Virgin Money 'interest free' charging interest?

cRuNcHiE

Ok i realise this can probably be quickly resolved by calling them but i cant right now as im working...

Basically i signed up with VM credit card, transferred a balance, paid the transfer fee and it should be interest free until Jan 2009.

Looking at the statements, the first 3 months were interest free, and since jan 2008 i have noticed it is mysteriously charging around £0.24 to £0.23 per month!? not alot i know but a little odd.

I urge other people to check their statements online and ensure they are not being charged.
The initial screen that shows when u login doesnt mention interest at all, just payment received and amount due = £0

The statement screen however shows the payment received and then this small interest charge.

Ill be phoning them and report back in here when i can.

NickX

Have you made any other transactions on the card aside from the Balance Transfer ?

YorkshireBoy

Did you use your card for £19 worth of purchases in the first 3 months?

NickX

YorkshireBoy wrote: »

Did you use your card for £19 worth of purchases in the first 3 months?

14.5% APR ??

cRuNcHiE

nope it has just been a balance transfer and nothing else at all.

The total balance at the mo is £2851 and i've been paying in £70 every 2 weeks.
Unless they are counting the balance transfer fee as a purchase?

NickX

cRuNcHiE wrote: »

nope it has just been a balance transfer and nothing else at all.

Only other thing that springs to mind is that they are charging interest on the Balance Transfer fee, but I think Virgin collect the fee as part of the first payment so this should not be the case.

Best bet to give them a call and query it - let us know what they say, Thanks.

NickX

cRuNcHiE wrote: »

Unless they are counting the balance transfer fee as a purchase?

This could be it - but as my previous post I thought Virgin collected the fee as part of the first payment. I've not had Virgin Money though so could be different.

cRuNcHiE

Hmm well i did mange to just speak to them.

First his reply was , oh it was on a purchase you made of £21.
Then i asked what purchase as my statements dont show any purchase at all.
he looked and said HMM a few times,"please hold on just a moment"
I then got put on hold for a minute.

Then he said, what i'll do is just refund this for you "one moment" again.
He refunded me, but then said, what it was is for a purchase i made in november of £19.99 ( the amount changed)

So i said to him, err i got the card in DECEMBER. lol. he just said, dont worry ive wiped it off so just forget about it lol.

YorkshireBoy

NickX wrote: »

14.5% APR ??

Their typical rate of 15.9% APR is 1.2408% per month.

£19 x 1.2408% = £0.24

NickX

cRuNcHiE wrote: »

He refunded me, but then said, what it was is for a purchase i made in november of £19.99 ( the amount changed)

So i said to him, err i got the card in DECEMBER. lol. he just said, dont worry ive wiped it off so just forget about it lol.

That is very bad of them - they could not even admit that it was THEIR mistake and still tried to blame the customer, even when they were refunding the incorrect charges.

I hope other people see this thread, and if you see anything on your Credit Card statements that you do not agree with then challenge it, the customer has not necessarily miss-understood the Terms and Conditions, and mistakes are made by the Card companies.

Well Done on getting it sorted.

jonmiles

(first post... hi all)

I've just taken out one of these cards and balance transfered around £1250 to it. (my only debt other than the mortgage) Again a fee of around £30 was charged.

Should i expect to see interest on that £30 over the next 15 months or not?

I was also surprised to find that I could only set up online a direct debit for minimum paymet (evil) or full payment (if i could afford that i wouldn't be taking up a 15 month balance transfer). Very cunning on their part.

I've just called them and after pressing various numbers on the keypad for ages i finally got transfered to a customer advisor who quite cheerfully set up a £100 regular payment for me.

after reading this thread i'll be keeping an eye on my account to make sure it appears though!