MBNA where do I stand?

[hermit]

I used to have a Virgin Credit Card, who were owned by MBNA. I remember the day I got it, a lady encouraged me to have it one day as I was shopping for CD's in the Virgin store in Aberdeen, took my details on the clipboard, this would be back in 2001/2002, but I can't find the date. I ran in to money problems a couple years later and in August 2004 the account was sold to Link Financial, who give them their dues haven't hassled me to much, so long as I continue to make regular payments. I'm now left with about £300 to pay.

 

Having found this forum in the past year I am slowly taking back control of my finances, not quite my life yet through, I still have a long way to go... Some £13k. I have been reading about other peoples dealings with MBNA and one thing stands out, I have never received a letter from them saying the account has been sold on, where does this leave me now?

 

Also, in 2007 I set about trying to claim back bank charges, requesting about £350 worth, I eventually received a letter and an offer of £104 which I've just found the cheque (un-cashed) for. I had sent a letter suggesting this wasn't sufficient and I wanted a full refund, which was I think put on hold and then turned down. Do I try and cash the cheque now, or is there a chance I could get them to reopen the case and repay more?

[citizenB]

I would imagine the cheque is well out of date now, if it was issued in 2007. I guess you could try and see if they will reissue a new one for you. If there is only £300.00 left to settle the account, you could ask them to refund to the account and get that over and done with more quickly. Or you could make another attempt at getting all the charges back !

 

Erm.. methinks it is probably a little too late to now question whether Link have the right to collect monies..!

[ims21]

Hi hermit

 

In respect of the cheque you found, if it is more than 6 months old you won't be able to cash it.

 

Also I think that reclaiming bank charges on current accounts is now a non starter due to recent cases.

 

In respect of the selling of the debt, yu should have received a goodbye letter from the origianl creditor and a hello letter from the new owner. Did you get both of these?

 

When was the last payment made on that account since looking by the dates, if you haven't paid anything or ackowledged the debt then it may be coming close to being statutory barred.

 

ims

[hermit]

It was a credit card account.

 

I never received a goodbye letter from MBNA, but I did get the hello from Link, I have been paying them since, at about £5 a month.

 

I know the cheque is old now, but I have been told that you can still try and cash them, but it might not work.

 

I appreciate that £300 outstanding isn't very much, but even so at £5 a month its going to take a few years to get rid off...

[citizenB]

£300, is a mega amount if you have financial problems..

 

Usually the time limit for cashing cheques is 6 months. So it might be worth contacting whoever issued it. Advise that for whatever reason it hadnt been cashed and you would now like them to issue a replacement. They will see from their own records that it hasnt been through their bank

[ims21]

Although your claim to bank charges won't work now, wha about charges on the credit card you mention. Are there late fees/overlimit fees on that which you could still claim back?

 

If there are, it could be worth going for.

 

ims

[hermit]

They are a mix of over limit fees and late fees. Are these still reclaimable? If I managed to get these back it would be enough to clear this debt and leave enough to have a little celebratory drink!

[ims21]

Hi Hermit

 

This is good news. If its a credit card you can claim back all of those unlawful charges plus compond interest plus statutory interest.

 

If you don't have all the statements,your first step will be SAR virgin.

 

It will cost you £10 but will yield ALL the information that virgin hold on you in connection with their dealings with them. This will include all statements. From these you can determine the amount of the charges and the dates paid and from there you can formulate your claim.

 

Get this underway as soon as possible. They will have 40 days to comply.

 

There are templates for SAR requests on this site.

 

If you are finding it difficult to make the payments you currently make, reduce them.

 

You tell them what you are going to pay, not the other way round.

 

You will get muchos help from this site to get your credit card charges back.

 

ims

[hermit]

Hi Ims, this is more than good news, I will SAR them ASAP, but will be next week now when I can afford the £10. However, I have a Capital One account, which I am currently still using, although I have had considerable charges on this other the years, so I guess I can claim this back as well? What's the next stage as I have a full set of statements for this account. I have sent Capital One a letter requesting my PPI back today!

[ims21]

Aha, good old Crap1 again.

 

Excellent that you have the statements for this one 'cos you can start your claim straight away!

 

You can claim back Crap1 charges/ overlimit fees plus compound interest and plus statutory interest at 8% via court.

 

First you need to get all your statements and prepare a spreadsheet showing the date, nature of charge and the amount of charge.

 

Are you spreadsheet savvy? There is a template for the spreadsheet in one of the stickies at the top of this forum I believe.

 

You then need to work out the compound interest for each of these charges running from the date of the charge right up to now. I can help you with all this if you like.

 

First though, make the list as i suggested.

 

When you have prepared the claim, the process will be a preliminary letter to capital 1 asking for the charges plus interest back. They will refuse or, as they did in my case, make a paltry offer. You will refuse this offer and send a letter before action. In, my case they oncreased their offer but nowhere near what I was asking for.

 

They will say that this is their final decision so then you can issue court papers.

 

Have a look at other cap1 threads and you will see how it normally goes. They tend to cough a couple of days before geting into court.

 

Be aware that this is your decision as to whether you want to take them to court of course.

 

Suggest you get reading around the cap1 forum to familiarise yourself with the process.

 

ims

Edited May 18, 2011 by ims21

[hermit]

Thanks, I'll head there now... I can work a spreadsheet... Kind off...

[slick132]

Hi Hermit,

 

This is a good spready to use - http://www.shweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/interestcalcs.xls

 

Also, read the Interest Tutorial linked in my signature about claiming back interest in restitution.