Well Mbna Whats Going On

[nigel J sellick]

I spoke with the MBNA tonight i have sent the form asking for a list of my charges over the past 6 years with my 10.00.

when i spoke with them tonight after noticeing since may they have started to charge 12.00 instead of 25.00 the man said we have taken note of the uling and have bought our fees in to line so i said what about back dating my refund ...IN SO MANY WORDS HE SAID YOU DONT STAND A CHANCE SO DONT WASTE YOUR TIME! is he right can i claim the 25.00 back a month for the last 6 years up to may this year? or do i claim 13.00 back for the last 6 years as 12.00 is said to be a fair charge?

 

 

please advise in plain english please (not a clever person here:eek: )

 

nigel

[Glenn UK]

Irrespective of their revised position if you have been charged penalties you can reclaim them.

 

Its completely illogical if you have been charged 25, 30 quid or whatever prior to their changed perspective.

 

FWIW

 

Bearing in mind the gorwing movement agaisnt these bank charges unless one of them can demonstrate that the cost of administering the account under the various circumstances amounts to more than pennys, and i dont think they can, then the charges of this order will be illegal based on them being disproporitionate to the cost of the work involved.

 

Generally the estimates for the actual costs of admini9stering our accoutns when bouncing cheques, paying visa payments whilst overdrawn etc range from a few pennys to a couple of quid depending on how you look at it.

 

Personally the very fact they charge interest when overdrawn would seem to offset their losses and so basically its a question of how much it costs to send out several tens of thousands of letters a day rather than anything else.

 

JMHO

glenn

[scottyb46]

Incidentally, with the credit card charges (I can't talk about banks as I never worked for one, only a credit card company) it would be a struggle for the CC companies to prove the costs of administering late and overlimit fees were more than a pound. Given that when I worked in the industry the average annual cost of servicing an active account was under £40, it's not very likely that it will even cost £12 to issue a late OR overlimit fee is it, partcularly when there is NO manual intervention whatsoever to issue these fees. Unless you count the programme administrator's fag break as manual intervention...

[nigel J sellick]

lol he smokes too much thanks

[lisamellor]

did you get the persons name you spoke to on the phone?? just wondering as id ring him back when i got my cash back and say .... dont have a chance eh!!

they think theyre somthing dont they!

lisaxx

[Jackie-b]

LOL ... I had a similar conversation with some idiot at MBNA. He was full of himself saying "Go ahead but you don't stand a chance" ....he also said that paying minimum payments is never meant to pay off a balance which I think an absolutely ridiculous statement to make ....especially when working for a credit card company ...it just makes em look even more like rip off merchants.

Anyway, I took his name and when I've been successful with my claim I'm going to call him back.

[PhantomReclaimer]

No hes not right...the £12 is still not reflective of their true cost, you can claim everything back from them until they stand up in court and prove their charges are proportianate to their costs.

 

Hi, new here.

 

Just a note about this proportionality of costs thing. It seems to be assumed that a charge will definately be held to be lawful if it is shown to accurately reflect the cost the bank has incurred. From my reading of the UFCTA 1977 this is not the case. Sec.4 of the Act clearly says that a party acting as a consumer cannot be required to indemnify anyone else against negligence. It then goes on to say that such an indemnity may be legal if it is held to be reasonable. The Act does not say that such an indemnity will be lawful just because it accurately compensates for the damage your negligence causes. Indeed, the whole premiss of that section is one that all indemnity clauses are unlawful per-se. Merely showing that the ammount of the penalty is accurate does not make the actual application of the charge legal.

 

To my mind anyone seeking to rely on such a charge would have to satisfy a two part test to satisfy the "reasonableness" criteria. Firstly that the application of any charge at all was reasonable and, once they have established that, that the actual amount of the charge was reasonable.

 

The Act sets down a test of reasonableness. The first element in that test is that of the relative negotiating strength of the parties. I cannot see how any large company, especially a bank, can hope to pass this test because they have vastly more negotiating power than us. They simply operate a "take it or leave it" policy and are never likely to negotiate clauses such as charges. Moreover, the negotiating power of the consumer is further hampered as all the banks operate broadly similar policies in relation to charging so you don't have the benefit of the negotiating tool known as "stuff your charges, I'll go elsewhere" and not having a bank account is not an option these days.

 

P.

[tamadus]

Nigel, go ahead and claim, after all it's your money they took from you unlawfully. If you follow the guidance on this site you WILL get back every penny.

 

I also had a telephone conversation with an MBNA 'customer service rep' who claimed that as they are an American owed Bank they are governed by American law and regulations NOT British law and regulations. According to him they are not covered by the OFT, FSA or British consumer credit law

 

He also claimed they were going to issue default notices and pass my accounts onto a DCA despite them being in dispute as they were legally obliged to.

 

I told him he needs to speak to his companies legal department and take a course in politeness

[Guest Niklowe]

That is absolute rubbish. They have to be regulated by the FSA to trade in the UK. My wife works for a big american owned financial institution, far bigger than MBNA. As part of her job she has to take FSA exams to comply with the law.

