Charged interest for balance transfer on Asda Money Credit Card

iamc12ab

Hi all, I recently signed up to an Asda Money Credit Card to do a balance transfer as it was advertised as 0% for 12m. However, they started charging interest (around £100) as I missed a minimum monthly payment as I set up a direct debit up too close to the due date and a payment was missed.

They made no attempt to contact me, but I noticed the interest charge and contacted them, and they told me that as I missed the monthly payment, this 0% interest offer has now been removed and interest will be chargeable on the full balance going forward.

I am relatively inexperienced with credit cards but now understand this is a thing with balance transfers and in hindsight would have been more careful... but just wondering if there is anything I can do to reclaim the interest?

I just think it was a bit dishonest as this was not made clear when I signed up and they made no attempt to contact me and just started charging ridiculous interest (feel lucky I spotted it in the first month tbh). I have already asked but they are refusing it. I have signed up to another one and plan to transfer the balance to that one.

Any help is much appreciated.

molerat

5.4 Any promotion you are accepted for is valid only if you keep to the agreement. If you do break the agreement (for example, if you fail to make the minimum monthly payment by its due date or you go over your credit limit), we may remove any promotion and the standard interest rate at the time will apply to your promotional balance.

Clearly laid out in the T&Cs.  Some cards are now not doing this but are in the minority.  Not a lot you can do as you broke the terms you agreed to.  The statement tells you if a DD will be taken, never assume.

Brie

Agree that there is little that you can do about this now.  If you had missed a payment and noticed the day after it was due you might have managed to get things sorted but not if it's been a few weeks.

I think you are right to get another card and do another BT.  It's always recommended to set up at least a minimum DD so that you never have to think about making a payment and not get things in a twist again.

TheSpectator

Not sure where any dishonesty is here - did your statement say the paynent would be collected by Direct Debit? If not then 100% your fault. Why would they contact you?

The time to set uo any DD was at application or at least way before the statement was produced, not a few days before the due date.

iamc12ab

TheSpectator said:

Not sure where any dishonesty is here - did your statement say the paynent would be collected by Direct Debit? If not then 100% your fault. Why would they contact you?

The time to set uo any DD was at application or at least way before the statement was produced, not a few days before the due date.

It might be obvious to someone who is more aware of how credit cards work and has more financial intelligence such as yourself, and in hindsight it does now to myself, but at the time I thought 0% interest for 12 months was 0% interest for 12 months end of. 

I agree it is stated in the terms, but I genuinely did miss it as there was a lot to read. It does also say '5.6 We will tell you about any different fee or interest rate that applies to balance transfers. We may tell you this by email or other electronic method.' and again they did not inform me.

Personally I think it is dishonest to charge double digit interest rate on a four digit amount for not setting up a direct debit in time - all this did happen within a few days (I messaged the day after to understand what was going on). I think most laypeople would agree but I will just have to take it as a lesson if there is no way to get it back.

DullGreyGuy

iamc12ab said:
Personally I think it is dishonest to charge double digit interest rate on a four digit amount for not setting up a direct debit in time - all this did happen within a few days (I messaged the day after to understand what was going on). I think most laypeople would agree but I will just have to take it as a lesson if there is no way to get it back.

Double digit interest is standard on credit cards, the UK average APR on credit cards is over 20%, credit cards are an expensive way to borrow money but has the convenience of having credit on demand. 

A four digit balance is of your own doing, some people have much higher, most people have much less. Inevitably it gets expensive if you dont pay the balance off in full before the promotional rate ends. 


Its standard practice that promotional rates, like having credit for nothing, are conditional on you following the rules of the card and are forfeited if you breach the credit limit, dont make the minimum payment on time etc etc. It's nothing to do with the DD, it's to do with the fact you hadn't made the payment. The Statement will not have said "we'll collect this by DD on X date" and so you should have paid by debit card, transfer etc. 

The fact you had a balance to transfer strongly suggests this isn't your first card and whilst not everyone has the same level of knowledge on any subject saying you dont know about how these things work etc is going to get you less sympathy when you have had at least one card in the past. 

Ultimately you either need to throw yourself on their goodwill and you are much more likely to get them to reinstate the promotional rate if you put your hands up and say its all your own fault rather than accusing them of being dishonest. 

Hoenir

iamc12ab said:

 I missed a minimum monthly payment as I set up a direct debit up too close to the due date and a payment was missed.

Onus is always on the bill payer to meet payment deadlines. Dishonesty is making out that the fault lies elsewhere. 

iamc12ab

These replies aren't really useful apart from being very judging and making me feel a bit more depressed. Anyway I have submitted a formal complaint and will be going through the Ombudsman should they not change their mind. I will post updates if successful so it will help anyone else in the same situation in the future.

Nasqueron

iamc12ab said:

These replies aren't really useful apart from being very judging and making me feel a bit more depressed. Anyway I have submitted a formal complaint and will be going through the Ombudsman should they not change their mind. I will post updates if successful so it will help anyone else in the same situation in the future.

For reference for anyone else, it's usually better to attract with honey than vinegar e.g. a grovelling apology on the phone assuming the bill was paid almost immediately and explaining the situation is more likely to get it reinstated than a hard nosed approach blaming the bank for your mistake. A formal complaint that they have cancelled your 0% rate because you broke the terms of use by not paying on time is likely to be classed as vexatious at the FOS. Any bill has to be paid on time, any credit agreement must be kept to, you are lucky they simply cancelled it and didn't mark your file with a late payment which will hurt your credit rating for 6 years.

Whenever I have applied for a BT card, setting up a direct debit was part of the process of application which you could chose to skip over, the terms, even if people don't read them, are ticked to say you read and understand AND the summary info (away from the formal terms) also states this, which you would also have confirmed you read and agreed to. Your statement would have also told you what you needed to pay and by when, this will also have been missed by you.

martinbainbridge1975

iamc12ab said:

These replies aren't really useful apart from being very judging and making me feel a bit more depressed. Anyway I have submitted a formal complaint and will be going through the Ombudsman should they not change their mind. I will post updates if successful so it will help anyone else in the same situation in the future.

I would have maybe gone down the route it was an oversight first to see if there was any good will to reinstate, in the mean time maybe look for another card - I read the reviews on asda money which were not great reading since jaja took over the card 

iamc12ab

A lot of assumptions are being made again... when I first contacted them I was polite and even apologized for missing the payment. But the staff were dismissive and rude and would not even consider reinstating it. After this I was angry which I think was justified considering this was not highlighted.

There are rules which require retail finance providers to treat customers fairly and must communicate better than burying key facts in the lengthy terms and conditions which is my main frustration. I am sure they do this just to get some extra money from people who don't fully revise the 7-8 documents they provide.

Anyway I have done a formal complaint and will be submitting this to the ombudsman which will incur them a cost that is notably more than the interest they have extorted from me... pick whichever side you want they cannot win from this unfair practice.