Credit card interest that has resulted in a change to credit file

Toyfemi

I decided to clear the outstanding balance on my Wife's MBNA credit card. I logged into her on-line account and paid the outstanding balance in full. We assumed, has you do that debt had been cleared and did not log in to account again. Two months later we recieved a letter saying we owed £50. We called MBNA who told us that the outstanding balance was interested on the previous balance that had accurred. At no when I was making the payment was I informed that the payment I was making would not included any interested that had accured and it would be best to call an agent to find out exactly what additional payment I had to make. I wasn't closing the account, I was simply trying to clear the balance. This missed payment has now been logged on her once perfect credit file. I am not a happy MBNA customer right now and need advise on what action I can now take to sort this out.

JimmyTheWig

Firstly, this is standard practice across the industry, I'm afraid. The balance on the statement is what you owe on the statement date. As you hadn't paid the bill in full for two consecutive months interest isn't waived. So the next statement will show interest from the last statement date to the date you paid. It's called residual interest.

Secondly, did your wife get a statement to say this interest had been applied?

Thirdly, if this is the first time a payment has been missed, I would imagine that if you spoke to MBNA nicely they will waive the fee leaving you to just pay the interest that had accrued.
I'm not sure if they'll remove the black mark on the credit file, though.

Toyfemi

MBNA claim they sent us emails, which my wife did not recieve. We spoke to MBNA and they did eventually waive the fee with only the interest to pay, we made the payment immediately.
Yesterday I checked my wife's credit file again, one missed payment had been logged on the file yesterday but for some reason the file is still showing she owes £36, when in fact the interest owed was paid a week ago.

Toyfemi

I am just really annoyed.
We are encourage to do everything on-line by banks these days, but are not provided with all the relevant information at the point of performing an action, that customer who spend ages hanging on the phone for someone to speak to get given.

JimmyTheWig

That's good that they waived the fee. Well done for asking - many would just accept and pay it!
I believe credit card companies only update credit reference agencies once a month, so the £36 owed may just be old information.

I agree it is annoying as you wouldn't have known about the residual interest unless it has happened before or you read the T&Cs with a fine tooth comb and had a level of understanding of an expert.

Are you saying you don't get statements through the post for this credit card?
Do you get online statements?
How often, in the past, did your wife check her online statements?
Did she ever get emails to say a statement was available online?

I'm thinking that this really is unfair if you received no notification and maybe the credit card company should do something about it. I don't know what, though, because technically the mark on the credit file is correct.

Toyfemi

We signed up for on-line statement. I have checked my wife's email account and she did not recieve an email notification that her September and October statements were ready. If she had been informed, she would not missed these payments.
We logged a complaint with the manager on duty when we called. He said we would receive notification that our complaint was being investigated with 7-10 working days.
I just wanted to know if anybody else has had a similiar complaint and had a successful outcome.
Thank you for your response.