Glenn Vs MBNA ** SETTLED **

[Glenn UK]

Well received standard response promising action within 28 days, no statements so far though.

[Glenn UK]

Out of curiosity, MBNA have acknowledged receipt of my SAR and are dealing with it as a claim.

 

I ampresuming that since they havent made the same issue over the microfiche that abbey do that I can ignore this letter and dont need to send them the re-inforcing letter re DPA and microfiche/40days etc?

 

Is my assumption correct?

 

Glenn

[Glenn UK]

PO Box 30

Chester

CH4 9FD

 

24th August 2006

 

 

Letter Before Action

Data Protection Act 1998

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Your Ref : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

I thank you for your letter dated 22nd August 2006 and note the contents therein.

 

You will note that my Subject Access Request (dated 22nd July 2006) requested a complete list of transactions and charges relating to my banking history with your organisation. Alternatively, a complete set of statements for that period will be acceptable.

 

Your response only includes a list of charges and doesn’t indicate the transactions.

 

You have made no reference to whether manual intervention is involved in the application of the charges applied to the account.

 

Accordingly, I have to tell you that you have not yet complied with your obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998.

 

You will be aware that the initial 40 day statutory period is coming to a close and finishes on 31st August 2006.

 

In an effort to avoid the possibility of court action can you supply the following information before 31st August 2006.

 

1. The date that the account was opened.

2. A true copy of the original signed agreement between the MBNA and myself.

3. The details of the transactions and charges over the whole life of the account.

 

In the event that the requested information is not forthcoming within the statutory period I will instigate court action under Section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

[Glenn UK]

Right Sent off a LBA for reclaiming charges since i last posted in here.

[Glenn UK]

A bit of an update.

 

MBNA have settled in full but i have a few words of warning for those claiming and talking to MBNA to settle their claims

 

When i 1st spoke to them it was about my LBA for non-complaince with the SAR.

 

To help things along I faxed my LBA over for charges. They confirmed the amount of charges for the last six ears, but when prompted did divulge the charges pre six years. They offered to calculate the charges paid too.

 

Because i had some estimated charges in my LBA i wasnt going to be rushed so when they offered to settle i said I wanted to think about it.

 

I then set out a schedule of chagres and costs :

 

Fee for SAR £10.00

Letters x 6 @ £6.75 each

Postage x 6 @ £1.00

Charges

Interest paid @ 16.9%

Contractual @ 22.9% compunded from date of each chrg.

 

The point of listing this is that during the discussions it became clear that they didint intend to add the interest I was charging them.

 

The interest they told me i was due was only the interest I had paid. In my case I think I made a slight mistake because id didnt revise my estimated interest to match their value and I think I lost £100 or so.

 

However, I am happy, the value of my claim ended up more than double my charges and Im happy with that.

 

All I would say to those claiming and talking to MBNA is make sure you know what you are intending to claim and dont accept anything else. have your arguments ready about why you should have them and be prepared for them to argue.

 

 

HTH

 

Glenn

.

[Glenn UK]

Hi,

 

When I spoke to MBNA a few weeks ago they told me that they were not allowed to keep any statements on file for more than six years under VISA / Mastercard regulations. I told them that this was very unusual as as far as I knew, all the regulations said was that records had to be kept a minimum of six months. The guy on the other end was very insistent though.

 

If they found and calculated your charges gong back further than six years then it sounds like this guy was talking out of his backside as I thought. What did you say to prompt them for the earlier charges?

 

You should be cautious about interpretting what they tell you, did they say they didnt have statements or they didnt have the data?

 

Maybe theyre the same thing, maybe not.

 

Anyway I had estimated charges back to when the account started, I had estimated an amount for every month where i didint have a statements and some were older than 6 years.

 

We discussed the limitations act and why i thought the court would see it my way and he checked for earlier charges.

 

HTH

 

GLenn

[Glenn UK]

Basically the interest you pay on your credit card balance is typcially around 16.9%.

 

So you have paid this or a similar amount on the charges. This is difficult to work out but MBNA can work it out and this is what they have been doing for people.

 

In my case i estimated and i think I lost around £100 as a result.

