Information regarding MBNA Bank of America

[Grummy]

Hi, I worked for Bank of America. Now, I don't know if any of this is public knowledge, pbut Im putting it here for people who may need it, I don't know if you will want to sticky it or not.

 

OK, first up, MBNA is a non existant group now, the company was bought up By Bank of America a few years ago.

 

All your credit cards, letters etc will still come reading as MBNA as BoA are in the process of gradually introducing themselves as a brand into UK markets.

 

In the UK, we know MBNA as a company, but BoA is new to us, and to BoA's way of thinking, if they went open and declared themselves, UK consumers would not repsond favourably, so they are trickling through press releases and info regarding the brand.

 

Eventually, within the next 2 years, MBNA cards will be replaced and will start reading MBNA. Letter heads will be changing sooner.

 

OK, MBNA deals with credit cards from Virgin, A%L, Abbey, BT and themselves. the Abbey ones have been stopped snce the Santander buyout, however all acredit card accounts pre 2006 are still held by and dealt with by BoA. Also note if you call ANY Abbey credit cards, you will still go through to BoA call center as Abbey haven't updated their own phone system. Even calling from Abbey branches comes to BoA.

 

If you have any concerns with any Virgin, A&L, BT or MBNA/BoA cards, they are all issued by BoA and as such it is BoA you need to liaise with. The named companies have no actual handling of your credit card accounts.

 

OK, all correspondance from BoA is automated. Letters are automatic when sent, and have to be manually stopped by request. Make sure if you want these things done, you do it over the phone as the Grunts on the phone CAN do these things for you. Sometimes they need special permission or action from seperate departments, and these CAN take a few days, if this is the case, the grunt on the phone will tell you so. Some of the call center agents might call you back with your information, but BoA frowns on that generally, as every call out is 1 less incoming call being dealt with.

 

With regards to difficulties making repayments. BoA only consider you to be in difficulty if you have missed payments for at least 3 months in a row, if you call up in advance and say, for any reason at all, that you will struggle to meet payments, they will not help you until you are at least 3 months in arrears.

 

With BoA you have 180 days to make agreements with them, otherwise they will pass the debt on to DCA's. I don't know who they use.

 

Occasionally BoA agents can be abrasive or bad tempered, but on the whole they are all very polite and helpful. This is because BoA staff WANT to help. It is a bizarre company. It drills into you during your training that customer service is key, so all call center agents are very good with customers. If you do every experience a bad one, it is likely they are just having an off day, so have patience with them.

However, even though agents are very good with customers, BoA actually cares little about its customers, it only cares about getting its money. It WILL promote sales to you in every single call, and they WILL continue to hound you about payments until you make an agreement.

 

However, what BoA WILL do is listen, once you are passed that 3 months of arrears. They WILL sit down and listen and come to an arrangement to suit you which they WILL honour. They hate to lose any customer if they are owed money

 

With BoA if you have a credit card, and you use it regularly and clear your balance regularly, do not think this makes you a good or preferred customer. It does NOT. By BoA standards, someone who clears their card every month, is a poor customer as they are not making BoA any money. These are the customers that will eventually see rate hikes and will struggle to get charges back.

If you owe them moeny and miss payments or pay late regualrly, you are liked as a customer as you are making the company money, but you are not reliable and as such will never get refunds or charges back formt he company. The best customers for BoA are those who use their card regularly, have balances, make regular payments on time of more than the minimum amount, but don not clear the amount every month. These customers are both reliable ANd profitable. If you are one of these customers, you can easily get charges back on your account. Late fees, overlimit charges and retruned cheque/dd fees will all be refunded.

 

HOWEVER, even if you ARE one of those customers, it is a thin line between being favourite and being unreliable in BoA eyes, even if you can afford to make payments, but become late regularly, even if you have had charges back before hand, it may not always be this way. A customers 'rating' to the bank can fluctuate day to day.

 

OK, BoA charges on all cards it holds a flat fee of £12 for everything that is a charge (late fees, overlimit fees, bounced cheques and returned dd's)

 

BoA interest. BoA charges interest on what they call a 'residual interest' basis.

