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Re: Re: And I thought Wells Fargo was bad... (Reply to this comment)
by asafono
Thank you for the information, I was not aware of this "outsourcing." Makes sense...
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May 04 '05
7:07 am PDT
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Re: And I thought Wells Fargo was bad... (Reply to this comment)
by martytdx
FYI - many credit unions are farming out their credit card operations to the large issuers. MBNA represents a bunch of the bigger ones. It might say "Local FCU" on the card, but the operation and service is MBNA.
-- Marty
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May 04 '05
4:24 am PDT
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And I thought Wells Fargo was bad... (Reply to this comment)
by asafono
At least they cheerfully refunded the late fee when the payment (back in the days when I was physically mailing it) was late by 1 day because of USPS - mailed 5 business days in advance.
This is a nice review, though it appears that you start to repeat yourself (especially the 3rd and the 4th paragraphs from the end.) I understand your frustration, though.
A couple of points. I am not going into the wisdom of carrying a balance on any credit card, since everybody's financial style is different.
1. Credit card companies need to make money. If everybody pays on time, these companies just provide 0% 30- to 45-day loans, not a moneymaker. Some issuers are more ethical and careful about how they make money; some are less. It appears that MBNA is at the bottom.
2. Why go to a large national issuer for a Visa or a MC? Almost everybody these days qualifies for a credit union membership, possibly in more than one. Besides the potential benefits of better customer service, the fact that CUs are also in the banking business (and so get revenue from banking), and their non-profit nature, make it less likely for the customer to be gouged with high fees and interest rates.
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May 03 '05
2:54 pm PDT
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Re: I just canceled my MBNA (Reply to this comment)
by Bryan_Carey
What they did to you and I, to try to make a few more bucks, is the reason I have canceled my MBNA relationship for good. I could understand if my account wasn't paid on time or if I had blemishes on my record. But I didn't, so they had to look for other ways to screw me over. They lowered my limit for no reason at all, just so they could then say I was too close to my limit and therefore they had to boost my interest rate, per the contract agreement. This type of action is not only unethical, it could really get this bank in serious trouble. There are already many lawsuits against MBNA and I wouldn't be surprised of another class- action results from these types of actions.
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May 01 '05
8:26 am PDT
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I just canceled my MBNA (Reply to this comment)
by dedelydee
Did not want to cancel it since its good for my credit report since I have an excellent history with them of over 10 years, but they started charging me an annual fee (I suspect because I pay off my balance every month, but I pay one bill every month with it and use it on occasion for online purchases.)
They would not do anything to waive that fee. Basically after over 10 years and making alot of money off of me before I reformed my spending habits (but I was never late in paying), they did not want me as a customer.
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Apr 29 '05
4:29 pm PDT
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Re: MBNA and Bank One/Chase (Reply to this comment)
by krus54
frazzledspice,
re: your late fees and online banking comment:
I have been banking online for quite a few years. Unless you get your bank to pay the bill at least 3-5 days before the due date, your credit card company can STILL charge you a late fee, even though the payment has cleared your checking account and even though the credit card company has your money in the bank.
Many, maybe most, banks have changed their the Terms of Acceptance to indicate that unless payment is received at the P.O. Box listed on the statement, it may take them 3-5 days to post your payment. Those EFT payment notification files, if I understand it correctly, go to a lockbox and not the P.O. Box on the statement. If those payments are posted after your due date you've got a late fee regardless of the fact that the cc company already had your money in the bank through an immediate EFT. Your bank or Checkfree will not be responsible for the late fees because they had made the payment on time.
It stinks! I have had late charges that the credit card companies have refused to reverse. Discover has been the worse about it.
One way to avoid it, other than making your payment immediately, is to set up to have the minimum payment sent right away and then set up the rest of what you were going to pay a couple of days before due date. At least there won't be late fees.
Dave
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Apr 23 '05
7:12 am PDT
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AMEN (Reply to this comment)
by cobste
The same Damn thing happened to me with BANK OF AMERICA.. never late, etc.. and charged me 29.74 interest for a 12.46 over limit fee.. The said the only way I could get the interest rate down is to go to credit counseling. I would have to incur this rate for 6 months. I said forget it. Now I am going to credit counseling even though I have made my payments on time. SCREW all the BANKS.
