Credit Card Trouble

TomTom

I'll start this story from the very beginning, so bear with me for a moment.
I am currently residing in sydney australia and I had an Ulster Bank Visa. The problem was for six weeks, my mother who was collecting my corrospondence at home was in the united states, and i missed out on several notices from the bank. But I told them last december that if they ever had a need to contact me and could not get someone at my home address, they were to ring my phone here in oz. So as soon as my mother got the notice of payments due she payed off the total amount plus an extra bit just to be sure. Then the following day she recieved a letter saying I had defaulted on my credit card. So I got cut off yesterday at about 12pm (GMT). I rang them and informed them of my situation, they said there was nothing they could do due to the fact they only knew my home address as my corrospondance address and phone number. When I asked if he had an australian number for me he said he did not, after getting cut off for about the third time from them i rang back and was talking to a different person and asked her to ring on my australian number which she mysteriously had. I explained what happened and she said there was no way to reverse the termnination of the card and my name has gone onto a credit list of defaulters which can affect my ability to get another credit card or mortgage or bank loan. This is the bit that concernes me the most, when she read back, the payment had been recieved a few days before they disconnected me and yet they still passed me to a credit list. I have always kept my paments up to date before and I have a thing on my card called payment protection plan of which i'm unsure what that is.
Anyone tell me what I can do here or where I stand.

GerardKeating

Originally posted by TomTom
I'll start this story from the very beginning, so bear with me for a moment.
I am currently residing in sydney australia and I had an Ulster Bank Visa.
Anyone tell me what I can do here or where I stand.

If your mother paid the outstanding bill at a bank other than Uslter bank (for example her local AIB) then it would have taken at least 3 days for the payment to arrive.

payment protection

Covers one for inability to pay due to unemployment etc. The insurance would only cover irish residants, so once you moved to Aus, you were not covered.

TomTom

I am an irish resident, i'm away temporary. Anyway when I applied for the protection plan i told the guy i was traveling for a year and he mentioned nothing about not applying to overseas. What exactly does the plan entail?

BuffyBot

payment protection plan

I think generally with PPP's you must be resident within the country at the time, and then become unemployed/unable to pay etc. Apart from anything else, I'm sure as part of the PPP you need to notify them of the unemployment as soon it started

I don't think PPP would generally cover you because the payments were missed, you are currently resident outside the country. Someone may correct me on this however.


It does seem odd that they've suddenly put you on a defaulters list adfter 6 weeks. It seems way to quick to be honest. Lots of people miss a months payment and unless it's a regular thing the banks generally don't care, they just charge you a fee. Have you talked to someone senior within Ulster Bank Card Services? Or just agents?

spongebob

I think yer Ma should do some legwork pronto, it was 'she' who missed the payment

This means meet the local UB Bank Manager and bring her CC bill and ticket showing she was in the states and grovel saying her heart is broke that you cant get a mortgage and wont ever come home now yadda yadda yadda yadda blah blah . Bring lots of tissues.

The Bank can itself REVERSE the entry on the Credit Bureau record , therebvy cleaning it up.

One good sob/grovel in UB will sort it as long as SHE DOES IT PRONTO

This approach will not work in a few weeks , never mind a few months.

M

shoegirl

Are you sure you were only a few days late in paying off your VISA?

Two years ago I missed 4 months repayments on my BOI VISA and it took me another 4 months to clear off all arrears. No problems with the card, despite having owed the bank about another 6 grand in arrears on other things. Ok I had lots of hate mail from BOI but once the arrears were cleared it was business as usual.

I find it very strange that your card was revoked after only a few weeks. Banks are usually reasonable about payment problems and will allow you a couple of months grace.

I know its no consolation, but I had an AIB MasterCard revoked 3 years ago but just got a new NIB VISA card. If you owe less than 10% of your income a poor credit history based on 2 or 3 loans/cards won't hurt you that much once they've been paid off in full.

PS Payment protection only applies while you are resident in the UK or Ireland, and only if you become sick or unemployed. Actually the bank also have insurance themselves just in case you die suddenly or are unable to pay.

eth0_

I've missed a payment or two on my Ulsterband mastercard just through forgetfulness but they've never tried to revoke my card, I think once I got a letter asking to pay the min balance....are you sure you've only missed one repayment?

Victor

Originally posted by shoegirl
I find it very strange that your card was revoked after only a few weeks. Banks are usually reasonable about payment problems and will allow you a couple of months grace.

Probably because of the Australian transactions.

