lost my 0% late payment

littletinybill

I am sitting here gutted and a bit shame faced. Heres my sorry story, would welcome advice.

I tranferred money to a virgin card last year. I activated the card on the 26th Feb and tranferred the money on the 1st March. Apparently a payment was due 25 days after I opened the account (is that right ? I expected 30 days?)

I missed it.

I set up a direct debit on the day I did the transfers but it wasn't activated until after the 21st March when they say payment was due.

I thought you got a full month to make your payment?

Any advice or do I have to chalk this up to experience? I suppose I am only quibbling the 25 day period for the first payment....

bengalknights

The best thing to do is speak with them and ask they reinstate it pointing out it was just a error on your behalf and now dd is in place should never happen again etc.

littletinybill

Thanks for the response. I stupidly set this up and let it run without giving it a thought and only looked at it this weekend to see when the 0% was coming to an end, I have a years worth of charges and interest. Instead of paying off a couple of thouand I have paid £1000 off and £1000 in interest. I have talked to them they say nothing can be done.

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

littletinybill wrote: »

I tranferred money to a virgin card last year.

Just re-read your post and noticed the bit I highlighted. No wonder Virgin/MBNA refused to do anything about it. There have been many reports about people being lucky if they spot the problem right away. No chance after a year.

chattychappy

You're not the first person to be lulled into a false sense of security by signing up for a DD not quite appreciating how arcane they are in practice. No need to feel shame-faced.

The T+Cs/terms of the promotion will make it abundantly clear that if you miss a payment you lose the deal. They probably also say something about how you must check your statements monthly.

T+Cs are not everything, but it will be an uphill struggle. I think you shouldn't give up yet.

This would be my argument: You rang and set up the DD on 1st March so you were reasonable in expecting the payment to be made on/by 21st March. You allowed ample time and they should have let you know if it wouldn't be ready in time. So it is not your fault that the payment was late and they were wrong to cancel the promotional rate. Furthermore, even if it was your mistake, there is an argument that these "gotcha" situations where a missed payment results in the loss of a promotional interest rate are a disguised form of penalty. The "penalty" in this case is disproportionate to the error you are supposed to have made.

That is the best I can come up with. I think you should put it in writing and see what they say. You might want to consider taking it to the FOS depending on their response. They might make you an offer rather than facing this hassle/expensive. But don't get your hopes up.

Good luck! Don't forget to feedback what happens.

melbell

Until they give you notice on a statement that it will be collected by direct debit then pay by other means.

You paid late and lost the deal. Not really MBNAs fault. You have no arguement.

YorkshireBoy

littletinybill wrote: »

I activated the card on the 26th Feb and tranferred the money on the 1st March. Apparently a payment was due 25 days after I opened the account (is that right ? I expected 30 days?)

Not in my experience. There's generally a month (or at least a few weeks) until the first statement is produced, and then a further 2-4 weeks until the first payment is due.

Whenever I activate a card I ask for a statement date of 'yesterday', ie if activating on the 11th I ask for a 10th of the month statement date. This has 3 distinct benefits, especially with MBNA run cards:

1. It gives them the maximum time to get your DD set up in time for your first statement.

2. It delays your first payment, ie 6-8 weeks from the activation date

3. It will give you the longest 0% introductory period with MBNA, because for a 20 month deal the 0% expires on the 20th statement date.[quote=chattychappy[/quote]You rang and set up the DD on 1st March so you were reasonable in expecting the payment to be made on/by 21st March. You allowed ample time and they should have let you know if it wouldn't be ready in time. [/quote]The OP will have been told (by one, more, or all of phone, online, or DDI confirmation letter) that unless the statement said the DD would be collected on xx/xx/xx then they should pay by other means until such a message appeared.

By their own admission, they haven't even checked a statement, let alone read any information given, in 12 whole months(!) so MBNA (and the FOS for that matter) are unlikely to be sympathetic in my opinion.

chanz4

FOS also costs money, and I really dont agree with complaining if its the ops fault

Ben8282

littletinybill wrote: »

I am sitting here gutted and a bit shame faced. Heres my sorry story, would welcome advice.

I tranferred money to a virgin card last year. I activated the card on the 26th Feb and tranferred the money on the 1st March. Apparently a payment was due 25 days after I opened the account (is that right ? I expected 30 days?)

I missed it.

I set up a direct debit on the day I did the transfers but it wasn't activated until after the 21st March when they say payment was due.

I thought you got a full month to make your payment?

Any advice or do I have to chalk this up to experience? I suppose I am only quibbling the 25 day period for the first payment....

You made a late payment ONE YEAR ago and have NOW ONLY JUST NOTICED THAT YOU HAVE BEEN CHARGED INTREST FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR.

No payment would have been due x number of days after you opened the account.

The payment would have been due x number of days after your first statement. If your balance was nil prior to the transfers being made on 1st March 2011, your first statement would have had to be issued after this date and the mimium payment due so many days after the statement date. I assume you mean you transferred money FROM the card and not TO it as you say in your OP.

You say both that the payment was due on 21st March and 25 days after you opened the account. Did you not receive a statement? Did it not show the payment due date? Reading through your post it appears that your complaint is not the fact that the first direct debit was not taken but the fact that the first payment due date was 25 and not 30 days after account opening.

Your not checking any statements for an entire year is grossly irresponsible. Didn't you even check your statement the next month to make sure the direct debit was being taken? You should have asked advice a year ago, not now!

chattychappy

chanz4 wrote: »

FOS also costs money, and I really dont agree with complaining if its the ops fault

I know what you mean, but I think there are some grounds here. It will be the CC that has to pay the FOS and given the interest they took off the OP I think this won't be a hardship. I would hope that the CC compromises a little and a deal can be done without involving the FOS.

Bear in mind that some years ago people were paying as much as £35 for missing a payment. It was probably their fault too. Eventually it was held that £35 was probably unenforceable (paraphrasing heavily).

The FSA "treating customers fairly" thing is creeping into CC regulation (probably more so when the FCA takes over). These "gotcha" situations might one day be a thing of the past.

YorkshireBoy

chattychappy wrote: »

I know what you mean

I'm not sure you do. I think chanz4 was possibly referring to the time and resourses that would be allocated, not any 'case fee' that would be chargeable.

It will be the CC that has to pay the FOS and given the interest they took off the OP I think this won't be a hardship.

Any 'case fee' only becomes chargeable if the complaint is passed up the FOS foodchain to an adjudicator, rather than handled by frontline staff, and only one in six cases are currently passed to adjudicator.

I can't see this case being passed to an adjudicator due to the timescale involved and the OP's contributory negligence.