I’m feeling a little miffed!

A few years ago, I realised that I’d been paying for a load of stuff that I didn’t really want and hadn’t ordered because someone else ‘looked after’ my finances and had access to my credit card account. When I realised, I closed the account and set up a new one.

Surprisingly for someone so gobby and full of myself, I’m actually extremely conservative (don’t worry – only conservative with a small c) about my finances and change. I don’t like change and don’t want to have to take on new things so I chose my new card carefully. I needed two things – a card that I could manage online and a card that rewarded me with cash for making purchases as I don’t use the ‘credit’ facility of my card, I always pay my balance off in full each month….you see how conservative with a small c I am – I have NOT embraced the buy now, pay later culture at all.

Anyway, I chose ‘More Than’ because that’s what I could get with them. I’ve always thought it was a ‘marriage made in heaven’ because I have used my card with no problems and got myself a wadge of cash each year for my ‘thank you’.

A few weeks ago, I got a bit of a shock. I received a credit card in the post, with my name on it from a company that I have no dealings with and would never deal with under any circumstances. I phoned them to say someone had applied for it fraudulently, probably intending to take it before it reached me. (I’m again being conservative with a small c and Cautious with a capital one!)

They assured me that in fact it was ‘solicited’ in as much as they’d ‘bought’ me from More Than. But I didn’t want to be sold. I phoned More Than. They told me it was tough luck because they’d sold me and that was that. Divorce. The end of a beautiful friendship.

Well, conservative with a small c I may be. Hate change though I do. Have no time to organise my affairs if I really don’t have to. I was NOT going to be sold or bought without my prior consent.

So, I checked out new cards and have found myself a new credit card with a new supplier. In truth they probably couldn't give a proverbial flying whatnot about me either but at least they are offering me something that I want to buy......at least for now, though I have no doubt that they will drop me like a hot potato as and when they feel like it.

The irony of all this is that I chose More Than for two reasons – the cash back and the online management. They sold me to a supplier who offered neither. They did offer me a ‘platinum’ card because I am ‘such a good customer’, with a good rate of interest on my borrowings and a monthly account in the post.

What was the name of this account? It was You First from Lloyds TSB.

YOU FIRST? Clearly not. Clearly a financial transaction between two companies who couldn’t give a monkeys about customer service or what their customers were actually buying when they took out their account.

You First? You last more like……you after the shareholders, the company’s interests and anyone else who is higher up the corporate pecking order than the customer!

So, tomorrow, You First will have a letter posted to them, with a copy of this posting and two chopped up cards (two of them because they stuffed up the first and its pin didn't work, not that I ever tried to use it) thanking them for putting me first and declining their offer of a card that is of no use to me whatsoever. Their 'purchase' of me didn't go quite as they planned did it?

My nightmares were coming true last year....but not in the way they seemed.