Virgin credit card

donteatthat

I had this in April when after always paying the Virgin card off in full I used it to buy some large items (around £4k) abroad - nothing dodgy just furniture!
I was paying this back slowly but didn't miss payments.

They wrote and said the rate was going up from 15.9% to 29.9%. I moved the balance and shut the card down. The incident made me very wary of credit cards, and I would never give any business to MBNA again.

Someone told me after that the increased rate would only apply to any new spending on the card, as legally they couldn't enforce this new rate on any previous balance. Whether this was correct or not was immaterial to me, but it may be worth checking if they can apply the rate to past purchases. If they can't as long as you don't spend more on the card the increased rate will not matter.

Someone will know more about this than me I'm sure.

jeanmd

quote
' Your standard monthly interest rate on all new and existing balances will increase to 2.2071% - that's 29.9% p.a'

further down it say we're also updating the minimum payment amount on your account - clause 1b of your terms and conditions will now read:
"1b The minimum payment that you must pay by the payment due date shown on your statement each month will be as follows:

• if the balance shown on your statement is £10 or less. it will be the total amount of the balance: or
• if the balance shown on your statement is more then £10, it will be whichever is the least of 5% of the statement balance or the total of any payment protection cover charges, interest, handling fees and default charges plus £5 provided that it will always be at least £10"

I agree virgin are reeling people in. They increased our credit gradually, just spent on it cause we've been abroad, and now they try to increase the interest. We didn't look closely at the minimum payment before because we always pay more. I guess this is what you get for becoming complacent and trusting.

donteatthat

So it is existing balances then. I can't remember what my letter said I was so p*^$ed off I just did a transfer I had available. I guess it would have been the same.

It is quite scandalous.
They may not like the cards being used abroad as well.

jeanmd

quote
So it is existing balances then. I can't remember what my letter said I was so p*^$ed off I just did a transfer I had available. I guess it would have been the same.

It is quite scandalous.
They may not like the cards being used abroad as well.

---

Tell me about p****d off:mad:

I wouldn't mind if we were bad payers or something.

When I asked the woman on the phone why it had gone up, she said
'it's nothing to do with virgin. The bank decided what the interest rate will be'
yet she immediately put it back to the rate it was
Been with virgin for years - not for much longer:mad:


I don't know how to do the copy thingy

benf90

glastowinebar wrote: »

Does this mean that if I now do a BT with virgin at 0% for 15 months they can suddenly cancel that and wack it up to 34%?

I've probably got that totally wrong :rolleyes:

Virgin have just rang me to say 'welcome to virgin' and I have a credit limit of £10,000 and I can BT it now into my bank account. I declined for the time being because I was reading this thread as she was speaking :rotfl:

If you do a BT at 0% then they have to honour that deal as long as you keep to the terms and conditions.

I'm not sure for definate but I presume that Virgin have a similar clause to most other cards, that they can withdraw the offer if you go over the credit limit or don't make the minimum payment on time etc. As long as you stick to the T&Cs you'll be fine.

After that 0% deal has ended though then they can change the interest rate as long as they give you sufficient notice.

gt94sss2

jeanmd wrote: »

The minimum payment that you must pay by the payment due date shown on your statement each month will be as follows:

• if the balance shown on your statement is £10 or less. it will be the total amount of the balance: or
• if the balance shown on your statement is more then £10, it will be whichever is the least of 5% of the statement balance or the total of any payment protection cover charges, interest, handling fees and default charges plus £5 provided that it will always be at least £10"

Interesting, that your minimum paymenty says £10/month - its the first time I have seen that - others seem to have been increased to £25/month (MBNA seem to be doing this to a lot of their cards)

I am still on £5/month for the moment..

Regards
Sunil

izzybusy23

I have a MBNA platinum card and I received a letter middle of last week. They have upped my interest to 21.9% so I shall be phoning them this week. Never really took much notice until I saw this thread.

However, it doesn't say on the letter that it is for new and existing balances like a previous poster said so I will double check on that when I phone them.

Also, I got another letter off them the next day saying that as from April they are moving the payment date... now why would they be doing that???

berneslai

My advice is to call them. I received a letter stating that my 9.9% APR would be increased to 18.9% APR - I called them immediately and "after a discussion with the manager" I miraculously was kept at my original interest rate.

It's quite a good ploy this - people who don't want to ring in get shafted with an increase and the people that do feel like they've negotiated a great deal! MBNA win all round.

belleooo

This card is the pits. I too got the letter raising my interest rate to 34.9%. Second raise in 12 months. I rang them to get the rate lowered. Only to be told that because my account had not be renewed they were unable to do this. So looks like I'm stuck with it. I owe them £900 and make mininum monthly payments via, direct debit. So no missed payments etc. They chose not to renew my card without informing me first of why they had taken that decision. And they say because of this they are unable to lower the interest rate. I will soon be in a position to pay off the balance due to an inheritance. Good riddance to them when I do.

Chez2k

I also recieved the letter telling me that my rate was going to 29.9%

This was the second letter I had had in a couple of months.

I phoned them again and told them that I was not happy and didnt agree with it. After a couple of minutes on hold... they agreed to lower it too my original amount.

Ring them immediately and tell them you do not agree with this decision and ask them to lower it.
If this doesnt work... write a complaint letter and this hopefully will do the trick.

Cheryl