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Apr 22 '05
1:54 pm PDT
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MBNA and Bank One/Chase (Reply to this comment)
by frazzledspice,  in Personal Finance
are birds of a feather. I had a First Bank account that was bought out by MBNA, and haven't felt motivated to use it since.
But re: late fees, I find that it's best to pay your credit card bills online. You can always be sure when they're credited to your account, and most of the time if the service is in error they will be responsible for any fees.
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Apr 22 '05
12:45 pm PDT
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Re: Re: Late fees (Reply to this comment)
by kevintipple
Capital One has screwed up our address so many times, one begins to think it was/is deliberate. I have a couple of federal and state agencies investigating them right now and from what I am hearing, this is what they do to folks to boost their profits.
Kevin
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Apr 22 '05
4:47 am PDT
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Re: Late fees (Reply to this comment)
by krus54
Well, what ticks me off about date of receipt is that even if you use online banking and they create EFT's for your payments, you can have a payment delivered on time, and cleared from your checking account, but STILL be late because of the time delay the credit card company took in actually posting the payment to your account.
I had a BIG fight with Discover about that. My bank paid my bill on time, the payment cleared the day BEFORE the due date, but I still got charged the late fee because the payment did not post until the day after the due date. Discover referred me to the Terms of Acceptance and it states that payments received anywhere OTHER than the P.O. Box listed on the statement can take up to 5 days to post. So the fact that Discover already had the money in the bank made no difference.
Dave
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Apr 22 '05
3:50 am PDT
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Re: Late fees (Reply to this comment)
by Arthur.Rubin
I can't think of a bank which doesn't base the late fee on the date of receipt. Some banks try to get away with the date the check is received in processing, but all banks use a date no earlier than when it's received at their PO Box.
I can match the krus54's Capital One story, although, in my case, they transposed digits in my address, so I never got a statement until after I had cancelled the card.
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Apr 21 '05
6:15 am PDT
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That's exactly... (Reply to this comment)
by Mom2TyZick
how I got started with MBNA. I bought a Gateway computer and it was a nightmare. We were finally able to pay the thing off after a couple of years, and it was a good thing because we were getting absolutely nowhere.
Thanks for sharing your horror story!
Suzanne
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Apr 20 '05
2:05 pm PDT
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Re: MBNA (Reply to this comment)
by Bryan_Carey
I'm glad you pointed this out, because they have offered me the same thing. I resisted accepting it, because I just don't trust this pack of hooligans. I think I will look for other ways to eliminate this debt.
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Apr 18 '05
6:16 pm PDT
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MBNA (Reply to this comment)
by mothermeatloaf
I made the mistake of taking out a consolidation loan. I am currently undertaking a financial plan to get rid of this god-awful loan ($25K) by this time next year. What was supposed to be a 3-year payoff plan is now going on 6.They are brutal with their charges and late fees and other forms of punishment. I am sorry I ever got involved with them.
Good review.
~ Mike
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Apr 18 '05
6:31 am PDT
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Re: It gets worse Bryan... (Reply to this comment)
by nibor
I know they're horrible but this practice is usually listed in their terms. I always read those terms, and that's one reason why I would never transfer balances from one card to another, nor would I get a cash advance from a credit card. Very expensive.
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Apr 17 '05
7:52 am PDT
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They're all the same, I fear (Reply to this comment)
by krus54
Bryan,
EVERYONE that carries balances on credit cards probably has a horror story on their company!
I dislike MBNA as well. My biggest gripe is with Capital One. Capital One btw, is actually the spin off of the credit card division of Signet Bank...a company I worked for for 17 years before I got downsized in the cost cutting efforts before they sold out to First Union. Capital One was spun off as a separate company about a year or so after I got cut.
