Why is MBNA charging me interest?

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated:

 

I have two credit cards issued by MBNA on which I owe £7,800. After running into financial difficulties I called MBNA who agreed a nominal £1-a-month payment for a six-month period and to freeze all charges on my accounts.

worried woman looking at her bank statement whilst carrying her credit card

My next bill showed a charge for a late payment and £147 in interest.

I was aiming to be back on track by September when my childcare bill will drop, but now the chances of getting my finances sorted out seem very remote.

How can they promise to help me and then not do it? S.F., Durham

Simon Moon from This is Money replies: The two credit cards were issued by Sony and Virgin but run by MBNA.

After the unexpected bill you called MBNA who agreed the late payment charge was a mistake and said they would withdraw it.

However, this wasn't actioned until I got in touch with MBNA more than two weeks later.

When I spoke to MBNA they said there had been a misunderstanding, which shows why writing rather than phoning may be a better choice when problems arise.

You say they agreed to freeze all fees including interest, but MBNA say they agreed only to freeze fees covering late payments and exceeding card limits.

But the credit card company have now had another look at your situation and decided to scrap the interest charges. A spokesperson told me:

'We would always look to work with our customers who are facing financial difficulty.

If a customer believes they will have difficulty staying up to date with their credit card payments because of a change in their financial circumstances, we would always recommend that they contact us so we can evaluate their individual situation and propose the appropriate, customised solution.

'In this case there appears to have been some misunderstanding about what was agreed with us in April.

'We agreed to suppress default sums (i.e. late and over limit fees), but not interest fees and also agreed to review the matter in September when Dr F's circumstances were due to change.

'However, we have reviewed Dr F's situation again and, in this case, we will refund the £147 on his Virgin Money credit card and the £21 on his Sony card and suppress any default and interest fees and charges to September in order to support him during what is obviously a difficult time.

'We'll revisit Dr F's accounts with him again in August to see how we take this forward together.'

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