be charges for cancelling the direct debit, even though I had to cancel it to get them to take my payment - I couldn't believe it when they wouldn't accept a payment because I had a DD set up! Are these people for real? Anyhoo - I phoned Virgin, who then promised to refund the charge, but then told me that there would be interest to pay from the date the statement was issued to the payment date 20 days later. Major argument ensued and I asked the question does the company operate on the basis that none of its clients will pay - he said yes. So my question is: is it ethical to charge interest on a zero balance or am I being thick?? So angry right now at these people - I will be struggling for the next 4 years to pay off my family member, only to be treated by Virgin as if I have done something wrong by paying them off! Anyone else been at the receiving end of this?

Jigga

dp176 wrote: »

Hi, I have struggled for years with a Virgin credit card. ......Anyone else been at the receiving end of this?

OK, let’s get this clear from the start before I become accused by our more reactionary posters of being some sort of apologist or Fanboy for Virgin/MBNA, I too have been on the harsh end of Virgin and their practices, see:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/37976440#Comment_37976440

However, as is said so many times by more considered posters, learn and understand the T&Cs that you are signing up to. Credit card companies are businesses driven by the concept of profit maximisation, not registered charities set up to tide people over financially who have voluntarily decided to spend beyond their means at a certain point in time.

dp176 wrote: »

I couldn't believe it when they wouldn't accept a payment because I had a DD set up! Are these people for real?

This I don’t understand, surely you could have made an additional payment online via your bank. You would have still had to pay the DD, but you could have paid additionally this other way.

dp176 wrote: »

I received a letter today telling me there will be charges for cancelling the direct debit

See here for why you were charged for cancelling the DD:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2994644

You gots to tell the credit card company

dp176 wrote: »

I phoned Virgin, who then promised to refund the charge, but then told me that there would be interest to pay from the date the statement was issued to the payment date 20 days later. Major argument ensued

Major argument?? If you fully understood what you were signing up to when you got the card, you would have understood that far from doing something that created an argument, Virgin were doing you a favour and being nice to you by offering to refund the charge!!!!

Interest due from the statement date? Once again, understand the T&Cs, this is standard for all credit cards, the concept of trailing interest, see the third post in the link above by ‘Fruit and Nut Case’.

dp176 wrote: »

I finally borrowed the full amount interest free from a family member and got it paid off in full.... So angry right now at these people - I will be struggling for the next 4 years to pay off my family member,

I empathise with your struggle, however you have been relatively lucky and have been able to get out of paying future interest on the card, whereas others who are not so fortunate are stuck in the vicious circle that I outline in the first link above. But, I fear that your anger is mis-directed. If you are going to struggle for 4 years to pay off an interest free loan, you must have spent/borrowed far in excess of your financial means. I obviously don’t know your personal circumstances, but say there has been redundancy/illness/etc that makes repayment difficult, that is what PPI is for or even without it, consideration should be given to the ‘what if’ situations when running up debts. If personal circumstances haven’t changed at all, then the debt run up was irresponsible and there is only one person who is responsible for that.

opinions4u

Regardless of the issues you have had with the company, I think it's completely wrong to post the names of individual employees on a public forum.

Slating the firm, their CEO, the chain of errors etc is fair game.

But quoting full names of customer service staff is simply wrong.

sharpy2010

opinions4u wrote: »

Regardless of the issues you have had with the company, I think it's completely wrong to post the names of individual employees on a public forum.

Slating the firm, their CEO, the chain of errors etc is fair game.

But quoting full names of customer service staff is simply wrong.

Completely agree with this, I was going to post exactly the same, until I saw Opinions4u had already done it.

Absolutely no need for it, and completely unfair.

Would the OP want HIS full name splashed everywhere, I wonder?

John-a_3

And your motivation for clearly publishing my name and email is...?
You have overstepped a mark, I think. And your name and email address is..?

My point was three 'human errors' in two months. Unless people make individuals in organisations accountable by using their names and writing down what they agreed to do, corporations can deny anything that was agreed on the telephone. This happened to me 3 times. Like I said, human error is fine, but for human error to be used 3 times in close proximity is a simple platitude that will not wash. There is either a fault with the people they are employing or MBNA's 'system'. - I suspect it's the latter, but how convenient for MBNA's bottom line.

Your tone in all your replies is very sarcastic. Perhaps there are people using this site that do not take such firm action against these companies - either because they do not have the time or language to do so. My example was posted to empower those less eloquent than you!

MSE has enabled disenfranchised consumers in 'rip off Britain' to stand up for their rights, demand a fair price and save money - a part of our lives that is necessary, but a lot of us have not been good at in the past, but are getting there.

I think you owe me an apology.

opinions4u

My point was three 'human errors' in two months. Unless people make individuals in organisations accountable by using their names and writing down what they agreed to do, corporations can deny anything that was agreed on the telephone

I totally agree with this. Take names and name names when dealing with the company involved.

But publishing the names of the rank and file on an internet forum is well beyond reasonable and, potentially, puts their safety at risk.

John-a_3

I see the editor [I'm not too sure who] of this forum has (quite rightly) taken the names out, thankfully. (I copied and pasted from a letter I wrote to the company). This was my mistake, which I apologise for.

The apology I requested was not from you, but from Jigga.