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MBNA SucksMBNA Sucks
anchorbob said: "Be wary of MBNA, they have a ton of hidden charges on all of their credit accounts. I used a credit line and got a $200 extra charge that made the effective interest for one month be 59%. That's not a happy feeling at all."
Ally said: "59%? Wow.
I'm sure that it is buried in the fine print somewhere. But that would be shocking
to see on your first billing statement."
srad28 said: "That is crazy, but not shocking. I am hearing more and more of this kind of thing everyday.
Steph"
anchorbob said: "They have a very aggressive way of charging interest. My big plan now is to pay this off and cancel it."
KathMorgan said: "I did exactly the same thing. I had an MBNA card for 10 years, never missed a payment, kept a balance (yes I was still young and stupid then) and always paid more then the minimum. I was 2 days late on 1!! payment and put a letter explaining that my twin sisters son had been killed in a car accident and I had to go to Kentucky on short notice. The next month my interest rate was jacked up to 26%, a 30 day late ding on my CR and they didn't give a damn. Well, I paid it off by transferring balances immediately, cancelled the card in the last payment and put a letter in explaining why. I get letters from the regularly now that my FICO is over 800 wanting my business back. I reply to every single one with a copy of the last correspondence. I got a call last month with an apology (3 years later) and a wonderful offer. It did my heart great to politely decline and then hang up on him. :D"
Ally said: "Way to go!"
JoshJohnson said: "Nice work, Kathy.
I mean, can they really afford to lose customers by just being petty?"
partner4life said: "MBNA does suck! They did the same exact thing to me. I missed a payment when my mother passed away and the next thing I knew my interest rate went up to 29.4%. I had the account for over 5 years and never was late before. Then because the interest rate went up I was getting an over limit fee charged to the account. I called and called and no one was willing to help. So I recently closed the account and I am hoping that I can pay it off soon. I need to try to transfer the balance to another card.
Does anyone know where I can get a better card?"
audio4me said: "I fell for MBNA's credit scam of pretending to offer low interest rates to move business over to them and then jacking up the rates. I was on a business trip and was stuck in an emergency and needed to increase my credit line with MBNA. I called their customer service and requested the increase and they put me on hold for 20 minutes or so and came back telling me that I was all set. Well....they did not increase my credit line as promised they simply put me over my limit and then proceeded to jack up my interest rate. Trouble is this shows negatively on my credit report even though I was never late on a single payment! When I spoke to the credit manager he told me I would have to take it up with the credit reporting agencies! Can you believe that? He was refusing to contact the credit bureaus to fix their error. Funny thing is this was an older account and I paid off my current account and closed it. I am starting a website called and will try to launch it by the end of the summer. I want everyone to know that they are running a huge scam!"
al ero said: "I just discovered the idiocy of MBNA. my interest rate jumped to 25% for no reason other than the fact that I have elected to make the minimum payments only. yeap, I guess I was misguided by thinking that if the terms and conditions and the monthly statement give me the option to make a minimum payment I could do so but the geniouses at MBNA have decided that keeping up with the agreement is wrong :rolleyes: i have a score in the 700s, I have never made a late payment on any account, so when I asked them and they simply told me that the reason for the increase is that I make the minimum payments well, this is the end of my relationship with them but what the heck, companies like MBNA are ran by idiots and the authorities that are suppose to protect us are merely looking to the next campaing contribution so life goes on without MBNA in my case."
jjs622 said: "Just to make all of you aware, your interest rates being increased are based on your payment history with the credit card issuer. By federal law if you are not making your payments on time your interest rate will AUTOMATICALLY be increased. If you are paying minimum every month then you can bet that your interest rate will be fairly high. This is with any credit card company. I suggest reading the "fine print" when applying for a credit card.
As an fyi...come the end of 2005 for anyone who is looking for a credit card company with low rates and fees. Good luck! With the new law that was issued by the OCC, if you cannot pay your balance in full every month as long as you have a credit card your minimum payments will be high. On top that you are more likely to have to pay it now than before.
If you were satisfyed with MBNA's rates, you really will not be happy with the new law that was issued."
David said: "In case everyone didnt hear.. Bank of America just bought out MBNA's Creditcard division."
anchorbob said: "Yeah, I'm not sure how much I look forward to this merger.
First Fleet and now MBNA. Can less competition really be good?"
kevin said: "Typically you want to keep you credit card balance at 25-40% of the spending limit to increase or stabalize your FICO score. $1000 limit, keep your balance, at the most, $400."
IWantMoney4Me said: "Stay far away from anything that MBNA has to offer! I got a Visa card from them with a low 2.99% introductory offer for six months. After that, it went up to 10.9% fixed rate. Everything's cool. About six months from that I receive a letter from them saying that they were going to increase my interest rate because they looked at my credit report and said I had too much credit. They raised it to 14.9%. A year went by, and I received another letter stating they were going to change my Visa card to a variable rate because they looked at my credit report again. It is now at 20.9% interest! My service charges are almost as much as my minimum payment! And to top it all off, I have never paid any of my bills late, and I have always paid more than the minimum payment! On all of my bills! I have great credit! I am in the process of paying off their %$^&*@# card, and then leaving them in the dust. But I'm going to make sure the world knows the ripoff that MBNA is! Thanks for reading!"
TampaDude said: "Yup...MBNA sent me an offer at 9.9% FIXED (yeah, right), then after I opened the account and charged a bunch of stuff, they suddenly jacked my rate up to 19.98% for no apparent reason other than to rip me off...I couldn't have been late on a payment because one wasn't even due yet! I called and eventually got a supervisor...I said that unless they put my account back to the original rate, I was going to pursue legal action against them for deceptive trade practices and fraud...when I got my next statement, my original rate was restored, and has remained so ever since. They probably have something about "OMFG, he's gonna sue!!!" in my customer file somewhere...heh heh... :D"
HowardJones said: "(NJ resident); ~3 years ago, used an MBNA loan to consolidate several CC debts. Never charged anything else in order to pay-off the debt.
The rate was not the best, and the balance was considerable, so I did not expect to see it drop much... (tried not to even THINK about it...)
Somehow became enrolled in a "Credit Protection" program back in Oct of '03. I vividly remember my CALL to MBNA (Nov. of '03) asking to be removed from the program. Assured this request had been effectively processed...
Each month I'd log-in online, check the account, and see the words "No Current Activity" promptly displayed (as expected). Then send my payment.
Pursuing a Master's Degree & BUSY! Enough time elapsed when I noticed the balance had actually INCREASED! After digging-around, I looked at the last statement again (now "last-month's statement") & eventually determined that since Oct of 2003, my acct had incurred a monthly "Credit Protection Fee" of ~$200. Apparently they NEVER ceased my enrollment. Here's the best part...
The charge always processed at the END of each month, so even though I checked the acct on a monthly basis (and "verified" no addt'l charges) I was incurring the ~$200/mo charge only DAYS later!
Since I confirmed (on a monthly basis) what I expected to see, it never occured to me to look at the statement AGAIN...(when it had officially become "LAST month's statement").
The MBNA acct-rep informs me she has an "authorization" on hand from Oct of '03. Why on Earth wouldn't they ALSO have the "de-authorization" from my request to no-longer participtate in the program? Her response was more or less that I "...should have discovered the problem sooner..."
This is not a material item that I took home, depreciated over time and now want to return. It's money taken for an unauthorized service. Why won't MBNA simply "re-set" my balance to whatever it was in Oct of '03, then subtract the sum of all my payments to reflect a new current balance?
Any thoughts? PLEASE don't lecture me about repsonsibility and making a "thorough analysis of each and every bill". I've only just discovered how sneaky these companies can be. This just seems REALLY wrong! Tell me how to get my money back!! I'll try anything! Thanks!"
Tiger888 said: "Had done business with this company for over 10 years, missed payments for two months for out of country. Came back, froze my account and said I can re apply in 6 months. I said close the account what is pay-off balance, told me amount, ask them that this was it, no more bills or solicitation, they said yes. Paid off balance electronically. Sons of bitcchess sends me bill 3 weeks later stating I owed $4.25 in interest. I called and argue for 15 minutes till they waived my fees. I told them over the 10 years I had account witht hem they made over 1000 in fees on me and I'm not paying another cent.
I'm going to do everything within my power to make sure they don't attract any more customers in my area. I'm going to speak to all the youth and athletic groups I mentor. They're not going sucker any more people from NY any more!"
tiffsedge said: "MBNA struck me last week.
I had lost my phone line and internet due to some damage to the wires from a rain storm and this is my main source of bill payment.
I called from a neighbours and told them what had happened, and when I would be able to pay it. They were polite and kind and I even asked if any negative could come to my credit from having this situation and the rep said "no nothing , things happen. MBNA is not that tough on life situations out of your control" . A week later.. my credit interest is going up to 23.85% and when I called they said it was due to late payments.
They would not even pass me to the right department. I wanted to speak to someone who could offer me help here and they never did a thing to help at all. One rep even went so far as to tell me to take on a second job. I said I work full time with two children and he says SO why not come home and go flip burgers at Mcdonalds till closing and then use all that money and pay MBNA.
