Probably the worst credit card provider and is nothing to do with m&s, but has been sold to HSBC. They have made our lives a complete misery over a payment they lost and took months to accept was their fault. They then tried to pursue us with threats and intimidation for £1.38! M&S refused to help, even though they take a massive fee from HSBC to use the M&S name! Unbelievable. Do not use them.

Just been to a local shop to pay a bill and my Marks Credit Card was declined. I was buying a product priced at £150 and I have over £13,000 available on the card. This is not the first time this has happened and it's so embarrassing. Fortunately I have a debit card with another bank and that went through no bother. I have just switched my current account from Marks and Spencer to Nationwide because I could not get into my account on the internet to view my account, despite contacting the Marks so called helpline on about 6 occasions. I am all for security but I cannot believe the bank put so many hurdles in the way of online banking. I was giving Marks a chance but I've now had enough and will be looking for a credit card company that can actually provide some service unlike the shambles that I and great many other people have to put up with. Marks and Spencer management must be aware of all these problems but are just not interested in sorting them out. Avoid M&S Bank like the plague!

Absolutely hopeless. Very disappointing. My cheque to clear the months balance was returned "Words and figures do not match" After nearly half and hour of waiting on the phone I spoke to a person in India (who I could barely understand) who told me to make an immediate payment by debit card to avoid fees. I explained that £1311 in figures and "Thirteen hundred and eleven pounds" in words were the same thing. She initially agreed with me, but after not being able to transfer my call to the payment team she changed her mind and said that the cheque should be worded "One thousand and eleven pounds. So has the English language changed? Marks and Spencer has always been a brand that I have supported. I now realise that they have completely lost the plot. My local Marks and Spencer has recently shut. I can now see why people have given up with them. Such a shame.

I was persuaded in store two weeks to apply for an M&S bank cred card. The incentive I was offered was £20 vouchers posted immediately on approved application. And £25 vouchers after my first purchase. THIS was the deal I didn't get any vouchers and when I called to find out why they said the deal had changed... I needed to spend £100 before I got any vouchers! Totally misrepresented themselves to get me to sign up! Disgrace

Applied for credit card, got accepted, sent of signed forms which they lost. Signed second set of forms heard nothing after 6 weeks, called and held on for an hour before being cut off by them. Finally got through to India unfortunately I couldn't understand what was being said to me, got cut off again. Sent an email to chase and still 2 weeks later haven't heard anything. Abysmal service, poor customer service no one should have to hold on for an hour just to be cut off. This is a British brand and they can't even have a call centre in this country. Go to Sainsburys or Tesco.

Customer service based in india are clueless and they do not follow rules to protect consumer rights. Whole thing is cumbersome and impossible to recover fraudulent charges

Possibly the worst customer service in the UK, provided by none other than an Indian call centre! trying to get a problem resolved over a transaction has proved impossibly, I have now binned the card and will be sticking to Tesco credit card from now on.

Accidentally went a few pounds over my £2400 credit limit on MandS credit card (First time ever, all previous payments over several years have been made in full by monthly direct debit) and card was stopped. I immediately paid £1000 by debit card on the MandS web-site, but credit was not acknowledged. Went specially to local MandS store and made another payment of £500 by debit card, but told they could not cancel the block on my card until the payment had been 'Processed'. Spoke by phone to the help centre, who said "Yes the payments were there", but they could not re-activate my card until they had been "processed". Today they have taken a direct debit for the full amount, completely disregarding the above payments. I used the M&S card as an alternative to the John Lewis one, but after this shambles I am going back to JL. Avoid if you want an easy life.

