Long term charges on a credit card I thought was cancelled?

Jinks

Hi guys,

If any of you are able to help, I would really appreciate some advice about a weird situation that has come up, before I call the credit card company about it - since I don't know anything about this stuff or what my rights are, and I'm really confused!

I recently set up online banking for the first time and when looking through my account details I found a direct debit on my account that I didn't recognise. Its start date was 2003! Because I didn't know what it was I cancelled it, but I was a bit concerned so I started looking through my previous statements to see if anything had been taken out of my account with it. I discovered that it had - each year a payment of between £50-80 had been taken out of my account. I had never noticed it but this must have been going on for years.

The direct debit said "MBNA" and I have never had any dealings with MBNA bank so I was completely puzzled. But I eventually figured out what it was. Many years ago - must have been in 2003 - I took out a credit card with Santander, or Abbey as they were at the time, which is the only credit card I have ever owned. I never really used it and I called them to cancel it a year or two later (I don't recall exactly when, but it was definitely fully paid off at the time - that's what that direct debit was set up for!). Some googling turned up the fact that Santander/Abbey credit cards were later transferred to MBNA. So it would seem that MBNA think I have a credit card with them and have been charging me for something each year ever since - who knows what because I don't have any such card!

I know this situation is a bit odd, but I would like to know if I'm likely to get a refund of the charges they have made. Unfortunately I don't recall when I cancelled the card because it was so long ago and I suppose there's also no way to prove that I called to cancel it (besides which I'm certain I was dealing with Santander/Abbey at that time, not MBNA). On the other hand, I can very easily prove that I couldn't possibly have had a credit card with them all this time, because I legally changed my full name (both first name and surname) in 2006 so I couldn't legally use a card in my old name.

Are they obligated to tell me about anything they have charged me since that time and do I have the right to demand that they immediately refund all of it? It seems likely they have taken at least several hundred pounds if not considerably more out of my account for something I didn't have and didn't know a thing about!

Thanks in advance,
James

jonesMUFCforever

You probably signed up for a continuous payment authority.
Unless you cancel the payment will continue even if the card is cancelled.
The good news from now is that you can instruct MBNA not to make any further payments.
The bad news is that you need to contact the retailer for any potential refund.

Jinks

Hi Jones,

Thanks for your response, but I'm not quite sure what you mean. By "the retailer" do you mean Santander? It seems strange that I would need to contact Santander for a refund when it is MBNA who have been taking the money?

Having said that, because I have no idea what the charge is, I don't know which company (Santander or MBNA) is responsible for the error. At the time I cancelled the card I was not advised that I needed to cancel anything else or that I had signed up for anything, and I feel that I should be entitled to a refund from somebody!

dzug1

The retailer is the organisation that is charging your credit card that MBNA are then charging on to your credit card account and - until you stopped it - were then claiming the DD

There is no error (apart from you not checking your statements which I won't go on about).

So you need to find out who is charging you (normally a subscription or insurance of some sort) and get them to stop. You may be able to get some of your money back depending on what it was and whether you have - in theory at least - received any value from it

Jinks

Oh, I see - you mean you think a third party is making a charge to my non-existent card? That never even occurred to me because, as I said, I never really used the card, which is why I cancelled it - I only ever made a few small purchases with it which were immediately paid off via the direct debit and I would have not signed up to any subscriptions on my credit card. I would also have assumed that if I had, cancelling the card would have cancelled them (how can that not be the case - they would be trying to charge to something that no longer existed?).

I assumed that the charges were from MBNA, like payment insurance or something that for some reason wasn't cancelled. If a third party is charging something to those card details I would find that extremely concerning because it would not have been initiated by me, and would therefore be a fraud issue. As I said, I changed my name legally in 2006, so I couldn't possibly still be using it and if someone is they are doing so under a fraudulent identity.

Now I'm even more confused. I suppose I'll just need to contact the card company and ask them what these charges are and where they have come from.

Thanks.

Miss_Spendalot_2

I think that your best bet is to call up and ask them what you have been being charged for, Not all call centres are a nightmare some can be very helpful and are there to help you, I am not sure what they could have been charging you for but you will not know where these payments are going until you call and find out.

When you find out who the recipient is you will be able to take any actions that will get you a refund, if of course they were not legitimate..

Good luck and I hope you get it resolved.

