Credit card dispute

troutman

OK few years back i switched to an interest free deal with a well known credit card company/bank/music company.

Unbeknown to me in the small print stated if i missed one payment it would revert to base rate interest.

Anyway with all my zero rate cards ive always set D/Ds up to ensure i dont miss payments. I set a fair payment of 350 a month and just left it running.
A few years later i went to check back after a remortgage decided to pay off the outstanding balance. It seemed i missed a payment years back and ever since they had been charging me full interest of about 240 a month so after all this time ive lost most of my money. I complained and asked for statements, they informed me my fault and statements would be produced if i paid for them!

Took it to ombudsman some young lad dealt with my case and decided they are not to blame.

My points being i was never once notified by letter email or txt i had missed a payment and was not notified of any changes in payment.

I have 3 other cards who all are completely transparent in charges, ending interest rates etc, and have never had this issue before, of course had i known i would of immediately made ammends to switch.

I have asked for an appeal but feel this is falling on deaf ears, any advice would be appreciated. All i am asking for is the interest taken to be returned nothing more.

hunte78

I'm not sure your going to have much luck. If you have already taken the complaint to the ombudsman and they have not upheld your complaint then I don't see the credit card company offering to refund the interest.

It's pretty common for promotional rates to be removed after a missed payment. You said yourself it was in the small print, whether you read this or not I can guarantee you would have had to confirm you had read the terms and conditions upon application.

The next problem is the length of time it took you to notice. I appreciate that you set up a direct debit but it is a good idea to log in to your account each month in order to spot issues as they arise.

Sadly it looks like you will be relying on the goodwill of the provider.

eskbanker

troutman wrote: »

Anyway with all my zero rate cards ive always set D/Ds up to ensure i dont miss payments.

If you set up payment by direct debit, the card company is responsible for collecting the payments so if one was missed it's their fault, unless there were insufficient funds in your bank account?

Or was it a standing order rather than a direct debit perhaps?

Ben8282

troutman wrote: »

OK few years back i switched to an interest free dealwith a well known credit card company/bank/music company.

Anyway with all my zero rate cards ive always set D/Ds up to ensure i dont miss payments. I set a fair payment of 350 a month and just left it running.
A few years later i went to check back

A few years? How many years are we talking about here? How long was the 'interest free deal' for?

troutman wrote: »

Unbeknown to me in the small print stated if i missed one payment it would revert to base rate interest.

I doubt it. Standard rate I would imagine.
All credit card companies apply this condition to their promotional rate balances.
Your statement that you were unaware that missing a payment would cause loss of the promotional rate almost implies that you knew that you had missed a payment but didn't know that it would have this effect. It is strange that you were both unaware that missing a payment would cause this loss of promotional rate and unaware that you had missed a payment.

troutman wrote: »

I have 3 other cards who all are completely transparent in charges, ending interest rates etc, and have never had this issue before

Were you never made aware of what happens if you miss payments on promotional rate cards by any lender? If yes, then why should you expect this card to be different?

troutman wrote: »

My points being i was never once notified by letter email or txt i had missed a payment and was not notified of any changes in payment.

You probably were notified on your statements which you never bothered to check.

troutman wrote: »

Anyway with all my zero rate cards ive always set D/Ds up to ensure i dont miss payments. I set a fair payment of 350 a month and just left it running.
A few years later i went to check back after a remortgage decided to pay off the outstanding balance. It seemed i missed a payment years back and ever since they had been charging me full interest of about 240 a month :(so after all this time ive lost most of my money. I complained and asked for statements, they informed me my fault and statements would be produced if i paid for them!
.

If a direct debit was set up then how was a payment missed 'years back'? How many years back?
If you have no access to your statements how do you know a payment was missed?
How come you don't have access to your statements online?
If you don't have access to online statements then why were you not sent any?
£240 per month interest seems an awful lot on a mainstream credit card. How come the interest remained at £240 per-month for a few years even though you state that you were repaying £350 per-month? Assuming a standard APR and a constant balance it would seem that the balance was around £16000. Did you really get that as an initial credit limit?
Did you not check your credit files prior to your recent re-mortgage? Most people do. Did you not notice that the balance on this card was much higher than expected?

troutman wrote: »

of course had i known i would of immediately made ammends to switch.

