extortionate aprs (MBNA)

Member Name: georgiesue

Product:	MBNA
Date:	19/10/08 (312 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none

Disadvantages: tempt you in with high credit limits and 0% then up the apr to sky high levels

I applied for an mbna card about a year ago tempted by the o% interest free offer for a year. I have a good job with a good salary and my credit limit was upped very quickly to a ridiculous amount. Now i think of myself as a reasonably intelligent person but never really gave a thought to the interest rate that would be applied when the interest free period was up. As so often happens in life my finances became less strong and for reasons which I wont bore you with I ended up with large balance at the end of the interest free period and with no ablility to pay off the balance at the present time other than to continue to pay in installments. I assumed the interest rate that would be applied to my account would be sizeable, I certainly didnt expect them to do me any favours but I was horrified to find after a short while that my monthly payment shot up by over £100 !!!! When I received my next statement I tried to check the interest figure that had been charged and the figures didnt add up so I phoned said company to enquire further. I was told that as I had made a couple of payments late in the month (late but not missed I hasten to add) they had increased my interest rate from 25% to 29.9% and it was just due to go up to 34.4% !!! I was horrified and asked to speak to someone senior about this. I went through to another department and told them that I had been told that my interest rate had been increased because I had been late in the month paying a couple of payments, I reminded them that I had been charged £12 for this privilige already and to increase my interest rate becasue of this was tantamount to penalising me again via the back door. Some of you may not know this but the credit cards were taken to task some time ago for the charges they applied for late payments etc and as a result had to reduce their charges from the £20-40 they had been imposing to £12.

The man on the phone put me on hold and when he came back he said he had reviewed my account and what he was prepared to do was to reduce my interest rate back down to 22%. Now this makes a real difference to my monthly payment (nearly £70 per month) so I ended up accepting what he said but it all seemed very suspicious to meI honestly think there is something very wrong with the way these credit cards are operating, its tantamount to legalised robbery. They can basically increase your apr to whatever they like with no regulation and with very little accountability. my new reduced limit only applies for 6 months and I know as soon as that is up they will bang it straight up to 34% and it worries me sick Yes, I incurred the debt but the interest rates currently being charged and increased with no real justification in the curent economic climate are disgraceful. Incidentally despite what mbna say, I never received any correspondance to tell me my interest rate had been increased but they dont care a hoot about that. My advice is unless you are in a position to pay off your balance every month do not take out this credit card, its never worth the cost

Summary: please think twice before proceeding