TomTom

was in contact again, they said the fact that i paid off the full amount even thought the account was cancelled will mean that my name will still be on the defaulters list but not as severe.
I can live without a credit card but its this defaulters list that bothers me. I have always made payments with every loan i every had and payed them off completly, up until this incident all my paments on the CC were on time and in full. Do they record information like that on your credit list?

eth0_

Originally posted by TomTom
was in contact again, they said the fact that i paid off the full amount even thought the account was cancelled will mean that my name will still be on the defaulters list but not as severe.

It will be recorded on your credit rating but....
How the hell can they revoke your card and put a black mark on your credit rating for missing ONE payment? Are you being completely honest here? It sounds to me like you've been in trouble with them many times in the past, for them to react like this?

TomTom

Never in my life have i been in trouble with them, thats the gods honest truth.
I only missed one payment and was about a week or so late with the one before.
They claim that I am responsible because I never responded to any letters or phone calls, thats because I was not in the country. But I had given them an australian number to contact me, but the guy I was talking to last night said thats inadquate. He said I should have sent a letter to them with my new contact details. But the girl on the phone at christmas never told me this, she said it was ok just to give them my new phone number.
To be honest I'm not over worried about losing the credit card, I am working and have a stable income, I am just more worried about this credit black list. the guy in credit card services told me the mark would not be too bad but in my opinion there should not be one at all.
One of the guys here with us has an AIB credit card and did not bother paying it for 6 months, he then just transfered over a lump sum like I did and rang them, there was no problem with that. But I get screwed over after six weeks.

Victor

A friend got the "Do not use this card again or we will call the relevant police authorities" letter. :eek:

RainyDay

From the bank's point of view, they probably reckoned that you had buggered off to Oz and weren't coming back. I'm not saying this is right - but that's how they were looking at it. I've heard of a few such cases recently, including one nice gentleman who took out a 5k loan for a new van for his business in the week before he went to Oz and has left his parent to deal with the debt collectors calling to the door. If you were in the bank clerk's shoes, you just might have done the same. Yes, of course - they should have contacted you on the phone number you gave them. But ultimately, it is your responsibility to pay your bill, not their responsibility to chase you.

If they have sent details of your default to the Irish Credit Bureau, they will also send details of your settlement. So anyone else who gets your credit history will see it is a short, temporary blip. I think you can add an explanatory note yourself to your credit record if you wish too.

Don't forget that you are being hit for foreign exchange fees of between 1.75% & 2.75% on every Oz transaction hitting your Irish CC account (depending on who your card provider is). This fee is built into the rate shown on your statement for each transaction. If you can find a way to get an account in Oz or keep your Oz spending to cash, you'll be paying less in fees.

eth0_

I'd complain to the ombudsman, i'm sure there's plenty of people who miss several payments before their card is revoked!
I guess there's a lesson in this for us...set up a direct debit to pay the minimum balance on your card if you're going away.

shoegirl

Originally posted by eth0_
It will be recorded on your credit rating but....
How the hell can they revoke your card and put a black mark on your credit rating for missing ONE payment? Are you being completely honest here? It sounds to me like you've been in trouble with them many times in the past, for them to react like this?

I have to admit I also find this very strange, and thats with experience of defaults in the past. I reckon that the fact that you're in Australian is probably the problem. Banks don't take too kindly to folks leaving the country at the same time as missing payments. You might want to take this up with customer services at the bank or with the ombudsman.

pockettens

I sorry but this is nonense. I have a ulster bank credit card and have missed dozen on payments. In fact i never pay the card on time. I have gone three months sometimes not paying it. I always get the letters but always pay but never on time. Theres no way that they defaulted you after one late payment that just does not happen. I reckon you have not paid in about six months.

BMcG05

slightly off topic but relevant I think, what is the procudere if you neglect 1/2/3/4...payments? AIB takes money from my card usually at the start of the month but this month I wont be able to pay til 25th. Now to be honest, Im not an angel when it comes to paying it but will this adversely affect my credit rating when it comes to car/holiday loan or mortgage?

Also, does anyone have any ballpark statistic on actually how many people would defualt on the card each month? Would it be as high as 25%?

shoegirl

BMcG05 wrote:

slightly off topic but relevant I think, what is the procudere if you neglect 1/2/3/4...payments? AIB takes money from my card usually at the start of the month but this month I wont be able to pay til 25th. Now to be honest, Im not an angel when it comes to paying it but will this adversely affect my credit rating when it comes to car/holiday loan or mortgage?

Also, does anyone have any ballpark statistic on actually how many people would defualt on the card each month? Would it be as high as 25%?

From my own experience of AIB around late 2001, I think I had missed at least 3 or 4 payments before they revoked the card. It was certainly less than 6 months. I would imagine that they are a bit tougher now than they were back then though.

When you mean "default", I assume you mean "pay nothing at all"? I would guess that figure is fairly small since a fair proportion of credit card holders clear their cards in full.