My big gripe is that I consolidated a lot of cards and transferred about $15,000 of debt to Capital One at a 2.9% rate for the life of the loan. Well...one month I never got a statement (Our homeowner's association office sent out a note to everyone to be on the lookout because some kids had been stealing mail from mailboxes. That's probably why I never got my statement). So before I knew it, my payment was late. I called and complained and they gave me a courtesy credit on the late fees. About 4 months later I sent in the minimum payment but I keyed in the minimum payment wrong and missed the minimum payment by ONE STINKING DOLLAR. Because of that, I was considered late twice in 6 months and they jacked up my interest rate to 19.00%. I had over $200 just in interest due for the month. I called and they were sympathetic but said, 'sorry, Charlie.' I wrote to Richard Fairbank, the head honcho. No luck.
I transferred my balance to another account at a low rate, and canceled the Capital One card.
The jerks!
Dave
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Apr 16 '05
3:05 pm PDT
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Re: It gets worse Bryan... (Reply to this comment)
by Bryan_Carey
I forgot about that- it happened to me, too. They applied my payments on my balance transfer rather than my purchases because the interest was lower and it meant more money for them. This is actually a common occurence with credit cards but I still don't like it.
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Apr 16 '05
11:24 am PDT
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It gets worse Bryan... (Reply to this comment)
by michiman1
I was carrying a balance with MBNA and decided to use one of their transfer come-ons to reduce interest on another loan.
MBNA lines up your balances at the bottom of the statement from A-D in ascending interest order. When I paid my next bill,(I never pay the minimum but do carry balances from time to time) these crooks pay off balances with "lowest interest first" per their phone reps.
As you quickly pay off that 3.99% come-on balance... not including the transfer or access check fee... the old balances at higher interest remain.
They also tried jacking up the interest rate on our card. They usually will back off when called and reduce interest... still a rip-off!
I'll most likely be eliminating this card soon but from your experience, I'll wait to cancel until I have brought the balance back to zero. That way if they try to pull more tricks out of their bag I still have some hope when working with the phone reps. Hopefully that will be very shortly.
Thanks, Mark
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Apr 16 '05
10:09 am PDT
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Re: Re: Bad MBNA...Bad (Reply to this comment)
by kevintipple
This is what Capital One is pulling on us and we have filed complaints with various State and Federal regulators about it. I don't know if we will get the money back, but the credit card companies are the greatest scam going.
Kevin
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Apr 16 '05
7:50 am PDT
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Re: Bad MBNA...Bad (Reply to this comment)
by Bryan_Carey
I didn't think about taping the calls. But I do try to get the person's name so that I can hold them accountable. With MBNA, even though I had the person's name, they still said they could not find any record of the conversation. This means they were either lying or the person I talked to was uncertain of himself and failed to log the call in order to keep out of trouble.
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Apr 16 '05
7:42 am PDT
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My (Reply to this comment)
by jps246
MBNA card was cut up about a year ago and I haven't done any business with them since.
Jeff
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Apr 16 '05
7:18 am PDT
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This sounds familiar (Reply to this comment)
by nibor
Only, it was Discover credit card with me. I must still be in the honeymoon phase with MBNA as I've had no problem with them. Another company, Capital One has been very good about reversing over limit fees. It sounds like all these companies are basically the same. I just know that if any of them try the tricks Discover did, they will be history with me as Discover card now is.
P.S. I never heard tell of a late fee when I was living in Canada. I really think the American credit card companies are using very unethical practices to fleece a lot of their customers. Be careful.
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Apr 16 '05
6:08 am PDT
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Bad MBNA...Bad (Reply to this comment)
by germank106
This was a great review. There are two things I invariably do when dealing with companies like that:
I tape all phonecalls. I tell the customer service rep at the beginning that I will tape the phonecall for verification purposes. Then I make sure that I get the full name and the call center that person is at. Amazing how little I get lied to these days.
The other is that if I cannot use Internet banking, I send my payment as a certified letter. It's well worth paying the $1.50 because late fees just don't happen anymore. Capital One once tried that stunt, but very soon found out that I had proof of them receiving my payment on time. I didn't even have to threaten a lawsuit.
Glad you don't have to deal with those morons anymore.
***Audrey
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Apr 16 '05
6:02 am PDT
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