Charged interest for balance transfer on Asda Money Credit Card

Nasqueron

iamc12ab said:

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.

As stated, this is a vexatious complaint and is not subject to FOS fees

Without going over old ground too heavily, they did tell you the details (they are in the key facts and the terms as well, not hidden). Their actual terms are only 14 pages of normal text including tables which isn't heavy going

You broke the terms of use of the card and are angry at them for following the terms you agreed to abide by, then claim it's unfair? You will be lucky if they don't close the card and ask for payment to be completed within the term.

WillPS

Nasqueron said:

As stated, this is a vexatious complaint and is not subject to FOS fees

That'll be for the FOS to decide. My understanding is that almost every complaint referred to them is chargeable.

Nasqueron

WillPS said:

Nasqueron said:

As stated, this is a vexatious complaint and is not subject to FOS fees

That'll be for the FOS to decide. My understanding is that almost every complaint referred to them is chargeable.

Cases are chargeable yes but DISP (3.3.4a) specifically allows them to dismiss any complaint without even considering the merits if they consider it's frivolous or vexatious, a perfect example is this one DRN-4684866 where the lender, adjudicator and ombudsman all rejected the complaint in identical circumstances to OP. OP has already stated they a) they didn't bother to read the terms or the key facts b) didn't make a payment and c) made the complaint just to cause the bank trouble and lose money, the bank will handle it properly and either flop and give OP the rate back to get rid of him, then blacklist him, or rightly reject it and the bank would be well within their rights to ask for this to be dismissed or if processed, treated as frivolous and vexatious and not chargeable. There's a similar sort of complaint here DRN-3869047 where again the bank and ombudsman rejected a complaint that was in essence like OP and didn't bother to read the terms but ticked to say they did.

iamc12ab

Nasqueron said:

WillPS said:

Nasqueron said:

As stated, this is a vexatious complaint and is not subject to FOS fees

That'll be for the FOS to decide. My understanding is that almost every complaint referred to them is chargeable.

Cases are chargeable yes but DISP (3.3.4a) specifically allows them to dismiss any complaint without even considering the merits if they consider it's frivolous or vexatious, a perfect example is this one DRN-4684866 where the lender, adjudicator and ombudsman all rejected the complaint in identical circumstances to OP. OP has already stated they a) they didn't bother to read the terms or the key facts b) didn't make a payment and c) made the complaint just to cause the bank trouble and lose money, the bank will handle it properly and either flop and give OP the rate back to get rid of him, then blacklist him, or rightly reject it and the bank would be well within their rights to ask for this to be dismissed or if processed, treated as frivolous and vexatious and not chargeable. There's a similar sort of complaint here DRN-3869047 where again the bank and ombudsman rejected a complaint that was in essence like OP and didn't bother to read the terms but ticked to say they did.

Wowowowow slow down... This is not a vexatious complaint as I genuinely did not expect to be charged interest on the 0% balance transfer! To you and others who spend a lot of time on these forums and have an encyclopedia knowledge of how credit cards work this may be obvious, but to the average person this stuff is mostly unknown. Also the DD taking time to register was a surprise to me as we live in a time where most financial transactions happen instantaneously.

I did read through the terms but did not register that this was the case... if you think people should fully digest 14 pages then you must severely over-estimate the cognitive abilities of the average population.

Also the complaint is not just to make the bank lose money, this is genuine as noted above... I just found it humorous that the bank would lose more money than the amount they gained from me... which I still argue is unjust.

And if they cancelled credit for someone who made a complaint then I am sure that would be very serious for them as it is essentially punishing people for making a complaint. As much as I would love to see how that plays out, I just want to transfer the balance, try to get my interest payment back and just move on with my life.

retiredbanker1

They will not cancel your existing card and balance owed - what they will probably do is make sure you will not receive any further balance transfer offers or offer you any higher limits.

My honest opinion - learn from this and if your credit files allows you, apply for a new card from a different provider and move the balance away.

I'm sure next time you will make sure to pay on time and what has happened to you will not be repeated.

Chrysalis

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.

Not judging here.
Just offering some advice, the banks will offer preferential agreements to people they consider low enough of a risk, as with most things, you enter in to a contract, generally speaking if you take on debt, a subscription service or anything that requires regular payments, you are expected to make those payments.
Taking out a credit card with the intention of transferring a balance, the first thing you should be doing is making sure a DD is setup.
From the banks perspective the trust is going to go down if you fail to make the very first payment, if a bank lets it go, then consider that goodwill, they are not required to do so.
Good luck with your new card.

iamc12ab

Appreciate this is an old thread, but I have an important update. I submitted a claim to the financial ombudsman which took almost a year, but I am pleased to say that I eventually won and Asda were ordered to refund all the interest that they charged.

If anyone finds themselves in a similar situation around balance transfer credit cards either now or in the future which they believe are not their fault, I would highly recommend challenging this through the ombudsman as I did. While it is good to use this forum for advice, I did unfortunately receive a lot of negative criticism which really did not help during a time where I was under pressure. If you have such advice on this forum which is in conflict with your thoughts, I would always advise to follow what you truly think as I would not have received my money back if I solely took the advice here.

As I am pleased with the outcome, I would like to take the opportunity to gloat to those who posted against me on this forum . However, I do hope that those members do genuinely hang around these forums to help people, so would like them to reflect on this so they can be more aware that their actions may have a genuinely negative on people who come here for advice.

eschaton

iamc12ab said:

Appreciate this is an old thread, but I have an important update. I submitted a claim to the financial ombudsman which took almost a year, but I am pleased to say that I eventually won and Asda were ordered to refund all the interest that they charged.

If anyone finds themselves in a similar situation around balance transfer credit cards either now or in the future which they believe are not their fault, I would highly recommend challenging this through the ombudsman as I did. While it is good to use this forum for advice, I did unfortunately receive a lot of negative criticism which really did not help during a time where I was under pressure. If you have such advice on this forum which is in conflict with your thoughts, I would always advise to follow what you truly think as I would not have received my money back if I solely took the advice here.

As I am pleased with the outcome, I would like to take the opportunity to gloat to those who posted against me on this forum . However, I do hope that those members do genuinely hang around these forums to help people, so would like them to reflect on this so they can be more aware that their actions may have a genuinely negative on people who come here for advice.

In future, just read what you sign up to and you won’t have any issues. 

People only build up knowledge of how things work by reading the information that you ignored. 

eskbanker

iamc12ab said:

Appreciate this is an old thread, but I have an important update. I submitted a claim to the financial ombudsman which took almost a year, but I am pleased to say that I eventually won and Asda were ordered to refund all the interest that they charged.

If anyone finds themselves in a similar situation around balance transfer credit cards either now or in the future which they believe are not their fault, I would highly recommend challenging this through the ombudsman as I did. While it is good to use this forum for advice, I did unfortunately receive a lot of negative criticism which really did not help during a time where I was under pressure. If you have such advice on this forum which is in conflict with your thoughts, I would always advise to follow what you truly think as I would not have received my money back if I solely took the advice here.

As I am pleased with the outcome, I would like to take the opportunity to gloat to those who posted against me on this forum . However, I do hope that those members do genuinely hang around these forums to help people, so would like them to reflect on this so they can be more aware that their actions may have a genuinely negative on people who come here for advice.

What are you able and willing to share about the actual rationale for the FOS decision?  They do stress that they're not just driven by what's legal but consider fairness as well, so, given the institution appeared to be complying with published terms, what specifically was seen as unfair - applying charges, not communicating, something else?