MBNA: The biggest pricks in the credit world?

[villager]

Just got off the phone with a hosile "Credit manager," or whatever they're called, at MBNA -- attacking me for wanting a lower interest rate (they just raised my rates 5% for no particular reason), wanting to "dig deeper" into my finances, because I had the temerity to call, etc...

Are these guys the biggest, coldest, leeches in the credit card world or what?

[adarling]

1. thats why i canceled the card

kept my interests the same and just began paying it off so i can get rid of it.thank god for my mother warning me about it and helping me wiht it. i hate them too, they are a bunch of crooks.

[ixion]

2. yeah, they're no good... of course, none of them are

it's all a big loan-sharking biz, IMO.

That they can jack your rate 5 percent, cause they feel like it, is highway robbery. :grr:

[hatrack]

3. Cancel! They won't listen to words, but they'll listen to actions

Tell them to fold it five ways and stuff where the sun don't shine.

[villager]

7. I had the account "suspended" at a fixed lowered interest rate

after they'd jacked it up atrociously because of one -- one! in the entire history of the account -- late payment.

I still have to pay down the remaining balance, but will never charge anything on this account again.

I'm looking into transferring the balance to another card in the interim...

[WindRavenX]

4. they're satan's minions.

End of story.

[gulfcoastliberal]

5. Citigroup isn't any better.

They brought us the lovely spectacles of Enron and Worldcom. But the DLC wing thinks they should not be regulated.

[Stephanie]

6. YES

I cancelled them. They would change my rate for no reason, and when I called them on it they would say, "oh, that was a mistake" and change it back.

[wixomblues]

8. That sounds low.

I thought citibank was bad.

[Warpy]

9. WAKE UP!!! Those things are a SCAM

The purpose of those things is to lock you into debt. Then they keep raising the rates. They justify the rate hike by saying you were late with some payment or other (even when it was the PO's fault) and the upper rate is now a loan shariking 39.9%

Any of you with a card, pay that sucker of ASAP then GET RID OF IT! All of you who say, Well, gee, it's convenient and I pay it off every month," wake up and realize that's how all credit card debtos started out. You're one lost job or unforseen medical expense away from DISASTER if you own one of those things.

[MadHound]

10. Do yourself a favor,

Cut up all of your plastic, excepting your debit card. Go on a cash only basis and never look back. I've been that way all of my life and never had any problems. But it seems to me that a lot of people have some major problems with the CC. Cut them up and toss them.

[Warpy]

15. I'm with you

I've used nothing but a debit card since the CC companies started insisting on that minimum payment and charging all those junk fees in 1991. I knew a scam when I saw one.

I'd advise cutting them up and sending them in, though. Just tossing them makes the CC company think you've still got a card.

[lindisfarne]

11. An alternative to cancelling (if you don't have an annual fee) is to

charge ONLY one thing each month - something worth less than $1.00 per month - and pay via computer (to save yourself the cost of the stamp). The company thus incurs the company the postage, paper, printing, and handling costs - a small cost to them, but a cost nonetheless.

Cancel all credit cards with annual fees!! (or call annually and ask them to cancel the fee, and cancel if they don't remove the annual fee).

[Schmajo]

12. I have a gold mastercard

from MBNA for over 20 years, many of which I carried a balance. I paid it off a few years back, but still use it from time to time. About 4 years ago, MBNA sent me a letter about a $20 annual fee they were going to impose (this card never had an annual fee in the past). I called to cancel the card; they offerred to drop my interest rate, which meant nothing to me, since I never carry a balance now. The person canceled the impending annual fee.

The next year the same thing happened -- notice, phone call to cancel account, and subsequent cancelation of fee. This time, the account rep (or whatever she's called) told me she would mark my account to NEVER impose an annual fee. Good to her word, MBNA has never tried that trick on me again.

[Skip Intro]

13. HSBC (? - Household) has to be right up there with them

I have a Rhodes Furniture acct thru Household. Rhodes closed their stores to prepare for a going out of business sale. My payment was due, and I couldn't pay at the store because it was closed. So I went online - the whole website had been taken down - with just a front page saying Rhodes Furniture - the online payment system was gone. I called to make sure I wouldn't be charged a late fee and got the runaround - going thru rep after rep until I finally got one who decided to "extend me the courtesy" of waiving the late fee "this time." They then gave me a brand new website to use to make payments. (Incidentally, I went to make my payment thru the new website last month - same day that I always have made my payments - and the site was down. I called, and emailed to get the late fee waived this time, and was informed that I had already been given a "courtesy" credit, and that I wouldn't get any waiver this time because I could have called and done a check by phone payment - for a $15 fee)

Houusehold Finance, Household Bank, HSBC - stay away from them.

[nini]

14. If you can.. join a credit union and transfer that balance

the big banks are beyond evil and if you can avoid them with a credit union it's worth it.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

16. They're all pricks

Although, I must admit, MBNA is the outfit that lent my Congressman, Jim Moran, a Democrat, $250,000 when his third divorce got sticky, and, in return for that no-interest loan (I wonder if it was ever paid back?), Moran led the fight for our beautiful new Bankruptcy Laws.

Isn't he a peach, my congressman?

MBNA also employs Louis Freeh. That's enough of a reason to nuke them, right there.

We use only our debit cards (as credit cards), and get all the same legal protections and privileges. I have a Capital One credit card, just for the sake of having one credit card, but every time I use it, I go online and pay it off. That's the only way. No mailing checks - you pay online immediately.

If you don't have the money, don't buy it. That was my grandparents' advice, and it's come around again for the wise advice that it was.

[NI4NI]

17. Bush supporters

Just the fact MBNA is one of Dumya's biggest campaign supporters would be enough for me to take my business elsewhere.

[NI4NI]

18. Just the fact that MBNA

is one of Dumya's biggest and loyal campaign supporters would
be enough for me to take my business elsewhere.

[NI4NI]

19. Apology for the double post.

[villager]

20. apologies accepted!

;-)

[Toots]

21. I think it was worth repeating

:-)

[villager]

23. good point.

n/t

[upi402]

22. MBNA = evil, Working Assests is an MBNA co. for some reason

go figure

[OneBlueSky]

24. I know I shouldn't be carrying credit card balances, but . . .

because circumstances are such that that's the case, I've developed a strategy that keeps my rates as low as possible . . . essentially, I keep about ten credit card accounts open with no balance . . . and I'm forever getting GREAT offers to transfer balances -- some as low as 2.99% . . . so if a company ever starts screwing around with my rates, I simply dump the balance elsewhere . . . works like a charm . . .

[villager]

25. I have to be more aggressive about balance transfers, actually...

n/t