JohalaReewi

Jinks wrote: »

I would also have assumed that if I had, cancelling the card would have cancelled them (how can that not be the case - they would be trying to charge to something that no longer existed?).

A lot of people assume this but it is not correct. Cancelling a credit card does not necessarily cancel any recurring payments on that card. While the card may be cancelled, the card's account is very much alive and still able to receive charges.

Jinks

JohalaReewi wrote: »

A lot of people assume this but it is not correct. Cancelling a credit card does not necessarily cancel any recurring payments on that card. While the card may be cancelled, the card's account is very much alive and still able to receive charges.

Well, that's interesting - thank you for this information, and now I wonder why cancelling a credit card does not cancel the account with the credit card company. The fact that it doesn't has certainly caused some sort of problem in my case and no one ever informed me that I would continue to have a "credit card account" whether or not I had a "credit card".

So how does one go about cancelling one's credit card account (I definitely want mine cancelled)? Do you just request it, and when cancelling a card do you have to request a cancellation of both? How are customers supposed to know they need to cancel the account as well?

The mind boggles!

Thank you to Miss_Spendalot for your post as well.

Edited to add: I found some of my old statements from this card and there is only one recurring charge on them - something from the credit card provider called "card protection". I think they are still charging me for this, despite the card being cancelled - I googled it and found this, which seems like it might be the same situation I'm in (well, the forum is telling me I can't post links, but I wanted to put this here for anyone else who might find themselves in the same confusing situation so I just put a space in the URL - hope I'm not going to get into trouble!).

w ww.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/may/22/cancel-card-protection-payments

[Deleted User]

Jinks wrote: »

So how does one go about cancelling one's credit card account (I definitely want mine cancelled)? Do you just request it, and when cancelling a card do you have to request a cancellation of both? How are customers supposed to know they need to cancel the account as well?

You can't. What you need to do is ensure there are no remaining transactions to go through on it. Provide new card details to anyone you want to continue paying.

Otherwise, people would (and do try to) set up a payment with a supplier and cancel the card and account and run away into the sunset.

Ultimately, a dormant account will be purged completely from the system, bu that will take a long period of inactivity.

Jinks

Deleted_User wrote: »

You can't. What you need to do is ensure there are no remaining transactions to go through on it. Provide new card details to anyone you want to continue paying.

Otherwise, people would (and do try to) set up a payment with a supplier and cancel the card and account and run away into the sunset.

Ultimately, a dormant account will be purged completely from the system, bu that will take a long period of inactivity.

Thanks for clarifying. I'm still a bit puzzled by this. Is it actually legal for a company to continue to hold your information and an account in your name if you expressly state that you want it closed?

If I set up a recurring payment on my bank account and then closed the account the payment would be refused because the account didn't exist and so the service would stop. Surely the same would happen with a credit card account?

I'm not arguing with you, I don't know very much about this and I'm sure you're correct. But it makes no sense to me! I was under the impression that the above was what I had done, and when I cancelled the card no one indicated to me that I would need to make any further cancellations.

I'm now pretty certain that what I have been charged for is card insurance on a card I don't have... due to the fact that I wasn't informed about any of the above when I cancelled it (in fact, I didn't even know I had it and don't recall signing up for any card insurance in the first place). So I'll try to claim a refund of it. I don't see how they can refuse a refund for insurance on a card that doesn't exist!

Thanks for the responses, it's been helpful and clarified some things I was confused about.

udydudy

Jinks wrote: »

....If I set up a recurring payment on my bank account and then closed the account the payment would be refused because the account didn't exist and so the service would stop. Surely the same would happen with a credit card account? .....
Thanks for the responses, it's been helpful and clarified some things I was confused about.

Continous Payment Authority(CPA) set up on a credit card do not get cancelled automatically. Though I do not understand the logic behind it, sadly it has been that way. In fact until recently you could only cancel the CPA by contacting the vendor. I think they have recently amended or proposed an amendment in which you can write to your crad provider and request cancellation of the CPA and they have to oblige.

In your case was the insurance provider the same as the card provider? In which case I would expect they would be on a sticky wicket if they feigned ignorance. but if the provider was different to the card provider then you may be on a sticky wicket. But no harm in writing to them and requestinga refund. Get details from your card provider and then follow up with the Insurance provider.