 

Anyway when you have your charges and have a value for the interest charged then you can use a spreadssheet to calculate the interest at the cash advance value of 22.4%.

 

YOu cannot use vampiress standard spreadsheets, or more to the point you can but you will lose out.

 

You need the spreadsheet from Vampiress site accessed from a link in her singature or use the one produced by MINDZAI from a link in his signature.

 

Use these sheets wil compound the interest. The difference between that and the simple interest is signficant.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

 

PS better to take another day or two getting your figures sorted and any arguments you want to use about why you should get what youre asking for, it will be worth it.

[Glenn UK]

Sadly Vampiress standard spreadsheet wont compound the interest, you still need one that does that.

 

Its not the rate of interest its the way its applied thats critical here.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

[Glenn UK]

MBNA are settling and short changing many people.

 

Before agreeing to settle make sure you get your full entitlement it may make a lot of difference to you.

 

Make sure you know the full amount you are entitled to before ringing them.

 

I set out a schedule of charges and costs and faxed this to them so they knew what i wanted in order to settle my claim.

 

My schedule included the following:

 

Fee for S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) £10.00

Letters x 6 @ £6.75 each

Postage x 6 @ £1.00

Charges

Interest I had paid on the charges @ 16.9%

Contractual @ 22.9% compounded from date of each chrg on the charges and interest I had paid.

 

The point of listing this is that during the discussions it became clear that they didn't intend to add the interest I was charging them.

 

The interest they told me i was due was only the interest I had paid. I argued that I thought the court would see it differently.

 

All I would say to those claiming and talking to MBNA is make sure you know what you are intending to claim and don't accept anything else. Have your arguments ready about why you should have them and be prepared for them to argue.

 

 

HTH

 

Glenn

[Glenn UK]

Gordon

 

No its not what i feel is fair, my professional charge out rate varies between 135 - 175 (edit i wish 1750 !) per hour, this rate was determined following a thread and apparently a litigant in person can charge half the rate of a legal professional (solicitor i think?)

 

I think the thread was called something like 'can we charge them for our letters?'

 

JonChris posted info about charges and the charge per letter was 6.75 and hourly rate was 9.00 odd. To charge the hourly rate you need to keep notes and I haven't done that.

 

I would check the thread out for yourself so you can see where it comes from. Of course if you go through small claims then its unlikely the court would award costs, but hey pre court you can tell them thats what you want and if its fast track then i guess its worth making a schedule and asking the court to approve it when you win.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

[Glenn UK]

Miss Joy

 

the limitations Act includes sec 5 i think it is that states that you cannot sue for a contractual breach more than 6 years old.

 

Fortunately Sec 32 says that where the defendant has concealed the nature of their breach of you made a mistake then the limitations applies from when you could or should have discovered the breach and then you have six years to sue from that date.

 

Most take the publication of the OFTs report into Cc charges as the start date from which you have 6 years to sue.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

[Glenn UK]

NO you can claim back as far as you want, the six years is looking forward from april 2006 so you have until april 2012 to enter your claim for all the unlawful charges they took from you.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

[Glenn UK]

Missjoy

 

You should however research the Limitations Act particuallry sec 32 since the banks will say you cant claim that far back so you need to be ready with your arguments as to why you can.

 

HTH

 

glenn

[Glenn UK]

The SAr should be sent to the Data controller specifically, i dont know the individuals name but this is the post you should use as the address to send it to.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

[Glenn UK]

Nancies

 

Before you even consider ringing them make sure you know exactly what you are entitled to.

 

They wont necessarily tell you the whole story and you may loose out if you dont know exactly what you want to settle.

 

MBNA are not doing the right thing as is being said, they are settling to save themselves money and if that means they can reduce what they pay you it is a benifit to them.

 

They are not being kind.

 

If they offer you more than you expect its because you are entitled to more but haven't realised it. chances are they will offer more than you ask but in truth you will probably be entitled to more.

 

Read the thread linked in my signature to make sure you get what you should.

