MBNA credit card issue

[nemesis2001]

We had 2 MBNA Axa credit cards for some 8 years and we cancelled them last September as we were no longer insuring our cars with Axa so no special benefits from their card. We switched back to AIB. Did not hear from MBNA since. Yesterday, they wrote to my wife outlining arrears. We called them bvack straight away and allegedly what happened was that VHI (travel insurance) took 75 Euro at some stage in June (in fairness, when we purchased first travel insurance with VHI they stated that it would renew automatically). The guy went on to advise that since we had not paid this sum, they were penalising us by some 50 Euro for not paying the fee. They had sent an email to say your statement was available online but gmail caught this as spam so we never saw the same. My question is is if once a person terminates their CC, can a third party still go and withdraw money from the account (which is no longer active). How fair and decent is it from a CC Company to issue someone who has been with them for an x number of years such a draconian penalty?

 

[mathepac]

.... They had sent an email to say your statement was available online but gmail caught this as spam so we never saw the same. My question is is if once a person terminates their CC, can a third party still go and withdraw money from the account (which is no longer active). How fair and decent is it from a CC Company to issue someone who has been with them for an x number of years such a draconian penalty?

I believe it was up to you to cancel the direct debit with VHI when terminating the card, just as it was your responsibility to ensure that the agreed lines of communication remained open. I believe in this instance MBNA are correct and if you check the T&Cs I'm sure it'll be in there.

 

[nemesis2001]

I am not disputing or questioning that it was my responsibility to cancel DD but I would have thought that once the card is cancelled, I am no longer a customer of MBNA and in that case when Vhi tried to charge the card, they would get an error message and contact me informing me on the same.
I have no doubt that in tiny print in the T&C there is something on them been entitled to do what they did but II also find it difficult to digest that a exemplary customer (albeit former customer) of theirs would be treated that way. Chatting to people at work about my experience with the CC company and they all agreed that was not a way to treat a customer.

 

[Willy Fogg]

I am not disputing or questioning that it was my responsibility to cancel DD but I would have thought that once the card is cancelled, I am no longer a customer of MBNA and in that case when Vhi tried to charge the card, they would get an error message and contact me informing me on the same.
I have no doubt that in tiny print in the T&C there is something on them been entitled to do what they did but II also find it difficult to digest that a exemplary customer (albeit former customer) of theirs would be treated that way. Chatting to people at work about my experience with the CC company and they all agreed that was not a way to treat a customer.

"fair and decent" is a subjective concept that you can't really expect people to agree on.

However, as you acknowledge, the transaction was correct. Sometimes you just have to suck these things up and move on, lesson learned.

 

[irishmoss]

But surely if a card is cancelled it is cancelled? Judging by the responses there are all sorts of implications then. Say if fraudsters got hold of the number?


And where does the op stand with the 40 euro yearly charge? Are they now going to lob that on as the card was used.

I would write to the financial ombusman to get clarification at least

 

[Willy Fogg]

But surely if a card is cancelled it is cancelled? Judging by the responses there are all sorts of implications then. Say if fraudsters got hold of the number?


And where does the op stand with the 40 euro yearly charge? Are they now going to lob that on as the card was used.

I would write to the financial ombusman to get clarification at least

You looking at this as if it was a new transaction. It's not. The card is cancelled, but you must remember that the OP had given the company permission to bill him on an ongoing basis. Part of the agreement there is that MBNA must honour those requests, even when the account has been closed because the company had permission to collect funds from it. It's called continuous authorisation to debit/continuous payment authority.

Fraudsters don't come into it, because they have no pre-existing payment arrangement, and they can't use the number to make any purchases as the account is not active. There is a distinct difference between the two.