 

In the easiest possible terms, this means that when you are paying interest on an account, you are only charged what you owe, as it is calculated on a daily basis. What catches people out is that when they pay to clear balance AND interest, the expect it to only go up to the day the send the cheque/make payment over phone or the day the statement is produced. THIS IS NOT THE CASE. If you statment is produced on the 28th of the month for example it will show you interest charged up to that date AND estimated interest next month. The interest itself is still accruing on a daily basis. If the statment is produced on the 28th, it can take a week to get to you, if it arrives on the 5th, you could already have 1weeks additional interest. Then if you pay by chewue, allow another week, by the time you pay your bill you may think you have cleared the balance but will still see interest because it is what is due on the account. This method is a little confusing and underhanded, however, it IS fair and it IS genuine. the interest charged IS genuine on all accounts. The interest charge method is expalined in the T&C's, they don't try to hide it. BoA do it this way so they only charge what is due. What people don't realize is that it is a rolling charge which is calculated and accrued daily, every day that rolls by is 1 more days worth of interest you have to pay.

Also note that as the interest accrues on a daily basis, it accounts for charges and purchases made on the card every day, so if you continue to buy, you will still continue to see interest, but the amount you pay daily will obviouly increase in accordance to your increasing balance.

By law, all banks have to show you 'estmated interest' on their statments. What this tells you is how much interest you will pay on the account if you ONLY meet the minimum for the month, and make no more purchases. If you clear the balance, you still se interest, but only up to the day your balance clears.

 

If you are intedning to clear your BoA credit card balance, the best thing to do is look at your estiamted interest, pay that as well, and then when your next statement is sent to you, see if you are in credit. If you are (as is usually the case) 1 simple call to BoA call center and you can have the money trasnfered back into your bank account. It takes about 7 working days to go through.

 

OK thats the main information I can think of right now, if I can think of anything else that may be useful, Il edit and add it into this post in a different colour. If you have any questions, ask me, and Il do my best to answer for you, however I didn't work ALL departments, so I may not be able to deal with every queston.

 

OK, some more information I forgot to mention.

 

1, if you ever ask to speak to a manager, it will almost never happen. Managers DO get back to you, but the make manager callbacks. If you need to speak to a maanger be prepared to wait up to 48 hours at home for the manager to call at any time, and if you miss the call its tough luck. Some of them will try repeatedly tofor you so they can here your query/complaint, others will leave a message and not try again. Really it down to pure luck. Occasionally you CAN get a manager, but be warned, sometimes the person you are speaking to is NOT a manager, just an experienced staff member acting the part. Manager callbacks are always managers. A lot of the time when people ask ot speak to a manager, there is genuinely no one available and the agents are not obliged to spend their time walking around looking for a random maanger to take a call. If you are offered a maanger call back, feel free to continue to complain and you might get a manager, but chances are you wont, so just take the callback with the knowledge that you A) WILL be speaking to a manager, B) can put together some material relelvant to your dispute ready for when the call comes in.

 

Also to note, if you ever ask for an agents name, they are not obliged to provide you their full name and they don;t have to give you any details of their log in names or othe identifying marks. But they don't have to. If you have a problem with a particular agent, tkae down the time and date then make your compalint however you want. The BoA systems record who takes a call for which custoemrs and when on every single call.

 

 

OK with regards to recorded calls. Despite what people think, not every call is recorded, so there is always a strong chance you are not being recorded when speaking with BoA, infact more often than not you WON'T be. Generally a BoA agent takes about 80 calls in a standard working day and 2 or 3 will get recorded at most.

 

Account Statments. Any Credit ard you have held which has been issued by MBNA BoA, all the account details, statements are held by BoA, however be advised, BoA only hold information from upto 6 years previous. Anything longer than that is lost. If you are thinking of looking at charges applied prior to Feb 2003, you will not be able to get ahold of the statments. Cards issued by BoA for other companies (A&L, Abbey, Virgin etc) these companies never hold the account information and won't be able to get it for you, it is only through BoA it is available.

ADDENDUM, though this is by no means a certain thing ( I never had leisure to pursue this) ex ABBEY cards MAY have some luck getting older statments as they MAY be held by abbey. You will need to speak to BoA and find out if after the 6 years is up, if they just destroy the records or pass them over to the named companies. We were never told this for certain, it was always made clear to us that BoA removes the records older than 6 years. Nothing more.

