The most expensive umbrella ever (MBNA)

Member Name: Charliew

Product:	MBNA
Date:	17/08/00 (928 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free umbrella!!

Disadvantages: Bad customer service, penalties for late payment

I like another author on this site have been lured by MBNA's low balance lure. What really did me in though was a free umbrealla, well I say free it has actually ended up costing me £2000.

I took out an MBNA visa at a low rate to pay off my Barclaycard, when I took out my application who was taken by the way by a very attractive girl at the train station (I should have smelled a rat then) she indicated that if I signed up for a mastercard as well I would get a free umbrella.

I don't know if it was her dizzying charms, or the thrill of keeping dry when it rained that made me do it but I also stuck my name down for a Mastercard.

They gave me a £1500 limit on both cards and turned me loose. I was young and I was perhaps a little impulsive with my new buying power and little by little my baclance crept up before long I was touching the limits on both cards.

Then the phone calls began, they are an intrusive lot at MBNA and they will call you at any point and ask when you are going to pay or even for an immediate payment. Gone was the pretty girl who I signed up with and replaced with sarcastic git from Leeds.

Whilst I am not saying that it is MBNA's fault that I ended up owing them money they were very quick to give a lot of credit to a young bloke (I was 19 when I signed up) and very quick to want it back and to impose penalty payments.

The ultimate irony of this situation is that I have now ended up transfering my remaing balance back to Barclaycard (at a very attractive 9.9%) and MBNA's rates are higher then they were before.

Summary: