Have a Virgin credit card, but please don’t use it too much
I have just had to close one of my credit cards for the most obscure reason… I have used it too much. Ok it’s worse than that, much worse. I have used it too much and made to many payments to it. MBNA who ‘did’ look after my Virgin Atlantic American Express, have told me that I have broken the terms and conditions by using my card too much.
When they approached me last year I told them that I was in the habit of clearing my balance each month – saves interest, so based on this the advisor recommended the Virgin Atlantic Black Card. It has a higher interest rate an annual fee of £115. The benefit being that I would receive 2 virgin miles for every pound I spend, or 4 miles for each pound when I use the card to buy Virgin Atlantic flights. Being a regular flyer with Virgin it meant I could add miles monthly to my Flying Club membership. These ‘miles’ can ultimately be used to book Virgin flights with ala Air Miles.
So you can imagine my shock when I try to book a flight only for the card to decline. So I call MBNA and ask what the problem is as I know I have just cleared the balance a week earlier. It turns out my credit limit had been reduced and I was under investigation for ‘breaking the terms of the card’ – overuse! I mean come on, I never go over my limit, I pay promptly each month and I get told off for using the card too much.
As well as overuse, there also seem to be a problem with a single transaction from a couple of months ago, which went through my travel company website. I was told that using the card for business wasn’t allowed. Fair cop, no problem, please take the Virgin Miles off my account, but it seems they don’t do that, they just restrict your use of the card via the limit to stop you spending so much.
Without going into too much detail I closed the account as I was so incensed. Looks like I have to go back to collecting Air Miles again, pfft. You’d think in this current climate the banks and financial groups would be happy to take your money off of you.
To add insult to injury, I am not allowed the 85,000 miles I racked up and paid for.
Mmmmm at least they gave you one, I went for one last week as they offer the 15 months interest free credit and wanted to transfer my MBNA balance over to that, doh! No can do, get a decline, and asked why I am told, well you already have a significant unused balance with MBNA, I am like so what, and they go, we are MBNA, that’s who the Virgin Card is issued via… I guess next time I should pay more attention to who offers the cards.
How about moving over to the BA Amex Card? I’ve been using and collecting on this little beauty for as long as I can remember without any issues. Same type of thing, miles for £’s and extra ones for any BA spend.
Again, only good really if you pay off in full every month, otherwise the APR maybe a little higher than other cards.
http://tinyurl.com/cnvwfg
MBNA are the worst credit card provider by a country mile. They go above and beyond to put extra charges and interest on your account at every possible opportunity.
btw you were lucky – it took me about 18 months to close my MBNA account – first they charged me 0.02c interest on my last months payment after I had paid it all off, and then put a late payment on that, and started rolling that forward. (No, I didn’t pay the feckers – got them to remove all the charges & send me a letter confirming my balance was 0.00).
I cannot believe that, getting told you are using your card too much.
What a pain having to lose all those miles you had earned.
I had a problem with my Tesco credit card. Trying to setup a direct debit was a nightmare, after several phone calls i was told it had all been done and would start from the the next payment. Then i checked it after the date it should have been taken and it was still there. I got a late payment charge. Told them where to stick it and they refunded it to me + the interest they tried to charge me. This then happened the month afterwards and I got charged the same again. After alot of hassle they refunded me the charges again and they sorted it out. Still had to threaten to close my account, my joint account and my girlfriends account.