MBNA could find a way to suck blood from a turnip. This has to be the absolute worst credit card on the planet. You're better off going to your local mafia henchmen and borrowing money rather than putting one thing on this card. Let me be very clear on this point: MBNA is pure evil incarnate.

Let me explain. They will offer you a very low introductory rate. Unfortunately, this introductory rate is occasionally disguised as a permanent rate. The card will have an exceptionally high limit. Then, when you actually use the card, MBNA will conveniently send your statement late. Because the statement is late, you're payment will be late. This late payment will violate the terms of your credit agreement and your 5.9% introductory interest rate will suddenly become 27.9%. You'll call and talk to dozens of people; friendly at first, but as your frustration builds because not one person will admit that they sent the statement late, you'll be angry every time you call. You'll discover that MBNA has immediately damaged your credit rating. You'll become so paranoid that you'll take to photocopying your statement so that you can make sure you pay the bill on time, and prepare envelopes in advance. You won't pay this bill electronically, because MBNA will apply your payment to the wrong account and it will take you 6 months of heartache to get it corrected. In the meantime, MBNA will place another late hit on your credit rating. After a year of persistence, you'll get MBNA to agree to reduce your interest rate to 14% again only to discover 2 months later that you are again paying 27.9%. When you call to inform them of yet another mistake they'll let you know that you received notice of this rate increase with your bill last month (it was hidden among the advertisements you threw away) and that in order to keep your 14% interest rate you would have had to send a written notice to them within 30 days rejecting the interest rate increase.

You've finally had enough, and you tell them that you simply want to pay off the card, isn't there some way to get back to a reasonable interest rate while you pay the card off? Being the very agreeable company that they are, they have a department that specifically handles this situation. They will agree to reduce the rate back to 14% (for one year, after which it goes back to whatever the highest interest rate is), and they'll require that you make one payment electronically to initiate this program. No, they won't be able to explain why this is, but that is the way it is. You'll have a serious case of Deja Vue when they apply this to the wrong account and you'll argue with them for another year 4 months to get it straightened out. There will be another late payment reported to the credit bureaus and you'll be livid. While you're researching your credit rating to determine what specific damage has been done, you'll notice that MBNA will have posted the statement, "credit account closed by grantor" to your credit report, The next time you attempt to purchase a car you'll find out how bad that statement really is.

I truly believe that MBNA has put together a program that intentionally defrauds consumers. Fraudulently advertising interest rates, then intentionally delaying statements so that you'll be late. Then your interest rate will increase. These tactics will be accompanied by damaging your credit report so that you won't be able to get additional credit to pay off the debt to MBNA. Interestingly, you'll have a difficult time figuring out who to report this to. When you do figure out who this is, you'll be heartbroken by the amount of time and paperwork is involved. This will be accompanied by a feeling of defeat and despair as you realize nothing is going to come of it. You'll still pay whatever interest rate MBNA decides to charge you, and you'll resign yourself to making payments forever.

MBNA is the absolute worst credit card available on the planet.

Update: I've now spent nearly a year fighting this cause. And for those who assume I am a poor user of credit, with MBNA finally removed from my report my rating has gone back to 750+ in one year.

Recommended: No