Bread Card - Again!

[Skippy]

Is anyone else having problems with their Bread card account?

The first issue I had was the balance in the transactions list - I had a balance of £83.56, and spent £25.45, meaning I should have had a balance of £58.11. Oh no, not according to Bread, I had a balance of £32.66, so it looked as though the payment had been taken twice. Not knowing this, I bought some petrol and went into a minus! I emailed them, and they told me not to worry, there was a problem with the balance column and only to take notice of the available balance at the top of the screen.

Next, I bought a DVD from HMV online for £11.99 and it showed in the transactions, and also in unposted at the top of the screen. I checked today, and it's gone from unposted AND from the transactions and my balance has increased!

I've just bought something from Ebay, and this is now showing in transactions and unposted! I'm confused!

I've emailed Bread to ask them what has happened to the HMV payment - if HMV want to give me the DVD, great, but I'm thinking of withdrawing my cash from the Bread card and using my Virgin card. I don't like having 2 different balances as I like to know exactly what I have to spend. The other thing I don't like is that if I have to phone Bread it costs 80p a minute, where as Virgin is a lo-call number.

Sorry, rant over!

[markiboy]

What is a bread card??

Markiboy

[Skippy]

It's a pre-paid Maestro card, and at the beginning it was great, but as you can probably tell I've gone right off of it!

[markiboy]

Thanks for that, who is the company?? By the sound of it it's not good??

Markiboy

[Skippy]

They were really good and didn't used to charge a fee when you used the card, only when you topped it up, but they've just changed it to 2% per transaction. The Virgin card is 2.95% per transaction, but is free to top up so for the amount I use it, it probably cancels the 0.95% out!

[J-DOUBLEYA]

Hey Skippy is there a reason why you did not get a basic bank account with a bank that you have no relationship with ? Most do online banking now and there is nil cost !

[Skippy]

I have got one! I've got a Nationwide Flexaccount (no debit card) and a Co-op Cashminder with a Visa Electron. The reason I wanted the Bread card was because it's a Maestro and accepted in more places than a Visa Electron. I've been using it to pay for my petrol to keep the money seperate from my housekeeping and spending money. The only other way for me to have a Maestro is to have a Think Banking account, and the fees are higher than using a pre paid card!

[J-DOUBLEYA]

seems to me to be a high price just to have a maestro card but each to their own mate.

Glad it works for you.

[whem]

skippy as im sure you are aware and am probably telling you something you know but yorkshire bank /clyesdale bank offer a basic bank account with online banking and maestro card with no credit check

[Skippy]

The problem is I'm bankrupt so I'm really limited as to which accounts I can have - the Co-op are the only bank who will accept undischarged bankrupts and offer a debit card.

Whem, I phoned Yorkshire Bank and they confirmed that they don't offer bank accounts if you are bankrupt, and another problem with them is that you have to open the account in a branch, and the nearest one is miles away! I might give them a try when I'm discharged though.

[vickir]

Hi Skippy, My Bread card is driving me mad, i only opened it as it was available free of charge on the forum if you completed a survey. but recently i had a mailshot from Tesco saying if you did your shopping online and had it delivered they would give you 1000 clubcard points - bargain i thought!!! thats a £10 voucher of my next lot of shopping
Topped up my Bread card with £70, paid £50 for my shopping and bread have my balance at 79p !!!!! no i couldnt work it out either - i've tried all possibilites but their figures just dont add up.....

[Skippy]

I'm giving up! Their figures don't add up at all, and they don't seem to be able to sort it out. I'm going to withdraw the money from the card and either use my Virgin card or cash, I haven't decided yet!

[vickir]

Tell me about the Virgin Card - How do you get one of those?

[Skippy]

www.virginmoney.co.uk.

It's a Mastercard and costs £9.95 and although they charge 2.95% per transaction (as opposed to 2% for Bread) they don't charge to top the card up. I also like the fact you can ring them on an 0845 number - I know I still pay for the call but it's cheaper than Bread at 80p a minute!

[vickir]

Thanks Skippy x