Thread: At my wits end... what should I do?

Hello.

I hope someone can help give me some encouragement here.

I'm at my wits end with debt.

To cut a long story short, I'm self employed, and bought my business about 6 years ago in the field of DVD's and games. It cost me a massive business loan, which my folks kindly secured for me, and I got underway.

Things went from bad to worse. A really successful business, like all video/games stores started to suffer. First I had a chain store open 200 yards away. Then a couple of weeks later another game store opened about 300 yards away. And this was right before Christmas. To get through Christmas stock, I bought stuff in on credit cards at the beginning of December, and when it came time to repay, my bills had swallowed the money from sales. Then, after 4 months of trading in a small Yorkshire farming/cattle market town, foot and mouth hit, and trade died. Farming types went out of business and moved, house prices rocketed, and piracy began to grow. Another few months, and foot and mouth closed down many of the neighbouring communities too. Then months after that we had 9.11, which killed trade for weeks, and it was just decline from there. A second Christmas putting stock on credit cards put me in even worse trouble, but I did everything to keep the wolf from the door.

I managed to keep the income steady until about 18 months ago when I hit crisis.

Since then, stress has made me ill, I've been suicidal, depressed, and not knowing which way to jump. As a matter of ethic I refuse to use bankruptcy etc. as my means of dealing with this, and determined that I'd work through it.

I wrote to all my creditors and explained the sitution.

Some were quicker than others to reach solutions, but all seem to be pretty much in line, and taking reduced payments, etc. and are aware that I'm trying to avoid bankruptcy, which would be my next stage. It's costing me everything, really, to pay my business loan, so that RBS don't go after my folks' home.

But the most problematic company to deal with has been MBNA who took over my 'Sony Card.'

Interestingly, I also have an outstanding MBNA loan, and MBNA reached an arrangement really quickly and painlessly on that.

But this card is a bloody nightmare.

It had a £3k limit, and somehow I ended up putting a stock order through on it which put me about 3-400 over the limit.

In charges and interest since then, in spite of 18 months of me begging for help dealing with the debt problems, I'm now at £4550. AND I've paid a grand total of about £500-£600 in the last 12 months to them too.

I've been met with nothing but deception and deceit.

In the first place, because of problems with my nerves now, I prefer to put everything in writing, than let them confuse me on the phone. But they REFUSE to put anything in writing. The best I get is a letter telling me 'we've got your letter, and we'll discuss it if you call our call centre NOW.' I can't do that. I just can't discuss these things on the phone without losing my patience and my sanity and cracking up. Besides, they've lied to me so much when I do...

When I did get on the phone, I was at first told that my account didn't appear to be 'too bad' and there was no need to go to recovery methods, just to pay arrears and bring me up to date to keep paying my monthly minimum, which was too high.

So I was advised by a friend who had been this route to simply not pay anything. He said 'you're already risking your credit rating anyway, and if you don't want more credit, because you don't want more debt, you'll be OK.' I still live at home and get on great with my folks, so I'm in an ideal position to try to lever my way out of this schtuck. He said 'when you get a letter from 'debt recovery' at MBNA, then you're in the position to get an arrangement because all they want to do is recover the debt, and often you can get them to freeze interest and charges and just put it on a repayment plan.' I tried this with a couple of accounts, and it worked too... for all except the MBNA Sony Card.

I just kept getting calls from Indian call centres, seemingly daily, even on Sundays, even at 8am, demanding money all the time, getting nasty, telling me that I need to pay on card and when I said I have no card they tell me to go find a family member with a card, and when I say I have no family members with cards they tell me they don't believe me, and to go find a friend or neighbour with a card 'right now... I'll hold until you come back.' Pushy, pushy, pushy. I once asked for them to write me, and was told 'we don't need to write... we're here talking to you telling you what you need to do.'

Finally, in Nov 2005 I wrote a desperate letter explaining my situation and expressing my distress. I got a call from 'Eric Wilson' in Chester who seemed understanding and concerned and indicated that we needed to work out a solution that would help everyone concerned. I was SO relieved, and when he said 'what we need to do is to reduce your arrears to put you in a better position to get some help from us in reducing your payments,' I believed him. I agreed three monthly payments of £105 which I couldn't afford, and was left with the impression that after those three payments he was calling me back to reach a repayment plan. Things were looking up.

But the call never came.

And I started getting more call centre calls.

So I wrote another letter.

Then I got a persistent Indian call centre call me at work. ANd I refused to speak at first, and kept saying 'you have my letter, respond to my letter with a letter' until the chap said 'we have your letter and I AM responding to your letter on screen now, sir.' He explained that he was from some company or another in India, which was a global partner of MBNA and provided payment solutions for people in financial difficulty. He told me I needed to speak to him because no one else could help.

