Thread: Help please - MBNA Harrassment

I was looking for some advice please. I am doing this on behalf of my mum who, to cut a long story short has got into some debt problems. She has contacted all her creditors who are accepting payment of £10 per month.

All except MBNA. They phone her all the time telling her the £10 is not enough and if she doesnt increase the payments they will apply for a charge to repossess her house. Last week a manager phoned and told my mum they would only accept £150. My mum has advised them on several occasions she can only afford £10 per month. She posted a letter to all creditors which she got given from payplan. Also the manager advised my mum she has had £2000 worth of charges since March this year (dont worry dpa has been sent for statements). She even had the cheel to ask my mum to sell her house to pay back the debt she owes them, which is march was £4900 and it now up to £6738.

Am I right in thinking we can send them a harrassment letter asking for correspondence in writing only. My mum aint well health wise and sitting worrying that her house might be repossed by MBNA aint doing her any favours.

Any advice would be grateful.

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Indeed - this is just harrassment.

See copy of letter below......

************************* ****************

Your Street
Town
City
Postcode

DATE HERE

Company Name
Road
Town
City / County
Postcode

Re: Harassment by telephone


ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXX

Dear Sirs

I am writing in relation to the quantity and frequency of telephone calls that I have received from your company, which I deem to be personally harassing.

I have verbally requested that these stop, but I am still receiving calls. (Delete if necessary)

I now require all further correspondence from your company to be made in writing only.

I am of the view that your continued harassment of me by telephone puts you in breach of Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

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

Be advised that any further telephone calls from your company will be recorded. (**Even if you don‘t yet have recording equipment!!**)


Yours faithfully,



NAME HERE

************************* ***********************

This should do the trick, but, if it doesn't, keep your cool and report them to the Office of Fair Trading and your local trading standards office. There is now a specific complaint form which you can download from the internet to make an official complaint and you can obtain it here:
http://www.oft.gov.uk/nr/rdonlyres/b3999175-a9bc-469d-ad5b-ba284de36e01/0/complaint.doc

PLEASE USE IT

Remember, keep your cool at all times, don't be intimidated by a piece of plastic, if you don't like what you're listening to, put the phone down - and remember the most important thing of all is to put and get things in writing at all times.

Thanks for quick response. They are intimidating my mum but they wont intimidate me and i will keep going til I get back what is rightfully hers.

Spent about 4 weeks now reading over this site and have started several claims. Fingers crossed and once I recive MY money back there will be a donation on the way.

Hi, i'm sorry to hear of your mums problems! but a mortgage is a priority debt if you dont pay you will have the house repossessed! did the payment plan people not tell you this? even if she pays everyone else £1 per month she must pay her mortgage. sorry rewind is it her mortgage or a loan secured on it?

Hiya

This is just for a credit card, she has been making sure her mortgage gets paid every month. She went to payplan who advised her to offer £1 per month, they worked out she could actually afford £10 per month and all her other creditors have accepted this. She has been paying MBNA the £10 also so they couldnt say she was ignoring the debt but they want different amounts each time they phone her from anything between £50 - £150, which she has told them on numerous occasions she cant afford. She has also been to CAB who to be honest wasnt really helpful. their advice was for her to get rid off her 2 dogs so she will save money on dog food, get rid off their car (both parents are disabled) and sell her home.

I am in the middle of sending dpas off to her and my credit cards/bank. Have just copied the above harrassment letter to send MBNA and am also gonna send them a letter asking them to freeze interest and charges. Dunno if it will work but as the saying goes "Shy bairns get nowt"

I wont give up and will do everything possible so she doesnt have to sell her home. it hasnt got that bad yet.

Thats ok then, phew i'm relieved for you i thought the worst then. Good luck to you both

If your mum is on a debt management plan with Payplan they presumably will have established that the most she can pay MBNA is £10 per month. She absolutely should not be paying any more than this, as Payplan will have assessed her income and outgoings and established this is the absolute maximum she can pay.

She must not allow herself to be bullied by MBNA. She absolutely should send the letter suggested above, and by the same token I would strongly recommend that she inform them that the most she will pay them is what has been deemed as the maximum by Payplan, ie £10. Not a penny more.

MBNA are (edit) - I'm on a debt management plan with CCCS (like Payplan, a charity that makes no money from the person in debt) and experienced copious problems with MBNA ignoring my letters, sending default notices (to be expected), passing the debt over to debt collection agencies who then proceeded to send their own nasty letters (countered by an immediate response from me explaining I was on a management plan and was paying the absolute maximum to them I could afford). Their (edit) tries to wear you down but the bottom line is do not cave in.

The worse that can happen is that they will attempt to take your mum to court in pursuit of the debt (in about three years of harrassment from them, they have never done this to me) and the bottom line is they know full well they will be laughed out of court.

One thing she should try to get them to do is to freeze interest and, if appropriate, late payment and overlimit fees as soon as she can. I wasn't strong enough with them at the start and it took them 15 months to actually do this, adding around £1500 to the debt in the process.

