OPUS & Citi Card

[annah]

Hello,

Could do with some advice and help with Opus.

 

I had a credit card with citicard, and on 27th Oct last year telephoned their call centre to pay off the account in full. Due to Citicard complete and utter incompentance they tried to take the payment twice from my Natwest Account and it was refused on the second request, obviously ! I was paying them over £6,000 to clear it, not £12,000.

Anyway, my bank account showed the funds as no longer available, and until the funds were released by Citicard I could not clear the card. After several frustrating phone calls, by myself and the Bank Manager with Citicard to explain what they had done, I had to wait for the funds to be returned to my account. When they were I cleared my account and asked them to close it.

 

I also got a letter from the Natwest as proof of what Citicard had done.

 

Sorry long story .....

 

Anyway in December I had a letter from Opus saying that I had not paid my minimum payment! I telephone them and asked what payment so they explained that a balance had been transferred to them by Citicard. Obviously I said impossible, I had settled the account in full. ! No there was still interest on the account due to Citicards incompentance.

 

I have disputed this with Opus sending them a detailed explanation and the letter from Natwest proving I made the payment as requested, but I have just been told that the amount is still due and I also now owe 3 months late payment charges and they have ruined my credit history (which was excellent !)

 

I don't see why I should pay this amount, as I cleared the account - and I feel that I am being forced to clear the extra amount of interest and charges which they continued to add although they had a recognised dispute on the account.

 

WHAT CAN I DO NOW ???

[silverfox1961]

Hi and welcome to CAG,

 

My initial thoughts are to write a formal complaint to Opus outlining what you have stated above and include another copy of the letter Natwest sent you.

 

As Citi have transferred the account to Opus, they should have transferred all account notes as well. If they haven't then it's down to Opus to get clarification from Citi. Whether they will uphold your complaint is another guess though. If they don't, you can go to the FOS.

 

You say they have destroyed your credit file. Have they defaulted you or placed late payment markers? Either way you can put a Notice of Correction against the offending item and you should be reporting this to the Information Commissioner

[annah]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, I have already written a formal complaint to Opus which they have not upheld. I am told, that there are no notes on my file about my payment and the amount that I should pay - hardly surprisiing as I would assume that the call centre deleted any notes although I did get a name which was on the letter to citicard and Opus.

 

The have put a late payment marker on my file, and I have asked for a notice of correction against this my credit score has gone from excellent to fair since the late payment marker was entered. And typically I need to apply for a mortgage in the next couple of months ! How do I report this to the information commissioner?

 

I assume my next port of call then is the FOS then? Can I stop OPUS chasing me for this until this is resolved with FOS or will they continue to ruin my credit file ?

 

It makes me so angry - its not a large amount considering the amount that I settled in October but the principle of the whole matter - why should I pay for Citicard incompentance!!!!!

 

Thanks

Anna

[silverfox1961]

Information Commissioner

 

https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us.aspx

 

As they have rejected your complaint, I would just go to the FOS. You could write to Opus telling them and getting them to put a hold on the account but I bet they won't

 

FOS complaints

 

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

[Bertrand67]

We have had similar experience with Opus. We never had a problem with this account when it was a Citi card. The standing instruction was for the card to be payed off every month by direct debit from a Citi current account. Since Opus took over, they seem incapable of following this instruction. When we call the call centre, their staff don't seem to listen. This month we've gone over our (low) limit because the balance wasn't cleared last month. Now they have charged us over-limit fee and interest. When we spoke to the call centre today they refused to admit that any balance had been forwarded (even though we had the online statement infront of us and could see it had been). Besides we haven't spent the full limit since the last statement date. Not anywhere near it.

