Here's my summarised situation.

I'd like any advice on how I should proceed now.

Took out a Credit Card with MBNA in 1999

Through their unscrupulous lending,

my own stupidity & intermittent mental health issues,

I ran up a debt that I couldn't pay off

I started to have problems meeting my minimum monthly payments in 2010, and requested a temporary interest freeze when it got really bad

(thought this was 2011, but now realise it was probably 2012... further explanation below)

to help me to sort our my finances.

This request was ignored.

After several months I stopped paying anything and prioritised other debts.

Eventually defaulted in 2012

I started to get harrassed by Aktiv Kapital

Over time have now been chased by PRA, another couple of agents and back to PRA

At one stage,

not sure when but probably 2012/13

I requested proof of the debt being owed to Aktiv Kapital/PRA?,

and didn't receive that proof.

At the time I downloaded a template letter to send,

but not sure where from,

but it included the sentence about not admitting to the debt.

Due to not receiving the proof requested I didn't enter into any communication with any of these companies again.

PRA continued to harrass me.

I wouldn't hear from them for months and would then be bombarded with telephone calls as well as letters.

I didn't answer the phone to them or respond to their letters.

Over time they have offered a discount on the debt several times

In June 2016 they advised by letter that they were considering passing the case to their Scottish Solicitors

I received a letter from Brodies LLP in July 2016 stating they had been instructed by PRA to pursue recovery of the debt and threatening court proceedings.

I panicked!

I was convinced at the time that it had actually been in 2011 that I had last communicated with the original lender and sent a Statute Barred letter.

I heard nothing back and when a couple of months passed with no communication I thought I had heard the last from them.

On Saturday I received a letter from Brodies again (6 months later) which included a copy of my original Credit Agreement and copies of the final few months of statements of my account with MBNA showing I made a payment in August 2012.

This letter states that

"To avoid this matter being passed to our Court Action Team, you are required to pay the Debt or contact us to discuss a suitable payment arrangement not later than 2 February 2017"

The amount of the debt being chased is £5781.16

Are they allowed to only give 4 working days for me to contact them?

Are they allowed to come back to me after 6 months of no communication?

Am I entitled to request proof of ownership of the debt by PRA?

Should I contact them tomorrow?

I am not in a position to pay this amount.

Part of me says,

I borrowed the money and should accept that it eventually needs to be paid.

However, if there are any loopholes I can use to my advantage then I'd like to try to use them, as for the first time in 20 years I have all my other debts under control and can't believe this has come back to haunt me.

I've tried to read as much as possible on other threads, but got really confused by some of the terminology being used, so apologies if I should have been able to find my answers elsewhere.

.....throw the morality card that you had the money so must repay it out the window now.

/...if you did owe anything now..., then why did a big mutli national creditor sell the debt on to a debt buyer and write it off and not take you to court and crush you themselves...???.......urm.........

all the players you mention are all part of the same 'group'

so sadly you fell for the oldest trick in the book that DCA's pull...

you fell for the perceived web that the debt was somehow 'going up a chain'

that was a notion that they painted

you fell for it and responded...mug caught in the headlights...doh!!

back to basics....

its a 1999 mbna card

they'll almost never get an enforceable agreement nor the right sets of T&C's together

other than raiding their filing cabinet and faking it, from MBNA should you CCA request them...[no WAIT]

that WAS what you got or signed

other than an application form which doesn't contain all the prescribed conditions correctly.

so bearing that baseline in mind...

did you take this out whilst resident in Scotland

and are you at the SAME address as your take out date?

Yes I am still at the same address in Scotland as I was at in 1999

ok thankyou

can you please scan up what they have sent as an agreement & T&C's to ONE multipage PDF

follow the upload

Here you go

mbna application 01-08-99.pdf

that's got to be the very 1st time we've actually seen the reverse of their postal application form ever..

the T&C's make refs to conditions in the bottom right like see 14.1 etc

they are not on that page

did they send page 3?

I also notice PPI ticked

i'd expect PPI running from 1999 to wipe any debt out even £5k they are claiming you owe

PPI was my first thought too

having looked at the statements I have I wasn't paying it.

I found one very old statement from 2002

(I think! will check when I get home this evening) that also didn't have a PPI payment on it,

I assume I cancelled it.

The job I was in when I applied for this card didn't last long and I became a student a month later so I possibly cancelled it.

There is no page 3 of the application.

then they are missing an important part of the CCA return then.

and where the statement of account, did they send one...

They sent me a pile of statements for 2011-12. I assume a statement of account would be something different? In which case no.

it should have come wit the CCa return as its part of the requirements

It looks like the most recent of the statements provides the "Statement of Account". I've attached the letter and statement.

Brodies Letter and Statement.pdf

So at this stage I've now not met their deadline to get in touch. I'm wondering if I ought to be sending something about the CCA being incomplete? Or do I sit tight and wait for their next move?

you certainly don't invite letter tennis no.

its also not relevant to tell them the CCA return might not be compliant

that's not for you or them to speculate upon

that for a Sherriff to do, IF it ever gets that far.

the overriding fact here

[but its not unusual mind]

is that MBNA sold a very large debt on.

why?

they could have crushed you in court but didn't....urm..

but as I said, that's quite typical of MBNA

and seems to be the remit of the American consortium that at the time had purchased MNBA credit card division.

its now I think back in the uk and owned by Lloyds I think.....I read.

the bottom line is:

PRA are only interested in fleecing money out of people

like all DCA's

so have seen +£5k here and have put it thru their PC threat-o-gram machine.

if any human has actually had a part in this yet is to be discovered..i doubt it.

Ok thanks... I'll sit tight and see what happens next.

they have failed to give you an annual statement of account

( should have done this every year since the debt was sold to AK, along with a notice of assignment), j

ust an old card statement from before AK bought the debt so not CCA compliant.

Debt looks like it will become SB in sep/oct so do nothing for the moment and they will probably let the clock run down too long to actualy take action by the time they do try again and you tell them they have got it wrong.

Thanks for your response ericsbrother which I've only just seen. Your additional opinion is appreciated. I've received a further letter. Continue to ignore?

Brodies Letter 09-02-17.pdf

lots of ifs but mays might's and instructed there

IMHO ignore too

dx

Thanks dx. That was my thought too on reading the wording.