Thread: Abbey, MBNA, RESTON's Solicitors

I am being taken to court by Reston's solicitors on behalf of MBNA bank for a credit card i took out with Abbey National.
I have previous experience of going to court to defend similar action brought against me by the same solicitor at Reston's.
I also know that the tactics used by Reston's are unethical and i really do not understand how they have still managed to retain their consumer credit leicence.
Any way I have proof that the Banks and Restons have breached the direct and indirect terms of the contract between us and so I should not have to pay back any of the money owed to them.

In simplistic terms this is what I say:

1. I wanted a credit card so looked round the market to see who would offer me the best product and service.
2. Abbey National advertised to me that they were a 'Reasonable' lender who operated within constraints set out in the consumer Credit Act 1974.
3. They claimed the contract we had would be operated within guidelines set out by the FSA and the Banking Code Standards at the time.
4. They claimed and have continued to send me leaflets claiming that they will help me reach an affordable repayment plan if i fall into financial difficulty.

I was impressed by Abby's sales literature and promises and so based on that i entered into an agreement with them to provide me with credit facilities. The agreement had direct terms set out at the time and indirect terms relating to how they would treat me and my account if i fell into financial difficulty.

We enjoyed a good 4 years service with no complaint until i lost my job.
Well I lost my job and fell into financial difficulty. The Bank ignored all of the above promises they made to me in their litterateur, so simply speaking they miss sold me the product and are in breach of the direct and implied terms of the contract between us.
Since the bank failed to keep to their side of the contract I should not be forced to pay them back any amounts relating to the contract.
This is my response to them:

RESTON’S SOLICTORS
Trinity Chambers
800 Mandrin Court
Warrington
Cheshire
WA1 1GG

05 February 2010
Ref MBNA AC.:XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Your Ref: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Dear Mr. R XXXXXXXXX
I will address the concerns you raised in your letter to me dated XX February 2010 later in this correspondence.
As you are aware XXXX Citizens advice bureau have been engaged in reaching an affordable repayment term on my behalf with all of my creditors.

This demonstrates that there is an active attempt to pay back all of the credit I owe to all of my creditors. I include their contact details and the latest income and expenses form from them and advice you that they are in the process of reevaluating the form and are actively engaged with all of my creditors to reach an amicable solution to the current difficulties I face.
Due to reasons beyond my control and driven by account managers at MBNA it became necessary for me to request a true copy of my original contract together with the original terms and conditions from the company at the start of November 2009 (around the 05 November 2010).

The law regulating these requests is clear and hence since MBNA had not provided the contract and original terms by 01 January 2010 they had defaulted on the account. A default notice was sent to them.

Since they have not provided any ‘justifiable’ reason for the delay in responding to me I must assume that the default stands. Given the situation as it stands I can not at this moment in time accept liability for any of the amount you have stated in your claim to the courts.(Court order claim number XXXXXXXX).

Your records will show that Abby National provided me with an initial response on XX/XX/2010. How ever the response was incomplete and inaccurate as it did not include a ‘true’ copy of the agreement between us. In particular the terms and conditions they purport to apply to the agreement are not part of the original contract.
Regardless of any subsequent alterations to these terms (which are likely to favor MBNA) my request was clearly for the original documentation.

I would further need to view statements on my account from August 2006 to current to asses how the debt has risen from some £4.5K to over £7K whilst I was on a reduced payment terms with the Bank and the Bank have been fully aware of my financial circumstances.

Having been presented with your demand for £7254.43 I have once again been forced to write to MBNA requesting copies of my financial statements from August 2006 so that I can establish how much if any of the amounts being requested are legitimate.

Unfortunately I can not accept any responsibility for the delays being caused my MBNA bank.

The direct and implied terms of my agreement with MBNA (through Abby National at the time) stated that:

• They would provide me service in accordance with the Banking Standards Code available at the time of the agreement ( replaced by the Lending Code)
• My account would be operated within guidelines set out by the financial services regulator the FSA.
• The bank would be sympathetic to my situation and provide every assistance to me should I fall into financial difficulty.

Unfortunately it is my experience that the bank has failed to act within the direct and / or implied terms of the contract relating to the above .There for it would be correct and just to infer that the account was ‘miss sold’ to me contrary to the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982.

These concerns have been put forward to both Abby National and MBNA in writing as early as November 2009. Since I have had no acceptable response to the specific concerns raised it would be correct to assume they have no defense for their actions.

