Re: Distressing phone call from MBNA

[sunflower99]

Hi i am new to this forum .I found it by doing a search on MBNA bullying tactics as i now have severe fiancial problems and also have problems with being pestered at work and home by them.They have phoned my workplace a few times and told people who work there that they are are MBNA!So they are trying to hassle and embaress me at work.i have told my work colleagues to tell them i am not available! but i agree it is awful and totally out of order when they start to bully you at work! My husband who has a heart problem and at home all day also gets several calls from them! asking for me.At least by looking at this forum i realise now that it will be a wise tactic not speak to them.All these phone calls started because of one overdue payment which i cant afford this month.Another thing that happenend to show what a pathetic bank they are was that a few months ago from a geniune oversight on that occasion i missed of a payment of 30 pence! LOL and AS A result my huband got several phone calls at home from them trying to contact me and one day when i reached work my superviser said she had just a phone call at 8.00 am in the morning !I couident beleive it when found out that the problem they were so concerned with getting in touch with me was over an under payment of 30 pence! for goodness sake!i couldent beleive it and now i have severe fiancial problems with me finding it difficult to make my minimum repayments i see i from all your experiences of MBNA that life is going to be a bundle of fun dealing with scum like MBNA! What a life!

[MARTIN3030]

Welcome to the site.Please keep to your own threads.Have moved yours here.

[reduk054]

Hi Sunflower99, welcome!
Have you read this "sticky" about telephone harassment? (permalink)
You should not have to deal with their bullying tactics.
Red

[Fred Bassett]

Hi Sunflower, welcome to the MBNA fan club.

They really are the most difficult and awkward people to deal with so I sympathise with you.

I would advise you to do several things:

• As you've already worked out, NEVER talk to them on the telephone - insist on everything being in writing.
• Send off the telephone harassment letter - you can find it here: Harassment by telephone - response letter
• Send them a letter called a CCA request. This is a request under the Consumer Credit Act for a copy of the original credit agreement. Essentially, this is the document that proves that you have an enforceable debt. It must contain certain terms and be in a specific format. If they can't provide this, then it puts you more in control of the situation. You have to send a £1 postal order and it is advisable to send this by recorded delivery. I can never find this template, so here's a copy of the one I sent them:

MBNA Europe Bank Ltd
PO Box 1004
Chester Business Park
Chester
CH4 9WW



2008

Dear Sir/Madam

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

With reference to the above agreement, I would be grateful if you would send me a copy of this credit agreement.

I understand that under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (Sections 77−79), I am entitled to receive a copy of my credit agreement on request. I enclose a payment of £1.00 which represents the fee payable under the Consumer Credit Act.

I understand a copy of my credit agreement should be supplied within 12 working days.

I understand that under the Consumer Credit Act creditors are unable to enforce an agreement if they fail to comply with a request for a copy of the agreement under these sections of the Act.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

Once you get a reply, scan it and post it up on here (make sure you remove personal detals) and somebody will be along to help. I hope this helps you get started.

Good luck.

Regards.

Fred

[sunflower99]

Hi Fred .Thanks for advice about dealing with these bullying phone calls from MBNAi i will certainly be using that letter if they persist.At least coming across this forum made me feel slightly better as i know i am not alone in having these problems with MNBA and enjoyed reading some of the posts that people on here write about their unique ways of getting their own back on MBNA. and gave me a smile in spite of my grim circumstances Before i came across this forum i was feeling vey down and when they started calling my work place that was the last straw.Ive never taken any of these calls but it is awful being made to be scared of answering your own telephone!and now on top of this im being made to feel scared to answer work phone.It really is to much and i did suspect this behaviour is verging on illegal harresment.I do accept though that i have to bear responsibility for running up debts in first place.Things have been extra difficult for us these last five years as my husband had heart attack in sept 03 and has been unable to work and only gets incapacity benefit.We did get very depressed and i suppose we were tempted to use our credit card for everything including things we shouldent have bought to try and cheer ourselves up as my husband quite often felt very depressed and i found it difficult to say no either to myself or him and MBNA and other credit cards kept upping our credit.We kept saying to ourselves we will use this card one more time and then we must stop but trouble is we still never got to the stage where we stopped as life seemed so bleak.Now all our income goes on minimum reapayments and bills so we dont have any money left so i suppose we are in what is called the credit card trap.i dont earn much as i am a shop assistant.I am going to try and keep up minimum repayments as much as i can and try and get a second job to try and cope but there will be months when a credit card company will have to have a month missed as i cant pay them all each month.But that copy of that telephone letter will come in handy! Thanks again !

[Fred Bassett]

Sunflower, just remember that at the end of the day you can't pay what you don't have. In a way it doesn't matter how you got where you are now, nobobdy on here will criticise you for it because many of us are in the same boat. You haven't done anything criminal.

You might think that the worst thing that could happen is that MBNA take you to court. If that sounds frightening, don't let it be. There is a thread somewhere on here that describes what that would be like and it's not what you might think, it's essentially a civilised discussion around a table, not a criminal hearing - I will try and find it for you. There is every likelihood that MBNA will never take you to court in any case because they know full well that they will not get a level of payment acceptable to them, that is why they put the frighteners on.

Just hang in there because I promise you that if you stand up to them things will get better. It might take a while but it will happen if you are strong enough. There is also a thread on here about different strategies for dealing with these people, again I will try and find this because it contains some very good advice.

Take care.

Regards.

