Bear with me please, its quite a long post....
Over the past year, I've received 4 letters now each time trying to raise my interest rate, I have an mbna platinum plus from 4 years ago with a rate of 6.9%
1, 6.9% to 12.9% (I phoned and complained and kept 6.9%)
2, 6.9% to 16.9% (Again I argued to keep my rate and suceeded)
3, 6.9% to 12.9% (I wasn't as sucessful this time and ended up with 8.9%)
Then this time, 8.9% to 16.9%.
So once again I call them up and get put through to their 'rates' department. I explained to him what happened and got a new responce this time "There's a credit crunch at the moment and its the same all around the world". I told him that the interest rates have been lowered by the government for a reason. He then tried to tell me that MBNA get their money from other currencies and that its not just GBP. So I said, "can you tell me why its called a platinum card when its got one of the worst rates a card can have". He got a bit stuck then and said "don't worry sir in the very near future you apr will probably go below what you used to have 6.9%". I laughed at this point and went on to explain about all the posts on the internet about how MBNA slowly increases your APR to 34.9%. Here was his responce,
"There's no way we could put your APR above 20% sir that would illegal to raise it that high"
I asked him to repeat it, and he said retty much the same line again! So next I said well I could understand a 1% increase but a 100% increase (8.9 - 16.9) is totally unjustifiable to me can you put me on to your manager. He said hang on i'll put you on hold. 2 minutes later same guy comes back to me..... "We didn't realise you had cleared your balance sir, you can keep your 8.9%, we are only putting the rates up on people who have a balance but your ok because you cleared it just after we sent the letter". Sucess for me and the end of the phone call, I kept my 8.9%. (I had a balance of 6K which i have moved to 0% halifax deal)
So in my eyes from what he said, they are deliberately raising the rates for people with a balance and for those who don't have a balance they are waiting till you do and then pouncing on you and bumping it right up! Is this legal or have I had a customer services person who didn't have a clue?!
Over the past year, I've received 4 letters now each time trying to raise my interest rate, I have an mbna platinum plus from 4 years ago with a rate of 6.9%
1, 6.9% to 12.9% (I phoned and complained and kept 6.9%)
2, 6.9% to 16.9% (Again I argued to keep my rate and suceeded)
3, 6.9% to 12.9% (I wasn't as sucessful this time and ended up with 8.9%)
Then this time, 8.9% to 16.9%.
So once again I call them up and get put through to their 'rates' department. I explained to him what happened and got a new responce this time "There's a credit crunch at the moment and its the same all around the world". I told him that the interest rates have been lowered by the government for a reason. He then tried to tell me that MBNA get their money from other currencies and that its not just GBP. So I said, "can you tell me why its called a platinum card when its got one of the worst rates a card can have". He got a bit stuck then and said "don't worry sir in the very near future you apr will probably go below what you used to have 6.9%". I laughed at this point and went on to explain about all the posts on the internet about how MBNA slowly increases your APR to 34.9%. Here was his responce,
"There's no way we could put your APR above 20% sir that would illegal to raise it that high"
I asked him to repeat it, and he said retty much the same line again! So next I said well I could understand a 1% increase but a 100% increase (8.9 - 16.9) is totally unjustifiable to me can you put me on to your manager. He said hang on i'll put you on hold. 2 minutes later same guy comes back to me..... "We didn't realise you had cleared your balance sir, you can keep your 8.9%, we are only putting the rates up on people who have a balance but your ok because you cleared it just after we sent the letter". Sucess for me and the end of the phone call, I kept my 8.9%. (I had a balance of 6K which i have moved to 0% halifax deal)
So in my eyes from what he said, they are deliberately raising the rates for people with a balance and for those who don't have a balance they are waiting till you do and then pouncing on you and bumping it right up! Is this legal or have I had a customer services person who didn't have a clue?!