Given the events and time lines in this case, it is clear that from around October 2009 their existed a clear dispute regarding this account between the bank and me. At the time the bank had been unable to justify their position, respond to requests for information or demonstrate that they were acting as a ‘reasonable’ lender within the constraints of the consumer Credit Act 1974.

Should all the information above be proven to be true, then at the time of making their application to the courts, MBNA bank would have presented information to the courts that they knew or aught to have known was inaccurate, in dispute and/ or possibly false.

I now draw your attention to the confusion that has been caused by these banks. My original application for the credit card was with Abby National. Up until around March 2009 all my communications were with Abby National.

Since around August 2009 I have received various correspondence from Abby National, MBNA bank and yourself all relating to the same account even though the account number from when it was Abby National to when it became MBNA banks has changed.(i.e. two different account numbers and three organizations chasing the debt).

This does not equate to a ‘responsible’ business practice. It is their fore the entire responsibility of the banks that the matter in this case have become complicated and confused.

I have received three default notices for the same account, one from Abby National, one from MBNA bank and one from you.

I have had to write to and deal with three separate organizations simply to establish the facts and the protection offered to me by the consumer credit act.

I now bring to your attention the offer made to me by Abby National bank for a partial repayment of £2,323.00 with no further action on the outstanding amount .The offer was accepted by both parties. I repaid Abby National £1823. The final payment of £500 was to be made by my brother in law. I now know that that payment did not go through. At the time neither Abby National, MBNA Bank nor Reston solicitors made any attempt to advice me that the payment did not go through. It was correct for me to assume that the agreement between us (for the bank not to pursue any further collection on the account) was in force.

It was first brought to my attention around August 2009 that the final payment had not been processed. As soon as I was made aware I offered to make a payment of £600 directly my self on the same day to complete the agreed transaction.

Unfortunately my request was denied by MBNA bank. I advised the bank that I would be seeking further advice from Heathland CAB to deal with this matter. Subsequently MBNA bank informed CAB that they were unable to accept £600 as a final settlement figure. They failed to mention £1823 that had already been paid meaning that the true figure for settlement would have been £2423 and not £600 as they were purporting it to be, from a debt which at the time was still only around £5000. A further offer was made to pay an additional £1000 to clear the debt which would have brought the total repayment figure to £2823 which was also rejected. It would now appear that at some time in 2009 MBNA have started to add charges to the account that have taken an initial debt of around £5000 to over £7200.

In order to draw up an accurate time line of events please could you confirm to me:

• The date you were first given notice to administer this account
• The date you were first provided with a true copy of the original agreement relating to this account
• The date you were first made aware of the disputes relating to this account

Please can you confirm weather you were aware of any dispute with the account prior to issuing your first default notice to me and the dates relevant to this event.
Best Regards

[quote=kaldeepk;2754721]
I have previous experience of going to court to defend similar action brought against me by the same solicitor at Reston's.



Hi thr can u plz tell us about ur previous experience with them? that will be helpful for all of us in Court and file a complain against them to FSA and OFT and fos...

Seems Restons are a source of grief for many consumer banking customers.

I have been in conflict with these jokers as they represent HSBC Bank plc - with whom I don't even have an account; I had an agreement with HFC Bank, and even tried to engage with their pathetic complaints team, after they declined to respond to reasonable requests to resolve a problem I had with payment of arrears. Then only to be informed (8 weeks after Restons were instructed) that mine was one of a number of accounts that had been sold to HSBC - without my knowledge!

So, all parties on HFC Bank side collaborated to make no attempt at outbound communications outside the tardy compliants process, while initiating county court proceedings. Absolutely, no response to even consider a proposal for a payment arrangement.

Had to defend the County Court claim but moneyclaim.gov.uk screws up and Restons get a judgement by default. Not happy with that the application for a charging order follows (have you spotted the pattern yet...); cheapskates even used a local freelance solictor to represesnt them (who had no understanding or interest in trying to establish any means to repay the outstanding balance. Fees, there just on another planet.

Still no responses from the Bank but yet they accept payments and Restons can give a summary of payments made. By then, even attending court the debt is legitimised and the court doesn't even entertain any mitigating circumstacnes and documentary evidence without an application to set aside judgement (more expense) - THIS IS NOT JUSTICE

Forget Financial Ombudsman Service - too slow and absolutely no teeth; coupled with limited grasp of the facts of my specific case they eventually concluded that it's OK for banks to ignore communications from customers treat "customers" like some underclass that should be summarily punished.

Me, bitter - no way...