Wow. Barclays have refused my claim again despite my status as a full time student at the time of the application. Spoke to the person on the BC helpline who advised me to go to the FOS.

Hi Thanks for the quick response - I just called them and the woman I spoke to was very helpful. It turns out that as I was a full time student I shouldn't have had PPI at all, something I never knew and would seem to strengthen my case. She also had no idea why they called me when the information they were seeking was plainly on the complaint. The complaint now goes back to be looked at again which is good news. I'll keep you all posted. Hamish

Hi All, I recently put in a PPI claim from Barclaycard as they sold me a PPI policy on a university campus in 1996. I was under the impression that this was too long ago to claim. I basically told them that the girl who sold it advised me to take it out as it would mean I would have a better chance of getting the card. I had the card for about 10 years and for a long time had a balance of around 11k. So I put the claim in with the following reason in Section E of the form "The sale took place on the campus of Leeds University. It wassuggested verbally that if I took the insurance then the application wouldhave more chance of being successful. At the time I did not know this would nothave been the case and am horrified to think I was misled in this way" A couple of weeks later I got a call from Barclays who said that they just wanted to confirm some details about who I worked for when I had the card. I mistakenly gave them different details to the ones on the form as I was going back to Uni as a mature student and changed jobs around that time. I didn't realise I had given them the wrong details until I just reviewed the form now. Last week I got a letter from them stating they were refusing my claim on the basis of the following. This is an exact copy of what they have written - ~I don't even understand it as it seems to make no sense: First bit does make sense but is factually wrong. "In your complaint you feel you were: given misleading or inaccurate information about the policy" The second bit which is confusing: "We have identified that your application for PPI was submitted post. At this point of applying for PPI, as no advice was given the process required you to select the specific type of cover required. In addition we conducted a review of the documentation you viewed during the sale. We are satisfied that the documentation presented accurately described the scope of the policy, and was sufficient to provide you with all of the information necessary to inform you of the terms and conditions of the policy. As a result we are unable to uphold your complaint" So - I didn't fill in the form. The girl that stopped me on campus filled in the form - I signed it and that's all I remember. Is it likely they are just fobbing me off ? Should I take it further with them, SAR them or just go to them ombudsman ? Any pointers ? Thanks Hamish.

Hi Not really a bank charges and CCA question but I used these forums before and found the advice superb. Here goes ... Around 2 years ago I got into trouble with a Virgin credit card after a failed move abroad, some mental health issues and a whole lot of pain. They were shocking and out of all my creditors were the only ones who simply didn't listen and did nothing to help. In the end they defaulted me - no letter of default was received. The debt was sold on to First Credit and after a while I agreed to make payments. I was, by then, running my own business and could afford to pay so I did. I made 2 payments. My business bank account was up for renewal and I applied for a branch account with overdraft and charge card (the turnover on the account supported it) and was given the account. At the same time I took up the free offer from a CRA and checked my file. Right in the middle of my perfect credit record was the default. Now I'm not disputing that I ddin't pay them but they defaulted me without notice. They sold the debt on and I came to an arrangement with 1st Credit to pay a reduced amount. As i worked in a CRA as a programmer I am aware that once you get to a status of 3 you might as well not bother as it's going to be treated as a default in any case BUT once I am in an arrangement the Default status should be removed and replaced with a flag to say there is an arrangment in place. Also, the reduced amount that I arranged is not showing ? As it happens, because of the economic downturn I'm now struggling to make the payments (missed one) but am tempted to kick up a fuss about the way in which they have dealt with this. Attempted to add a Notice of Correction to my file but have just received an email from Experian saying the file is displayed correctly, which is wrong. Anyone with any experience of arrangements that could advise ? Cheers Hamish

