Cancelling Credit Card woes !

[Ashfox65]

Hi, first post here. Bear with me.....
Just looking for some advice regarding cancelling my credit card account.
I've been getting bombarded with marketing calls from my credit card company for some time now, despite my account profile specifying that I opt out of marketing excepting sms and email. 2 weeks ago I answered one of these nuisance calls and requested that they stopped once and for all. I was give a spiel about how I had to ring this dept and that dept. I really didn't have time to ring anyone so told the person I'd be cancelling my account as I don't think I should have to carry the onus of yet again stopping these calls.
I cleared my account from savings on28/10. It was a "functioning account", managed well and really only used for convenience. €0,000, nice to see.
On 07/11 this week, I called to formally close the account. There was no one available to close the account but they assured they'd call back within 24 hours. They didn't. It was a next day call alright but again as is usual at an inconvenient time so I missed the call. They rang again yesterday and I missed them again. I called this morning and logged in to my account to find an interest charge had appeared on the account. This added to the stamp duty charge for closing the account is making me quite angry !
My argument with them is that it was through their inability to process my cancellation at the time I called I should not be liable for any interest charge and to what sum is this interest charge being applied ?
Have I any course of action open to me or should I just get screwed one more time ?!!!!

Thanks for any advice and sorry for rambling post

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Hi Ash

Make a formal written complaint. That should resolve it.

I would still write to them as follows:

"I ticked a box opting out of calls.
Despite this I received calls on day x, y, z.
When i told you....

(Detail it as much as possible)

It is now my intention to bring this to the attention of the Data Protection Commissioner as your procedures seem to be in direct breach of their rules.

Before doing so, I would like to give you an opportunity of explaining if there is any reason why I should not do so."

You can also complain to the FSO for maladministration if you want to really go for them.

Brendan

 

[elcato]

When you say functioning account, were you clearing the account balance every month by the specified date ? Just because you cleared it to 0 at a certain date does not mean there was outstanding interest due between the clearance date and the actual due date. Unfortunately I suspect you are due the interest charge. The stamp duty is a government charge and if you open a card with someone else you will get this charge wavered for this year. In short I'm afraid they are probably fully correct in what is outstanding. If they haven't officially closed the account you could do a transfer to another company which would save the hassle of the stamp duty.

 

[vandriver]

The interest charge is from the bill issuing date to the date you cleared the account, as the interest is still accruing.What subsequent date you then closed the account is immaterial.
If you are angry about the stamp duty,this has zero to do with the bank.
As you tried to close the account over a week after you cleared the balance,it really makes no difference whatsoever whether it was closed on that day or a few days later.
Edit:my reply crossed with Elcato's,but we are in agreement.

 

[Ashfox65]

Thanks for the replies. I understand the stamp duty is beyond their control. My issue is probably with the fact that on Tuesday of this week when I attempted to close the account, the balance was zero, would they have added the due interest that day if i'd succeeded in closing account then ? From what you're saying, most likely yes.
Brendan, I will write to them as their systems don't seem to tally. Online my marketing prefs are very clearly sms and email only and have been so from whenever that option became available. I have also requested several times on the phone to be removed from the phone marketing list. Unfortunately dates and times are the tricky bit !
Thanks again all.