Virgin took away my 0%!!!!

kcmatt79

I stupidly looked at an old statement, thought i had four days till my due date and made a payment online. It didn't reach my account until 2 days after it was due. Despite NEVER making a late payment since I've been with them, they have taken away my 0% rate.

Has anyone managed to convince them to give it back? I'm really upset about this. I can't afford to pay the interest and nowhere else will give me a card at the moment. :mad:

MABLE

kcmatt79 wrote: »

I stupidly looked at an old statement, thought i had four days till my due date and made a payment online. It didn't reach my account until 2 days after it was due. Despite NEVER making a late payment since I've been with them, they have taken away my 0% rate.

Has anyone managed to convince them to give it back? I'm really upset about this. I can't afford to pay the interest and nowhere else will give me a card at the moment. :mad:

You could have easily set up a Direct Debit for min. amount and avoid all these problems. You could phone them but my experience is they take a very tough line.

kcmatt79

Yes, I'm aware of that. This is the first time I've paid late, as I normally pay online as soon as I get paid. Giving me advice like that now really isn't helpful but thanks anyway.

I've seen that others have managed to get the 0% re-established, and have been given the number of customer loyalty from the second person I spoke to. Unfortunately their systems are down at the moment so they're calling me back. Fingers crossed!

GeorgeUK

Good luck kc - definately worth asking as you wouldn't be any worse off.
Hope they put it back as you were only a couple of days late.

YorkshireBoy

MABLE wrote: »

...my experience is they take a very tough line.

They'll be taking an even tougher line in the New Year, because the Virgin T&C's are changing in January 2008.

Gone is the condition saying...

If you break the terms and conditions of your agreement we may remove any promotional rates applying.

...and in it's place comes...

If you break the terms and conditions of your agreement we will remove any promotional rates applying.

And if that wasn't enough, they have removed the wording stating that any 'ad-hoc' ongoing searches of your credit file (so that they can 'manage' their lending to you) will now be seen by other lenders when searching your file. Previously these searches were hidden because they were classed as 'unrecorded enquiries'.

What they find on the search, should you give them cause to make one (and they will because you may be seen to be in difficulties if you can't even send them a fiver [or is it £25 now?] on time), could even spook them into raising your rate to circa 29.9% APR.

In my opinion, direct debits should be made compulsory as Egg do.

kcmatt79

Yes, I think I will try to use that as leverage, and say I will set up a DD over the phone right then. It was an honest mistake, and I did try to make the payment on time. It wasn't like I'm a repeat offender.

Here's hoping they're feeling generous!

YorkshireBoy

kcmatt79 wrote: »

...I will set up a DD over the phone right then.

DD's take up to 10 days to set up. You MUST check your statement for the following...

"Your (minimum) payment will be collected by direct debit from your nominated account on xx/xx/xx".

Until you see that message, you MUST pay by other means.

DesG

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

They'll be taking an even tougher line in the New Year, because the Virgin T&C's are changing in January 2008.

... they have removed the wording stating that any 'ad-hoc' ongoing searches of your credit file (so that they can 'manage' their lending to you) will now be seen by other lenders when searching your file. Previously these searches were hidden because they were classed as 'unrecorded enquiries'.

YB, do you know if this is for all MBNA products, or only Virgin?

I don't mind providers doing unrecorded enquiries, but if they all start recording them, I will have to restrict myself to only one or 2 cards to reduce the searches on my file.

Cheers, Des.

Moggles_2

Originally Posted by kcmatt79
I stupidly looked at an old statement, thought i had four days till my due date and made a payment online. It didn't reach my account until 2 days after it was due.

Virgin has excellent online services. Why don't you register? Then there's no need to rely on paper statements. Payment is faster too. Provided that you pay by 5.00pm on a working day, it's all done and dusted the next day

Fingers crossed you get your 0% restored.

nichart20

Hi
I missed the payment date I was paying when I got paid every 4 weeks and it got messed up and I paid 2 one month and was then late with last payment
anyway got charged £12 and £17 interest and 0% removed
I rang them and they removed the charge half the interest and put the 0% back on

Clariman

No offence folks, but nobody has answered kcmatt's initial question. Instead everyone has told him/her that he/she should have paid in other ways and done so on time. While that is useful advice, it is shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

I don't have any recent personal experience of this with MBNA, but my guess is that you would have a chance of getting them to reverse their decision. Call them and explain what has happened and how you had every intention to pay on time and had actually sent the payment before the due date but, due to banking days, it did not arrive in time. Don't shout or argue or complain that it is not fair. It may be tough but it isn't unfair so swallow your pride and say that it was a simple honest mistake and that you had thought it would arrive on time anyway and ask them - very nicely - if they could treat this as an exception and reinstate your 0% rate.

I am sure I have heard of others doing this successfully so take heart. Let us know how you got on.

Clariman