Hello All I'm back, after several more months and lots of attempts to sort this out MBNA have finally sold on the debt to First Credit. I have a few questions however. I did not received any notification from MBNA that this was going to happen ... is this normal ? Does anyone know exactly what First Credit can do ? I am currently ignoring the sinister automated phone calls and am preparing to write to them asking them to hold until I get som advice. For anyone else dealing with MBNA take heed. They offered to freeze interest in October as I had made a few payment totalling £400 and they had accepted a payment schedule of £280 a month. Of course all of this was done over the phone. I have now found out that interest as being added all the time ! In the 10 months that this has been going on the original debt has increased by over £1200 ! AS i missed a payment over Christmas they hit me with demands for the full amount. To be honest though I care very little. Apart from a credit score that is pretty much destroyed (and after working in a CRA for 4 years) the sun is still rising each day. Many thanks for the advice alreayd given and any to come Take care all

Hi Missy Allen I am in almost exactly the same poistion as you so at least you're not alone ! A CRA is a request to see if they hold the original credit agreement that you signed - if they don't the debt cannot be enforced by them, you can find a template on the forum or I'll come back and post a link. It costs £1 and they have a legal time limit in which to respond. Link for CRA - you need template N http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt-issues/20758-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html Your details of dealing with MBNA are much the same as mine and a lot of people on here I'm afraid but keep your chin up and keep battling ! Hamish

received a letter today from Optima Legal advising that MBNA is getting ready to nail me to a cross. the letter states they are going to sell my house and that i should fill in the income and expenditure form and send it back to mbna. i'm currently off work and being treated for stress and anxiety (seeing a shrink as well at the end of this month) and whilst i don't want to whinge this is really affecting me badly. all i want is some space but don't know what kind of time i have left - can anyone estimate how far down the path i am in terms of actually being taken to court ? should i just call them ? to be honest we could transfer the arrears to another card but we would only be in the same position next month, my wife is due to finnish a 3 month contract next month also and our income will go down even further then. i think i just need to go back to work and try and get these bas*ards off my back. sorry for the whinge but any info would be usefull. p.s. i have been harassed on the phone, i've even been told that mbna could put me in touch with soemone who could lend me money so i can pay them off but alas i don't have proof - i sent an S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) asking for phone records but all they sent me were some statements. p.s. on the back of the letter is the income and expenditure form - they have asked for proof of income and expenditure - do i legally need to send this ? i don't really want to volunteer information and am quite prepeared to send them my own income / expenditure form ... this is a copy of the letter i'm currently drafting - i'd appreciate any comments or additions from anyone ... MBNA Europe Bank Ltd Chester Business Park Chester CH4 9YR 15/07/2008 Dear Sir/Madam ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX In reply to your letter from Optima Legal please find included an updated income/expenditure form as requested. I would also like to bring to your attention the following points: I recently wrote to you requesting information held by yourselves about me to be disclosed under the Data Protection Act. You have replied and sent me a copy of charges and interest that have been applied to my account, thank you. In the Subject Access Request I also informed you of a telephone conversation relating to an agreement that was reached in that my account would be placed in a debt management queue for six months and no interest or charges would be added. I had requested details of any notes on my account or any manual interventions in relation to my account (copy of letter included, missing sections are highlighted in bold). You have not supplied this information and therefore I am again requesting the missing information to be sent. I also included the standard charge of £10 which you credited to my account as you generously offered to supply the information for free, if this is now not the case please inform me. In previous conversations I have informed you that I am currently not working and have been signed off as ‘unfit for work’ by my GP (please see included recent sick note) because of stress and anxiety. I have also received CBT therapy and have a referral to a psychoanalyst for further treatment. This is a genuine mental health condition over which I have no control and is currently making it difficult to obtain work. I am, however, making progress and hope to obtain employment soon. The stress incurred by dealing with MBNA is having a detrimental effect on my health and consequently delaying my recovery and return to work. I am not disputing the debt and have explained in detail that I fully acknowledge my responsibility but during this temporary situation I am unable to make the full contractual payments and can only offer token payments until my situation improves. It has only been three months since I first contacted your company and I have stayed in contact with you and have supplied you with information as requested. I am puzzled therefore by your treatment of me in this case. Your letter from Optima suggests that you will obtain a legal charge on my house. I am sure you are aware that a legal charge can only be applied for in the case of a CCJ being applied and the CCJ being defaulted. I would also like to bring to your attention the OFT guidelines for debt recovery that state: Physical/psychological harassment 2.5 Putting pressure on debtors or third parties is considered to be oppressive. 2.6 Examples of unfair practices are as follows: a. contacting debtors at unreasonable times and at unreasonable intervals b. pressurising debtors to sell property, to raise funds by further borrowing or to extend their borrowing ... f. pressurising debtors to pay in full, in unreasonably large instalments, or to increase payments when they are unable to do so Please note that I wish to avoid any further action by yourselves and would be willing to consider any agreement that you suggest that I can afford. Legal action will benefit nobody as the amount I can pay you under a CCJ is likely to be the same as any agreement we can make out of court. I would be grateful if you could respond at your earliest convenience. Your faithfully