I am tempted to file complaints on his comments but this company gets you no where fast .
I truly will spend a lifetime telling everyone I know how horrible they are."
admin said: "Call them back and remind them of the call where they told you it would be no problem."
David said: "you could also remind them that it is common practice for people to record phone calls when dealing with credit card companies. :)"
anchorbob said: "Tell them you hate them. I'm sure they've heard it before :)"
Strauty said: "If you ever get a collection call from MBNA record everything you can. My wife got behind on her account when we had our twins. They had people from India calling constantly. I finally started taking the calls and recording names and ID numbers. They would literally call 8 times per day, all day and all night.
I finally have forwarded everything to my attorney for violations of the FDCPA. MBNA has no regrets for anyone. Like most large corporations they figure that no one will sue them and they will continue training their people with the guerilla tactics. Well times are a changing, and there are consumers out there that will fight back, regardless of who the heartless company is."
Ally said: "I'm sorry to hear that happened.
They just got bought out by Bank of America, so they will be a different company soon."
modette said: "[QUOTE=KathMorgan]I did exactly the same thing. I had an MBNA card for 10 years, never missed a payment, kept a balance (yes I was still young and stupid then) and always paid more then the minimum. I was 2 days late on 1!! payment and put a letter explaining that my twin sisters son had been killed in a car accident and I had to go to Kentucky on short notice. The next month my interest rate was jacked up to 26%, a 30 day late ding on my CR and they didn't give a damn. Well, I paid it off by transferring balances immediately, cancelled the card in the last payment and put a letter in explaining why. I get letters from the regularly now that my FICO is over 800 wanting my business back. I reply to every single one with a copy of the last correspondence. I got a call last month with an apology (3 years later) and a wonderful offer. It did my heart great to politely decline and then hang up on him. :D[/QUOTE]
I own a business and I hear excuses daily. It gets old fast why someone cannot pay or did not pay for their unit every month. Any it is always seems someone died. You know what we tell people “It is not our problem, that is YOUR problem”, you can mail us the check or came in to pay early or even call in your visa number. It says right in the contract rent due the 1st of the month.
Face the facts you failed to pay, and got stuck with the penalties."
Solutions4You said: "[QUOTE=modette]I own a business and I hear excuses daily. It gets old fast why someone cannot pay or did not pay for their unit every month. Any it is always seems someone died. You know what we tell people “It is not our problem, that is YOUR problem”, you can mail us the check or came in to pay early or even call in your visa number. It says right in the contract rent due the 1st of the month.
Face the facts you failed to pay, and got stuck with the penalties.[/QUOTE]
You should be a Prison Warden. Then you wouldn't have to worry about collecting their rent."
credit_card_collector said: "Wanted to post this warning. I don't think there will be a way for me to get out of paying this but here it goes.
I used some of those checks MBNA sends with the statement, it says use as you would any other check to pay bills etc. and we will apply them to your credit card balance. So I wrote 3 checks and they hit me with a total of $30 in charges for writing them they charge $10 transaction fee for each check, one of the checks I wrote was for $25 now that $25 will cost me $35. I was stupid and did not read the very very fine print and I will pay, but before someone else makes the same mistake I am giving everyone here a heads up, trying to help others from suffering this fate. :(
Yup MBNA sucks."
Stogie1 said: "I took out a $10,000 loan (line of credit) from MBNA in respnse to a mailed offer. I talked to them on the phone and the interest rate was 6.99%. After making a year of on time payments in excess of minimum, it is suddenly 19%. These people are pirates. Stick to local banks, the big banks are just greedy evil and want to stick it to everybody as hard and often as possible. I will pay these slimes off and never again darken their door.
The fact that this is legal says alot about who pays our politicians the most - the new credit / bankruptcy act is designed to enslave. Thanks Congress (both parties) and W for putting it to us again."
author said: "-First time they posted a payment I fedexed more than 72 hours late (a common practice, the cause of lawsuits lost) wouldn't take that 30 day late off even in 5 years
-Second time, I closed account because of this and paid off balance and some $4 charge popped up after I closed (another common practice) and they put me down as 60 days late since I found out this much later by accident
-Third time, I ordered a statement online to take up issue about the last charge, then they had a message online saying "we will bill you your account". I thought my account was closed. Wrong, they billed my account because it was not closed, called a "soft close" and the cause of other lost lawsuits
-They will not take anything off or negotiate and they are reporting the account as still open, even after I have written them numerous times
In case any people respond and say you should have paid on time, OTHER CARDS NEGOTIATE. That includes Providian, ATT and others. Don't do business with MBNA, MBNA sucks! And they break the law."