Fred

[mr.ton]

Fred is right Sunflower..MBNA are just trying to put pressure on you because they sense that you are "vunerable" with the greatest respect.
DCA's do that all the time - they dont bother with the likes of me & others on here who tell them to get lost & dont pay them a penny.
DCA's also threaten court all the time, but the fact is they dont like going near the places as they would get the minimum amount back in the maximum amount of time - the court would have to take into account all your essential outgoings inc: Bills,food,clothes,travel costs etc..all of which are classed as essentials - i know this coz ive been through the County Court system before
You are not on trial or anything, its all very informal & just sit round a table working everything out - there is no "guilty" or "not guilty" involved
DCA's are totally powerless & useless organisations that have no power/authority over you whatsoever - only a court has that, so unless the DCA is preparred to go through the court system then there aint a thing on Gods earth that they can do to you

[Fred Bassett]

Hi Sunflower, the post on dealing with telephone harassment is here: Dealing with DCA's phone calls - unfortunately I can't find the one about going to court at the moment but I'll keep looking.

Regards.

Fred

[eastendboy]

Hi sunflower, only moral support, but listen to the people above and the advice is good. You are in the right place for help, and most people here will not desert you when you need there help the most.....

[sunflower99]

so far so good! I thin MBNA have given up for moment trying to phone me at work!I havent had any calls at work for a few days now! Fingers crossed!Though my husband said i got several calls at home but at least at home i can just ignore them and husband just says im out all the time!

[spiritgirl59]

Hi Sunflower

Subscribing to offer you more moral support. I am also a member of the MBNA fan club

Good luck! You've had ace advice from everyone so stand firm and don't let the bar stewards at MBNA get you down!

Love SG x

[sunflower99]

HI spiritgirl59l Thanks for moral support!So you have problems with MBNA as well.They certainly seem the worse bank for hassling people.They never let up do they! i just sent them a repayment of last months minimum monthly payment of £185 but they still keep hassling us for the extra charges and this months installment.The only good thing is they seem to have given up for moment bothering me at work but my husband who is at home all the time says somedays he gets at least one phone call a day from them and if he dosent answer it the phone rings several times When he does answer it they keep trying to get another contact number for me.My husband says that he is going to stop answering the phone as not being in good health he finds the calls extra stressful and very annoying as well.Trouble is that we are in so much of a fiancial muddle and in a complete credit card trap,If we pay all our minimum repayments on all our credit cards we have no money to live on ,In fact our outgoings now greatly exceed our incoming money,I am at a loss to know what to do or who to turn to advice for help with our debt problems.Someone at work said i should try citizens advice another person said i should approach one of those debt counselling agencies yet someone else said try and get a secured loan to at least pay of MBNA and make more money available from income to pay of other debts.I did wonder about citizens advice or debt agency but someone said that they will want to investigate how you got into debt and judge you!so that has put me off and i am terrified that they might say we have to declare ourselves bankrupt or something!Which would be awful I really dont know which way to turn or what to do to try and get ourselves out of this debt trap.

[palomino]

Despite your work colleague's comments neither CAB or agencies such as National Debtline criticise you.
I would suggest you talk to these people asap. I'm sure you will always find a friendly and helpful ear. If not then you can always hang up - but I'm sure you won't find that necessary.

Anyway give these people a call. National Debtline is on 0808 808 4000. Your local CAB will be in your local telephone book, although I've heard they only do things by appointment and with the current economic climate there may be a bit of a wait for one.

One thing to be a bit cautious about is that these people are there to try and help you pay your bills. They do not for instance challenge the validity of those bills (there might be illegal charges) or the enforceability of them (they are not interested in whether valid credit agreements are available). Just in how you can pay them.
So, keep visiting here to find out the rest of the story!


There are other organisations such as Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS), Eurodebt, Debtplan or Debt Advisory Centre but I've never tried any of these and can't recommend or not recommend them.
National Debtline, for FREE CONFIDENTIAL and INDEPENDENT ADVICE call 0808 808 4000
CCCS - Free Debt Advice from the UK's Leading Debt Charity
Debt help advice in the UK from EuroDebt for credit cards, loans, CCJ and money worries, IVA information.
Consumer Credit Counseling - Credit Card Debt Consolidation Loans
Debt Help & Advice - Debt advisory centre

[reduk054]

Hi Sunflower,
I would really like to agree with Palomino's advice. National Debt Line are really helpful, I have also found them very knowledgeable, and they certainly do NOT judge you in any way.
My advice would be to try and manage your own debts rather than some of the companies who manage your debt for you, echoing what Palomino says, as although I personally have no dealings with such debt management companies, a lot of CAG users have mentioned that they have steered away from them, for the reasons already stated.
What you need to bear in mind is that you must decide how much you have to spare to pay off your debts AFTER all living expenses. It would be worthwhile making a full and detailed lists of all of your income and outgoings (making sure that you take into account any payments which you make intermittently such as car tax, rather than monthly dds/standing orders). There is a template on the National Debt Line website to help you to do this.
Once you have worked out your amount to pay creditors (do not be unrealistic, again, you need to make sure that you have enough to live on), then you can write to each creditor, explaining your current situation, and offer to make them token payments. There is a letter on the NDL website as a template.
Paying something towards the debts you owe is better than nothing!
This way you are tackling your debts by being pro-active and honest.
Now I am not saying that your creditors are going to be necessarily happy, they want as much of your money as quickly as possible, but and it is a but, if any of the creditors took you to court, the court will only make you repay what you can REALISTICALLY afford.
Best of luck
Red