many thanks Steven although the rest of this thread is not going to be claim related I may persue MBNA for full disclosure under the SRA I sent (they only sent me the charges details and not the account record in terms of contact and manual interventions and most importantly a record of the conversations i have had with them). is it ok to post the details here ? it might be of use to anyone in a simialr position ...

not quite as simple. You have an IP allocated by a DHCP server that gives you an IP for a set amount of time. You're IP will change over time so the company in question would need to ask who has a particular IP at a particular moment in time. And it is only unique in the sense that the actual IP is unique. Obviously a comany such as NTL will buy a finite block of IPs and each one will be assigned to different people over the period of it's life. it's absolutely essential that they isolate a particular period of time and that that period of time was the time that the IP was leased to you. And surely they need to prove you are in posession of this game and indeed used it. If they put their own game on P2P and someone downloaded it is that not entrapment ? I'd love for soemone the challenge these companies ..

These are the images of the CRA (click on them to view the full sized one)

I got the CRA in the post today and it seems perfectly ok - does anyone know about internet applications as the document doesn't have my signature anywhere and I honestly can't remember if i ever signed or received anything to sign. There are a few checkboxes on the details with a description that says 'I confirm that the tick in this box is a valid means of establishing the authenticity and integrity of my signature to this credit agreement. I understand that MBNA will hold this acceptance data on their files' Ironicly the dog literally attacked it when it dropped through the letter box. I have a feeling they are going to nail me now. I'm doomed. Doomed I tell you ;-)

lol thanks for that Banker ... I'm not sure what I'd do if they can't produce an agreement ... Will write to them again though but give them a few days grace. I'll probably get a perfect copy of the agreement in the post tomorrow

.. just out of interest - why shouldn't you sign it ?

I got the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) today in the post but the only thing they have sent me is a list of charges and interest ... What I asked for was this along with any notes or manual actions on my account. I expected a list of details including times they have called and times I have called, including a call where they agreed to put my account in a 'debt management queue' and freeze the interest and charges. This was all in the letter I sent. Should I send it again ? I still haven't got the CCA but they are only on day 15 or so ... I don't really know what to do ... addition:- the letter also came from Rachel Claridge the Assistant Vice President no less - I suppose I should be honoured ;-)

good luck with the claim - my experience of MBNA is that the insurance I had on my CC refused to pay out on the basis I wasn't paying UK national insurance at the time i didn't work due to illness (stress/anxiety). I'm sure they'll have a sub clause that matches your exact circumstances and well !! They are simply an awful company to deal with though. From what I understand if you have been mis-sold the insurance you have every right to claim it back. How you would go about proving this is another matter and one I'll leave to more qualified people to answer. The good news is that you came to the right place - this forum has been invaluable in helping me deal with MBNA and I doubt I could have managed without them. Good luck

it's all a bit too quiet. have received confirmation letters from MBNA over the last few days saying they are processing my requests. They have credited £10 to my account, which is the money that should have paid for the SAR but seem to have kept the £1 for the CCA. No phone calls which is good news.:o I can't help but feel there is a storm brewing though ....

