Credit Card Security obligations

Retired_Traveller

Afternoon all,
Totally new to this forum so I hope I’m posting in the right place or way. So here goes......,.
We have recently been reviewing our standing orders, a task well over due, when we found a monthly payment to MBNA.
We have not had or used a card for many years (2011).
I called them querying this and it transpires we have been paying them since then. Entirely our fault for not checking our statements but we hadn’t received any contact from them since 2011.
It appears that around that date, the address connected to our account was changed to a completely different address in a completely different part of the country, NOT by us! Fortunately there has been no fraudulent activity on the card but we have had absolutely no communication from them. As a consequence we have been paying the interest only all this time are and would have cleared the debt years ago had we been aware of the outstanding debt.
Can you advise? We are planning to lodge a complaint around a breach of our personal security, not keeping us updated or providing us with up to date records or advice. Not sure how we will get on or if it’s even worth it!
Regards
Retired Traveller

eskbanker

Just to be clear, you stopped using an MBNA card in 2011 but with a balance outstanding on the account, which you were presumably aware of at the time?

It certainly sounds like they've screwed up with changing the address without your authority but obviously once they've done that they can hardly keep you updated at the right address, so the first part of your proposed complaint seems justified, but the rest is just consequential.

What was the balance in 2011, how much have you been paying every month since then and what's the current balance?

P.S. You've posted this in the stoozing sub-board, whereas the main credit card board would be a more appropriate location....

Ben8282

Sorry but you had a card with a balance on it. For some strange reason you were repaying this balance by a standing order for a fixed amount rather than by direct debit. One day you stopped receiving statements. Presumably you were not registered for online banking? This standing order continued to be paid for a further 8 years during which you never asked yourself if the debt had been repaid yet or if the amount of the standing order needed to be changed or wondered what the new balance was. You never noticed that the statements had stopped. You never noticed that you never received a replacement card.
You say that you have been paying the interest only all this time. That is obviously NOT correct. Unlike a direct debit the standing order would have been for a fixed amount and have never changed. Even if you had established the exact amount of interest to be charged in month 1 and had set up a standing order for that amount, things would have changed over the years. It is also unlikely in the extreme that the minimum payment was exactly equal to the interest..
You have no grounds whatsoever for complaint.

enthusiasticsaver

The changing of address without your authorisation is bad and presumably the reason why you weren't receiving statements? I would concentrate the complaint on that.

I am questioning how someone can pay a monthly standing order though for 8 years and not check on where it is going or if it is the correct amount. Do you not check your bank account regularly?

Ben8282

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

The changing of address without your authorisation is bad and presumably the reason why you weren't receiving statements? I would concentrate the complaint on that.

The problem here though is that it happened 8 years ago. Probably rather a long time for MBNA to be in a position to establish exactly what occurred.
During those 8 years monthly statements and presumably replacement cards were sent to this address and yet the occupants of this property never once returned any of this correspondence to MBNA. Not unbelievable but nevertheless odd that they allowed it to go on for so long.
Of course not everybody checks their credit files but again the OP never checked anything to realise that the address on this account had been changed.
However, when taken in conjunction with the OP's failure to notice that statements had stopped, failure to notice that a repacement card was never issued, the apparent fact that the OP was no longer ever using the card, the failure to give any thought to the balance of the account or the need to change the amount of the standing order, the fact that this was clearly not a 0% card but a card with an interest bearing balance which was completely neglected for 8 years and the unusual situation of it being repaid by standing order as opposed to direct debit really does cast some doubt as to the credibility of what has been claimed here.

Retired_Traveller

Dear all,
Those who are challenging our neglect are totally understandable. You are right, we should without a doubt have been checking. It was indeed a DD, not a SO. My husband had apparently contacted them with a view to clearing the balance in 2011 and we were originally told it was cleared , we are now being told no funds received so checking our bank statements. If we owe money I totally accept that. However is it appropriate for a credit card company to change our details, put our financial security at risk and not be challenged?
Many thanks to all who have offered valuable advice.

D_M_E

You say you have not had nor used a card for many years.

Therefore, you should ask MBNA if the payments they have been taking were for the account you think you cleared at the time, OR if said payments have been going towards a card issued by them to the erroneous address and used fraudulently.

Ask them what is the outstanding balance on the account, when was it last used and how much interest has accrued and see what they say.

Presumably you have now told them to cancel the card, yes?

Ben8282

Retired_Traveller wrote: »

Dear all,
Those who are challenging our neglect are totally understandable. You are right, we should without a doubt have been checking. It was indeed a DD, not a SO. My husband had apparently contacted them with a view to clearing the balance in 2011 and we were originally told it was cleared , we are now being told no funds received so checking our bank statements. If we owe money I totally accept that. However is it appropriate for a credit card company to change our details, put our financial security at risk and not be challenged?
Many thanks to all who have offered valuable advice.

All very contradictory. Standing order now a direct debit. You were told the balance was was cleared? By who? Either you made a payment or you didn't. Did you not notice that whatever funds you had used to pay by whatever means had not left the account? Did you not receive statements even before the address change? How can you have not noticed that a direct debit was being taken every month for 8 years to a credit account that you believed had no balance? The extent of your neglect defies belief.
No it is not appropriate for a credit card company to change the address but nor is it appropriate for a customer to be unaware of it for 8 years. The time to have complained was 8 years ago. As I previously said, how can they properly verify what happened 8 years later?
Are we really supposed to believe that your husband contacted MBNA and was lied to and told the balance was cleared at which point MBNA promptly changed your address without apparent cause to an address 'in a completely different part of the country'? And why did he contact them to ask about the balance? Did you not receive statements or use online banking?

eskbanker

Retired_Traveller wrote: »

I called them querying this

Retired_Traveller wrote: »

My husband had apparently contacted them with a view to clearing the balance in 2011

Whose card is it - yours (with him as secondary cardholder) or the other way round?

It would be unusual for a card company to discuss the account with someone who isn't the named account-holder, who's solely responsible for the conduct of the account, even if there is a secondary cardholder.

I'm probably reading way too much into your use of 'apparently' but have you eliminated the possibility that your husband has been knowingly concealing a debt? He wouldn't be the first....

fwor

<spam displacement, please ignore>

MallyGirl

Moved to main CC board