MBNA - Advise please

WoodyBM

I took out an MBNA card this time last year purely to do a balance transfer on their 0% offer.

I was advised by MBNA to pay the first payment online as the Direct Debit for future payments might not be in place in time.

I got the first bill summary emailed in April, so logged in the day before the payment was due and paid online using my debit card. I got an email a few days later saying 'payment received thanks.'

Yesterday I got an annual statement stating I'd been paying interest, over £850 pounds worth. So I called MBNA and they said I'd paid the first payment late and therefore lost the 0% offer.

They're saying an online debit card payment doesn't go through until the next 'working' day. I'd paid on the 18th (payment due date the 19th) which was a Saturday. Going back through the old statements (online) it doesn't mention this anywhere but on their current ones it does - they've obviously changed them.

They have offered the £12 late payment and 7 months interest back (0f 12 months worth) but I had to argue for this. I have refused as I feel the full 12 months is owed back and they are escalating again.

How can this be right? Has anyone experienced this and what was the outcome. Is it likely I'll have to take this to the FSA? I can't see how I'll lose as it says 'payment due date 19th' and I paid on the 18th. They guy on the phone says it can take up to 56 days for me to get an outcome, seems like madness I should have to go through this.

Also for info I see the emails showing minimum payment and it's on DD so that's why I haven't looked at the full statements showing I'm being charged interest. Even now that I have it's not that clear and they never wrote to me to say I'd paid late or that my rate was changing.

[Deleted User]

If you've not been checking statements for a year, you've done very well to get even a partial refund. The statements would also have told you you had lost the promo rate as well as telling you how much interest you were being charged.

Doctor_Duke

I'd agree you have done well. Paying by debit card so close to the due date is risky and you should have checked when they would credit the payment. You also need to check that they haven't placed a late payment marker on your credit file. This is likely but if your very lucky they might remove this.

bengal-stripe

You are expected to have cleared funds credited to your account on or before the "payment due date". Debt Card payments are not cleared instantly, it takes a couple of days for the money to be credited. A Faster Payment transfer would (probably) have cleared the same day.

Some 10 days later, the new statement would have been issued and shown that your payment was late and the promotional rate of 0% was cancelled. Had you contacted the card back in April, you might have well persuaded them to reinstall the 0% rate.

Did you receive every month a mail that the new statement is now available to be looked at on-line? If you did, you have nobody but yourself to blame for not checking.

pauljoecoe

Whilst I agree with others, you should have noticed at the time and would have probably got them to reinstate 0% at that time, I do think MBNA are keener to cancel 0% deals than many companies.

I have had two incidences of missing payments on O% purchase cards over the last year or so (I know, I should know better!) and both have quite happily refunded the £12 late payment and hadn't taken the )% away anyway.

In fact the most recent was with the Post Office and they have a policy of allowing 3 late payments before cancelling the 0%.

WoodyBM

The statement doesn't say anywhere that the payment has to be made a few days before the 'due date' and I paid it before the due date. If I go to Tesco now and buy something on my debit card it's gone from my account instantly. They've changed their statements now to say allow 1 business day but they didn't before.

What I could do with knowing then is should they have informed me separate from my statements that they had changed the terms because I'd paid late?

They don't actually start charging interest until two months later, the next statement had the late payment charge but no interest until the following statement.

TadleyBaggie

WoodyBM wrote: »

If I go to Tesco now and buy something on my debit card it's gone from my account instantly.

This is not strictly true, it might have been authorised (and so is pending) immediately, but the transaction will not show up for a day or so.

TadleyBaggie

It often depend on the credit card issuer, with Amex the payment shows up immediately on the credit card account, although it takes a couple of days before it shows up on my bank account.

Doctor_Duke

TadleyBaggie wrote: »

It often depend on the credit card issuer,

absolutely true and that's why you need to know your lenders rules. I've had many cards with MBNA over many years and never had a problem as I know how they work and how payments work. It's up to you as the borrower to know the rules.

[Deleted User]

WoodyBM wrote: »

What I could do with knowing then is should they have informed me separate from my statements that they had changed the terms because I'd paid late?

No.

And understandably, if you're not reading statements, you're unlikely to read anything else they send.

WoodyBM

Deleted_User wrote: »

No.

And understandably, if you're not reading statements, you're unlikely to read anything else they send.

Is that 'no' as in fact or just your opinion?

I read the emails they send me. I didn't read the detailed statements as I get a summary email saying there's a bill, it's x amount and will be taken by Direct Debit on X date. If I got an email or letter saying I'd missed a payment (when I hadn't) or I'd be put on a default % I'd have sorted it there and then and failing a suitable response from MBNA I'd have moved the balance. The card was just used for a balance transfer so there's no other transactions to check for. The card isn't used for anything else so also unlikely to be subject to any fraud I'd need to watch out for.

As for knowing my lenders rules on payment if it's not on the statement saying 'if paying by debit card allow 1 working day' how would I know that 'pay by x date' actually means pay one day before unless it's a weekend then pay 3 days before?

MBNA know they're wrong otherwise they wouldn't be offering the charge and 7 months back. I was just hoping there would be a quicker way to sort it than going through the complaints process.