Can't cancel my Virgin Black CC without losing upgrade vouch

Hello,

Hoping someone may be able to help, please. Just had v frustrating call to try cancelling my Virgin Black credit card WITHOUT losing the 2 upgrade reward vouchers for annual spending. The problem is the vouchers are applied to my account at the same time that next year's card fee is taken out of my account [think it's £150]. This date is in two days time.

The lady I just spoke to at Virgin C.C. said these rewards will be forfeited if I cancel my card! Surely this can't be right?? That's some kind of extortion, isn't it?

BTW- I also have the non-fee paying white card, which I plan to use instead of the black one.
Has anyone else managed to get around this problem/
Thanks in advance.

Can you cancel after and get a partial refund?

I don't know the answer to this fully, but would say that if you cancel before the end of the year, and therefore before the vouchers have been applied you won't get them. Once applied then they're yours. AFAIK they're not conditional on renewing your card membership but on hitting a required minimum spend, but they're only credited to your FC account at the end of the first year. Strictly speaking you should be able to cancel once renewed and get a refund of the card fee and not suffer the consequences of losing the vouchers. I'd speak to someone else at MBNA if I were you, and remind them the vouchers are awarded on hitting the spend threshold, after 1 year, and not conditional upon renewal. Check the T&Cs first though to be sure.

Anyone else know different?

I don't know either but what Bretty says sounds right to me otherwise you're being tied into another year even though you've hIt your reward threshold.

I am going to be in a similar predicament come Feb, and asked the question a month or so back on a different thread.
Someone said to me that I would be able to cancel OK.
Im sure I also read on the comments on Head For Points too that someone was able to cancel a couple of days after the fee was charged to the account and got a refund.

Problem I can see is that I haven't known MBNA to refund card fees (either fully or pro rata).

Thanks everyone for the fast replies. Great forum!
It turns out that the annoying woman I'd first spoken to was just misinformed, rude & unhelpful.
I phoned MBNA again and was told to wait to cancel the card until the upgrade rewards appear in my Flying Club account and then they'll refund the renewal fee.