 

Glenn

 

PS any questions drop me a pm or post in here

[Glenn UK]

Did you tell nancie where to go for spreadsheets? As to my settlement, Colin took my submitted spreadsheet. then from the interest payemts that had been taken from my account, he worked out the component of that due to charges interest and similarly for both retail and cash transactions, using the compound rate of 22.9%. When I took out the card the similar rate was 16.9% and it hs fluctuated over a range of values. Now it is at 26.9%. If you want to take each single entry and then calculate the prevailing rate for each, then you are correct, but I would suspect that you would not be closer than a tolerance of + or - 10% of what was paid.

 

 

So for illustration purposes you can claim the charges, plus the interest paid, then on top of this ,i claimed contractual interest on each charge and the interest i had paid.

 

 

I also claimed all my costs for the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request), postage, cost of writing the letters.

 

If this is what you end up with and MBNA are calculating all this then thats fine, if they aren't, and they didn't for me nor anyone else i have seen post yet, then you are loosing out.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

[Glenn UK]

Sandra

Its all part of MBNAs ploy to stop you claiming back what you are entitled to and unless people ringing know the language they will get confused and loose out.

 

You paid some charges which were unlawful and you can claim those back, they are late payment fees, excess overdraft fees stuff like that.

 

When you pay those fees it impacts on the interest you have to pay MBNA. So because you have paid that interest you can claim that back. MBNA charge that interest according to the terms and conditions and apply the contractual rate of interest, in my case it was 16.9% compounded, so in other words you have already paid interest and are entitled to that back too.

 

Then because you are forced to sue them to get back what you have actually paid you can ask for interest because they have taken your money unlawfully.

 

You can either apply the contractual rate of interest or claim sec 69 interest on everything you have paid.

 

 

Think of it this way, they have taken your money and had the use of it and earned interest on it, they have reinvested it and earned interest on the interest as well. You on the other hand have incurred losses and lost opportunities and may even have had to take further loans to cover for the money they unlawfully took from your account.

 

So you are entitled to claim for the lost opportunity and their unjust enrichment, the effect is that you charge them the contractual rate of interest on the lot.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

 

 

PS if anything is not clear then ask, MBNA are serving their own needs not those of customers, as far as i can make out nearly every person who has phoned and settled has lost out and yet still people ring without understanding or being prepared.

[Glenn UK]

What do you want to talk to them about?

 

IF they are arguing that the £12 is lawful and that any charges applied since a specific date cannot be refunded they are acting unlawfully unless the charges are a true reflection of their costs.

 

Since all the independent evidence in the public arena has suggested that the cost of sending a letter out for a late payment or similar is a few penny's.

 

I suggest you write to them telling them you don't accept this unless you intend to submit in the future.

 

If you write there is no doubt about your intent or what you want in the future. Ring and there is always room for debate. Even if you are very confident its always possible that you would give something away you don't mean to.

 

JMHO

 

Glenn

[Glenn UK]

Bunnykins

 

In truth in small claimsthe courts wont generally award you costs, so adding in costs for letters may be considered 'cheeky'.

 

so i wouldn't add them to my claim, although i would go to court with a schedule in my hands that should i get asked what my costs were i could hand it over in 'all innocence'.

 

Re interest i wold write back to them with a further LBA and revise the interest to the level you want to claim, it gives them another 14 days but you wont run the risk of them complaining they haven't had time to deal with it.

 

JMHO

 

Glenn

[Glenn UK]

A m I entitled to ask for all info on my MBNA credit card account going back to 1994 ?

URGENT ANSWER REQUIRED PLEASE.

THANKS

 

if you mean does the DPA restrict you to six years the answer is no.

 

The SAR template from the library asks for all transactional data for the account history and by default this means as long as you have held the account,

 

when they write back and tell you they haven't got your data then you can take them to court.

 

HTH

 

Glenn

[Glenn UK]

Gareth Tunicliffe was the guy i spoke to, nice polite guy but he wasnt giving anyhting away.

 

Glenn

[Glenn UK]

Mods forgot to ask can you mark this as settled please

[Glenn UK]

Thanks Ladybird.. Will open a new thread oncde I get some response.

 

You cant get a response until you post something to respond to!

 

oops i responded

 

Perhaps if you want some help you can start your own thread and then people will respond.

 

Glenn