Very unhelpful

danslenoir

Hi (new poster so don't be too harsh!),

I have a number of credit cards with low balances on, including one with MBNA.

In May I paid off the balance in full and haven't used it since, however there remained a couple of recurring internet subscriptions charged to that card which I had completely forgotten about. I got a letter on Saturday dated from the beginning of this month entitled "Notice of Sum of Arrears" with debt advice from Trading Standards telling me I was in arrears from the months of July and August where the internet subscriptions had kicked in again and I hadn't paid the minimum balances for those months (£19 for July and £24 for August).

I paid off the balance immediately and cancelled the subscriptions, thinking that as this was a genuine oversight on my part and the Notice of Arrears was the first I had heard from MBNA (I don't get paper statements and hadn't received any emails telling me about the situation), that it wouldn't be a problem getting it taken off my record, however when I phoned Customer Services this morning they said they had a non-amendment agreement with the credit reference agencies they use and there was nothing I could do to stop it showing on my credit record.

I was thinking of trying for a mortgage in the near future and will be gutted if this makes it impossible for me to get one as a first time buyer. Is there really nothing I can do?

I accept that I am to blame for not being on top of the situation, but all it would have taken is an email or phone call from MBNA to sort out this problem within seconds.

[Deleted User]

Nothing you can do unfortunately. You need to keep on top of your debts and set up min payments etc. And read your (online) statements). The bank isn't going to sit down and phone the 50k people who miss a payment every month.

It shouldn't make it impossible for you to get a mortgage. But lenders will be a bit more picky. Good luck with it.

digitalphase

One late payment marker is unlikely to affect you 6/12mths down the line, if that is when you are applying for a mortgage. Some lenders may refuse, but that is their prerogative.

Make sure that those subscriptions are cancelled completely, and keep an eye on your account online to avoid anything like this happening again.

It's also always worth setting up a direct debit for at least the minimum amount on all credit agreements, so you don't get stung if you forget to pay.

Degenerate

Unfortunately you can't have any late payment markers removed, as they are factually correct, so from MBNA and the CRA's point of view to remove them would amount to covering up information relevant to potential future lending.

What you can do is file a "notice of correction" with the CRAs explaining the circumstances of this oversight to emphasise the fact that this was a clerical error, rather than any symptom of debt distress. When such a notice is present, the lender is obliged to have a human being read it, so take note that it may slow down credit applications that might have been computer-approved anyway. More info here:

https://www.econsumer.equifax.co.uk/consumer/uk/sitepage.ehtml?forward=gb_cpo_ncsample

Alternatively, if you get rejected for a mortgage you can appeal - I was in exactly your situation 11 years ago with a £35 debt to Barclaycard, got rejected for a mortgage and appealed successfully to Alliance & Leicester. There's probably little point in appealing if you've already put a NOC on your file, though. The NOC is basically like getting your appeal in in advance, it has the same effect of forcing a human to look at it.

danslenoir

Deleted_User wrote: »

Nothing you can do unfortunately. You need to keep on top of your debts and set up min payments etc. The bank isn't going to sit down and phone the 50k people who miss a payment every month.

It shouldn't make it impossible for you to get a mortgage. But lenders will be a bit more picky. Good luck with it.

I accept it is my responsibility to keep on top of my debts, but am I wrong to feel pretty aggrieved that MBNA did absolutely nothing to try and resolve the situation before it got to this point?

Would it really be that hard for them to send out automatic emails to customers who have missed a payment reminding them of this fact, especially when customers like me do not get paper statements through the post?

A one line automatically-generated email containing something along the lines of "Dear xxxx, You have missed the deadline for your minimum payment this month. Please ensure you pay this immediately to avoid your credit record being affected" would have done the trick, but instead they just let it drag on.

Perhaps I'm being cynical, but as a low value customer (i.e. someone who typically has very low balances with them, and thus someone who does not pay much in the way of interest e.t.c. at all), maybe they have an unwritten ethos of "Don't do anything, and sting them with a few months of late payment penalties" to generate some more income.

Deleted_User wrote: »

And read your (online) statements)

Bear in mind that as far as I was concerned, the balance was zero as I had paid the debt in full in May, so I had no reason to check my online account. If I had been aware that there were recurring subscriptions charged to that card, of course I'd have sorted it out at the time.

Even so, other providers at least send emails when each new statement is available for viewing, but since May I have had absolutely zero contact from MBNA.

[Deleted User]

No. They have an ethos of "we've explained the rules to the customers and the penalties involved. If they break them, should we spend our time and money chasing them up or simply apply the rules?"

They are also not allowed to send the kind of email you suggest as it is unsecure. If you opt out of paper statements, you need to stay on top of the online side of things.

bobbydrake50

They could be more helpful though. My wife got a new credit card with Natwest and for some reason assumed they had set-up a direct debit for her - once the first payment was missed they rang her up - she made immediate payment and didnt lose out on 0% deal. That didn't take too much effort on their part.

danslenoir

Deleted_User wrote: »

No. They have an ethos of "we've explained the rules to the customers and the penalties involved. If they break them, should we spend our time and money chasing them up or simply apply the rules?"

They are also not allowed to send the kind of email you suggest as it is unsecure. If you opt out of paper statements, you need to stay on top of the online side of things.

I opted out of paper statements, yes, but that still doesn't stop them sending me unsolicited rubbish through the post offering me promotional balance transfer rates and loans e.t.c.

They are at the very least allowed to send me an automatic email asking me to check my online statement, as every single other bank/credit card company I have ever used in the "online banking" age has done. How much time and expense does it take to set up a simple rule in their IT systems stating "When an online customer has missed a monthly payment, send them email A which asks them to urgently log onto their account"? A negligible amount indeed.

exel1966

In life, it's best to help yourself first before relying on others to do it for you. That means taking responsibility for your actions. It's not up to them to cater for every customers different whims, if you've got a credit account, then you're assumed to be responsible, sadly that's not evident in many cases.

RobertoMoir

Are you looking for someone to validate your feelings or for someone to tell you they're in the wrong and you just have to press button x to make the problem go away? Because I agree that this could be poor customer service, even if you should have taken responsibility yourself, they could be more helpful... but... that doesn't change the fact that its your responsibility. It's a good reason to take your business elsewhere perhaps but not to get things reversed (on the other hand a polite letter asking for that won't cost you more than the price of a stamp).

Fiddlestick

danslenoir wrote: »

How much time and expense does it take to set up a simple rule in their IT systems stating "When an online customer has missed a monthly payment, send them email A which asks them to urgently log onto their account"? A negligible amount indeed.

How much time does it take for you to check it each month off your own back?

Even if they DID do this, would you then be saying that you didn't check your email and it's their fault and they should spend the little bit of time and money needed to make an automated phone call to remind you?

Where do you stop blaming the lender and start to take personal responsability for your mistake?