MBNA Card Help

Abderas

Hey I was wondering if anybody could give me some advice with a situation I find myself in.

This morning I had a phone call from a number I didn't recognise, when they didn't speak I decided to put the number into google just out of interest. It turns out the number is from MBNA, a company I have a credit card with. I haven't actually spent anything on this credit card in over 2 years though so I was intrigued as to why they may be calling me.
I logged into the online banking and found that I apparently owed £187. In October last year I was charged £85 for "Card Protection" and the rest is all from late fees / interest.
I accept that I probably should have closed the account a while ago and it is possible (though I don't recall) that I signed up for this Card Protection initially.
Given the fact that no payment had been made into the account in 19 months, and this unpaid balance has been on there for 8 months should I have expected them to contact me sooner or do I just have to accept I messed up and pay the money.
In fairness I should state they do send me statements every month (via email) but I foolishly haven't looked at them as I felt confident there was no fee outstanding.

Do I stand any sort of chance of getting the amount reduced or do I just have to take it as a lesson learned? I could certainly do without having to pay this at the moment.

Cheers in advance.

YorkshireBoy

Abderas wrote: »

Do I stand any sort of chance of getting the amount reduced or do I just have to take it as a lesson learned?

You'll have to pay all of it now to protect your credit rating*.

However, I understand people in your position are still reclaiming the £12 fees. See the reclaims board for further information.

And yes, you have learned a valuable lesson about not paying attention to your finances because if you'd moved in the interim, and not informed them, you'd very quickly have a default if they couldn't find you.


* You'd better check your credit reports because I suspect they show the account as "54321000000", as you're now probably several months in arrears. Worse still, they may possibly be about to trash your file completely by registering a default. It doesn't look good for you.

fozmcfc

The big question is if the card protection is a renewal, whether it is automatically renewed after a certain time a year, 2 years, 3 years.

I had a similar thing with my Burtons storecard, I didn't use it for well over a year and suddenly I got a statement and on it was £80 for card protection. Luckily I got a statement through the post, otherwise I probably would have been in the same position as yourself.

If it is not auto renewed without at least giving you a chance to cancel it, then you definately have a case and I think you should be entitled to have the debt wiped. I believe that near the renewal date, they should send you forms etc, to update any card details and to give you a chance to cancel it if you want to.

If it is just auto renewed, then while I still have some sympathy for Abderas, then I don't think it will be possible to do much. You could try ringing them and say as you hadn't used the card for xx amount of months before the card protection was charged to the card, you would have thought that someone may have contacted you beforehand. The may knock some charges off.

Ultimately the amount while a pain, is not a huge amount that it sounds like you will manage to pay, but the bigger problem is the damage it might do to your credit rating. I would suggest trying to find any initial agreement and see what it says about renewing and then ring them. If you find you are in the wrong, then ask them what you can do to stop a big black mark on your credit status.

chattychappy

Aside from other comments, if they charged you in October and have since applied a series of fees and haven't sent you something in the post and we're now in May then I think you have a case that the fees applied are disproportionate and unreasonable in the circumstances (though some of it is interest). It was only 85 quid after all.

Yep you can opt out of paper statements. But the FSA imposes a duty on banks to treat customers fairly. It should have been obvious to anyone glancing at the account what had happened. You presumably had a good record before. You opted out of paper statements and stopped using the card. Time passed. You didn't notice the fee which was imposed by a CCA type arrangement - and it was for card protection. (Not as if you walked into Currys and bought a TV!) If nobody "glanced at the account" then even more difficult for them to justify the fees. On the other hand if they've got logs of attempted phone calls, returned mail etc.. well different story!

At the very least you should be able to argue for a reduction in the fees.

bengal-stripe

Abderas wrote: »

In fairness I should state they do send me statements every month (via email) but I foolishly haven't looked at them as I felt confident there was no fee outstanding.

chattychappy wrote: »

On the other hand if they've got logs of attempted phone calls, returned mail etc.. well different story!

I believe, sending regular statements will count as keeping the customer informed. If the OP fails to open them (be they e-mail or conventional mail) that is not the bank's fault.

Abderas

Thanks for all the replies.

I'm just replying for information incase this happens to anybody else in the future.
I rang up to discuss with them the issue and before I could even begin to describe the problem the customer service representative informed me the "manager" had looked at the account this morning and has reset my balance to £0. They also gave me a phone number where I could cancel the card protection so this wouldn't happen again.

I've spent all morning cursing MBNA and had got myself all pumped up for a nice heated discussion so for it to end in this way is very welcome.

p.s. Though I still think that if my account is setup as "paperless" any notices regarding late payment should be emailed to me as well. I have since checked with my parents (the address where the card is registered as my address isn't fixed at the moment) and they found just one letter from them dated 8th January regarding the issue.

fozmcfc

That's good news, and well done to MBNA for treating you so well as well.

JillyOJolly

Brilliant on MBNA.

I had trouble with card protection on a Sears card I had, I called to cancel every time (it showed every month), I wrote twice and eventually it stopped. Low and behold a year later they wack on a renewal fee. I was furious and it took another 3 months after that to get them to give the money back. Credit card protection is almost a racket in some cases and it is good that MBNA recognised this after you not using your account for so long. Great news