Morgan Stanley 0% Balance transfer has just stitched me up!

marchesini

Hi all, my first post here but have used the site many times before - really useful information.

Recently, moved my £7000 balance from CapitalOne 0% card (due to expire) to a Morgan Stanley 0% offer. Great, max £50 balance transfer fee and then nothing to pay (except minimum payments for another 9 months).

Somehow, my direct debits were not in place so I got charged a late payment fee - there was some confusion over this as I also have a Goldfish card which is also 'owned' by Morgan Stanley. Ok, I expected to be charged a nomnal late payment fee and that would be that - or so I thought. A phone conversation occurred on 12th July where I set up my direct debit payments and I cleared up the confusion between the two cards. Paid £300 that covered the minimum payments and a bit extra as well.

Imagine my surprise when I opened up this months statement of account. £300 off my balance and then a charge of £93.00 interest. No problem, just a mistake on their part - probably haven't got my 0% offer on their system - or so I thought. After a brief 'discussion', it appears that if I make a late payment, all promotional offers are void and so I was charged interest on the full amount!

So, I asked "So, if I hadn't phoned up to query this, you would have continued to charge me interest on the full amount?" "Yes sir, it's all in the terms and conditions". As from tonight, I have been put back on the promotional rate but I think this is totally underhand behaviour. At no time did the person I spoke to when sorting out my late payments and direct debits inform me that the promotional offer would now not apply to my balance transfer.

I also asked to speak to a supervisor about refunding these charges as I thought they were totally unjustified but he said that he was the person to speak to and there was no-one else. Great customer service!

Now, have I been incredibly naive about the charges or have they pulled a fast one? Any chance of getting my charges refunded or do I take it as (another) lesson learnt that everyone is not to be trusted?

best regards all from a very angry person :mad: :mad:

simon

ravenk

Welcome to the club. You will get a badge soon to wear. "I have help contribute to the Banks next billion in profit".
They have you on the small print. Human error is not an excuse.
Just spread the word on what you think about the card company and your experience.

MarkyMarkD

Yep, good idea, raven. Spread the word.

"I did a balance transfer which is going to save me £100s in interest. I then got charged interest because I didn't pay my bill on time. Aren't the banks terrible?".

Er, no, they aren't.

It's obvious from any credit card statement if your DD is set up because it says "your minimum payment of £x.xx will be collected by DD on xx August 2007" or something very similar.

If it doesn't say that, you have to pay by other means.

All credit card companies withdraw their offers if you breach their terms. Why on earth shouldn't they - they are already giving you £100s for nothing?

marchesini

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

Yep, good idea, raven. Spread the word.

"I did a balance transfer which is going to save me £100s in interest. I then got charged interest because I didn't pay my bill on time. Aren't the banks terrible?".

I don't have a problem with the late payment charges up to the point in which I settled the minimum payment and then set up my direct debit with "Customer Service". I don't see why I should be charged after my account was now up-to-date.

I think that it's fine to charge me up to the point in which I bought my account up to date but what I resent is the underhand way that the charges have been applied. I spent at least 20 minutes on the phone sorting out the confusion over the direct debit set-up and also making the minimum payments and at no point was I informed that the 0% offer was no longer applicable. This is meant to be customer service isn't it - you know, helping the customers - something which nowadays seem to be thing of the past. Yeah, yeah, it's in the small print but honestly, you would think that they might happen to mention that the offer was no longer valid during my 20 min+ phone call to them. Oh hang on, then they would actually be serving the customer and that wouldn't be right would it now!!

Well, I've learnt my lesson now - read the smal print and don't assume anything.

simon

MarkyMarkD

Whilst you got your account's payments up-to-date, there's no obligation on the lender to keep allowing your free loan (or subsidised rate, or whatever) to continue. That free/cheap rate is conditional upon paying EVERY month's payment on time.

I am surprised that they didn't explain on the phone that you'd lost your incentivised rate. But if they had done, would you really have been able to clear the balance immediately?

If you could, and you were just stoozing the money, I haven't got sympathy for you. If you stooze and can't read small print, you shouldn't be stoozing.