Wednesday, July 16, 2008

MBNA bait and switch balance transfer scam

I got a surprise in my MBNA statement today. Some stuff that I had balance transferred at their offered rate of 5% is now at 21%.

Say what?? I'm not a deadbeat, I've been making all of the required payments properly, and more. So what happened? Well it turns out in the fine print that the limited time offer on the balance transfer also applies to the amount transferred, not just being able to do the transfers.

So after a couple of months the 5% becomes a regular 21%. Nice. How can this be legal in Canada? The best thing that could happen to Canada would be for MBNA (plus their dirty incessant telemarketers) and the rest of their trash American ilk to take your Indymac/ Countrywide/ subprime/ alt-a/ foreclosure act back to the United States and leave our good country alone.

Anyway it is what it is. I'll have to rearrange my priorities to pay off the now 21% MBNA balance first, then I can finally be free of them forever. And be careful of offers from credit cards about low rate balance transfers. Read the fine print and be on the lookout for scams like this.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

And why are you surprised by this? I have not heard of *any* credit card company that offers an unlimited time on the introductory rate. Why do you think they call it an introductory rate in the first place????