The guy we spoke to today repeatedly interrupted us with "Please let me explain why....". I'm sorry we're just not interested in why. There is a standing instruction to pay down the balance every month. Not only did this guy fob us off for nearly 30 minutes on the phone, he also refused to refund the £12 over-limit fee. When my girlfriend said to him ok, well if that's the case we just want to pay the balance off right now and close the account, things got even more bizarre. We gave him the debit card details and our address, he then said there was a problem wiht the address we gave him and the payment couldn't be accepted. The address we gave him is the same address as they send us credit card statements. It's on their system. I got the distinct impression that he was just being awkward to prevent us paying off the card. In the end we were just going around and around in circles. We asked to speak to someone else then he told us he didn't appreciate being spoken to like that. We hung up at that point. We'll try again tomorrow.....

[annah]

Well I had a bit of a result last week with them. I had the FOS write to Opus who then replied formally to me to say they have written off all the late payments charges etc, but I had to still pay the interest as it was residual interest that I should have cleared when trying to close my account with CITI.

 

Last week I again phoned and asked for copies of my statements and was explaining to a very helpful person (adrian) at customer service who went through the whole account and charges with me , and then AGREED it was wrong. He called me the next day to say the whole amount had now been writtten off.

 

RESULT

 

I'm now just waiting for the account to be cleared as promised by both Adrian and he's manager and then will close the account and ask for my credit file to be corrected. I will also write to experian and the information commissioner.

[mui4777]

I had a Citi card, paid off in full now OPUS are trying to collect on £2700+ of outstanding debt and have lodged a default notice with Experian etc.

 

What can I do as OPUS will not talk to me about it and keep refering me to a debt recovery company who dont seem to communicate

 

Help please

[SeanInBattersea]

Hi guys, and thanks for posting on here. I am going through a similar horrible experience with Opus credit card at the moment where they have taken an unauthorised payment from me.

 

Yesterday, I called Opus’ customer services on 020 7871 0464 to settle my outstanding balance of just over £1,000 and then close my credit card account. When I explained this to the customer service adviser, he told me that my account had been blocked because a letter sent to me by Opus had been returned to them with a message saying ‘person no longer at this address’.

 

I had no idea what letter the adviser was referring to as I’d never received it, but I pointed out to him that I had been receiving all of my monthly credit card statements and was in possession of the latest one, dated 15th May 2011. Moreover, I have made regular repayments in response to these posted statements. The adviser then said he could not discuss my account with me, as I would now need to post them photographic ID and various proofs of address.

 

The adviser then asked me to confirm my address details with him, which I recited back to him. He then went on to take the full payment of £1,000 from my Barclays debit card. I assumed at this point that having settled the account balance in full, that once I had sent Opus the personal ID and address details they’d asked for, that I would be then able to close my account.

 

After this phone call, I then checked my Barclays bank account online, and saw that the settlement figure had been taken TWICE, resulting in over £2,000 disappearing from my account! I was extremely alarmed at this and immediately called Barclays to alert them and arrange a refund. I was put through to their disputed card payments team and spoke to a man who told me that Opus would need to fax them a brief explanation on letterhead that they’d taken two payments instead of one, and only then would Barclays be able to refund the second payment back into my account.

 

I called Opus again and tried to explain that more than £2,000 had been taken from my account in error but the adviser said she wasn’t able to discuss the issue with me because of the ‘block’ that had been applied to my account. At this I became very frustrated and asked to speak to a manager, and she put me through to a man in their Essex call centre, who said he couldn’t do anything to help me until they received my personal and address identification in the post.

 

This morning, Thursday, 2nd June, I called Opus’ Essex call centre again to try to get a fax number that I could use to send my personal details. I spoke with an adviser and asked to speak to a manager again but she told me that as my account was blocked, no manager would come to speak to me. I asked her why no one had made contact with me to bring my blocked account to my attention, despite Opus being in possession of all of my telephone numbers, and she told me that someone should have called me. I asked if she had a record of any calls made and she said there was none.

 

By this point, I felt extremely exasperated and bullied by Opus, an organisation that had taken a significant amount of money from me, which they claim was in error, but which now was completely unwilling to swiftly arrange a refund.

