Dismayed at Northern Rock

maxelkat_sebster

I applied for a Northern Rock platinum card a while back. It is tied to base rate, so the rate is never going to be huge.
I didn't immediately use the card, as nearly all my debt was on 0%. I received a letter from them, saying I could have 0% on balance transfers for three months. I thought I would take advantage of it. I transferred £1150 from my CapitalOne, as it was the only card I was actually paying interest on, albeit not very much.
I was dismayed when I received my next Northern Rock statement, to see that they had charged me £8 for 'Cardholder Payment Protection'. I didn't ask for it, and had I been asked I would certainly have said 'no'. I thought perhaps it was a one-off because of the balance transfer or something, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt for another month.
I was astonished when I received the next statement, that not only was I paying another more-or-less £8 for protection, but that they had charged me interest on the £8 they had taken last month, at the same interest rate as withdrawing cash!
Now okay, the interest was only 3p, and will be 8p next month. But it's the principle of the thing. I immediately transferred the entire balance back to CapitalOne.
I think that a stop should be put to these 'protection rackets'.

Reaper

Its a good money maker for credit card companies so you do have to be careful on the application forms to either tick or not tick the box depending on how they word it.

Your best bet was to phone them up as soon as you saw the charge to say you had never wanted it. At the least they would have canceled it for the next month and if you were lucky they may even have refunded the charge to keep you sweet.