 

 

Also, just in case people were not aware, Loans.co.uk is also owned by MBNA BoA. They are dealt with seperately, they are not based in any BoA offices and are run seperately also.

 

 

Ok something people might find useful. Any time you call BoA, there is a record kept of when you called and who picked up the call. It doesn't give names, just a series of letters and numbers by which a grunt can be traced and identified. In these calls, grunts have a uick link to highlight what the call was concerning, and then add notes f necesary regarding what was discussed in the call and any action taken that has caused changes to the account. OFten is the case that a customer will call up, and changes can't be made immediately, so a grunt will pend the action until it is able to be fulfilled. In these events, account notes are not always left immediately, and will be left one action is completed. Of course if the grunt forgets or deletes the pend by mistake or is off sick, then no one will know about it.

However, you CAN ask for full transcripts of every call made and every dicsussion about your account. Now then if anyone does this, they will see it come across as abbreviation and jargon specific to the company. If anyone does get ahold of one of these for themselves, please bring them to my attention and I'll decipher them for you so you will know what BoA are claiming to have happened during a call.

Edited February 5, 2009 by Grummy
info update

[angel_1]

Well thank you grummy and welcome to cag

 

mind you my only question is . do they actually have the original credit card agreements that they would have to produce in court for any legal action anyone wishes to take?

 

many thanks angel x

[rory32]

MBNA credit card agreements are often unenforceable.

 

Regarding getting charges back - well that's for a court to decide not BofA/MBNA. A penalty charge is unlawful, that fact can not be ignored.

 

While I'm sure you always did your best to help people, any offers of reduced payments, freezing of interest, etc. should be made in writing via recorded delivery. Phone calls can be and often are denied. Agreements reached over the phone have to be confirmed in writing and often they are not and indeed often they are not honoured (and I include MBNA in this).

[Grummy]

Im not going to dispute any point with you, as I don't actually disagree. Im just presenting information as it seen form the BoA side of things. This is how the company thinks, this is how they work.

 

Indeed, they are just as bound to the laws as anyone else, however, here is the crux with BoA:

 

BoA wants 1 thing, to be globally respected and 'the most admired company' in the world (banking company I should point out) and to that end, whilst they WILL call and hound people, when you set up an agreement with them, they honour it. Mistakes DO happen, believe me I've been on the end of the rants when someone in collections hasn't done something, or did something wrong, but the staff always work to rectify the problems as best they can.

 

Problems with BoA systems is that if Grunt A says he will do XYZ for you on date 123, only he knows about it, as the information is stored only with him. If he forgets, is off sick or any number of reasons for things not to happen, there is not a record of what he has done until he gets back in to work or remembers about it.

 

Unfortunately neither the grunts nor the systems are infallible.

 

But you are certainly correct in one thing, if you set up an agreement with them, make sure it is sent to you in writing confirmed. If it is in place, if you honour your end of the deal, BoA honour theirs, and if you have further problems, call them they WILL listen and help. For all I dislike about BoA I can't fault them in that they do their best to help people in financial trouble. Of course people do have bad dealings with them, that always happens, but I've seen the other side, been on the line when someone cries because you have helped ease their financial strain, when someone calls up just to say thank you, I had my share of letters written in to the company praising my conduct on the phone, and I've seen people with dozens of these from customers who were delighted with the assistance.

 

Im not here to try and promot BoA, believe me, I don't work there anymore and I left because I disagreed with some of their practices, Im just playing devlis advocate and presenting the BoA side of things so people know what they are dealing with. But in some areas, they are genuine, and their desire to help people with problems is genuine. Just make sure you get everything in writing just in case somebody screws up. Often it can be mixed messages between bank and customer, or an agent screw up that can cause issues. Problem is, there is usually no way to track if it is an Agent screw up.

