Well, it's been a roller coaster ride that's left me feeling rather dizzy with excitement and nauseated with disgust but finally MBNA is holding true to their word. After opening an account with them in 1996 for a free t-shirt, mind you, I spent half of my college career racking up bar tabs and bragging about them... College... makes you wonder... Anyways, my parents yanked them from me in an attempt to straighten out my credit but basically screwed up worse than me by paying on it every few months or so... (Parents, they make you so proud)... 24% APR on college necessities adds up, even after 4 years of payments every couple of months. So anyways, after getting laughed at by the mortgage loan officer last Feb. I decided to check and see whats so funny... Wow... it's amazing how 1K can turn into 3K in a few years... But I owned up to my responsibility and have paid it down to a few hundred bucks in this time... Now the kicker... I closed the account when I turned the card over to my parents for safe keeping, and our agreement was since it was closed by the consumer it would be reopened when my balance was paid down to the agreed amount. Well, MBNA decided they would simply keep it closed and send a new card on this closed account and state they never agreed to anything but to upgrade this closed account to alumni status. Seeing as how the card number hasn't changed since 1996 the truth was on my side. Why would I change a card on a closed account? Was it normal practice to upgrade a closed account after 4 years? After speaking to a manager for a few moments about how I felt I had been lied too, tricked , finagled, and I had all of this is writing, (surely they have broken some consumer rights laws), they magically found the report from Feb. And I have just received a call from the manager saying my limit has been increased and an apology for any wrong doings, misunderstandings, and attempts to lie to me in an act to receive on a 6 year debt... I really have never received such a compliment though... My grandmother has never spoken so softly and warm to me before... Did I miss an attempt to sue the begeezers out of em'? Makes you wonder what I don't know about my rights. Anyways, back on the playing field, maybe I should try and work this out with Discover as well...
Nice story! I've been a customer of MBNA for less than a year now. At first I was skeptical but now I'm proud to hold their card. I have never once had a problem with them and they have helped me out tremendously. I have nothing but kind things to say about MBNA....although I am aware that others have had problems. They have raised my credit limit with no problem and they even did a conference call and stayed on hold with me for almost an hour trying to resolve a dispute with a merchant (merchant claimed I didn't pay them and wasn't willing to credit my account but MBNA had another thing for them). I was originally denied this card but 2 months later wrote a letter to them via PFB and a week later they were BLOWING my phone up trying to give ME a card!
I agree with you. MBNA is the best!!. The only problem is when you apply for their instant loan like apple loan. They usually pull 2 inquires on Experian and another one on TU. Figure out!!.
When I originally applied for their card, they pulled Experian. Then when I asked for reconsideration and a financial analyst called me back to discuss things, he pulled TU! What was funny was that my TU report was cleaner than Experian.
mixed I have mixed feelings on MBNA. We applied for a wedding loan and were offered a ridiculous 29.9 percent interest for a $1K loan. Needless to say we didn't take it. However, my sister-in-law works for MBNA in Florida and I am extremely impressed with their treatment of their employees, professionalism, and extensive training. So, maybe someday when our credit is better, we'll apply for an MBNA card. Right now I'm at 647 and my husband around 660 (both experian) but I think our scores on the others are lower. I'm taking a 'break' from clean up - it's so frustrating. Now I'm waiting for our mortgage to report and maybe help us out a bit too. Anyway, I think MBNA is a good company, if you're the right customer.
Re: mixed One other nice thing I read about MBNA in the Wall Street Journal is that they are one of the few cards which don't charge you a fee for converting foreign currency over to US $$s if you use your card in a foreign country. Some others charge you up to 3%. I think I read Citibank is one of the bad ones.
Re: mixed They may not charge their own foreign transaction fee, but being a part of the Visa network, they still charge Visa's 1% ForTrans fee. Saar
