Virgin Credit Card: rate of interest 34.9%!

Coveredinbees!!!!

I got a CC application through the post the other day which had a APR of 37% but you could choose which picture you had on it, I think one was an England football flag. Funnily enough I put it in the shredder.

When we first moved in here I opened a letter from a loan company addressed to the previous occupant who was an old lady with Alzheimer's. There was a long letter about how you could have a great Christmas with the money they would lend and the easy weekly payments. Pity the 105% interest rate wasn't so readily discussed!

cashflow

MABLE wrote: »

There is nothing in the terms and conditions to say you have to carry a balance over. You can still pay the balance off monthly. Also very short sited cancelling the card at 16.9%. You will now lose out on special promotional rates they offer existing customers.

Oh well thats the price of being a martyr.

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Of course there's nothing to say that anyone has to carry balances over every month, or every few months, for that matter!

'Short sited' ( sic ) martyr?! No, I just don't want to do business with them anymore = consumer choice.

chuckley

cashflow wrote: »

<P>( Yes, I was serious.....the card was issued to my son when he was a student.) Consequent to my posting earlier today, we have closed his account, and I have now also cancelled my Virgin credit card too (16.9%) - having been a customer for about seven years.</P>

u had a good rate there...

he couldve been given that rate for various reasons, e.g:
new to credit
has bad credit
doesnt have enough credit, (ie just an OD)

the list could go on...

u are not entitled to credit and low rates... u gotta earn it.

egghead

my rate went up to 22%

the balance is clear and i phoned up to do a bt and got offered 1.9% for 9 months and normal apr dropped to 15.9%

i just rang this number... 08007831116

georgiaes

I had exactly the same problem with MBNA Platinum Mastercard. I called up and found out that my interest rate had been 34.9% for 6 months without realising. I wasn't on top of my finances and I paid the price, so I've chalked it down to experience and, thankfully, it has made me a hell of a lot savvier (I now check the moneysavingexpert website religiously to beat these companies at their own game!).
I called the customer services dept and negiotiated the rate down to 15.9% and then transferred the outstanding balance to another card that offered 0% for 6 months. Funnily enough, MBNA called me a couple of days later to offer me 0% interest on balance transfers trying to get my custom back! You can't take it personally or you'll go crazy. I think of it as a game now where the point is to avoid sneaky charges and extortionate interest rates!

superted187

That is really a horrific rate. I generally keep my credit cards at arms length and pay them off in full each month so I never need to pay them a penny more than is necessary. In fact I couldnt even tell you what the interest rates on my credit cards are because I've never paid it.

cashflow

superted187 wrote: »

That is really a horrific rate. I generally keep my credit cards at arms length and pay them off in full each month so I never need to pay them a penny more than is necessary. In fact I couldnt even tell you what the interest rates on my credit cards are because I've never paid it.

Yes, I agree with you about paying off balances and keeping credit cards at arms length. It has been said that they should be treated as ‘debt’ cards, because of the comparatively high rates of interest charged on balances outstanding. I don’t know what the average rate of interest on them is nowdays, but I’d guess at between and 15 and 20%......maybe it’s time for a poll!

However, there are many folk who really do need to carry forward balances, and
Martin’s comparison sites for loans and credit cards are invaluable. ( As for ‘switching’, last Sunday there was a good offer by ‘Mint’ credit card in a national newspaper). Even authorised bank overdraft rates usually offer lowish rates. EGG used to also offer their mortgage customers - may still do so if equity is good? - a credit card which had the same rate of interest as the mortgage i.e. less than 7%.

galey1981

I've got 3.5k on my Virgin card, and the interest is slowly creeping up. I recently sold my car to clear a loan, and in hindsight I should've got rid of the card first - much lower interest rate!! Can I jump to another card provider with a limited period of 0% interest? I'm trying to pay off the sum over around 6 months.... ironically the money i now have is freed up by not having any more loan payments.

Toastie

galey1981 wrote: »

I've got 3.5k on my Virgin card, and the interest is slowly creeping up. I recently sold my car to clear a loan, and in hindsight I should've got rid of the card first - much lower interest rate!! Can I jump to another card provider with a limited period of 0% interest? I'm trying to pay off the sum over around 6 months.... ironically the money i now have is freed up by not having any more loan payments.

Firstly look at your credit history on experian which is free (with cashback of £6) and see if you have a good or poor history to determine if you need to change anything for a "better acceptance rate"

Then look at balance transfers, simiply transfer to a card that has a 0% balance transfer offer (there will be a fee for doing this around 3%)

Then depending on your new limit transfer the money.

If you get a high enough limit to transfer the ENTIRE debt, simply set up a DD from an account to pay the minimum monthly repayment, put the rest in a high interest ISA, then a month so before the last statement which the interest will kick in (just to be on the safe side) use all the ISA money saved in order to pay off a big chunk of the debt.

Then repeat.

However you may not get a high enough credit limit thus continually pay as much as you can off Virgin and the minimum on the new card until the 0% transfer runs out.

Loved writing this essay

PJHilder

MBNA recently upped my card's interest to 34.9% from 16.9%. I think they've upped the minimum payment to 5% as well. Time to dump them then.