Late Payment - Money returned to me !! (Virgin Mastercard)

Member Name: sdean

Product:	Virgin Mastercard
Date:	18/02/09 (94 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sort out problems quickly, excellent customer care staff

Disadvantages: if you don't pay on time, all deals are revoked

Virgin mastercard

I am in the Virgin club. I have flown with Virgin, have Virgin Media, and now have the credit card.

This credit card was applied for as I needed to swap my rate before getting charged interest from the Halifax. As crunch time was approaching and credit card companies getting sick of rate 'tarts' , a balance transfer fee has been added to most credit cards. I chose carefully when choosing a transfer card, so I went for the longest amount of time.

Calculating that on a £6k balance I will need to pay nearly £180 in fees, this was a bargain. 16 months 0% or pay nearly £100 a month in interest. No Thanks.

I applied for the Virgin Credit Card and was greeted with a letter on my doorstep in only a week. I had to sign a credit agreement and waited for my card to arrive. A sleek black lovely card arrived with credit card cheques to pay off balances. I tore the first one off and marched down to my local Halifax branch (with only 3 days to spare until the end of my deal). I (luckily) said to the cashier that I didn't think the Cheque would clear in time and he put a note on the account saying it was paid off (lovely man with no sales target's I imagine!!). So Debt free on one card, it was duly swapped over with no fuss or questions.

I started to pay the minimum payment with was a percentage of the debt. This was changed a few months ago to a minimum of £25 per month. Ashamed as I am to admit it. I was paying the £25 a month as I thought 'I couldn't afford it'. I had no need to speak to Virgin since receiving my card as bills were received on time and paid just fine.

Until I paid a bill late.

So, the bill arrived a while after it normally would, and gave me a week to pay the bill. By the time I remembered to put it in my bag I was down to 3 working days (not long enough to clear a payment in cash, in their own bank according to them). So I popped over to the Co-Op bank, rare as they are luckily there is one opposite me and I paid £100, as I had realised I needed to sort my life out and get rid of this debt ASAP! I hoped for the best and as it was cash it should clear - it was only 1 day !

The next bill came on time, I threw it in my bag to take to work as I didn't want to get caught out again, and opened at work. Heart stopping then racing, and almost tears as I had been charged £80 in interest and £50 for not paying it on time. I wanted to cry. The next payment was £90 (interest £80).

***What To Do? ****

It is so easy- and I nearly did it myself, to put the bill in your bag and forget it. Struggle on with the debt and try and cope. But as I had received this bill late I would try and call them and see if I could get the 'deal' reinstated as I had another 9 months on it. Their conditions state that if you miss a payment, you revert to the normal rate and all 'deals' are revoked. Which I did know.

So I called. I called a number which routed to a UK call centre and spoke to a lovely Scottish lady; I explained the lack of time for the payment and told her I paid in cash at their bank etc. As this was the first time this had happened on the account she was very helpful and reinstated the offer on the account and refunded some of the fees, I did have to be passed over to someone else to reclaim the other part of the fee. Luckily they were so helpful and kind, as sometimes; you do think people are going to say no. But why not try and see instead of getting ripped off if it was a genuine mistake. She also asked me if I would like to set up a direct debit for the minimum payment so this wouldn't happen again. I agreed, they won't be so forthcoming next time!

I also discovered online banking. I had always lost the codes and passwords, but this time I have kept them in a safe place. The banking for Virgin helps as any spare cash I have I transfer to the account straight away, and there is no minimum, so If I just wanted to put in £5 I can!

I now have 8 months left on my deal and have plans to pay it all off by then. A mean feat, but with mystery shopping (see my review on retail eyes) and survey sites and the lovely people at Dooyoo, I hope to get it paid off sooner!

Thanks for reading and rating!

Summary: Virgin Credit card - one of the better ones on the market!