Lost 0% deal - help!!

sashanut

Hi all

We have a lot of cc debt & because we are self-employed & the business has been poor over the last 2 years (!) we have just about covered our outgoings without making many inroads into the debt. Now we hope things will be looking up & I finally mananged to move some debt (£9,000) onto a virgin credit card at 0% till next year sometime to give us some breathing space. However, like an idiot I somehow made a late payment on the card & now they have withdrawn the rate (&charged me £12) so I am back to the full whopping interest again!!! I am so sick, in the previous post they sent me some 'credit card cheques' which give me an offer of 0% again - but of course the card is full up.......

any ideas anyone .....I could cry!

GeorgeUK

Personally i would phone them and ask for the rate to be reinstated. The worst they can do is say no. Point out that this is the first time you have done this. Would probably be better setting up a DD for the minimum payment.

good luck

wigannwuk

hi exactly the same happened to me with CITI Card....id sent my direct debit information off and just didnt check if it had gone.....my next statment showed the 12 pounds late fee.....and a small note saying they are withdrawing the promotional percentage rate.....so at this point im up for an arguement...i rang up explained it was an accident id missed a payment....they asked me to pay the arrears of the last month which i did and they agreed to reinstate the original interest rate...if i was u id voulunteer for a minimum payment direct debit...i did as im terrible for leaving and leaving till ive missed the paymeny date

andan

I'd definitely give them a call and try and sort this out, you don't really have anything to lose by phoning them and are likely to get more sorted that way. Frustrating time for it to occur over the bank holiday but hang on in there and i hope you get it sorted soon.

Have you also got your SOA on here so that maybe others could offer advice on how to cut the costs in areas, especially as like you said, your not really making any inroads into your debt and with things within the economy looking a little shaky.

sashanut

Many thnaks to all for the useful replies - I will definitely ring them up today to see if they will reinstate the rate - never thought of doing that. The worst that can happen is that they say NO & I am no worse off than I was ISWIM.

I find it very confusing when the interest rates are displayed as so much per month, instead of per anum - presumably I just x 12 to find out exactly how much the rate is - but why can't it state clearly how much they are charging????

Re posting my SOA, well I have tried in the past but then (as now) I have been PM'd by people pushing their 'rescue me from debt' services & it put me off:eek:

Thanks for listening!

GeorgeUK

Virgin Money Card offers 15 months at 0% for Balance Transfers
3% BT fee, 3% minimum payment 1st month, 2nd - 15th = £25 minimum payment.
(Just incase you're stuck)
As this is a MBNA card you can also BT to a current account, not just another CC.

monthly APR = 1.2408%

You can't just multiply by 12 unfortunately. The calculation is a little more complex.

1.2408% as a number = 0.012408
(Add 1) 1 + 0.012408 = 1.012408
1.012408^12 (to the power of 12) = 1.159489489
(subtract 1) 1.159489489 - 1 = 0.159489489
0.159489489 as a percentage = 15.9489489%

Annual APR for Virgin Money card is 15.9%

Nice and easy.
Or you could just use this calculator written by Clariman
http://www.makesenseofcards.co.uk/mon2yr.html

klane

Had same thing happen to me with my NatWest card - my payment was credited one day late. I had never missed or been late with a payment before, and have banked with them for over 15 years. I called them up to ask if they would reinstate and they were verging on rude and flatly refused. I opened a Halifax card instead and transferred everything. For their refusal to budge an inch, they lost a customer of over 15 years. Halifax deal was 0% for 10 months on balances and transfers.

sashanut

Hi All

Gathered my courage & phoned Virgin to ask that the 0% deal be reinstated - had to hang on for ages & go through lots of menus & waiting, but finally got through to Customer Loyalty Dept! Once there the guy noticed that my payment had been delayed slightly - because it was the early May BH, so I played on that - and they reinstated my 0% deal. SUCCESS :T

Many, many thanks to you all that helped me as I probably wouldn't have had the courage to phone & ask without your support - the interest on this month's debt on that card alone would have been £109!

Now to find out the exact % rates on all the others & see if I can dare to post them all on here.......THANKS GeorgeUK for that link.

GeorgeUK

Glad you've got it sorted.

If you do decide to post your SOA, this is another handy link.
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Just paste it in MSE format and that should be it.

andan

Really glad you got it sorted and are back on your 0% deal. I know what you mean though, sometimes i realise there are things i wouldn't normally have bothered with if it wasn't for this site, such as when i went overdrawn at the bank for the first time ever and it was their fault. Normally i would have just acccepted that, but not anymore!

Best of luck with it all and try and post your SOA and ignore any strange pms, most people will post their advice in the thread.

sashanut

Am trying to work my way through the SOA but finding it difficult - we don't have a set amount of money coming in every month; nor does it arrive at a set time! The history is that about 10 years ago we both gave up our jobs to go self-employed & had a very successful few years. We bought a big house which we still live in; we also have 2 other properties, only one of which has a mortgage but the other ones is wholly owned by the business for tax purposes although there is no mortgage on it. Both properties are rented out & the rent pays for the mortgage on the that has it; the other goes into the business account.

However, the business really went down for a least the last few years & of course we didn't cut our costs & ended up with a huge amount of cc debt which we are just about servicing. It does look like there is hope as perhaps the business has turned the corner & we hope that the invoices will increase & we can start making some inroads into the debt. I really need to sort it out, I have cut costs in the food area, have bought no clothing items this year & last Christmas took a p/t job in M&S where I didn't earn much but could fill the freezer with food! We do have assets but are struggling with cashflow - the business also has a overdraft, as do we. Will keep on trying with the SOA but we don't fit into the categories very well....