Balance Transfer Fees – Misinformed by customer service?

blindman

blindman wrote:

You'd think so, but it's my word against theirs as there is no record of the conversation.

I'll update the thread with any replies I get.

It was a battle but they did see sense and refunded the BT fee on the 17th October.

:T

carpy

i'm having exactly the same problem at present with lloydstsb.

over the phone they told me it was fee free but when it went through they applied a fee.

NOT HAPPY!!

phoned them up to say, but over the phone they wouldn't do anything. although it's my word regarding the phone conversation i do have a leaflet with the no fee offer. they told me to send it to them or take it into a branch and they will look into it.

hopefully they will then refund it but if not i will keep pursuing it and will threaten to cancel the card, current account and monthly savings account.

anyone else experienced this with lloydstsb?

DawnW

I have recently received a SMART credit card, advertised on this site and elsewhere as offering fees free BTs for the first 6 months. I applied for this card purely as a balance transfer card. I tried yesterday to transfer a balance, and was told that a 3% fee applies. I asked the person to check this, and he told me it was definitely correct, he and his colleagues knew nothing of any promotion. Do you think these companies are deliberately misleading people to get them to take on their cards?

Leety

I have had exactly the same experience as my application forms came back today and in the small print was a 3% BT fee. I rang through and was told that this was correct and that no free fees cards were available. I rang through to the application line pretending to be a new customer and was told that as I had seen it on the Smart website they would honour it. The promotion has finished but the site is still showing the free fee card. I was told to print a copy of the Smart Website page that shows that I applied while this was still being advertised and they have amended my information to reflect this. I was told if I got any charges at a later date tp write with a copy of the website and they would refund

DawnW

This is interesting, Leety, as it looks as though the promotion has now ended although it is still being advertised. I don't think I will try a BT now, as I think they would add a fee anyway, and it would be a pain to get it back. I will run up a balance on regular bills, groceries etc and stash the money that I would have spent, paying it back just before the end of the 0% for purchases period

carpy

i'm happy to report after phoning Lloydstsb and then sending a letter including the leaflet stating no BT fee they refunded me..

stingyscot

I am such an idiot. Prompted by one of Martin's emails, I recently took out an Amazon card. It gives points for purchases, but I thought I could hurry things along by transferring the balance from my other 2 cards. I am a virgin at this, and normally I pay off my balances in full every month. There was doubtless something concealed in the small print of the terms and conditions, but absolutely nothing on the online application for transfers about a fee being charged. I am still waiting for my other 2 cards to have the credit paid to them, but meanwhile have noticed that I have been charged 3% on the Amazon card for the transfer. So it has cost me £24.60 in fees and I had no need to transfer. And the transfers weren't activated in time, so my direct debits for the full amounts on my 2 cards still came off, i.e I paid the full amount twice!! Double booby prize to me.

markmat

I'm also very annoyed by the Amazon card for a slightly different reason.

I recently opened an account and did a balance transfer. The letter that I received with the card really wasn't clear about the charges. The table on the front page made a fuss about the 0% rate but the note about the 3% charge is buried in the small print on the second page.

So I did the transfer online and I have two problems with the way their website works.
Firstly, there is no information on the website FAQ's etc. that tells you about the transfer fee. When you request a transfer online there is no point in the process where it gives you any warning about the fee which will be applied to your account. If you do this on the phone my understanding is that they have to tell you about the fees during the call.

The second problem is that the system itself seems entirely unaware of the fees. So it will let you request a transferwhich is close enough to your credit limit that the 3% fee will take you over your limit! This also strikes me as being very poor practice.

I then got involved with the call centres. Within 20 minutes of doing the transfer I phoned them to check the fee situation. They confirmed the fee so I told then to cancel the transfer. For some reason they couldn't do this because they told me that they could not see it in the system. They told me to call back the following day.

The next day I called back and they still didn't seem to be able to see it, but this time the guy I spoke to told me that he would make a note and ensure that it was done by the end of the day. This didn't happen and the transfer went through. I was then told that I had to contact the other lender to get the money sent back (then the fees would be refunded). having done all that they are now trying to tell me that they won't refund the money as it's my fault for not reading the T&C's. I agree that it's stated in there, but I do not agree that it's made clear and I think that the way the website works is really unacceptable.

Are banking websites not covered by the sames rules about informing us of fees?

All in all a very disappointing experience (although based on my previous experiences with Halifax it doesn't really surprise me :rolleyes: )

Jay_B_2

What I'm wondering is this - are BTFs not the same as bank charges? We supposedly know what they are before we pay them and yet they must often exceed the cost of administering the balance transfer.
I have had several 0% transfers with MBNA. I can't remember wether or not they originally charged a fee but, certainly within the last six years, the rate has gone from 2% to 2.5% to 3% with a cap of £25, rising to £35, £75 and the latest, £300.
Even if you transfer £10,000 or more surely it doesn't cost them £300 to administer that. It might cost them to lend you the money at 0% but that's a different issue...isn't it?

Billy_Blagg

With regard to the question about Virgin charging a 2% fee I think it's worth mentioning here that there are many cards available that appear to be different companies but all are run by MBNA. A few years back I signed up for three different cards (Virgin being one) and was surprised to find that they all came under the MBNA banner. This important as MBNA will not let you transfer direct from one of their cards to another even if, say, it is Priority Club (Holiday Inn etc) to Virgin. MBNA ALWAYS charge a BT fee by the way.

I've just finished reporting MBNA to the Banking Ombudsman... but that's another thread for later!