I just tried to use my business credit card yesterday and it was declined! I knew that a check had gone out to them, so I called to see what had happened. The credit card issuer, MBNA, said that they had indeed received the payment, but that, because it was late–they received the check on the 25th; it was due on the 16th–they would not be able to ‘credit the account’ until the beginning of the following billing cycle.
This means that even though they have full payment in hand, I will not be able to use the card for another 2 weeks! This makes me mad as hell. I have never heard of anything like this. Ridiculous!
I’ve had this card for over 5 years, but the account was recently bought out by MBNA, a couple of months ago, and apparently they have forgotten the meaning of customer-service.
I’m going to look for another credit card carrier to go with.
grrrrr. :mad:
Make sure when you shop around for a new card that you ask if they’ll let you use it even if you don’t pay the bill. That will make things go much more smoothly. 
Uh, Giraffe, you miss the point (and probably deserve a flaming, this being the Pit and all, but I’ll pass for the moment).
He paid. He paid late, but he paid. They have no right to retain money he sent them in payment on an account and not credit his account with the payment. That is considered “conversion” in legal parlance – the hijacking of funds received for purposes other than they were remitted for.
Now, if they credited his account but told him that he could not use it until the beginning of the next cycle, that being their penalty for late payments (in order to discourage tardiness in remittance), that’s their prerogative as people offering credit. But not to credit the account for which a payment is received within a reasonable interval after receipt of payment is IMHO tortious.
I too have an MBNA account. To put it bluntly they are jerks. You said your CC company was recently acquired by MBNA, so be prepared to have checks coming to you in the mail unsolicited, offers addressed to you by the ton for more credit cards from them. We had one at 17.9 percent and frankly questioned in this day and age why so high and interest rate, their response: it’s all we can offer. Pshaw, I told them I was going to cancel and they lowered it to 9.9.
They are, however, not as jerky as Capitol One or Bank One. I prefer the local credit union Visa versus the commercial bank. Of the banks, I’ve found that Bank of America is probably the best, next is probably Citibank, however YMMV.
Citibank had been okay in my opinion, however…they MAY send you a little wee paper addition hidden behind the regular bill, and on this paper addition will be teeny letters, which, if read carefully, reveal that they are ‘helping’ you by ‘upgrading’ your card and raising the interest rate to 21% to reward you for never being late, always brushing, and in general being such a good customer. I was at 5.6% at the time and didn’t like that, so I followed the wee books mystical directions and wrote to them asking if I could please keep my old rate and it worked!
However, if one isn’t connected with those teeny books (i.e. the fine print)…the credit card companies are free to work their evil magic!
In English: I understand the feelings in the OP.
Man, I never get flamed. kicks dirt
But you’re right – I didn’t read closely enough. I thought his company didn’t pay the bill and hence the card was deactivated with some delay before he could use the card again, equivalent to if your phone got shut off because you didn’t pay the bill and having to wait a few days to get it reconnected.
Mostly, I just like the idea of shopping around for a company with a better non-payment policy.
Polycarp, the end result would still the same in both scenarios. Both ways he paid late. Both ways he won’t get to use the CC for two weeks. Both ways he (possibly) gets a small ding on his credit rating.
Also, I don’t necessarily agree with your assessment of conversion here (IANAL (as you already knew but whatever :))). Conversion is the intentional exercise of dominion or control over a chattel (the check) which so seriously interferes with the right of another to control it that the person may justly be required to pay the full value of it.
The CC company was only in control of the check because
Pablito gave it up. He voluntarily lost control of it by mailing it. Nevertheless, had he desired, he could have cancelled the check before it was cashed to retain control of the money. He still has that option. So I don’t believe this is truly a conversion. Though it would certainly be an inventive argument to bring to a court.
That is your mistake, MNBA sucks. We used them to finance something, and had nothing but problems. If I were you I’d shop around for a more reasonable CC company.
Sorry, I meant MBNA, I’ve been watching too much basketball.
:smack:
I’ve had MBNA for a couple of years now. I’ve never had any problems with them whatsoever. How are you people getting jerked around so much?
A few years ago, we bought a computer in October and planned to pay it off in December with a holiday bonus. In the three months we had it financed through MBNA, they 1) double billed us, 2) over billed us, and 3) were not nice or easy to talk to through the customer rep. It was very difficult for us to get their mistakes cleared up.
Never again.