MBNA advice to stop phone calls

makingendsmeet_2

tote_alley_stressed wrote:

I have a son with special needs and often it is him who picks the phone up - I'm protecting him as he is terrified.

I think it is best like everyone says phone bt and ask to change your number. Other than that get caller id and leave your phone on silent ring or better still get an answering machine and leave your phone on silent ring and let the answering machine pick it up.

sportbeth

Have you tried this letter?

By Recorded Delivery

Dear Sir,

Ref. XXXXX

Despite my letters regarding ANY communication from your company, which stated that I require ALL communications in writing, your telephone calls continue.

This behaviour constitutes harassment; the letters stated quite clearly to you that I require ALL communications in writing for future Court use. Do not telephone me again - remove any telephone numbers you hold for me from your systems.

Your telephone calls are in breach of the Office of Fair Trading guidelines. If you continue with them after the receipt of this letter an official complaint, together with a log recording the times and frequency of the calls will be passed both to that office and to the Trading Standards office. For your information note that ALL telephone calls are taped.

This type of debt collection method is contrary to the ‘Administration of Justice Act 1970’ in that it is intended to cause alarm and distress to the recipient. Your methods will not be tolerated. A formal complaint, containing copies of all correspondence including yours, has now been submitted to the relevant authorities. This will be relevant to questions of your fitness to hold a licence under the Consumer Credit Act, whether or not it results in a prosecution.

Take further note that continued telephone calls after the receipt of a request not to call may constitute a criminal offence under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.

Communicate in writing and ONLY in writing, your telephone calls will NOT be answered.

HOWEVER, CALLS WILL TRIGGER COMPLAINTS TO THE REGULATORY BODIES.

I trust that I have made myself understood on this matter,

Yours faithfully,

Alternatively start leaving the phone off the hook when they call - they'll stop when they realise you are playing dirty with them

fatbelly

JGWT8M wrote:

go onto the mbna website and setup your account access and then change your contact number to say a pre-pay mobile, after a week or so the calls on your other phone should stop, they did for me, well they still keep calling the new mobile, but it's on silent so I don't hear it.... oops..

Could you set up an 0870 number, then change your details on their website? If they phone often enough, they'll help you to pay off the debt....:D

SamPriest

Yeah the second worst thing about being in debt (after not actually having any money!) is being patronised by these people in that 'only got yourself to blame' manner!! OK I know I've been a little stupid over the years and its my mess to clear up but these bullying methods are not helping us!
As previous, I just tell them to put all there concerns and queries in writing to me and I will consider them all fully and carefully in my own time after which I hang up..... Doesn't stop them though!!!

thecornflake

I'm got the same with Mint at the moment. Trouble is, I already agreed to pay the arrears in December, so when I return the calls they just say ;'Oh, actually there's no reason to call us but the calls get generated on our system anyway so just ignore them. However, I don't know if a message is about somethign else on my account. Plus the OFT guidelines specifically state that they can't leave a message saying it's urgent without explaining what it's about.

Plus there's misuse of telephone equipment laws etc etc. No when they call, if I answer I say 'I sent a letter the other day requesting no more calls and you are now comitting a criminal offence by calling me. Can I please have your ful name so I can report it back to your line manager and Trading standards as they are currently investigating your company' (which they are as I put in a complaint).

They soon hang up.

Here is the letter I sent them -

Account # xxxxx

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you regarding the above account and the calls I am receiving several times a day from yourselves.

I spoke to someone at your company at the beginning of the month due to my direct debit payment failing. The person I spoke to stated it was perfectly acceptable for this missed payment to be added on to the direct debit due to go out on the 3rd of December and that no further action on my part was necessary. However, I have continued to recieve several messages on my mobile phone each day urging me to return the calls immediatley and my wife also receives at least one call per day at our home despite repeatedly explaining
that I am at work during normal office hours.

I called again on 13th November 2006 as I assumed due to the continuation of the calls that there must be a separate issue with my account but discovered that although it was still acceptable that I make a double payment in December the calls will still carry on regardless. I was advised to just ignore all future calls from your company. I view this to be an unacceptable course of action as I would not know the precise nature of the call until I returned the message and if I ignore all calls and message from your company I could end up being unaware of any further issues that may arise on my account.

Despite requesting several times to no longer be contacted by phone, during the latest call to my wife at home today (17th November 2006) at 11:30am she was told that your company is perfectly within your rights to continue these calls and they will continue until the arrears have been cleared. It was also denied that we receive at least one all per day even though I have been keeping full logs that provide evidence to the contrary.

