MBNA - evil or just incompetent?

flippy178

I have two CCs with MBNA. I owe £6,000 on the Visa and £12,000 on the MasterCard. By arrangement with MBNA I pay £87 for the Visa and £163 for the MC, so £250 total monthly and they have frozen interest and charges. For the past three months I have paid them about the 28th of the month because I get paid around 26th. MBNA know this. I ring up and pay by debit card.

However, this month they took one payment without my knowledge on the 21st and then rang up to complain that the second had not gone through. I had not authorised the payments and they used details that they had on their system. I was furious of course. They claimed it was a postdated debit payment. I think I did this once in the past but not in 2008. Because they took the payment when I was not expecting it a direct debit bounced which will cost me £30 in bank charges.

My question is, what do I do next? Obviously I can ring up and complain but is there something else I should do? I don't know whether I should stop dealing with them directly and ask CCCS to help. For the moment, I can pay the £250 OK and I have now paid off the arrears from last year.

keith_lard

can you not pay them via standing order?

Tell them you want to do this,
Ask them for thier sort code Account number and reference.

You have more control with a standing order than a D.D


I dont trust D.D with debt payments as they can alter the amount as they see fit.

k.

flippy178

I stopped paying by direct debit because of the bank charges if it fails. My income was all over the place for a while but it is better now so a standing order might be better, Thanks.

rog2

Cancel ANY direct debit, to MBNA immediately. They are, as your title suggests, both evil and incompetent. You can, if you like, add dishonest to that description.
Either, as previously suggested, set up a STANDING ORDER, where YOU are in control, or pay over the counter.

BAILIFFCHASER

I know it is quiet a while but did you claim or have you considered claiming your charges back off mbna ? It will cost you £10 to start off and you may be lucky in the sense that your judgments may be set aside ?

flippy178

Do you mean claiming late charges and overlimit fees? The £30 charge was in my bank account. No, I haven't claimed anything.

BAILIFFCHASER

flippy178 wrote: »

Do you mean claiming late charges and overlimit fees? The £30 charge was in my bank account. No, I haven't claimed anything.

Well there is nothing stopping you from claiming you credit card charges. All you need to is send a subject access request off to both cards with a £10 cheque and the process has begun !!! This is what you need to send :



[your address]



[their address]


[DATE]



Data Protection Act 1998
Subject Access Request



Dear Sir/Madam


ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxx (or multiple numbers if more than one account)


Please supply me with a complete list of transactions and charges relating to my banking history with your organisation. Alternatively, a complete set of statements for that period will be acceptable.

Additionally, where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any member of your staff, or any other person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention, or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my banking business with you.

If you are unable to supply this data because there has been no such manual intervention, then please be so kind as to confirm this in your response.

I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10. You have 40 days in which to comply. Furthermore, if I discover that you have levied disproportionate penalties against me, then I shall be reclaiming them, and also reclaiming the enclosed £10 Data Protection Act subject access request fee.

If there is specific information which you require in order to satisfy yourself as to my identity, please let me know by return. However, please note that the above address is the one which you normally use to communicate my private business to me and which you have hitherto found to be acceptable.
I would be happy to collect the Data from my local branch.


Yours faithfully,

Mabelicious_2

Do you mind if I jump on the MBNA:Evildoers of Our Time train?

I have had a credit card with them for the last 8 years. I paid it all off every month until I left my joba few months before I decided to move to London.I was unable to pay anything into my account because before I came here I had no job and after I arrived and got a job I needed to make EIGHT calls to their *scoff* customer services *scoff* department, they were still unable to tell me how to pay money into my account without having a cheque book, which I didn't at the time.

As a result I missed 3 payments and thought my credit history would be in tatters. Since then I have a Lloyds bank account and they could tell me more on how to pay into an international bank account, and they even set it up for me so I can do it online. Lloyds did all their checks and my explanation of only missing the 3 payments straight after arriving in London checked out and have offered me a much lower interest rate card with a lower credit limit.

In February my much better half gave me the best birthday present ever: a blank cheque to pay off the €6,500 MBNA bill. The elation I felt the day my balance was in single digits (€3.48c to be exact) will never be equaled.

Since that day MBNA have been hounding me with calls regarding "pre-approved personal loans", sending me MBNA cheque books and increasing my limit without me even requesting it!

I don't know what hellish situation I would be in right now if I was still pecking away at my debt but it was a very expensive lesson learned.

I have warned so many people about MBNA's huge interest rates which I hadn't realised until I got above owing them €1,000...then it just got worse.

oscar52

Just to correct a cupole of things above, you DONT need to send any payment to MBNA to claim back charges. Although they are entitled to charge you this fee, they dont.

Also, with regards to the £30 fee at your bank, write to their complaints dept (PM me if you want the address) or alternatively, you can do this by email also.

Further, if you do claim charges from them, make sure you dont just accept their "first offer" the difference between the actual charge and £12. If you write again after reecieving this they will pay you charges and COMPOUND CONTRACT interest. Again these letters can be sent by snail mail or email.

If you want their banking details to arrange a standing order, I can get these for you also

PS - I am one of the good guys that works there

BAILIFFCHASER

Mabelicious wrote: »

Do you mind if I jump on the MBNA:Evildoers of Our Time train?

I have had a credit card with them for the last 8 years. I paid it all off every month until I left my joba few months before I decided to move to London.I was unable to pay anything into my account because before I came here I had no job and after I arrived and got a job I needed to make EIGHT calls to their *scoff* customer services *scoff* department, they were still unable to tell me how to pay money into my account without having a cheque book, which I didn't at the time.

As a result I missed 3 payments and thought my credit history would be in tatters. Since then I have a Lloyds bank account and they could tell me more on how to pay into an international bank account, and they even set it up for me so I can do it online. Lloyds did all their checks and my explanation of only missing the 3 payments straight after arriving in London checked out and have offered me a much lower interest rate card with a lower credit limit.

In February my much better half gave me the best birthday present ever: a blank cheque to pay off the €6,500 MBNA bill. The elation I felt the day my balance was in single digits (€3.48c to be exact) will never be equaled.

Since that day MBNA have been hounding me with calls regarding "pre-approved personal loans", sending me MBNA cheque books and increasing my limit without me even requesting it!

I don't know what hellish situation I would be in right now if I was still pecking away at my debt but it was a very expensive lesson learned.

I have warned so many people about MBNA's huge interest rates which I hadn't realised until I got above owing them €1,000...then it just got worse.

I know what i would do in your position !!!!!

flippy178

HI all

Thanks for your posts.

I think I already have all my MBNA statements already - I'm a terrible hoarder. Do I need to write to them as well?

I will check them and add up the charges. I've noticed that some credit cards do only charge £12 for late fees etc (eg Sainsburys). Does this mean that you can't claim the charges back?