With that level of balance and a recent missed payment I think you would have experienced difficulty with any new application

troutman wrote: »

Took it to ombudsman some young lad dealt with my case and decided they are not to blame.

I think I agree with the young lad on this one.

Just a final thought. As you appear to be a bit vague about things concerning this card, are you sure that the 'interest free deal' as you called it applied to the type of transaction(s) made using the card?

MEM62

Not knowing the T's and C's that you signed up to. Not checking your credit card statements for years. And presumably not checking your bank statements either otherwise you would have noticed the missing payment.

Not a leg to stand on.

Penelopa.Pitstop

troutman wrote: »

My points being i was never once notified by letter email or txt i had missed a payment and was not notified of any changes in payment.

You were informed of this in statement, but you haven't read it. And not reading statements for months or years is customer problem, not bank. Bank is issuing them and it's your responsibility to read them.

If you lose access online, you ask for paper ones or make sure you get your online access back. Card issuer is not at fault here.

onlyfoolsandparking

Ben8282 wrote: »

A few years? How many years are we talking about here? How long was the 'interest free deal' for?

I doubt it. Standard rate I would imagine.
All credit card companies apply this condition to their promotional rate balances.
Your statement that you were unaware that missing a payment would cause loss of the promotional rate almost implies that you knew that you had missed a payment but didn't know that it would have this effect. It is strange that you were both unaware that missing a payment would cause this loss of promotional rate and unaware that you had missed a payment.

Were you never made aware of what happens if you miss payments on promotional rate cards by any lender? If yes, then why should you expect this card to be different?

You probably were notified on your statements which you never bothered to check.

If a direct debit was set up then how was a payment missed 'years back'? How many years back?
If you have no access to your statements how do you know a payment was missed?
How come you don't have access to your statements online?
If you don't have access to online statements then why were you not sent any?
£240 per month interest seems an awful lot on a mainstream credit card. How come the interest remained at £240 per-month for a few years even though you state that you were repaying £350 per-month? Assuming a standard APR and a constant balance it would seem that the balance was around £16000. Did you really get that as an initial credit limit?
Did you not check your credit files prior to your recent re-mortgage? Most people do. Did you not notice that the balance on this card was much higher than expected?

With that level of balance and a recent missed payment I think you would have experienced difficulty with any new application

I think I agree with the young lad on this one.

Just a final thought. As you appear to be a bit vague about things concerning this card, are you sure that the 'interest free deal' as you called it applied to the type of transaction(s) made using the card?

I could not put that reply any better Ben:T

Ergates

troutman wrote: »

OK few years back i switched to an interest free deal with a well known credit card company/bank/music company.

Unbeknown to me in the small print stated if i missed one payment it would revert to base rate interest.

Anyway with all my zero rate cards ive always set D/Ds up to ensure i dont miss payments. I set a fair payment of 350 a month and just left it running.
A few years later i went to check back after a remortgage decided to pay off the outstanding balance. It seemed i missed a payment years back and ever since they had been charging me full interest of about 240 a month so after all this time ive lost most of my money. I complained and asked for statements, they informed me my fault and statements would be produced if i paid for them!

Took it to ombudsman some young lad dealt with my case and decided they are not to blame.

My points being i was never once notified by letter email or txt i had missed a payment and was not notified of any changes in payment.

I have 3 other cards who all are completely transparent in charges, ending interest rates etc, and have never had this issue before, of course had i known i would of immediately made ammends to switch.

I have asked for an appeal but feel this is falling on deaf ears, any advice would be appreciated. All i am asking for is the interest taken to be returned nothing more.

So, you didn't read the contract, missed a payment and didn't check any of your statements for several years. Yet, somehow this is *their* fault. Seriously?

Terry_Towelling

Seems this runs in the family. A while back, OP's wife discovered she'd been charged £10 per month by Vodafone for four years before noticing.

I smell another thread designed purely to arouse our collective righteous indignation.

And if, by some chance, it is a genuine thread (hmm) then what on earth do you expect us lot to do about it?

There, is that indignant enough for you, OP?