Long story - short. ... got myself into a financial pickle with various credit cards etc. Due to dwindling income over the last 12 months I have now crashed. I have received default notices on my CC's as I have not made any payments to them over the last 3/4 months. I was just about to contact them [along with some of my other creditors] to advise them of this change in finances etc; with a payment proposal of £1 and statement of Inc and Exp., as now no income. Additionally I was considering the querying the validity of the contracts with the CC companies as others on this forum have done. Concentrating on MBNAeurope for the present: today I have received a letter from AKTIC KAPITAL Portfolio AS, Zug Branch - stating that they have purchased my outstanding balance with MBNA - and they can help get my finances back on track it then goes on to say that they are Aktic Kapital UK Ltd who will be collecting the balance of £xxxx.xx that I owe on behalf of Aktic Kapital Portfolio AS, Zug Branch. they want me to cancel and DD/SO's [there are none; otherwise i wouldnt have gone into default!!] as paying mbna would cause a delay in them being able to reduce my balance. small print:... aktiv kapital uk ltd is part of the aktiv kapital ASA [norway] group of companies. CCA licence 510166. registered office, wells house, elmfield road, bromley, kent, br1 1lt. 'under the terms of this assignment and as defined in the data protection act 1998, Aktic Kapial portfolio AS, zug branch is now the data controller of your personal data...' so my questions are: do i acknowledge their letter? do i deal with mbna at all now? do i ask Aktiv Kapital for original contract/proof of debt? any other pointers would be great please [especially if any more letters 'assignments or purchases' of my other credit card debts start arriving]. thanks in advance.