Serious MBNA warning!

bestusernameever

So I took out a 0% card for a big purchase. I was aware that the interest free period was for purchases in the first 2 months which I was fine with as this was all I got it for. However for convenience I made a fairly large purchase that I planned to pay off in full when the statement came through. I was surprised when the statement came through today that there was an interest charge of over £17. 

I complained via the chat to an advisor who didn’t seem to understand how credit cards work. It took me several times to get them to tell me which transactions they were charging me interest. They were reticent to provide this and even offered to just waive the interest charge as a gesture of goodwill. I said it wasn’t goodwill to remove a charge that shouldn’t be there in the first place and again requested the transactions in question as I didn’t want to have further charges. They pointed to the transactions, all after May’s statement and before June’s which is dated today. 

I thought this would make it obvious, even pointing to their terms and conditions from their own website. No dice!

I requested to speak to a supervisor who stated the same things as the previous advisor seeming to be unable to comprehend what I was saying (I now believe this to be disingenuous). After finally pushing more he told me that this card has no interest free grace period (what?!?!?) so you will get charged interest daily even if you pay off in full when the statement arrives. 

They clearly know that no one would knowingly make purchases if they were aware of this and are not acting in good faith. The hesitancy to reveal this to be the case suggests they have been told to avoid telling customers, again giving the impression they are deliberately using morally questionable practices to line their pockets at the expense of customers that don’t notice or won’t complain.

I demanded a waiving of the interest charges that have been accrued and will be added to of if I pay off the aforementioned transactions by the payment date, or else give me a deadlock letter to take it up with the financial ombudsman. They agreed to waive the charges but won’t uphold my complaint and state they haven’t done anything wrong. Funny their own terms for credit cards include the up to 56 day interest free grace period with no mention this doesn’t apply to all cards.

I would strongly encourage all to be very careful when considering credit from a company that would act in such a way. I will be avoiding them in the future

grumpy_codger

bestusernameever said:

...

They clearly know that no one would knowingly make purchases if they were aware of this and are not acting in good faith. The hesitancy to reveal this to be the case suggests they have been told to avoid telling customers, again giving the impression they are deliberately using morally questionable practices to line their pockets at the expense of customers that don’t notice or won’t complain.
....

I would strongly encourage all to be very careful when considering credit from a company that would act in such a way. I will be avoiding them in the future

Their CS may well be incompetent, but if everything you said was true, you are probably the only customer ever experienced this and have no grounds for this sort of generalisation.
What sort of purchase was it that the interest was charged on? What does the statement say about this?
If you really want to understand what happened, submit a complaint. As the interest was waived, complain about their CS staff unable to offer any clear explanation.

jon81uk

bestusernameever said:

I requested to speak to a supervisor who stated the same things as the previous advisor seeming to be unable to comprehend what I was saying (I now believe this to be disingenuous). After finally pushing more he told me that this card has no interest free grace period (what?!?!?) so you will get charged interest daily even if you pay off in full when the statement arrives. 

What do the terms of the specific credit card you have say about when interest will be charged from?

Are you certain there is a period with no interest charges on that specific card?

We can't see the terms you agreed to.

bestusernameever

[Image removed by Forum Team]

Here is part of the info underneath my statement. The transactions were not any of the excluded ones

Voyager2002

Could you tell us about the purchase? It sounds as if it was treated as a cash transaction for some reason.

bestusernameever

Voyager2002 said:

Could you tell us about the purchase? It sounds as if it was treated as a cash transaction for some reason.

It was several transactions, including Amazon, guitarguitar and thomann

bestusernameever

And the reason I was given was that it was specifically because there is no grace period on my card, not because these were transactions that were excluded

bestusernameever

This is from the chat

Fingerbobs

For interest to be waived, you must pay the statement balance "in full and on time" - it's there in the summary box you posted. 

It sounds like you made a purchase after the initial 60 days, which would therefore be subject to interest, and then failed to clear the balance of your next statement IN FULL by the due date, so the interest-free period did not apply. 

I'm afraid that's fairly standard practice for most cards. 

DullGreyGuy

bestusernameever said:

So I took out a 0% card for a big purchase. I was aware that the interest free period was for purchases in the first 2 months which I was fine with as this was all I got it for. However for convenience I made a fairly large purchase that I planned to pay off in full when the statement came through. I was surprised when the statement came through today that there was an interest charge of over £17. 

I complained via the chat to an advisor who didn’t seem to understand how credit cards work. It took me several times to get them to tell me which transactions they were charging me interest. They were reticent to provide this and even offered to just waive the interest charge as a gesture of goodwill. I said it wasn’t goodwill to remove a charge that shouldn’t be there in the first place and again requested the transactions in question as I didn’t want to have further charges. They pointed to the transactions, all after May’s statement and before June’s which is dated today. 

I thought this would make it obvious, even pointing to their terms and conditions from their own website. No dice!

I requested to speak to a supervisor who stated the same things as the previous advisor seeming to be unable to comprehend what I was saying (I now believe this to be disingenuous). After finally pushing more he told me that this card has no interest free grace period (what?!?!?) so you will get charged interest daily even if you pay off in full when the statement arrives. 

They clearly know that no one would knowingly make purchases if they were aware of this and are not acting in good faith. The hesitancy to reveal this to be the case suggests they have been told to avoid telling customers, again giving the impression they are deliberately using morally questionable practices to line their pockets at the expense of customers that don’t notice or won’t complain.

I demanded a waiving of the interest charges that have been accrued and will be added to of if I pay off the aforementioned transactions by the payment date, or else give me a deadlock letter to take it up with the financial ombudsman. They agreed to waive the charges but won’t uphold my complaint and state they haven’t done anything wrong. Funny their own terms for credit cards include the up to 56 day interest free grace period with no mention this doesn’t apply to all cards.

I would strongly encourage all to be very careful when considering credit from a company that would act in such a way. I will be avoiding them in the future

Unfortunately this may be a case that requires humble pie...


So, it sounds like you have a standing balance on 0% interest that is being carried forward and then after that you made a purchase that would not be part of the 0% offer?

Assuming that is the case then the new purchase will be incurring interest from day 1, the "up to 56 days interest free" only applies if you are clearing the balance in full each month, if you dont there is no interest free period so on production of the statement there will be interest for the time between the charge being applied and the statement being produced.

It's worth noting that the interest will have been accruing interest in the interim so you may find a trailing charge. 

bestusernameever

I’m still waiting for the statement with the purchase charge on to be processed. I’ve been charged interest on a purchase before I’ve been sent a statement that it was on.