credit balance on cancelled credit card

196silver

Due to the fiasco with Cambridge water being hacked, as a customer we have been given 12 month free access to a credit checking company.

I discovered that I had a £20 credit balance on a Virgin Money from a credit card that was cancelled 10 years ago. I still have the same email, address, bank details and date of birth(!) but virgin had not in any way contacted me to tell me.

I rang early January voiced my dismay, and was promised the money would be refunded. a month later and I'm having to call again as nothing has happened. I've discovered the application for repayment was rejected because the credit card account is closed... yet again they didn't contact me to tell me , i had to ring in... and wait... and wait... and finally speak to someone. I am raising a formal complaint this time. apparently it has to go to head office ( not automatically sent) and it will take up to 15 weeks for this issue to be resolved. 

don't get me wrong I'm not so worried about the £20, although £ is always useful, but I'm appalled that they've had it for 10 years without trying to contact me, I get no interest on it, and now after chasing it I won't get it back for 15 weeks...

I am so disgusted I can't tell you... why if I was struggling, what if it was £200??? my contact details HAVE NOT CHANGED, why oh why are they not obliged to tell their customers and pay interest....

moral of story, please everyone check your old credit cards... 

MorningcoffeeIV

Did you receive monthly or annual statements?

SuzeQStan

Agreed OP - they would have certainly gotten in touch if it was the other way round and you owed them £20!

we had an old mortgage with Birmingham Midshires to which I was making £100 standing order overpayments and one of those overlapped with us moving to a new mortgage product.

it took 12 months for them to notify us and we didn’t get any interest (wouldn’t expect any to to be fair) - but they did get in touch which is the main thing. 

They sent me a cheque to deposit as we had also changed our bank in meantime. I didn’t have a clue about this missing £100 as I wasn’t very MSE back then

Hope Virgin pull their socks up and get you this money back ASAP!!

196silver

MorningcoffeeIV said:

Did you receive monthly or annual statements?

nope, once card was cancelled I recieved nothing. TBH I am very careful with finances, so have no idea how the balance came to be there.. especially as they never contacted me to tell me.... 

SuzeQStan

May I ask OP - which credit checking company are you using please?

CliveOfIndia

SuzeQStan said:

May I ask OP - which credit checking company are you using please?

If it's of any help, there are 3 credit reference agencies in the UK: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.  There is no need to pay for access to any of them - if you look on the main MSE site under the Cards & Loans section, it shows you how to access them all for free.

It's worth checking them every now and then, just to make sure all the data is accurate (although you can safely ignore the meaningless score they give you).

Also, bear in mind that not all lenders report to all 3 agencies.  So if, for example, you see your credit card being reported to Equifax but not Experian, that in itself is not a cause for concern.  Just check that whatever data is there, is accurate.

Hope this helps.

196silver

SuzeQStan said:

May I ask OP - which credit checking company are you using please?

so the company is 
trueidentityprotect.creditview.co.uk
which does require payment, we got it free due to Cambridge Water fiasco, but I'm shocked at how much it knows about me. all the dates and balances (immediate balances) on all my credit cards, mortgages and historical balances on all old credit cards and loans.
best thing tho is that it emails you when there's been any activity, and keeps a look out for fraudulent activity in your name. Will definitely be keeping it and paying next year.

SuzeQStan

Thanks OP - that is very interesting to hear as ClearScore is usually a good couple months behind on our current balances.  I’d love to find some ‘lost money’ under a rock somewhere. Will check it out 😊👍🏻

JCS1

As 6 years passed, i suspect legally there is no automatic right to a refund.

born_again

> I get no interest on it, <

You never will. It's a credit facility. Not a savings account.