I have had a M&S credit card for a number of years and always pay the full amount every month using my account with Barclays via the telephone. This month tried to pay it as usual via the telephone but M&S kept sending it back to Barclays. After numerous calls to both Barclays and M&S (a total of nearly 6 hrs on the phone) it seems that M&S introduced a new system at the beginning of the month and Barclays are unable to make any payments. Surely a large company like M&S should have ensured any changes to the fathering payment system would be working correctly. I don't see why I should have to either visit as sore or write a cheque and pay for a stamp when I have always paid via the telephone. Is there anyone else out there having problems

These chumps have got to be the most dis-organised operation in the banking world. Having had 4 calls a day from 'credit control' chasing an overdue payment - having explained twice and confirmed with a letter, my Co had changed the salary day in the month (takeover) and I re-arranged all my DD's with banks & building societies but M&S can't handle this - the computer says no... I had 38 calls and 4 letters in 15 days along with threats to trash my almost perfect credit history - how dare they, when all other financial Co's were happy to accept changes. They have got to have the most aggressive collection department and no wonder the UK is in a mess, no one dare go out or spend anything because these idiots will let you down or stop you at a critical point & they don't give a care in the world about you. Avoid these guys at any opportunity - don't do it - go to a listening bank.

I've had the card quite along time and no problems but when there is a problem they just want you to ring the 0845 number which will no doubt take me to the call centre in India. My previous experience of this was completely farcical.I am deeply disappointed that having written to the Head of Collections he does not have the courtesy to respond to me in writing when that is my preferred method of communication. Today I received 5 separate letters from M&S outlining all the charges that they are adding to my accountbut not one responding to my query.When I get this sorted I am going to cancel the card and I will never shop in their stores again.

I have done many balance transfers in my time, but this was a first one to an M&S card - it will also be my last! Most companies take your details, take the card details, the details of the other card, read some legal script and complete the transfer after confirming with you - 5 mins max these days and almost always a UK call centre. M&S do it differently! 12 mins to even answer the phone (including 3 mins tying to get through their maze of options where 'speak to a person' is deliberately not in sequence with the other options so you can't skip to it. Finally an answer. 5 mins after my call had been answered by someone obviously in the far east or Indian sub-continent, they had not even asked how much I wanted to transfer or done any security relating to the card itself. I had to give details of both other cards up front first. The we went back to card security. Finally we got to the amounts to transfer then he read out the legal stuff. Almost 10 mins in (over 20 mins since ringing number now), processed card one - so far so good, then couldn't find MBNA or Bank of America on his system. Instead he asked me for their sort code and account number??!! Unable to give him that he went off for another good couple of minutes and came back telling me they don't have that bank on their list - one of the biggest credit card providers in the UK and one of the biggest banks in the world and little M&S Bank have never heard of it - and so he couldn't process my request - what a joke! Eventually call ended after almost 25 minutes, including 12 mins waiting - over twice as long as any other balance transfer I've done with any other bank in the last 3 years and over 4 times as long as any transfer I've done in the last year. Every other half competent bank can just use the card number and work the rest out from that (you know the same way shops - including M&S retail - do), but not M&S no, they don't have a list of the world's largest banks, so just apologise and say they can't do the transfer. What a complete farce - will try to avoid using this card in future and one more episode like that and I will close it down because they are clearly clueless. Avoid this bank and its products at all costs - no idea about finances - stick to shirts, suits and food please...

On the surface a good card - generous rewards systems, no issues with online banking... HOWEVER...over the past year or so my card has been stopped and replaced 3 or 4 times, despite their being no actual fraud on my account. The last two times have been immediately after trying to purchase something on Expedia/LastMinute.com, the first when trying to pay my New York Marathon entry. Minutes after the transaction failing (extraordinarily annoying) my phone has rang to tell me my card has been 'compromised'. When I go through the 'suspicious' transactions and confirm they are mine they still cancel the card and issue a replacement. The last time it happened I argued that they were incorrect and that my details had not been compromised. I asked that if my details were on some list of people possibly being hacked why had they conveniently waited until two minutes after I tried to use the card to tell me? She stuck to her story, despite me explaining that it didn't make any sense. I've decided that using a card so unreliable is just not worth having. The other stories on here confirm my experience. Avoid.