 

With regards to charges, no it IS down to BoA. the FSA give banks guidelines of what to charge and why, and BoA follow them stringently. If a customer doesn't agree with the charges, they are free to call the Ombudsman, but I have to be honest, in my time there, I never ever heard of BoA being found in the wrong over account charges because they openly tell you what they charge them on and why. BoA have a method of 'ranking' customers for lack of a better term, and the best customers can get charges back with a single phone call because that helps keep them as customers. If people have disputes with charges n general, then it is the fsa first must be challenged as they are the regulatory body and they have said 'Charges on accounts must be X amount and for reasons 123'. FSA say its fine, so its down to them to be wrong. if FSA said 'charges are illegal, banks wouldn't apply them. If penalty charges are illegal, then the fault comes from FSA for saying that it is fine.

 

The likelihood of people winning out with regards to challenges over fees is slim to none as it would shatter the foundation of the industry, whether they are unlawful or not.

 

 

OK to Angels question, I honestly can't say for sure it's not a side of the business I ever dealt with, but for my 2 cents on the matter, I dont think they do. The reason being is that BoA has tens of millions of customers and not all of thrm apply in writing/ Plus the sheer number of documents that would be around if every person had fully written original agreements would overwhelm.

 

They MIGHT have them, but its doubtfull.

 

I've never known one to be sent out or produced for any other reason.

Edited February 5, 2009 by Grummy

[angel_1]

Thanks Grummy

 

you have answered really my question and burning desire to know what i and others have long suspected to be true, i didnt they did, but to try and blind consumers that what they have provided is real - ie a microfiche copy of the agreement and terms on the rear is what they do really only hold, and what is provided is not a true copy of what they hold, the clarity of what they send to customers is not clear because not clearly microfiched, thus doubt can reign on their parade if consumers take court action,

 

i cant read what they sent me, and ive asked for clearer copy but have stopped me in my tracks with go to the ombudsman.

 

if they wish to become the worlds best bank, and be respected highly amongst consumers, i admire that but i will not deal with them on the telephone no longer only in writing as they are like you say one agent may have done something wrong or didnt do what they said they would do, but that action has left me with more problems

 

i also do admire you being devil's advocate

 

laters angel x

[pompeyfaith]

if like u say MBNA has been taken over by BoA why is the court action in my case in the name of MBNA and not BoA surely if BoA own the debt the action should be in there name

[Grummy]

Thats a question I can't answer for sure.

 

However I can give you an educated guess.

 

What is likely to be the case is that, when BoA bought out MBNA, they retained the MBNA image and name rights. Now Im no expert on how Business brands and logos and names etc can be used, but I DO know that BoA have continued to masquerade as MBNA because people in UK recognize the MBNA brand.

 

In essence, whilst MBNA as a company, a seperate entity does not exist any more, as a BRAND, which is to say, as an image of a company, it does. And in that respect your case with them can be presented as being against MBNA as that is the face they currently present.

 

Im also not a banana of any kind, but it seems to me that if court action against a company had to be in the 'parent' name, then many companies would never go to court as they are only single divisions of larger franchises and conglomerates.

 

Basically, its BoA you are going up against, but they are still using the MBNA brand.

 

 

Also check your official docs regarding this. the actual name for this company in uk is Bank of America Europe Card Services, whether that name appears or not I obviously don't know.

[pompeyfaith]

OH one more question that comes to mind why do bank of america think that british law does not apply to them this has been said many times to posters by mbna they are trading in this country so uk law stands

[rory32]

The likelihood of people winning out with regards to challenges over fees is slim to none

I would respectfully ask that you take some time to read around the site and then reassess this statement.

[Grummy]

And just as respectfully, I would ask you to appreciate where Im coming from on this.

 

BoA has millions of customers, and believe me, I've sat through enough calls and enough meetings where this and similar subjects have come up. Compared to the number of unsuccesful attempts there have been, believe me, Slim to none is the case.

 

I won't tell you its not possible, it is, and Im here to give as much insight into how BoA work for people who are going up against them. But I won't sit here and tell you its guarenteed, when it is not.

 

I just want to help people get any extra edge I can. We've all been at the bad end of unscrupulous bussiness practices from banks and dca's, so I figure any insight I can bring will be worthwhile. As I've said before, I don't agree with BoA practices which is why I left.

 

OK, as for the 'why do BoA think uk law doesn't apply to them'.

