Mbna - help!

recruiter27

I took out an MBNA platinum card last year to do an interest free balance transfer of £3,000 - the charge for this was £150.

I got the intro pack, all looked good as I had an interest free period up until July 2014. I set up a direct debit on their website to ensure that I had paid the balance (£3,150) by the end of the interest free period.

As I had seen payments going out of my account, to be honest I forgot about it, only to check it now and find that although I have paid MBNA over £1,000, I am being charged interest every month and my balance has only gone down by £270!

I called MBNA and they advised that because I had done the balance transfer online (as encouraged to do so on everything I have received from them) my balance transfer was on the statutory rate rather than the offered rate, contrary to what my intro pack says.

They offered to pay back the last 4 months interest (just shy of £200) which would bring my balance to £2,682 rather than the amount I feel it should read; £2,119 (£3,150 - my payments and interest charges).

I feel pretty unhappy about this, it feels very misleading at best. I told MBNA I thought their offer was unacceptable and they are going to have a manager call me back in 48 hours.

I wonder if anyone has experienced a similar situation and if anyone has any advice on if I have any chance of getting what I want or how to go about getting this?

Thanks

SammenForLivet2

Do you not get monthly statements - which would have shown the interest being applied?

I can't remember which bank I saw this for - but they claim that all disputes appearing on the statement must be raised within 180 days (6 months).

I do feel that (if you still have the intro pack - to prove that you where entitled) - you have a genuine complaint.

Good luck, though, with claiming your interest back and tell us what happened!

fozmcfc

I posted on a thread the other week, that when doing a transfer with MBNA cards, there are 2 options, one to do it at the cards APR rate and one to do it as 0%.

It is highly likely that you didn't check the correct box and that opted to do it at the APR rate.

The only time I could imagine someone would choose the standard APR option, would be if they could clear the balance within such a time, that the cost would be less than the BT fee.

Your options:

Complain as far as you can and hope they or the regulator agrees with you and you get back to the position you were expecting to be in. During this time however, do not even consider stopping payments as this will trash your credit record.

Your second option, transfer the money to another 0% card and accept the hit.

Third option, transfer the money to another 0% card and still take the complaint through the procedures.

What hasn't helped your case, is that you haven't been checking your statements, on or offline for months. Some cards put it in the T&C's that you accept you will access your online account at least once every some many days. With M&S I know there definitely is this condition, I remember seeing it, when I sign up for either online access or paperless statements.

Whatever the outcome is, you should always check your bank, credit card statements at least once each month (I'd recommended no less than once a week) to check for instances like this or if your account has been used frauduantly.

recruiter27

Thanks both for this, I agree it is likely that I have checked the wrong box. Certainly I have learnt a lesson here and will be checking any future accounts more regularly!

Even so, I still feel misled, I'm quite sure that it was not obvious online that I was choosing not to use the 0% offer. Also I feel fairly irked that all the paperwork encourages me firstly to do my transactions online rather than on the phone and secondly sells itself as a 'contactless card'. I will now be changing to paper statements.

I spoke with the Financial Ombudsman Service and they seemed to agree that I had a reasonable complaint.

Are there any other 'procedures' that I should be following?

Thanks again to you both for the comments and advice.

grumbler

recruiter27 wrote: »

Are there any other 'procedures' that I should be following?

http://www.mbna.co.uk/contact-us/complaints-procedure/

fozmcfc

Just follow the complaints procedure to the letter.

You don't say, but have they agreed to offer you 0% for the remainder of the months.

If not, then it's a difficult one, because on one hand you are going to continue to pay interest until it is sorted and if it's not in your favour, then you won't get that interest back.

You might therefore want to consider if possible transferring it, to another 0% card. Of course you'll pay a fee for that though, which may not be reimbursed for even if you win your complaint.

If they have agreed to put you on 0% at least until you get a final answer from them, then no rush.

Hopefully all this will be by the by and the phone call from the manager will have them agree to refund the interest and put you on 0% for the remainder of the months.

Keep us uptodate.

Gold_bullion

I've once had a similar situation with MBNA and I speak as a regular user of their deals going back over 20 years.

In my situation (a couple of years back) it was similar in that online screens and offers sent out by post appeared to tie up. Despite being pretty experienced at applying for these type of deals, they claimed that I "ticked the wrong box" online and applied for the wrong product. I maintained that I didn't, and that my history would strongly suggest that there is no way I would have gone for such a deal.

After the exchange of a couple of letters to their customer service department, they agreed to reverse all charges as if I had applied for the "correct" deal. As I recall there was some confusion between "money transfer" (in their parlance transfer to a current account) and "balance transfer" (transfer to another credit card) and in the end they actually gave me a current account deal that wasn't even on offer, so their managers have plenty of leeway! Several years ago it was common to be able to negotiate 0% or slightly higher deals (with no transfer fees in those days) simply by ringing them up, even though they did not advertise any of these rates.

When I've had cause to complain to MBNA, which is rarely, they have always been very reasonable, so stick to your guns and hopefully you'll get a good result.

And of course when doing any of these types of deals, check your statements religiously, especially at the start of the arrangement!