I will not return any of these calls as for one the number given is an 0870 number to which calls are charged at a high rate and secondly all that will happen is I will be told I didn't need to call in the first place.

I would like to poitn out that I do not have a problem with discussing matters regarding my account over the telephone in normal circumstances. Hwoever, in this instance as an arrangement has already been agreed with yourselves I see no reaosn for these assitional calls whatsoever.

The messages left on my mobile phone are in direct breach of Office of Fair Trading guidelines, specifically those which state -

1) [Creditors must not] "Leave messages for you to contact someone urgently with no explanation".
2) "Ignoring or disregarding Debtors legitimate wishes in respect of when and where to contact them"

Despite my explaining this each time I have to spoken to someone about this matter, you seem unwilling to comply with the guidelines and I have therefore now registered a formal complaint with Trading Standards.

I am also of the view that your continued harassment by telephone puts you not only in breach of Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970 but also contravenes the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. The offence of causing harassment is arrestable under the provisions of Section 24(2) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and attracts the powers associated with such offences. Section 3 enables a person who is, or may become, the victim of behaviour prohibited by Section 1 to take civil proceedings against the perpetrator.

Because of the nature of these calls and the distress already caused to my family I now formally request that all future contact is made by post and no more calls are made to any telephone numbers you hold against my name in your records.

For your information note that all further telephone calls and voice messages will now be recorded.

Additionally, due to this type of debt collection method being contrary to the ‘Administration of Justice Act 1970’ in that it appears to be intended to cause alarm and distress to the recipient, in the event of the calls continuing information will also be submitted to the relevant authorities for consideration of your fitness to hold a licence under the Consumer Credit Act.

If you continue to harass me by telephone, you will also be in breach of the Wireless Telegraphy Act (1949) and I will report this breach to both Trading Standards and The Office of Fair Trading, meaning that you will be liable to a substantial fine.

Please take further note that continued telephone calls after the receipt of a request not to call may also constitute a criminal offence under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.

Communicate in writing and ONLY in writing, your telephone calls will NOT be answered.

I trust that I have made myself understood on this matter and hope that you are able to continue your otherwise acceptable levels of service on these terms.

---

Feel free to adapt it to your needs if you want. It mentions pretty much every law and guidline I could find on the subject, but all are relevant.

JGWT8M

That's pretty similar to the stance I took with MBNA too, today I got a letter saying they had deleted my number from their systems and I would only receive written communication in the future, the phone hasn't rung for a couple of weeks as well.

You need to write to someone specific, and be very heavy handed with them, just sending it to MBNA will get you nowhere.

Try writing to one of these people:

Steve Bailey
Head of Customer Advocate Office
MBNA Europe Bank Limited
Customer Assistance Department
PO Box 30
Chester
CH4 9FD

or

Gavin Theobald
Customer Advocate Office Manager
at the same address

It will take about 3 weeks for one of these people to write to you back, but they will and the calls should stop within the week.

You also might consider spending the extra and sending the letter Special Delivery, one that I sent Recorded Delivery was ignored, and the one I sent Special got action.

OneSpike

This thread has been extremely useful as we've really had it with MBNA. I just wanted to ask, as well as writing to the people concerned, has anyone actually submitted a complaint to the OFT? If so could I have details of who you wrote to and more or less what you said, so we can do something similar? Thanks

sandralovescats

Yes - I submitted a complaint online via the OFT website.

Their response was that they couldn't act re MBNA and that I had to contact the Trading Standards Office.

I contacted the TSO on the same day as the OFT and the TSO said I had to complain to the OFT!!

sandralovescats

JGWT8M wrote:

That's pretty similar to the stance I took with MBNA too, today I got a letter saying they had deleted my number from their systems and I would only receive written communication in the future, the phone hasn't rung for a couple of weeks as well.

You need to write to someone specific, and be very heavy handed with them, just sending it to MBNA will get you nowhere.

Try writing to one of these people:

Steve Bailey
Head of Customer Advocate Office
MBNA Europe Bank Limited
Customer Assistance Department
PO Box 30
Chester
CH4 9FD

or

Gavin Theobald
Customer Advocate Office Manager
at the same address

It will take about 3 weeks for one of these people to write to you back, but they will and the calls should stop within the week.

You also might consider spending the extra and sending the letter Special Delivery, one that I sent Recorded Delivery was ignored, and the one I sent Special got action.

My response from him was that until such time as I paid my arrears and the account was up to date they would continue to contact me in any way that they saw fit!

natters_2

I have found that hanging up does eventually stop the calls - I have also found that as soon as the debt is passed to a DCA they all start up again - so prepare yourself for that