 

Heh, Im not too sure what to say to this. BoA don't hold uk law in contempt, they work with it no differently to other banks or credit card companies or dca's. What they DO do, is make sure that everything they do is OK by regulatory bodies such as FSA, which I can tell you, it is. So again, its really an issue with FSA. Not trying to swerve blame or fault away from BoA, far from it, BoA have plenty of fault, but this idea that BoA openly ignores UK law because they feel they are not obliged to obey it, is false. Or at least, it is false to the extent of them being any worse than other banks. Really, this is an accusation which should be levelled at all banks, dca's ccc's equally.

 

My question has never been 'why does the bank do this' its always been 'how can a bank get away with this'. For me, that is the rub. They are allowed to get away with these things because regulatory bodies tell them its ok. Why? Why can they do this if they are wrong?

[angel_1]

hiya

 

when i was told this by an agent one morning, it was the tone she used that made me suspicious anyway i put it down to her being a point scorer with me,

 

unfortunatley, i wasnt having any abuse from her on mY TELEPHONE line that morning, i retorted back very sweetly that i live in the uk and those were the laws i was abiding by and to put all in writing from now on, she kindly replied she would call back and i sweetly answered and No one will answer you and to this day i havent talked to anyone since, i fixed my phone,oops

 

i think what you are trying to tell us, can be useful to those who have had no dealing so far, but unfortunately, i just dont trust them or any bank or financial organisation anymore - so i will only deal with hard facts from now on, and if i can find uk laws to help me i will use that to my advantage, if court beckons, a year on i feel i can even do that, so i appreciate your comments, i feel i have no respect for the company in the way it has treated me this past year

 

have a fun eve laters angel x8)

[Grummy]

I don't blame anyone for not trusting banks. Il say it again, I left BoA because I know their S&P's are unfair.

 

the BoA approach is this 'Give the outward view that we are doing the right thing for the customer, then screw them over as best we can'.

 

Talking to BoA is great for people who need a footing, because the grunts are good people and they DO want to help as much as they can. Believe it or not, a lot of them DO genuinely care when soemone gets into trouble. But the company only want customers to feel like they're being treated well so they can have an easier time of taking your money.

 

What always irritated me with BoA is that grunts work the collections department, and they need permission to even scratch their own noses from a manager, so you hitting them with 'no calls, only writing' and sputing law at them is an effort in futility. They have no idea what your talking about. (Some DO, but these are just the people who are genuinely keyed up about these things). To the grunts, what FSA says is law, because thats what they are trained to know. Often it is the case that FSA support is enough. Arguing the toss with them only puts customers across as 'acting smarter than they are' (a verbatim quote from a manager who was there when I first started), and unfortunately that is what they are trained to believe. Grunts are made to belieev that customers just don't understand and they have to spout T&C's and FSA regs at them until satisfied.

 

Don't know about anyone else, but that for me is a perfect example of irony if ever there was one.

 

Never blame the grunts, its not their fault. If their attitude sucks, feel free to give them hell about it, the bosses do. Again it comes down to wanting that image of 'customer first'. Sniping and yelling at custoemrs does not go down well in BoA.

[pompeyfaith]

I could not agree with you more angel, how Mbna bank of america plan to to be the best and most respected bank in the world boggles me because they have many thousands of enemy's and not just here in the UK i have read many a story in the US press of disgruntled americans too i can only blame the bank itself for the tactics it uses including the ramping up of interest rates on all cards this happens even if you are a good payer we are in a period when credit card APR's should be coming down maybe not as low as the base rate but none the less they should be cut but no they go up and why because they are like the rest down right greedy.

[banker_rhymes_with]

I think I need this Thread to have Subtitles.

 

It seems to be in US Management Speak with a little hint of a Troll accent. I have no idea what the message is, but let me translate as best I can:

 

Do not speak to the MBNA on the Telephone.

 

Ever.

 

Cheers,

BRW

[Grummy]

I could not agree with you more angel, how Mbna bank of america plan to to be the best and most respected bank in the world boggles me because they have many thousands of enemy's and not just here in the UK i have read many a story in the US press of disgruntled americans too i can only blame the bank itself for the tactics it uses including the ramping up of interest rates on all cards this happens even if you are a good payer we are in a period when credit card APR's should be coming down maybe not as low as the base rate but none the less they should be cut but no they go up and why because they are like the rest down right greedy.

