MBNA Credit Card

[laserblazer]

We have Co-op Bank cards for main use because they have certain ethics regarding their dealings. Also a small percentage of each transaction goes to "Save the Children". We also have an MBNA card that I use for on-line transactions just to keep them separated. Last month, I bought a couple of airline tickets to South Africa on it plus a few other things, so there was more on it than usual. My wife pays the cards and accidently missed an £18 payment on the second page of the statement. This mistake has cost us £27.34 in interest charges.

You can see how easily people can slip into a debt spiral when the banks make charges like this. To think the Sheriff of Nottingham got bad press.

[HodgeHi]

The system in its current state is naff. It doesn't help the people that want to help themselves get out of debt.

I had a loan from cahoot (one of the flexible ones) and the APR was at a good rate when i applied. Since the interests rates went up so did my cards APR.

Now i was told my Customer Relations at Halifax that there is no requirement to follow suite and that it is just the "trend". I said great so wheres the trend that starts to see them come back down. She just laughed.

What i am getting at here is this...

I am now trying to obtain a consolidatory loan to reduce teh APR and switch to a fixed amount. The current APR on my Cahoot has now reached 20.9 % from 12 % when i had it just over a year ago.

Do you think i can get a loan?

I am looking for a loan that pays out the exact same amount each month and reduces the APR to around 6.5% and i get declined. I have just moved house and recently realised that i am not on the electorial roll. I started this in January and it is yet to be updated at the credit agencies.

Bunch o'crap if you ask me.

[localzuk]

Bank and credit card charges are ridiculous to say the least. I had an example recently where my account went into overdraft by £60 (at xmas). I thought I had an overdraft limit still, as it is a graduate account which should be at about £1000 overdraft. However, the bank had removed my limit, so when I received my next bank statement they said they were charging me £165 for the over, and I am still arguing over it. This months statement has arrived and they want to charge me a further £135 for still being over (due to the last charges). That means that for a £60 over, it will cost me £300. There is simply no way I can afford that, and am currently in the process of arguing with them that a) they took my overdraft limit away without talking to me, and b) they didn't tell me that I had gone overdrawn. If I had known, I would have sorted it out straight away... *That* is how it is easy to get into debt. If I didn't get this sorted, the rate goes up to £25 per day each month, for a maximum of 10 days + a fee, so each month will now incurr a £265 charge...

[openhgs]

You might be able to reclaim some of your credit card charges see http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/rec...t-card-charges - If the test case goes our way, we might be able to reclaim bank charges too. I think the OFT said £12 was an acceptable fee for processing an unauthorised overdraft. Last month I was overdrawn for 2 days by £30 and Nationwide charged me a fee of £25 and 47p interest. Nationwide are one of the banks in the test case and they are still overcharging it's depositors.

I also received a letter last week from LLoyds TSB, saying that as I hadn't used my credit card for a while, they were cutting the credit limit to £1000. Yes that's right - I don't use it and I'm deemed a bad credit risk.

The best place to keep your money is under the mattress.

[laserblazer]

I noticed the OFT thing. It seems that a number of banks, including MBNA were given 3 months to address this issue and they apparently haven't taken any notice. I have contacted the OFT about this.

[CHR1S]

I missed a payment on my CC once by accident when dates got mixed up and incurred the dreadded interest. I just phoned them up and told them I was refusing to pay the interest just the remainder of my balance and they were fine about it. Ironic thing is that after clearing it they managed to leave 1p on the account which once again incurred the interest charge so I just refused to pay once more and cancelled the card.