M&S &More Credit card

Smiley_Mum

My 6 months on 0% with M&S was due to expire in August. So, I thought, clear it by July and it'll be fine. Anyway, I just noticed that there was interest on my most recent statement so I phoned to query it and they said that it should have been cleared in May and that is why there is interest on it.

I am annoyed about it as I was told over the phone that I would have a further six months at 0% after the initial 6 months transfer expired. If they are charging me interest now then they are breaking the agreement, albeit it verbally, can they do this? My balance was £246.10, I paid £245 and they can whistle for their interest because as far as I am concerned, there shouldn't have been any charges on it. I was quite sure of what I'd been told when I did the transfer and I told this to the woman I spoke to and she was adamant that I should have cleared the balance at the last statement.


UPDATE (SCREW THEM BEFORE THEY SCREW YOU).

I see that they waived the £1.10 interest in this month's statement that they felt was due on my 0% account after they swore blind that the account was no longer at 0% and interest was due (load of tosh). The account is now cleared now and they offered me 3.9% for life of the balance but I have a Nationwide for 6 months at 0% and that's fine for me just now.

aliasojo

Either phone or write to Chester about this. There is no point in calling the customer services number as the call centre staff are unable to do anything other than what their computer screen tells them to do.

Can you recall when you called them? They record the calls and can check what was said.

I have just had a very similar experience in that I had nothing outstanding but was offered 0% for 6 months on the phone. I ended the call, went off to get my card etc to do the transfer and when I called back (within minutes) I was only offered 9.9%. I politely complained and was told there was nothing that could be done. I asked to be transferred to Chester and lady there said the call would be listened to and it could be determined what I'd been told.

Upshot was that apparently the 0% offer was an error but since they agreed it had been offered, they would honour it.

I don't know if they would wade through months of calls to find yours, but if you had an idea of when it was, you could ask them to check and honour what was offered to you.

Good luck, I hope you get somewhere with them.

Walletwatch

Smiley_Mum wrote:

I am annoyed about it as I was told over the phone that I would have a further six months at 0% after the initial 6 months transfer expired. If they are charging me interest now then they are breaking the agreement, albeit it verbally, can they do this? My balance was £246.10, I paid £245 and they can whistle for their interest because as far as I am concerned, there shouldn't have been any charges on it. I was quite sure of what I'd been told when I did the transfer and I told this to the woman I spoke to and she was adamant that I should have cleared the balance at the last statement.

I understand that saying this post-facto is very easy, but I think one should avail of any special offer in addition to the advertised inaugural rate only when you get it in writing. Normally Citibank sends me a letter for this, along with cheques (they do 1.9% deals) Likewise, I understand egg sends emails.

I don't know what you can do about this one. Not sure you want to affect your credit rating by not paying the interest on your card. I'd say:

1. Write a stinker to the bank, and cc it to some fairly senior person, citing misinformation and mis-selling.
2. If 1 doesn't have any effect, pay off the interest, close the card and put it down to experience.

Smiley_Mum

When I spoke with the woman from M&S she was quite adamant on the phone. I paid the balance, less the £1.10 but I think I will just pay the balance on Monday and chop up the card there and then, and they can stick their account. They just sent me a new black card, not yet activated, well they can stick that as well. I know for a fact that if I had the balance cleared by July I'd be well within the six month deadline for clearing the debt that I had on the card. :mad: Perhaps they were a bit p*$$ed at me just because although I've been a customer for a good few years, since they turned to having a credit card they've never made any money out of me interest wise, so this is their sly way of getting back a something. The debt isn't due until 7th July so if they stick me with any other charges I'll have a fit. Always, always paid on time, always been on the ball with my credit cards etc and that is what really bugs the [email="cr@p"]!!!!!![/email] out of me, annoyed.

Also, when I went to pay the bill over the counter, the woman that served me queried the fact that I wasn't paying the interest and I explained to her the situation same as stated above and to the woman on phone etc and she was all stroppy with me about it, almost although I'd borrowed "her" !!!!!! money, right jobsworth. :mad:

Then I asked for a Customer Comment card and the woman was like, oh is it to do with the credit card, and I'm like NO, it's not. Different matter but she was walking about like a hen on a hot girdle, hovering around me as I wrote out the comment card and everything. Geeeezzzzzzzzzzzz

:mad:

Perhaps I should have put this on the Vent Thread, feel free to move it.

Thanks everyone.

CTT_2

I think they are being very small minded. I had a similar thing with LLoyds Credit Cards and as a goodwill jesture refunded my £80.00 interest. Also the advisor did this without reference to anyone else. I suppose the thing is you pay peanuts or rupees and get monkeys.

Smiley_Mum

I get pretty hacked off too when I need to call up to make a query of any kind, the person on the other end of the line, well more than likely their first language is not English and boy, it's like pulling teeth trying to extract information. They just don't know half the time what you are talking about due to the language barriers, flipping impossible. Communication problems = mistakes on your account or you not being able to get correct information. Nightmare.

NEWBIE_SHOPPAHOLIC

I'm glad to here that I am not the only one hitting my head against a brick wall with m&s, I have had the same problems with the indian/asian call centres not understanding my requests and experienced much confusion with ref to the 0% for 6 months offer. They rang me to ask if I would be interested in transferring a balance, I do this and no one else working at m&s finance knows about it and they argue with me that this has never been offered to me. However, I have not paid interest for 3 months so they must be honouring it!! Talk about left hand not knowing what right is doin' they need to get themselves sorted or theyre going to p** everybody off.
Good luck in your crusades to get this sorted I will be watching avidly!

ne1mk1

Hi there ,

This is my first post - although this probably wont help .... I work for above said company and from my experience i can tell you that the staff , sorry managers are so concerned about opening new cards all else is pushed to the side!

This is another step away from being a retailer you could once trust with your money and time!

P.S only a very small majority of staff have training on the credit card, and it is only very basic i can you! Most staff wouldnt have a clue about fees & transfers, sorry. :A

Debs1968

I am a bit confused (not too difficult LOL). Last week I received an M&S More Credit Card and a PIN No. - but I don't recall asking for one! A year or so ago I did get their storecard but never used it - now I receive a credit card in the post. Are they allowed to do this? I thought I would have had to fill in a form requesting one, or am I being silly here and all they did was switch their existing storecard customers over to credit cards??

Thanks for any answers

Debs

Smiley_Mum

Debs1968 wrote:

I am a bit confused (not too difficult LOL). Last week I received an M&S More Credit Card and a PIN No. - but I don't recall asking for one! A year or so ago I did get their storecard but never used it - now I receive a credit card in the post. Are they allowed to do this? I thought I would have had to fill in a form requesting one, or am I being silly here and all they did was switch their existing storecard customers over to credit cards??

Thanks for any answers

Debs

Debs,

You're right as far as I know, they are transferring people on store cards over to their &More credit card now as the store card has been scrapped, as far as I know.

realaledrinker

I think it is them moving old customers (if you'll pardon the expression) off the old M&S run cards onto the new ones run by HSBC.

I opened a new card a month or so on the 0% 9m deal. Stoozed it to the max. I then get letters saying my 'new &More card will be with me shortly' etc. I then get a new pin number in the post different to the one I had been originally supplied with! I then get another card with a different account number !!

Confusion reigns for 24 hrs until my wife also gets a new card, when realisation dawns. They have reissued me with a second cardholder card on my wife's 'old' account! This despite the fact that it was declined when they moved her over from the chargecard a couple of years ago.