 

You are exactly right. this was pretty much why I opted to leave.

 

BoA have this desire to be the most respected, and their method is to confound customers into thinking they're getting a better deal form BoA than they are anywhere else. We were actually told that as long as we were resepcted and admired more than our rivals, that was the most important thing.

 

Again, ther methods are down to appearences. They cling to their level of compliance to regulations because it make them appear above board. They train their staff to care and take an interest in customers because happy customers are more profitable.

 

And yes, they even DO care if you have financial difficulties and do honour what they put in place with you because, in their eyes, even if they are taking money from someone who is struggling, at least they appear to be caring.

 

ITs all about appearneces to BoA.

 

AS for the thousands who dislike BoA? To them that is acceptable, they see those people as being 'bad eggs' and portray them as such.

 

 

 

Banker_Rhymes. Would care to just come out and say whatever it is your trying to say? It sounds to me like you are accusing me of being a troll.

 

Is this case? And if it is, why? Because I have a different perspective from you, because I can play the devils advocate and telly ou how BoA see things and do things, despite your reservations?

 

Just because you don't like what I have to say, does not make me a troll sir.

[Goldlady]

Do not speak to the MBNA on the Telephone.

 

Ever.

 

Cheers,

BRW

 

Even if they ring your next door neighbours and pretend to be a long lost friend:eek::eek:

[angel_1]

Dont worry about me its thanks to you BRW that i never speak to anyone anymore on the telephone:grin:

 

how they have got my new mobile number, im still fuming about that but i wont admit its me when i do answer an unknown number,

 

i go into a chinese accent,,, no disrespect to the chinese i have some friends i just mimic thier accents and she laughed so much when i answered my phone once that it made her day,,,,lol

 

so far from what my accent is really, it cant be me8-)

 

oh the threads we weave,,,,laters guys angel x

[Grummy]

Dont worry about me its thanks to you BRW that i never speak to anyone anymore on the telephone:grin:

 

how they have got my new mobile number, im still fuming about that but i wont admit its me when i do answer an unknown number,

 

i go into a chinese accent,,, no disrespect to the chinese i have some friends i just mimic thier accents and she laughed so much when i answered my phone once that it made her day,,,,lol

 

so far from what my accent is really, it cant be me8-)

 

oh the threads we weave,,,,laters guys angel x

 

love it.

[guzzleguts]

Subbing, great thread

[banker_rhymes_with]

Subbing, great thread

 

Tread carefully.

 

Any advice that implies MBNA are happy clappy fun people to talk to on the Telephone, who only have your best interests at heart is not good advice.

 

Cheers,

BRW

[guzzleguts]

Thanks BRW

 

I always check with you first, with just about anything im not sure about.

 

GG

[oggy1]

yours is as always great advice brw,

 

having beaten them twice i would never contact them, only in writing.

oggy

[lexis200]

 

OK, all correspondance from BoA is automated. Letters are automatic when sent, and have to be manually stopped by request. Make sure if you want these things done, you do it over the phone as the Grunts on the phone CAN do these things for you. This is not what they have told me on the rare occasions I have spoken to them. Not just a single incident - all of them have said they are unable and I will have to speak to someone else if I want them stopped; they have flat refused to help.

 

With regards to difficulties making repayments. BoA only consider you to be in difficulty if you have missed payments for at least 3 months in a row, if you call up in advance and say, for any reason at all, that you will struggle to meet payments, they will not help you until you are at least 3 months in arrears.

 

With BoA you have 180 days to make agreements with them, otherwise they will pass the debt on to DCA's. It's 7 months according to every letter they send, as they have to do this according the the regulations (the American ones that they follow rather than the English ones that actually govern them). I don't know who they use.

 

Occasionally BoA agents can be abrasive or bad tempered, but on the whole they are all very polite and helpful. No they aren't. The first one OH spoke to broke data protection and lied about it in the notes. Another I spoke to was on the face of it ok, but again on the notes wrote that I'd discussed bankruptcy with him. I most definitely hadn't, and in any case it was not my account so why would I say that? This is because BoA staff WANT to help. On what planet? It is a bizarre company. It drills into you during your training that customer service is key, so all call center agents are very good with customers. If you do every experience a bad one, it is likely they are just having an off day, so have patience with them.