So I said 'OK, let me just explain what's happened to me so you can understand', and yes, I know I have a long story, but I only got a part of the way through recounting my experience of MBNA before he interrupted me to say 'yes, I can tell from your story that you're very genuine, and you're not trying to avoid paying, and I'll put that in my notes to help you.' He went on to tell me that I needed some team or another in Chester and he would personally put me through and recommend me for special assistance since he could tell I was genuine, but first he needed to put some kind of payment on the account so that they could see I intended to pay. At first he demanded £180 'arrears' on a bank card, then settled for £90. I paid it. Then he said 'OK, I'll put you through to this team now, and have a word with them for you...' He eventually came back and said 'they're not answering because they're closed for the day... Give me a time tomorrow, and I will call you, and call them, and get everybody talking to each other, and I'll tell them you qualify for some special help.' I told him 3pm, he confirmed it. I never heard from him again.

And weeks passed. And the calls started. And I sent more, identical, letters. The same letter again and again. Asking for help and asking why I hadn't gotten help when I first declared a problem, and why charges were still being added, and arrangements refused, when the bank could see I was being sunk.

Since then I've had no responses to my letter, just letters telling me to call them because I'm in breach, more call centre chaos, more phone calls and then a new tactic...

Some of my other accounts are now 'owned' by MBNA, and though I have arrangements which are being paid, the new tactic seems to be to transfer the debts to other companies which are affiliated with, or owned by I guess, MBNA, but present the image that the debt has now been acquired by another firm, and immediate payment is required, or to call them to make a repayment arrangement...

It's almost like they shuffle the debts round holding companies to keep them alive and unsettled.

Anyway, I just got a letter today from MBNA saying that the account £4550 is in serious trouble and that in order for ME to deal with it responsibly I must 'take ownership' of it NOW and call them. Interesting, because that's a term I use in EVERY one of my letters when staff pass the buck, or when the bank puts off action in order to make money and get me even more in debt and trouble...

I could have laughed but I wanted to cry.

They CONSTANTLY ignore every request, opportunity, and chance to help me deal with this situation, and seem intent on just making it worse and stacking the trouble higher for me.

Then, as I was about to send the same letter AGAIN (and the letter advises them that I've filed the matter as a complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman (which from experience takes a painfully long time), a friend told me about this website, and the fact that he's suing NatWest for charges levied against him as a result of information on this site.

And since I don't know what I'm doing, I figured I should ask what I should do about my account?

All help appreciated.

Sincerely,

SampleX

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cillitbanger-I have intitated a process against CITI cards for harassment.This is the action I have taken-

reported the initial complaint to my local Trading Standards.TS then take your complaint to the OFT in London,and they can threaten to withdraw their credit licence,effectively ending them trading in this country.It is unlikely to go that far,but TS told me the threat of withdrawal will make them sit up and take notice.

Next,keep a log of all calls,take it to your police station and make an official complaint of harassment,and get a crime reference number.Write to MBNA with this information and get them off your back for a start.

Write to them asking for your charges using the template letters,and tell them that You consider the account to be "in dispute" which means that they can't take any further action until this matter is resolved.

Take deep breaths sampleX-you are about to regain control of the situation,and you will feel a lot better for it.

Payback time is about to begin..........

samplex mate. Chill out, this will be sorted in no time.

Stop dealing with all the contact centres now and deal only with the advocates office. I haven't got the numbers to hand at the moment (i can let you know tomorrow) but contact them. You can get through to the CEO of MBNA Europe's pa on 01244 672040. Explain to her and she'll get you through to the advocates office.

What people say above about the charges is all correct so go about getting those back. you won't have any trouble getting them, but the problem goes far deeper here.

The advocates office will be able to stop all the calls to you. They will sort out a realistic pay plan, freeze interest and charges. If you want to know what figure you can expect to pay, then take your current balance and divide it by 120 months (10 years) That's the most MBNA let you pay over and you'll be able to budget from there.

I hope that helps somewhat, let me know if you need anything else.

Hi, first thing don't panic! The person I dealt with is Stuart Johnson Customer Advocate Manager 01244 576317 or email stuart.johnson@mbna.com or head honcho michael.rhodes@mbna.com. With regard to the harassment "I wish you to know that I am aware of my rights and that your constant telephone calls are a breach of Section 40 of The Administration of Justice Act 1970 and any further incidents of this nature constitute a course of conduct which is a criminal offence under Section 2 of the Prevention from Harrassment Act 1997"!