I asked for a reason why my MS card was declined for my weekly transaction with the same supermarket. I was emailed saying it was because the card was not activated, but I pointed out it was a month before, and had been used subsequently with the same supermarket. This sounds like dishonesty or fobbing me off?! Then a woman rang me, screaming what the problem was, i didnt like her agression, so my husband said to get her to email us so we could take our time answering. she screamed at me non stop, saying that she could see i was lack in confidence as i needed to include my husband and wanted her answer by email. She was so loud, my husband took the phone off me and repeated my request for a reason why the payment was declined by marks and spencer, thank u and goodbye to her. Using a scary team to scare off complaints, no very professional, but very Fawlty Tower. :)). Shame.

My mum forgot to pay one item on her m & s statement for £38. She did pay the rest of £271 within the timeframe yet m & s applied interest to the whole £309. Now I understand if interest was on the £38 but to add it to all of it is daylight robbery. I was considering getting a card myself but definitely wont be now.

For the second time running we experienced problems using credit card abroad despite telephoning before hand to let them know our travel plans. We used in New York to pay hotel bill, got on a plane, and by the time we got to LA, my wife's card had been stopped due to a supposed suspicious transaction. The guy we initially spoke to was an English guy who was extremely helpful. However it was being dealt with by the fraud team and that's when the fun begins! A call centre in some foreign country with people who don't understand a uk accent, have no appreciation of how far you are away from home, and insist that they will send a new card out as soon as possible to your home address, lol! We were continuing our holiday for another 18 days! All the transactions he said were suspicious, we confirmed weren't. Did promise that they would reinstate for 10 days, which was really no good as we were going on a cruise so wouldn't have been able to use to pay our end of cruise bill! Used the card that night in the Cheesecake Factory, but to no avail, the girl tried twice and declined both times. Luckily did explain to her before she tried! Emailed to complain and someone did contact us on the day we returned from holiday to talk through, she had listened to our conversations with call centre and obviously could tell our frustration! She agreed to compensate us with the 50 pounds for the mobile phone costs and gave us 1000 points, equivalent of 10 pounds. We continued our complaint with the Financial Ombudsman. For us it was more about the stress and inconvenience of it all than anything monetary. However we have been offered another 40 pounds from M&S as the FO said it fell short of the usual compensation for cases like ours, but they cannot help in ensuring it doesn't happen again. Last week a colleague from work was telling me a familiar story about her recent trip to Antigua, guess what same thing happened. People could be left high and dry if relying on one credit card. Lucky for us Hilton Honors did us proud, and my wife didn't even contact them beforehand to say we were going away!

I've had an M&S credit card for about ten years. Periodically they suspect online fraud and cancel my account. They last did this a couple of weeks ago just before I was going on holiday, despite my confirming that the 'suspicious' internet transaction was genuine. When I objected to being left without a credit card all the time I was away - they couldn't get a replacement to me before I left - they agreed they would keep the original card open for face-to-face transactions. Two different people in the Mumbai call centre and one in the UK confirmed this. Guess what? Payment refused the first time I attempted to use it, actually in Kent on the way back home. Very embarrassing incident of not being able to pay for a meal in Costa after a 16-hour drive. Rang the UK call centre today and they said the card had been stopped and seemed to have no idea of the agreement to keep it open for transactions till I got home. Seemed to be implying that I just made that bit up. Yes, M&S, that's the explanation. I'm lying and attempting to use a stopped card. Of course. Couldn't be that you are utterly incompetent and have no idea of customer service, could it? Escalated the call to a complaint. Promised a call back today. No sign of it so far. Am absolutely sick of them. I too can't understand a word they Mumbai staff say, and they seem to have trouble with my UK accent. If you ask to be put through to the UK call centre, they actually argue with you about it. And yes, they just rote repeat things from some kind of script. I am applying for a John Lewis card today. When I get it I shall ceremoniously destroy both our M&S cards.