Morgan Stanley £20 Annual Fee

freestyleskier

freestyleskier wrote: »

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.

The 8 weeks have now expired since my original complaint. Before sending my complaint to the FOS I called to check if MS had refunded the charge - yes they did on 27th June and internet banking confirmed this. No doubt there is a letter in the post to tell me that this is 'a gesture of goodwill' etc. I will provide details when I get this. I wonder what their position is on next year's annual charge...

Jess1983

MrsMillar wrote: »

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.

It just means that the account is credit, despite it being closed. Phone them up and ask for it to be put into your bankaccount. Solved :j

Also, and I have this from a fairly reliable source, if you phone up at the moment, you're 99% guaranteed to have your annual fee refunded.

The whole idea behind this, I think, was to get rid of non profitable card holders. Read: cardholders with a low limit ( the classic card is essentially a platinum card for people who didn't qualify for the minimum limit for the platinum I think )

robp

Not sure if this is related and apologise for not having read the whole thread....

Just had a letter from MS saying that my Platinum account has been transferred to Goldfish Bank.

Whole they heck are they?

The letter says the T & C's will remain the same, but does anyone know why this has happened?

No annual charge introduced though.

dzug

Goldfish were bought out by Morgan Stanley late last year, so they are part of the organisation.

Guess they are sorting their customers into categories? Ie giving them the card they think most appropriate rather than the one they wanted.

robp

Cheers.

Just checked on the Goldfish site.

It appears that Morgan Stanley have always outsourced their card services to Goldfish, so it's just a branding exercise like Natwest/RBS, etc.

Perhaps MS don't want my custom directly as I don't pay them any interest?

Ho hum. As long as I still get the cashback and usual protection, who cares what name is on the card!

Barking

Hiya Guys

Oddly enough a friend of mine also had this letter from Morgan Stanley and the charge was on her statement, when she phoned to complain and close her account she was informed that she would lose a portion of her cash back owed. I believe this was an earned £34.00 and they would not let her have this due to the cancellation and the charge of £20. I think they are really trying it on, I suggested she write a letter to a manager at Morgan Stanley complaing about the snatch back of the cash back.

I'll let you know how the story goes.

Cheers
Barking

Jess1983

robp wrote: »

Cheers.

Just checked on the Goldfish site.

It appears that Morgan Stanley have always outsourced their card services to Goldfish, so it's just a branding exercise like Natwest/RBS, etc.

Perhaps MS don't want my custom directly as I don't pay them any interest?

Ho hum. As long as I still get the cashback and usual protection, who cares what name is on the card!

MS card services doesn't exist anymore.
They have very simply changed their name to Goldfish after they bought it last year and have spun off completely from Morgan Stanley Dean Witter.

ernie-money

freestyleskier wrote: »

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.

You're an absolute legend! I had resigned and was just going to pay my bill, but after reading this I just rang them up, brought up the Unfair Terms gobbins act on the computer and had it in front of me as I was talking to them.
At first they were just referring to the terms and conditions, saying that they were allowed to change them, blah blah blah, but I stuck to my guns and just kept repeating what you said about them having to give a valid reason for doing it and that this reason had to be specified in the letter confirming this change. To be honest I didn't really know what I was talking about, but I must have been pretty convincing, going on about their actions being illegal etc and after about half an hour the bloke finally said that in this instance he would refund the charge, but next year I'll have to pay it!
Ha - result! As if I'll still be with them next year - I'll just rack up enough cashback to get it paid out and then I'll just be using another cash back card (or two if need be...):T

MrsMillar

Jess1983 wrote: »

It just means that the account is credit, despite it being closed. Phone them up and ask for it to be put into your bankaccount. Solved

I'll give it a go. Don't see why they couldn't just send me a cheque....

On another note:

I have always been dissatisfied with the credit limit MS gave me. I have quite a high salary and I was surprised at how low the credit limit was. What is quite amusing (and annoying though) is that when I applied, I didn't realise that the Classic card and the Platinum card were two different products: I honestly thought the only difference was the colour of the card they sent. I applied for the Classic card cos I thought "classic black" was a less w@nky looking card than the "Platinum" one. If only I'd realised.......... :rotfl:

MrsMillar

Jess1983 wrote: »

It just means that the account is credit, despite it being closed. Phone them up and ask for it to be put into your bankaccount. Solved

Well, I tried. Customer services has no record of the 15 pounds "reduction in [non-existent] outstanding balance" and told me that as my account was closed there was nowhere for them to put the 15 pounds. They said the goodwill gesture must have been a mistake.

Great. Perhaps I'll try writing to them again to say "Thank you for your offer. Unfortunately I have been unable to obtain the 15 pounds due to my account being closed. I would be grateful if you could send me a cheque."