MBNA charged me £12 on a nil balace

gtone28

Just checked my Mbna account, I've been charged £12 because my bank refused a DD.

I Paid the balance off in full with my debit card so my balance was 0.00. They requested a DD from my bank and it got refused because I had cancelled the DD on my bank.

The thing is, I forgot that I set up pay balance off in full on the MBNA website. They said it cost money to request a payment so they charged me.

been resolved now they refunded the £12 and apologized.

a&akay

No it's not. I had exactly the same problem when I paid off my balance in full 7 days before the payment date and cancelled my DD knowing this. T&Cs state as follows

8 Paying your balance
8a The minimum payment you must make will be shown on your monthly statement. Refunds and credits will not count towards your minimum payment unless they pay off your balance in full. We may write to you allowing you to make a reduced monthly payment or we may give you a payment holiday. If we do this, we will continue to charge interest as normal. We will also not extend the period within which you need to pay if you want to avoid interest on any card purchases you made in the previous month.'

If you have paid off your balance in full then they should not have asked for the DD. Write a letter of complaint to their compliance officer. I then had a call from a lady who gave me a load of rubbish about them having no control over DDs. I pointed out the above T&Cs and asked them where their website explained their point of view. She could not and the £12 was duly repaid.

jonesMUFCforever

Ask them how much they asked for?
If they say they asked for nil (because this was the balance) take it to the press and make them a laughing stock.
You might get paid by the press and most certainly MBNA will be embarrassed into refunding you.

jamalfatty

when the DD is set up, you instruct them to take full/minimum payment from that statement on the payment due date. If you make a payment in the interim it is up to you to advise them not to take that months DD - it's not up to them to second guess if you want that months DD to go out or not.
And your advised of this when the DD is setup as well

a&akay

And this is where the problem exactly lies. The minimum payment with MBNA is a default £5. They do not say 'If you want to pay off your full balance in any month then we will take the minimum DD (£5) come what may so pay it off less any DD that has been set up'. I would have had no problems with this and would have done so. I fulfilled my part of the contract by paying off the balance in full by the due date. To be charged £12 through sloppy wording on MBNA's part is not my fault. They do not qualify which month's minimum payment is in question and the DD system allows you to cancel one at any time.

YorkshireBoy

jamalfatty wrote:

And your advised of this when the DD is setup as well

...and this is what they say...

MBNA wrote:

Important: Confirmation of the set-up of your Direct Debit Instruction

If you make manual payments to your account once the direct debit has been activated, these will not reduce the amount that we will collect by Direct Debit, unless you advise us at least seven working days prior to the Direct Debit being collected.

jamalfatty

a&akay wrote:

and the DD system allows you to cancel one at any time.

All DD's I have ever setup with any company have told me that if i want to cancel it, I should advise both my bank and the company the DD is paying. How were MBNA to know that you had cancelled DD with your bank if you dont tell them?

jamalfatty

a&akay wrote:

Refunds and credits will not count towards your minimum payment unless they pay off your balance in full

And this bit is irrelevant, a payment you make is neither a refund or a credit - it is a payment.


What would have happened in OP's case if on the flipside, the day before his DD had gone out, he had gone out and spent more on the card knowing the DD would come out next day to pay off his card again - if they had chosen to not take this payment as he had already made a full payment this month and he then incurred interest as a result, would you also think this is unfair?

YorkshireBoy

jamalfatty wrote:

All DD's I have ever setup with any company have told me that if i want to cancel it, I should advise both my bank and the company the DD is paying. How were MBNA to know that you had cancelled DD with your bank if you dont tell them?

MBNA have that covered as well, because just below the above seven working day notice requirement they say...

MBNA wrote:

To cancel the Direct Debit please contact your bank or building society and advise us of your request.