Bank turned off promotional 0% interest rate

nichio3478

First and foremost, can I say that I have made a mistake here. The implications of this mistake are fairly severe and I am asking for help to try and resolve the situation - I know I have being naïve!


I took out a credit card with 0% on spending to pay for the final stages of refurbishing a house. We were project managing the build ourselves and this was a quick fix. The amount was £14k with 0% interest.


At some point about 8 months ago, we exceeded our limit by about £25 and it would appear that this meant the promotional rate was cancelled.


Since then, we have been paying 22% interest or £350 per month. I had seen this leaving my account and assumed this was repayment of capital.


I receive online statements which direct you to a summary statement which makes no mention that the promotional rate had been cancelled although there is a very small link to .pdf official statement which does detail the fact we had exceeded the credit limit.


I have spoken to the bank (MBNA) who have refunded 2 months interest as a goodwill gesture. I have lodged a formal complaint, the outcome of which I am yet to hear.


Any advice would be appreciated, it is my mistake but i also feel that the Credit Card company should have made more effort (not a line in an online statement which you have to search for) to bring this to my attention.


If no advice, then take this as a cautionary tale!!!!

d70cw6

what are you complaining about?

you broke the terms of the agreement.

you should feel pleased they waived two months as goodwill!

[Deleted User]

I think you will be fortunate to have any further refunds. It's standard wording in these promotions that breaching the t&cs will result in the loss of the offer. It could perhaps have been rectified if you had contacted them as soon as it happened, but not noticing for 8 months puts you in a much weaker position.

Looking at fixing the problem - is a new BT card an option? You existing debt may restrict opportunities, but it's worth looking into.

nichio3478

They have moved me onto a much better rate and i will be a position to clear the debt shortly.

Just extremely galling that basically frittered £2k on interest i did not need to pay!


An expensive lesson!

Sk066

Hi there. I can sympathise with this as I have recently done the same thing.

I'm with mbna and had a 0% for 36 months. To cut a long story short took the credit card limit down to the wire but kept it in the black via my calculations I was doing. Unfortunately I didn't factor in an interest charge of around 60 p which ultimately put me in the red by 42 p. Thus the deal ended and unbewnost to me I began to be charged 22.9 interest.

Because I was looking at an abridged statement I didn't notice until about 4 months later when I realised my monthly payments were not putting as much of a dent in the debt as they should have.

When I realised I contacted the bank and they agreed to reset the deal. I'm waiting on hearing whether they will refund the money.


It just seems a bit sneaky that they didn't write to tell me I had broke the terms and conditions. Particularly when I have never missed a payment and it was an interest charge of pence that sent me over. My question is is it worth going to the ombudsman or will I just be wasting my time?

I'm 360 pounds down for going 42p over the limit.

Thanks