I extend every sympathy to your mum for having to deal with these (edit) - however much they persist, don't let her cave in. Remember, if they go to court they will not get any more than £10 per month.

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Clatyts:
With respect to you, they are not (edit), they are (edit)
When in debt you are treated like ***** and thats on a good day.
I have discovered over the past 2 years, since becoming debt/creditor free and with a bit more more financial clout, most financial companies cave pretty rapidly when you pressurise them.
Stick with it towelie, don't be bullied. Since most call centres use annoymous/withheld numbers, can you get your phone provider to block such calls? Or just ask for a change of telephone number?

[MODERATED: Abusive and libelous comments removed]

Hi -sound grim.

MBNA are signed up to the Banking Code of practice I believe, which amount other things sets out how member should behave when dealing with customers in financial difficulties.

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...-debits-39.htm

You might want to remind them off this too! Enjoy!

lol thanks for all the replies. Just been to my mums and got her to sign the letter about harrassment She still isnt convinced but I have told her and she knows about this forum, just she doesnt have access to the internet. I am going to re-write another letter telling them basically £10 is all she can afford and also about them freezing interest and charges. I told her after they have received this letter about harassment if they do phone her to refuse to talk to them, advise them of the letter she sent and hang up, then inform me and i will report them. I aint gonna let them bully her and stressed to her tonight to not let them bully her.

She did laugh when she read the letter and said MBNA will be wondering when she got so clever about all the acts. Makes me wonder if they have recived DPA request yet, wish I was a fly on the wall when they see we are claiming back her charges.

thanks again and will keep you posted.

Just one final piece of advice - send everything to them by recorded delivery otherwise they will deny the existence of any letters you send

Good luck - hope the advice here has helped. Your mum is not alone, I promise.

It's only a tiny point, but recorded delivery is really only any use for your own peace of mind (knowing it has been delivered). Too many of these don't get signed for, leaving you with the impression that an item has not actually been delivered.

If you really want peace of mind, go special delivery for the extra money.

However, if you go to any post office you can ask for a free certificate of postage. This is just as useful in court - save the money!

1st class post is deemed to have been delivered in 2 working days.

Good luck with your claim!!!

I will send everything special delivery so they cant deny receiving anything.

Originally Posted by towelie

I was looking for some advice please. I am doing this on behalf of my mum who, to cut a long story short has got into some debt problems. She has contacted all her creditors who are accepting payment of £10 per month.

Hi, I sympathise with your Mam fully, I'm in the same boat along with many many others. Take the very good advice on offer and tell Mam she's not alone. The only way is up
Goodluck
Moneydownthedrain

Hi, like everyone before has said, they are trying to wear you down.

They will use every tactic in the book, with me they rang my parents, never went through security and decided to tell my father that if he didn't pay they would take him to court.

Ignore everything they say, and insist on communicating in writing only - they will totally ignore this of course.

Always ask for the login ID of the person you are speaking to, if they won't give it to you ...ask again. It's the reverse of their persistence in telling you the calls will stop if only you pay...this much.

you might also send a letter of protest to :

michael.rhodes@mbna.com he's their CEO here in the UK
dpumfrey@mbna.com their solicitor.

I'd send an email each and everytime you recieve a call - I kept a log of all the times they called.

If you can, record the conversations - if you can't get a tape player and a phone with a speaker great, but if not... try the following:
SPYMASTER - Leading Professional Suppliers of Security, Surveillance, Counter-Surveillance, and Personal Protection Equipment enter the site, goto online catalogue and look under telephone recording equipment.

Also, one last thing to tell your mum,

MBNA cannot sieze her home.

If all else fails they can do the following (which they won't) and that is apply for a CCJ. This isn't as bad as it sounds, you see, you must remember that credit debt is unsecred debt. - there was never any equity offered as assurity for the loan. So it's the equivalent of you lending someone fifty quid and shaking on repaying fiver a month, and not holding onto the keys to their car till you get it all back!

so, if it goes to CCJ, a judge will take over all proceedings. This is the important bit you see, because the minute it goes to court, it is the court that decides how much your mother can afford. She doesn't have to attend court, it's all done in the post. The charges, interest, and fees all stop - by order of the courts.

Money is collected by the court, and distributed.

Do you see why as has been mentioned above, 3 years on and they haven't done **** all?

If the debt drags on, the creditor can ask the court to get you to release equity in your home, but it is only up to the ammount needed to clear the debt - a remortgage, but this doesn't happed quickly, again it's something that's threatened rather than carried through.

The credit rating is already shot, the threats are hollow at this point.

Go to National Debtline, for FREE CONFIDENTIAL and INDEPENDENT ADVICE call 0808 808 4000 and download the self help pack. There is a letter template inviting the creditor to take you to court as they haven't agreed to your offer, and perhaps a judgement is actually the best course of action.

Keep strong... and keep posting, everyone is having the same bun fight with these (edit).

If MBNA were around fifty years ago, (edit).

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