[tamadus]

Exactly my point in making the post about it. The customer reps really have no idea about charges or the law, they dont need to really as they only follow a prepared script to try and intimidate the customer into making more and bigger commitments. In my case he actually argued that they are legally obliged to register detrimental information (ie. default notices etc) with the credit reference agencies even though when an account is in dispute they are not allowed to register default notices etc.

 

I also made a reduced offer of payment through a DMP with CCCS which they have stated doesnt meet the amount dictated to them by their american parent and under american law. The fact that to meet their demand is going to mean somebody else doesnt get paid is irrelevant. Ah well I guess its going to be fun in court when I tell the judge that they registered a default against me while the account was in clear dispute.

 

If they choose to operate in this country then they are legally obliged to abide by and be governed by British law.

[nigel J sellick]

HI People well what about this? i sent off my request that they send me the charges applied to my account for the past six years with my cheque for 10.00 ages ago, the other day one of the managers from the credit agency of mbna trying to get my repayments up a bit he said he would now freeze interest and charges on my account and make my payments down to 19 or 20 a month and make them str8 repayments so they actually come off the outstanding balance. and as a good will gesture he would refund the two charges of 25.00 for this month.......... today i received a letter from mbnasteve bailey pp s pemberton giving me there side of the story as to why they fill there charges are justified and correct bla bla bla they didnt send me the 6 years report as i requested but some small print out and returned my cheque saying that they gave me this information free of charge and that if i wanted the full data protec thing id have to send off again and pay £ 10.00 lol but at the bottom of the letter it says i Quote "we do value your custom so we would like to resolve this matter. I have therefore credited your account with a goodwill payment of £310.00 on the basis that this is in full and finalsettlement of your complaint" wow didnt expect that after the nasty phone calls from them and there collection agency that have hasseled me for months BUT thats not all when i looked at my account on the net to see if they had done it my credit card shows a balance of zero no outstanding payments and new credit limit £500.00 i owe them around £1800??? whats going on??? can someone advise me lol and should i send the data thing again and accept there offer ???? :shock:

[CrispDust]

Close the account quick and walk away?

[nigel J sellick]

shame i actually looked in to it they just deleted all records

[vonnie32]

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth is my opinion for what it's worth!

 

Don't know about the legalities but I would be inclined to agree with closing the account and counting your blessings.

[gbzstro]

Do ho accept there offer - only accept it as part payment towards your claim. PHONE them on Monday (Mr Bailey) and you may well find that they offer the lot inc compound interest.

[nigel J sellick]

Gbzstro, Thanks For That, I Will £310 Is Far Less Then What They Have Charged Me On There Little Print Out Theu Sent Me As They Didnt Send Me The 6 Year Report Like I Requested.... I Think I Will Re Submit My 6 Year Report Request And Tell Them I Accept The £310 But Will Be Going For The Full Calculated Amount...once I Get The Report

[gbzstro]

Next job is to add up all the charges that they have sent you and then send or a prelim request for these amounts - send it recorded delivery and dont forget to phone them on Monday - you might get a pleasent surprise - I did!

[nigel J sellick]

thanks will do, but shouls i wait for them to send me the 6 year report which is what i asked them for but they returned my cheque and told me they sent this small print out free of charge? or phone anyway?

[gbzstro]

If they made you a goodwill offer - which they did! - then they already know what they owe you inc compound interest - you need to speak to Garath Tunicliff (I spoke to a Paul in the same department) and the offer was made to me within the hour! Even so .... dont give up your deadlines or time table - stick to them but make that call and report back here !!!

[gbzstro]

Forgot the number ...

 

Garath Tunnicliffe 01244 672628

[nigel J sellick]

ok so should my conversation be like this, im telling you i am happy to accept your offer of £310 but im informing you that i intend to claim the full amount of what you owe me but i would like my 6 year report as originally asked for(as there print out only shows about 500 ) i dont know what the correct figure is?

[gbzstro]

No need to get into any legal stuff on the phone - in fact I would recommend against it and be VERY civil on the phone - the guy who I spoke too was very tired of abuse - "but as you seem like a reasnable guy I will help you out"

 

"Hi can you help me? I have recived a letter offering a goodwill payment of £310 - however this is a little short of the ??? as listed by your shcedule that you sent me with the letter "

 

"If we work this out the total amount for you will you accept this today?"

 

"yes if you also include the compound interest"

 

"No problem! - let me get back to you in a hour...."

 

Job done! with out all the letter writting and waiting etc.

 

It worked for me and I got £2.2K against my claim of £1170 the extra was the compound interest - at first they offred me £630 as a goodwill....

[nigel J sellick]

ok cheers m8 ill let you know how i get on on monday

[gbzstro]

Please do and good luck with your call.

[nigel J sellick]

i rang them this morning and guess what..........steve bailey isnt to be found anywhere lol so they couldnt find the head of customer service i told the customer service adviser that the £310.00 was far less then the amount shown on there list of charges and that i doubted if that was the full history of charges for 6 years that i originally asked for and said i will accept this but i intend to ask for my subject access request to see the full history and i will be claiming the full amount... he said he would get Mr Bailey to ring me himself .......Lets see what he says????