cheers BRW. I'm trying to keep my chin up but know the damage this is doing to myself and my wife. I used to work for a CRA and know firsthand that banks use CRAs to protect themselves on one hand but use the system to their own advantage as well. A guy who i used to work with once told me that a major CC company sold their failed applications via layers of different brokers to loans companies that then phoned the failed applicants to offer them loans at really high interest rates. They then creamed off a massive 'commission'. I hated being part of that and am glad i no longer work there.

wow BRW my 'problems' seem small potatoes in comparison to the abuse you're getting. to be honest i think i'm losing my bottle a bit and don't really have any confidence that the CCA and SAR will stall them in the slightest - in the new few weeks I'm at the end of the three month period in whihc I said I would revue it further with them, although I have asked for an official I&E form from them as they seem to have totally ignored the previous one I sent. i don't really know where to go from here ...

.. and the phone calls start again today ... I could give them a few days to read the letter I guess but my bottle is running out I think. Don't really know what to do now

Hi Tetsuo I would definitely add your food and outgoings and priority debts and perhaps fill out the income/expenditure spreadsheet you can find on here. Priority debts being food, clothing, car, council tax, mortgage/rent etc THEN provide an amount to be divisible between your creditors. Remoember these are SECONDARY debts. The reason you pay so much interest (apart from the fact they are greedy bas*ards) is because they offset the risk of you not paying by charging you a premium. They borrow the monay at 5% and lend to you at 25% for example, a nice hefty profit and then they will insure themselves against the risk of you not paying. Make sure you can live on a monthly basis before telling them what you have. I'm not sure if you have to declare what you owe to other creditors either, personally I wouldn't but you could give them an indication of the total amount owed so they get an idea where they fit in the pecking order.

CCA and SAR went off today ...

I don't know exactly what the legal position is related to this but I know of other threads where MBNA have used information on credit files to intimidate people - the information stored is purely a payment record and does not show where the payment is coming from - on my credit report the only thing wrong is the fact that I haven't made my contractual minimum payments to Virgin - everything else is being paid but the majority of these are paid by insurance. I'm almost certain that MBNA cannot ask you to disclose your agreements or the lack of them with other creditors.

hi adam i'm in exactly the same position as you healthwise and agree that it doesn't help with their constant badgering, i also didn't want to go down the CCA and SAR route as i also don't dispute i owe them what i owe them BUT after the way they have treated me i'm writing the letters now. they are solely concerned with getting their cash and really don't give a toss what you tell them, obviously thousands of people report ythem to the OFT and other agencies and they continue to trade in exactly the same way and it shows in a way how impotent these agencies actually are. you can check my 'virgin harrassment' post for the particulars but i really don't know what to do now - i've only been in this position for 2 or 3 months and am going to end up going back to work against the advice of the doctor and counsellor in order to try and get these bast*rds off my back. we have made a huge mistake though by paying other creditors (one visa card by taking cash out and paying it with that) and some others have paid out on insurances but this only shows that we really do want to pay our debts. virgin have demanded way more than we have and as such they have ended up with nothing, they refused to accept any arrangement unless it was 0.8 % of the outstanding balance and at one point advised me to borrow from someone else to pay them it all - a clear breach of the guidelines. let me know how you get on and try and keep your chin up, you're certainly not in this on your own. this forum is a godsend and constantly lifts my sprits.

got a statement today that shows more interest added after they had agreed by telephone to place my account into a debt management queue and freeze interest. i was aslo told i would have 6 months in which to resolve my situation before they sold the debt on. have received 2 letters this week warning of impending legal action and 3 or 4 phone calls, none of which i have answered. so i'm sending off a letter today that is a CCA and telephone harassment letter cobo but was also thinking of merging the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) as well and sending them £11. this is what i've got so far, the SAR will be related to charges but more for the notes on my account - i used to work for first direct and know that extensive notes are always placed on accounts so any record of the conversation i had must be on there, any ideas of how i can word the SAR or would it be better to send 2 requests ? thanks,

They are one and the same I think, within the industry your normal credit search is called an LSAR (limited subject access request)