Truth said: "When you send a check there is no point including a letter as to why you're late. In the case of most processing centers for different banks all the
checks are processed by machines. There is a good reasons ALL banks have different payment addresses as they do other correspondence addresses. No body will ever see those letters. Banks don't have nearly the man power to employ people to open each check individually and apply them to a computer, it's all systemically done. If someone happens and you're going to be late, call and speak to someone. Talk to a manager if you have to, or get the address for a manager, don't send it with your check, it will never be seen. And I don't really think we can fault a bank for that, I mean, it would be impossible to employ people to literally open hundreds of thousands envelopes a day."
credit_card_collector said: "Here is a good one. Happended a few months back. The company I work for sends off the MBNA card payment. We only use them as corporate expense cards and they are paid in full each month. Well about a month later the payment comes back in a envelope and it looks like a dog got a hold of it and shredded it. They enclosed a note saying our machine ate your check please send a new one. So we use another stamp (they did not enclose a courtesy free envelope, it was their admitted fault) wait it gets better. The next statement came, they stuck us with a LATE PAYMENT FEE !!!!! We had to pay it. :mad:"
PhotoCat said: "I signed up for a Wachovia Visa a couple of years back. Little did I know that MBNA was the real creditor. This is changing soon, but too late to help me now. I bounced one check to them for $200. It cleared two days later when they resubmitted it. Another check for $300 I wrote them (to get my balance down) cleared not two weeks after that! But they used that opportunity to raise my interest rate to 27.24%. I tried to reason with them, tell them that I'm a full time student, living on a budget, and that their tactics were rendering it impossible for me to pay them. They basically interrogated me on my expenses and then said, sorry, there's nothing we can do. I called American Express, who also raised my interest rate to a phenomonal rate of 30.24% because of the mark on my credit report. When the girl that answered the phone asked me how she could help me, I said "well, I'm calling about the extremely high interest rate on my card." She excused her self for a second to look at the account. Then she came back and said "I've reduced your APR back to the previous amount. Is there anything else I can do for you today?" My hat's off to AmEx. I called MBNA back for the third time in about as many weeks and told them my experience with AMEX. They said, "so, we're two different companies." I spoke with both "Renee" and with "Bill" at MBNA and both were rude and unprofessional. "Bill" even told me to wait a couple of months and call back because Wachovia was taking over their accounts and that I'd get a different group on the phone! He told me to take out another card and tranfer the balance even. AVOID MBNA LIKE THE PLAGUE!!! For anyone that has ever seen "Fight Club", you can imagine what I was envisioning. :mad:
There needs to be a Federal law capping interest rates on credit cards. These companies have located themselves to states with little or no legal oversight. The states of Deleware and South Dakota in particular need to have their respective congresses drawn and quartered, tarred and feathered, and shot! I urge everyone to contact their US representatives and senators to end this madness."
rylant said: "[QUOTE=partner4life]MBNA does suck! They did the same exact thing to me. I missed a payment when my mother passed away and the next thing I knew my interest rate went up to 29.4%. I had the account for over 5 years and never was late before. Then because the interest rate went up I was getting an over limit fee charged to the account. I called and called and no one was willing to help. So I recently closed the account and I am hoping that I can pay it off soon. I need to try to transfer the balance to another card.
Does anyone know where I can get a better card?[/QUOTE]
Just quit paying them. They get away with what they do because people pay them when they do it. If a million people would tell them to stick it maybe they would decide to stop robbing their customers."
94B10 said: "[quote=rylant][COLOR=Red]Just quit paying them.[/COLOR] They get away with what they do because people pay them when they do it. If a million people would tell them to stick it maybe they would decide to stop robbing their customers.[/quote]
:signs053: How exactly does that benefit the person rylant.The last thing the person or anyone else contemplating on what to do is too quit paying and ruin their credit for 7 years.If you don't want to deal with companies such as MBNA then they shouldn't but not ruining their credit in the process instead they should pay the card off and close it and go elsewhere."
David said: "I agree with what she said.
If you quit payin the OC.. then any chance of fixing things is gone.
CA's are the only ones you dont pay unless they can provide legal proof they actually are the ones you owe and that they have legal standing to collect money.
Tell ya what.. quit making payments on your house, car or other cards.. then come back and tell someone to stop paying the OC."
USMaverick101 said: "I believe that there is a max int. rate that the bank's can charge. It varies by state. You should check into this. Chase screwed me with this a while ago. They charged me 33%. The bigger problem is that if 1 raises it, they all follow the same suit"