 

I have now posted my details to Opus and in the meantime discovered on the Internet, a large number of similar complaints by other Opus customers, who have all similarly found themselves with blocked accounts at the point that they have tried to close them. It does seem to me from these many complaints that the ‘error’ which I am now forced to go to great lengths to resolve, is in fact standard business practice for this firm.

 

I was alarmed to discover from the Financial Ombudsman’s website, that this organisation has the luxury of eight whole weeks to resolve this issue and return my money to me. This suggests to me that Opus are earning interest on money they are taking and withholding from customers ‘in error’ on a national scale, for the period of several weeks within they are allowed to resolve disputes. This is, in my view, an utter scandal and should be fully investigated with immediate effect – it is something I am bringing to the attention of the BBCs ‘Watchdog’ programme.

 

In the meantime I am now in a position where I do not have enough money to pay my bills and live on and will inevitably end up going overdrawn with all of the bank charges that I will incur as a result.

In addition to a refund of the amount taken, I would also expect Opus to refund the cost of the letter I had to send to them by registered post and any overdraft charges I may incur as a result of this issue.

[The abused]

That aint good news but does not surprise me from OPUS. I have a thread on here and my complaint is the removal of a promotional interest rate. It is entered on a statement and a letter to me confiming a reinstated promotional rate. Their response after 12 weeks was they cannot find any evidence to indicate I ever hsd a promotional account. I have filled in the forms and am sending copies of the letters to yhe FSO. I am being very detailed and explaining the points but I dont think (certainly reading on here) that the FSO are of much use. Yes the courts might like to see you go through this route prior to legal action but the FSO are understaffed and can take ages to try to resolve complaints. I dont think they investigate properly and tend to side with the financial institutions. During the meantime they have unfairly gained your hard eaned money which they can then lend. At rates of 41% and I have heard as high as 48% on a componding basis that is a phenomenal return on money which aint rightfully theirs.If you go to court yes you can claim interest at 8% but unlike there interest you cannot compound. Thats if it gets to court. they are playing a game. CCAM are a US company and like the rest think they can do what they want.

 

I am interested in the idea of going through watchdog. Keep me informed of this as I have and still am having dealings with OPUS. They will just refuse to play ball. Until some serious action is taken against them they are just going to continue on their current practices. Wishing you well with your endeavour

[The abused]

In addition I have just sent my brief story to watchdog (BBC) perhaps others could do the same.

[mingt]

Have you tried to write to the Chief Executive Officer Mr James B Corcoran at their Head Office SAV Credit Limited, First Floor, 11 Tower View, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent, ME19 4RL. Or the Founder and President of SAV Credit Limited at the same address?

I think everyone with problems relating to Opus Credit card write complaints to these guys too.

 

That aint good news but does not surprise me from OPUS. I have a thread on here and my complaint is the removal of a promotional interest rate. It is entered on a statement and a letter to me confiming a reinstated promotional rate. Their response after 12 weeks was they cannot find any evidence to indicate I ever hsd a promotional account. I have filled in the forms and am sending copies of the letters to yhe FSO. I am being very detailed and explaining the points but I dont think (certainly reading on here) that the FSO are of much use. Yes the courts might like to see you go through this route prior to legal action but the FSO are understaffed and can take ages to try to resolve complaints. I dont think they investigate properly and tend to side with the financial institutions. During the meantime they have unfairly gained your hard eaned money which they can then lend. At rates of 41% and I have heard as high as 48% on a componding basis that is a phenomenal return on money which aint rightfully theirs.If you go to court yes you can claim interest at 8% but unlike there interest you cannot compound. Thats if it gets to court. they are playing a game. CCAM are a US company and like the rest think they can do what they want.

 

I am interested in the idea of going through watchdog. Keep me informed of this as I have and still am having dealings with OPUS. They will just refuse to play ball. Until some serious action is taken against them they are just going to continue on their current practices. Wishing you well with your endeavour