MBNA - £133.21 interest plus Fees - Don't accept Visa Card Companies cheques! Help.

chrisjoanne

Hi Everyone.

I'm in need of a little help please. I've been charged fees along with around £133.00 in interest (so far), because MBNA refused to honour a cheque from SkyCard. This promotional cheque from Skycard was correctly written out and the only reason why MBNA did not honour it was because they do not allow the payment on an MBNA statement by another companies Visa cheque. I can understand if it was Sony or another company which is ran by MBNA but SkyCard is ran by Barclays (I think).

Anyway, This is the letter which has gone off to MBNA complaints department.....any views please or help.


Dear Sir

I refer to your letter dated the 4th June 2007.
You have recently returned my Visa SkyCard cheque (marked “return to drawer”) for £7,000. This cheque was used to pay off my MBNA balance in order to avoid incurring interest for the following month on my MBNA account. However, as the cheque was returned, I have now been charged a returned fee of £12 (from both MBNA and SkyCard) and also a £12 fee for late payment from MBNA. I also have incurred £133.21 interest on my 16th June statement (with more interest to be incurred on my July statement).
Having telephoned my local bank, along with SkyCard and finally MBNA customer services, I have been informed by MBNA that the reason why the cheque was returned was due to the fact MBNA do not allow “other Visa Card companies VISA promotional cheques to pay off MBNA balances”.

This seems ridiculous. Surely one of the main reasons why Visa companies send Visa Card cheques along with statements is to encourage you to pay off other Visa companies balances.

Taking a closer look at an MBNA letter from August 2006 and also July 2007 with attached Visa cheques, you clearly state: “Pay off other credit cards, store cards and loans. **”.
"**Remember to check if your lender will charge for early repayment."

Therefore YOU are inviting me to pay off Visa Card balances but YOU don’t accept this method of payment yourselves! - Very odd indeed don’t you think? You are the only company I know that do this.

In fact I did use a Visa card cheque from SkyCard on the 22nd September 2006 to pay off a balance on an MBNA card. The card number is 4129************. This card belongs to my wife.
Can you inform me why you accepted a SkyCard promotional Visa cheque in September 2006 and not in May 2007? The transaction was for £2,900.00. I have not received any documentation from MBNA that you have changed your Terms & Conditions.
I am prepared to take this to the small claims court in Newcastle upon Tyne if I do not receive a full refund for the two £12 fees and all the interest I will incur for June and July. An estimate of interest for July will be around £150.00.

I require a response within 7 days.

Mr & Mrs Truman

________________________________________________

chrisjoanne

Bump :-)


"The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters."

MoneyGirl_2

A bit late now, but for future reference, I'd take a much more laid back approach to your letters. I know you're annoyed, but letters with stuff like "YOU did this, and YOU should have done that" just won't get you anywhere. Annoying I know. Always be polite and professional, it will get you much further.

Back to the problem, you may be able to phone Sky up and ask if they will do a Balance Transfer rather than using the cheque. Just make sure it includes the same deal.

Best of luck.

tom188

Of course the simplest answer to this problem would have been to pay the credit card cheque into your current account then issue a personal cheque.

It is well worth checking with card providers whether they will accept these cheques before you issue them - each company has their own policies. Many for instance charge cash advance rates on cheques issued - have you checked that this is not the case with sky card?

chrisjoanne

tom188 wrote: »

Of course the simplest answer to this problem would have been to pay the credit card cheque into your current account then issue a personal cheque.

It is well worth checking with card providers whether they will accept these cheques before you issue them - each company has their own policies. Many for instance charge cash advance rates on cheques issued - have you checked that this is not the case with sky card?

Thanks for your views.
I'll be paying any credit card cheques into my current account from now on.....but I don't think you should "need" do this.
The SkyCard promotional rate ended on 31st May....so I missed out. However, Abbey had a 0% rate for 9 months - so I switched to them instead. (by the way, I did pay the cheque into my bank first :-) )

Hi MoneyGirl - I take your view on board about the "laid back approach". However, in all my time that I have had trouble with Ebay, PayPal, numerous Credit Card companies etc, it usually pays to start off as you mean to go on and just get down to it - instead of !!!!!footing around.

If some companies think they can walk over you...they will.

Chris

inmypocketnottheirs

chrisjoanne wrote: »

Hi MoneyGirl - I take your view on board about the "laid back approach". However, in all my time that I have had trouble with Ebay, PayPal, numerous Credit Card companies etc, it usually pays to start off as you mean to go on and just get down to it - instead of !!!!!footing around.

If some companies think they can walk over you...they will.

Chris

Absolutely spot on! Do not ever, under any circumstances, show weakness.

MoneyGirl_2

It's nothing to do with showing weakness or footing around, it's about being firm and professional. For instance, "If you don't do this, then see you in court" is a bit pretentious and is likely to see you straight in court, to use, "I would be pleased if you would consider this resolution. If you are unable to proceed then I will unfortunately have no alternative but to pursue this as a legal matter".

You are more likely to have them consider your solution with the second option (or something similar) than the all guns blazing letter. Both say the same thing, but the second is more likely to get you what you want without having to actually go to court.

chrisjoanne

MoneyGirl wrote: »

It's nothing to do with showing weakness or footing around, it's about being firm and professional. For instance, "If you don't do this, then see you in court" is a bit pretentious and is likely to see you straight in court, to use, "I would be pleased if you would consider this resolution. If you are unable to proceed then I will unfortunately have no alternative but to pursue this as a legal matter".

You are more likely to have them consider your solution with the second option (or something similar) than the all guns blazing letter. Both say the same thing, but the second is more likely to get you what you want without having to actually go to court.

Hi MoneyGirl.

Thanks for your post....my grammar isn't as good as yours, but I still (usually) get the results I require.

inmypocketnottheirs

MoneyGirl wrote: »

It's nothing to do with showing weakness or footing around, it's about being firm and professional. For instance, "If you don't do this, then see you in court" is a bit pretentious and is likely to see you straight in court, to use, "I would be pleased if you would consider this resolution. If you are unable to proceed then I will unfortunately have no alternative but to pursue this as a legal matter".

You are more likely to have them consider your solution with the second option (or something similar) than the all guns blazing letter. Both say the same thing, but the second is more likely to get you what you want without having to actually go to court.

I have had successes with Barclaycard, Capital One, GE Money, Co-operative and Lloyds UDT. All by taking control, setting the ground rules and by showing who is the boss. Any bank member of staff is a mere minion who only operates by a 'control' manual. The only method of getting a solution works by a firm approach and an immediate demonstration of 'meaning business'. Believe it works, and I have a 100% success rate with all the people that have used my exact letters.

Experience speaks louder than words, in this case!

Yogibear

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

I have had successes with Barclaycard, Capital One, GE Money, Co-operative and Lloyds UDT. All by taking control, setting the ground rules and by showing who is the boss. Any bank member of staff is a mere minion who only operates by a 'control' manual. The only method of getting a solution works by a firm approach and an immediate demonstration of 'meaning business'. Believe it works, and I have a 100% success rate with all the people that have used my exact letters.

Experience speaks louder than words, in this case!

well said,a person after my own heart!! getintaethem as we say up here lol.:rolleyes:

MoneyGirl_2

Don't get me wrong, I do believe in being firm, I think you just have to be careful not to go over the line and come out as rude or it can get someones back up and they'll make it as difficult for you as possible.

chrisjoanne : I do like the grammer what I wrote