Morgan Stanley £20 Annual Fee

keeperbear

My mate and I are both Platinum cardholder's that pay off our balance in full every month. Neither of us have received notification of the £20 annual charge. Thus the fee is NOT being applied to all platinum cardholders.

System

keeperbear wrote: »

My mate and I are both Platinum cardholder's that pay off our balance in full every month. Neither of us have received notification of the £20 annual charge. Thus the fee is NOT being applied to all platinum cardholders.

Its not being applied to platinum holders at all. The grief is, that so many of us applied for Platinum accounts and ended up with Classic accounts. Its these Classic accounts that are being charged the annual fee.

System

Personally i think they are all trying to get us off 'cashback' and trying to switch us all over to either airmiles or 'rewards' from certain shops. They probably get huge incentives for doing so.

Luke

Judi wrote: »

Personally i think they are all trying to get us off 'cashback' and trying to switch us all over to either airmiles or 'rewards' from certain shops. They probably get huge incentives for doing so.

On Morgan Stanley web site they have stopped taking applictions for both gold and platinum cards.

ernie-money

dodman wrote: »

I'm in the same position as you, ernie-money. I just found out today when I looked online and saw they'd taken £20 for an annual fee.

Looking back through my paper statements I see this is mentioned in May. It says 'Please do remember that our terms and conditions are changing ...'

I have no recollection of getting any other letter from Morgan Stanley telling me about this. Can anyone confirm what prior warning they had before their May statement?

As it is, I've emailed their customer services asking them to close the account, pay me my cashback and return me the £20 they've taken, on the grounds they made (and make) no online mention of this charge at all.

If they don't agree, maybe I should pay off my outstanding balance in full (less the £20), then buy goods to the amount of my current cashback, and finally cancel the card ... leaving minus £20 on it.

Please let me know how you get on with this! Would be interested to know if they'll reply...
I had made my mind up to stay with them, not spending another penny until my anniversary date in October - then I can spend another £2000 with them and get 1% cashback instead of just 0.5%, making me another £20 to add to my £10 I've already accrued, so that I can withdraw a total of £30 before closing my account. Otherwise I guess this is one to put down as lessons learned, but if you manage to win your battle I may well have a go too!

System

Luke wrote: »

On Morgan Stanley web site they have stopped taking applictions for both gold and platinum cards.

That doesnt sound very good :eek:

Luke

Now I know this is of no concilation to those of you thare are getting £20 fee but it doesn't apply to all plantinum cards apparently. After reading this thread I assumed I had accidently thrown away the new terms and conditions with out reading, so I phoned up to find out what was going on? and was told it wasn't my card.

Had the card about 4 years so maybe it is linked to a recent offerer with higher cash back?

freestyleskier

I also have one of these cards. Here's an extract from a letter that they confirmed as having received 3 weeks ago:

I am writing in response to your letter dated XXX from XXX. You state that the credit card Terms and Conditions allow you to change what you may charge me. Schedule 2 (1) of The Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 requires that you have a Valid Reason for doing so that is specified within the contract. Please advise me on what the Valid Reason for the Annual Charge is, and please show where in the contract this Valid Reason is specified. Please also provide evidence to support the validity of this reason.

No response as yet, but the 8 weeks since my first complaint is running out and they know that. Guess they're desperately trying to invent something. I'll provide an update on any response I get.

Shiggaddi

I wish I had come up with a letter like that. All I did was point out that the having the pay the £20 fee and lose my cashback counts as a penalty for not agreeing to the change that is imposed, and that I should be allowed to cancel without penalty. I asked if they choose not to pay the cashback if they could justify their decision in forcing this change and charging a penalty for not agreeing.

Their answer was to send me a cheque for the missing cashback, and justify their £20 fee saying you get a great card and loads of benefits. They found it easier to pay the cashback, rather than how they can word a letter justifying not paying it.

MrsMillar

Well, Shiggaddi, you did better than me.....

I got a response to my complaint the other day. As a "goodwill gesture" they have reduced my "outstanding balance" by £15. So, that'll be the outstanding balance I paid off in full in May in order to be able to close my account before 1 June, then, will it? Thanks very much, Morgan Stanley - very generous of you. Hmmmmm.