Mbna reward points closed unexpectedly

ambrose13

Hi

I am very upset with MBNA and I wondered whether anyone else had the same issue that I have just had. I use my MBNA credit card for the points. I pay off my statement monthly so I do not pay interest. The reward for this is 1 point for every £ I spend.

I had 43,000 points which have taken years to build up. I tried to spend them yesterday but I couldn't find the link to the points section (which I know used to be on the website).

I contacted MBNA by secure message centre and was told my MBNA that there's a link on their website to do this and they confirmed that I had 43,000 points to spend. Great I thought - but I couldn't find the link. So I asked where the link was.

Today I received an email telling me the rewards points scam (I mean scheme) has been closed down and apparently I received a letter in March telling me I had 2 months to use them up - I never received any letters at all.

My view is that my April and May statements both had my points clearly listed on them and neither statements had any warning whatsoever that the points scheme was going to be closed. I log onto the MBNA every month to make my payments and there has never been a warning there either!

I am very unhappy with this dishonest practice. It is my view that MBNA have deliberately not informed their customers that they are closing down the scheme to avoid payout. And I wondered if any other MSE people have the same problem?

I know I can just complain....but I can't believe I am the only person who's had this experience. And to be honest, I am fed up with these large corporations doing things unethically on the hope that they'll only receive a few complaints that they can fob off.

I may need to escalate this to organisations with higher levels of publicity who can then shame this firm into being more fair and transparent eg watchdog, MSE etc?

I am just gauging interest to see if this is something others have experienced too?

All the best

Mike

PeacefulWaters

Complain to MBNA.

Escalate to FOS.

ambrose13

Thanks...for the feedback. I've reworded my post.

Round_The_Bend

I just checked my account and as far as I can ascertain the rewards scheme still seems to be active for me, so apparently, not universal.

SuperHan

Looks to be still live for me. The link for "Redeem points" is still there under the summary box.

I also didn't get the letter when a lot of other people were saying they were ceasing giving points on Visa.

I'm guessing they've targeted it as specific customers, but I'll keep spending as I earn them to avoid the same situation!

ambrose13

Thanks for the replies. Appreciated. The rewards points I'm referring to are the ones where you redeem against Argos items - not airline rewards (which see to be what you get if you apply now). Just clarifying.

Cheers

Mike

TheLondoner

I have an mbna card and i didn't even know it accrues points. I have the everyday plus. Do I get any points for using this card?

SuperHan

ambrose13 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Appreciated. The rewards points I'm referring to are the ones where you redeem against Argos items - not airline rewards (which see to be what you get if you apply now). Just clarifying.

Cheers

Mike

Mine is the "MyRewards", 1 point per £1 for Amex, 1 point per £2 for VISA spend (or something similar), to be redeemed against a catalogue of items, including vouchers and cash back. You're right that these do not seem to be available any more.

pete-20-11

Rewards still active for me too, just swapped some points for supermarket vouchers.

My Visa points were changed a while back, but Amex rewards remained the same (I believe others had different cuts).

It may be related to the EU, card companies cutting back on rewards due to new limits on merchant fees.

JohnM5206

Yes - MBNA made it very obvious to me

I was notified of this change, and was advised that the card account would be closed and a new card issued, with different card number.
All that happened about 20th May. Meanwhile I had cashed in the points I had accrued for vouchers.