However, even though agents are very good with customers, BoA actually cares little about its customers, it only cares about getting its money. It WILL promote sales to you in every single call, and they WILL continue to hound you about payments until you make an agreement.

 

However, what BoA WILL do is listen, once you are passed that 3 months of arrears. They WILL sit down and listen and come to an arrangement to suit you which they WILL honour. OMG! NO THEY DON'T! We tried to arrange a plan for 7/8 months. Because they follow American laws/code rather than what they should be doing and following English codes, they would not accept our offer. We have been paying it for months now regardless, and have had dozens (literally) of letters telling us it's not enough. They have also flat out lied and said they will insist on an attachment of earnings. Only a court can do this, and when I pressed them on this fact they conveniently forgot to answer it.They hate to lose any customer if they are owed money

 

If you owe them moeny and miss payments or pay late regualrly, you are liked as a customer as you are making the company money, but you are not reliable and as such will never get refunds or charges back formt he company. OH was frequently late in paying as he's terminally dis-organised. It took one initial letter plus an 'I don't accept what you've paid and I want the rest' letter to get the whole lot.

 

Also to note, if you ever ask for an agents name, they are not obliged to provide you their full name and they don;t have to give you any details of their log in names or othe identifying marks. They do need to give you a first name though. But they don't have to. If you have a problem with a particular agent, tkae down the time and date then make your compalint however you want. The BoA systems record who takes a call for which custoemrs and when on every single call.

 

Account Statments. Any Credit ard you have held which has been issued by MBNA BoA, all the account details, statements are held by BoA, however be advised, BoA only hold information from upto 6 years previous. Anything longer than that is lost. If you are thinking of looking at charges applied prior to Feb 2003, you will not be able to get ahold of the statments. Just had OH's back from middle of '02. Cards issued by BoA for other companies (A&L, Abbey, Virgin etc) these companies never hold the account information and won't be able to get it for you, it is only through BoA it is available.

 

Ok something people might find useful. Any time you call BoA, there is a record kept of when you called and who picked up the call. It doesn't give names, just a series of letters and numbers by which a grunt can be traced and identified. In these calls, grunts have a uick link to highlight what the call was concerning, and then add notes f necesary regarding what was discussed in the call and any action taken that has caused changes to the account. OFten is the case that a customer will call up, and changes can't be made immediately, so a grunt will pend the action until it is able to be fulfilled. In these events, account notes are not always left immediately, and will be left one action is completed. Of course if the grunt forgets or deletes the pend by mistake or is off sick, then no one will know about it.

 

However, you CAN ask for full transcripts of every call made and every dicsussion about your account. How if they only record 2/3 calls out of 80? A transcript would require absolute knowledge of the contents of the call. You can get the notes/memos, but as I've already pointed out they are quite happy to lie in these, and handily as they are not recorded you can't prove it. Now then if anyone does this, they will see it come across as abbreviation and jargon specific to the company. If anyone does get ahold of one of these for themselves, please bring them to my attention and I'll decipher them for you so you will know what BoA are claiming to have happened during a call.

 

I'm sorry if I seem harsh here, but I'm wondering how long ago you worked for them. Maybe things were different then.

 

It's very good for you to play devils advocate, but that requires the information you use to be correct, and a lot of what you have said is for me, and many other people who's stories I've read, very inaccurate.

 

If you are genuinely trying to help that's great, but please don't say things like 'they DO want to help' as quite frankly it's a pile of c**p, as the majority of people dealing with them will testify.

 

In your point to BRW you ask if he thinks you're a troll because you are putting accross how BofA think and act. I would imagine it's not due to how you are saying they think, it's that you are saying they act in this manner too. They don't. These are not isolated incidents. If you are in financial trouble and don't meet their criteria, they couldn't care less about helping you.

 

Saying they think in a certain way can be useful as an insight. Saying they act in a certain way when there is overwhelming evidence that they do not, and inviting people to phone when you have stated that they do not really bother recording (so you won't have any proof of what's been said) is what makes it sound like trolling.

 

Please accept my apologies if you are trying to help, this is just how the post comes across.