MBNA interest Scam

TTMCMschine

Well, I don't know if scam is the right word, but I'm mightily miffed off with them.

What happened was I had a 0% deal which was coming to its end, so to avoid paying interest of around £50odd I decided to pay off the balance in full just before the 0% deal ended.

I rang MBNA up to pay by debit card only to be told "sorry, you can only pay the minimum payment by debit card."

"Why?" I asked.

"It's our policy."

"Well thats stupid," I said, "either you do take debit card payments, or you don't, & if you do why limit it to the minimum payment?" (unless you're deliberately forcing your customers to pay less so that you can charge them interest on the higher remaining balance of course).

"It's our policy."

I hate it when companies do something obviously idiotic & they just hide behind "It's our policy" without any form of discussion or rational explanation - obviously because there isn't one & they can't openly admit that they're fleecing their customers.

Anyway, I ended up having to pay the minimum & have the interest added to the balance - my own fault partly for not sending it in the post, but I honestly thought they took debit card payments for any amount, I'm sure I've done it before.

So I wrote a letter of complaint saying I've been a customer for ages, please refund the money or take this letter as notification of my desire to shut the account, send me the outstanding balance, etc.

The reply was basically "we've investigated & you're not getting your money back." But no mention of shutting the account.

So I wrote another letter, "Please send me any outstanding balance I want to shut my account." I got a reply today (this is around 2 months later now) - "we are investigating your complaint & will answer within x days." - WHAT BL**DY COMPLAINT!!!!

They've already had that & weren't bothered, I JUST WANT TO SHUT THE BL**DY ACCOUNT!!!

It's bad enough that they concoct policies that hinder their customers ability to pay back what they owe, but it's a bl**dy nightmare that they won't let you leave when you've had enough! How many times do you have to write to these idiots before they just do what you ask? I feel like I'm being held hostage!

Anyway, my point was that I think it's unfair to limit debit card payments by phone, it appears to me to be a transparent method of extracting maximum interest from all of those customers (you know who you are) who always forget to send the payment in the post & ring up to make a debit card payment at the last minute, so be careful if you're thinking of paying in that way. It must make them £millions per annum.

End of rant.

vivaladiva

My OH had a similar experience with them. We needed to clear a balance to avoid monthly interest. They would only take the minimum payment over the phone, but you can pay the whole lot by debit card online - I have no idea what their reasoning is, bar the interest factor. The online payment is credited the same day BTW.

Lemon_Tree

i had a problem as well, tried to pay the whole thing off using the automated system but as i had a DD had no chance. Also couldn't find a human being. ended up paying it online and cancelling my DD, they tried to take the DD and cos it was cancelled it was declined so they actually had the cheek to charge me! i eventually got through to a person - took days and i could just hear them keep saying 'the computer says no!' they are hard as nails even when they're in the wrong!

HannahandMark

Hi there,

We had the same problem with a Halifax CC. Tried to pay off the balance in full over the phone, only to be advised that we would have to pay in a branch. Went to a branch and were told that we had to go to a MAIN branch. Went to a main branch and were then told that we could only pay by cheque. Had to go home and get cheque book only to be told in the branch that they could not give us a closing balance.

These people seem intent on making life as hard as possible for us ordinary people.

If stuck go for the jugular, i.e. the Chief Executive. Worked, finally, with the Halifax and his assistant kindly took our full and final payment, by debit card, over the phone!

Thanks for highlighting this problem.

tsharp

Hmmm, we've just taken on a large sum with MBNA through their 0% purchase deals, and have set a DD up on it too.

What's the best way to kill the beast off, make extra payments online as well as the DDs, and ensure you leave enough time before the end of the deal?

I don't want to end up in a similar situation...

TTMCMschine

The only option seems to be to make sure that you make the final payment to clear the balance by post well before the date its due. Otherwise you'll end up with interest being added.

One of the things that has annoyed me the most is that I've now asked them on 2 seperate occassions, both times in writing to close the account, and they STILL won't do it. They're now "investigating" again, & I suspect that this time they'll come back & say that they'll give me the money back if I don't close the account, which I'll agree to but just won't use the card again & I'll then close it a few months later.

Either that or they'll write back to tell me again that I can't have the money back & will just ignore the letter to shut the account - which is all I asked for, not another investigation.

TheAble

Could you have paid by bank transfer using internet banking maybe? Usually only takes a couple of days to hit the account.

HappyMJ

TheAble wrote: »

Could you have paid by bank transfer using internet banking maybe? Usually only takes a couple of days to hit the account.

Thankyou. i ring my bank (if i'm not near p.c) as soon as statement arrives set the payment to arrive at mbna or whoever on the exact date. In six years of doing this i've never missed a minimum or full payment date.

lemontart

I had this problem recently then got quite annoyed when the operator tried to tell me this had always been the case to which I replied she was misinformed and that if she cared to check my record on her computer she would find that on in at least 4 months at the begining of this year I had paid a lot more than the minimum rate over the phone, and also they were harrassing me when in difficulty wanting full payment over the phone ...................she could not reply to that one, having read the other posts I am concerned now because I want to close the account and the small amount remaining is the interest they applied after whilst I sorted out balance transfer to a new company and it is less than the 100 min for balance transfer to the new card now.

In process of moving bank so no internet banking at mo

HannahandMark

TheAble wrote: »

Could you have paid by bank transfer using internet banking maybe? Usually only takes a couple of days to hit the account.

Have now got internet banking and find that this works fine. We now always pay the full balance immediately. BACS is a great way of avoiding those annoying charges that we always used to get through disorganisation.

Tr@cker

Thats the answer pay off on the internet i find it quicker anyway, in fact when i did once ring them (Virgin) they told me they didn't take ANY payments over the phone.