Aktiv Kapital chasing sons MBNA debt - scotland too

[Bob Spiers]

Long story short

 

Aktiv bought MBNA credit card debt which had been incurred by my son.

 

Unfortunately card was in my name.

 

Son made payments to MBNA for years (his monthly payments to MBNA were more than my income)

until he incurred mental health problems and b*ggered off leaving me with the mess.

 

I've written to AK advising of situation,

got copy CCA from them (it's an old combined application form/CCA from 1999 WITHOUT full T&C's),

 

used template letter asking Aktiv to write off debt,

explained about my son and said all I could offer was nominal £1 a month (also sent AK budget sheet showing I have no spare income as I'm disabled and on benefit).

 

AK wrote back saying

"Having reviewed the details and based on the information that you have provided,

I can confirm that AK can not agree to writing off the balance and closing this account.

 

This decision has been based on your income and expenditure and the severity of your health issues.

I do wish to be constructive in this matter and sympathise with your situation.

 

In an effort to assist you AK is prepared to accept nominal payments of £1 per month towards your outstanding balance.

This decision has been taken in view of your current situation

and will be reviewed in 6 months unless we are advised of a change in your circumstances."

 

I almost sent them £1 right away but something made me suspicious.

 

Why were they so ready to accept £1 a month plus

why the 6 month review when they know my financial situation won't change?

 

Nothing has been paid to the account since October 2012.

 

Am I right to be suspicious?

 

Debt is just over £10K and AK offered just over £1K discount in the second letter they wrote me after they bought the debt in November last year

and before I've even replied to them.

 

Maybe I'm too cynical but something just doesn't seem to sit right with me.

[silverfox1961]

Hi and welcome to CAG. Sorry you were missed.

 

As this account is in your name, you have the right to see statements of the account to see if any charges were added and if any PPI was added

 

As for AK, they are not allowed to refuse any offer of payment and as is normal with most DCAs, they review after 6 months.

 

The problem with paying £1 a month is that the debt will take forever to pay off and they won't like it hence the offer. remember, DCAs buy debts for a fraction of the book value. This could be as little as 10p in the £. Also by paying the £1 a month, this debt will never become Statute Barred

[renegadeimp]

Normally, ESPECIALLY with AK, discounts mean its a lemon debt.

[Bob Spiers]

Thanks very much for the replies. By lemon debt do you mean they know they'll never get it repaid or do you mean they think the debt's unenforceable?

 

I really don't know whether to make £1 a month payments or not. On the one hand I want to show willing and would happily pay it forever but, on the other hand, I don't want to pay it and then they start harassing me a few months down the line. They've already started phoning me again even though I'd requested months ago that they only deal in writing.

[renegadeimp]

Lemon debt means there is something wrong with it, so they wont try court unless they are 100% sure of a default judgement. It could be theres no paperwork, PPI/Unlawful charges/interest etc etc. It is very rare for a DCA to offer a discount off their own back with no prompting.

[dpick]

Hi check the CCA sent see if it has all the prescribed terms on it, I had 1 from 2000 that had none of the prescribed terms

 

dpick

[Bob Spiers]

It is very rare for a DCA to offer a discount off their own back with no prompting.

That's what I thought so I was suspicious at them offering a discount (albeit only about 10%) before I even replied to their first letter. I wouldn't be surprised but there's something wrong with the paperwork.

 

Hi check the CCA sent see if it has all the prescribed terms on it, I had 1 from 2000 that had none of the prescribed terms

 

dpick

It's an old MBNA application form and combined CCA from 1999 with only a few of the T&C's on it. It even says to refer to the T&C's but, of course, there aren't any with it.

 

I really don't know what to do next.

 

 

Edited to add - I don't think there was anything wrong with charges as there was rarely any on the account and there wasn't any PPI. They hiked the interest high years ago but that was normal with MBNA.

[renegadeimp]

pre april 2007 the CCA must be a copy of the original and have the T&C's at inception, closure and any changes through the life of the account. They could reconstitute one, but since they have already offered you a discount and fumbled with a previous request, they dont have the right info.

[dx100uk]

get an SAR off to MBNA

 

AK WILL chance their arm in court with this

 

they always do.

 

A kleeners brought 10,000's of large MBNA debts when the yanks brought MBNA out last year.

 

if MBNA sold it there is a VERY GOOD REASON

 

find it.

 

dx

[Bob Spiers]

I've already got a SAR from MBNA.

 

It took them months to provide it.

 

They ignored my first SAR request

- but cashed the cheque and sold the debt to AK instead.

 

It still took MBNA another couple of months to provide it after I chased it up.

 

Is there something in particular that I should be looking for on the SAR?

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but I keep thinking that, if I was taken to court, a court wouldn't look too favourably on MBNA for 'encouraging' the debt.

ie. account opened in 1999 with a £1200 credit limit.

 

I became disabled and unable to work in 2000 yet, over the years, the credit limit was raised to £12500 by MBNA without me asking them to

nor them ever checking on my financial status.

 

If they had they would've seen there was no way I could afford such a debt.

 

The account was in my name but was used by my son although he didn't become an actual additional card holder till 2011 at MBNA's suggestion

so he could contact them direct about the account as he was making payments from his bank account.

 

As I said earlier too it's easy to see that it wasn't me paying it as the payments were more than my income.

 

There's also a couple of personal things about my son and his health that I feel a court would have empathy with

and, having told AK the full situation regarding my son, I think they might realise it too.

 

I'm really loathe to start payments as nothing has been paid for a year now and,

although I've written to AK I keep telling them that although the account is in my name, it's my son's debt, not mine.

 

I feel as if they just want me to pay £1 so it'll stop the SB time clock so I don't know whether I should call their bluff.

[dx100uk]

wel if there aren't heeps of PENALTY charges nor PPI

 

then its got to be the rather poor actions they took I agree.

 

is there are defaulted date on the cra file?

 

dx

[Bob Spiers]

 

is there are defaulted date on the cra file?

 

dx

 

On my closed accounts on Noddle,

MBNA has status as Satisfied and

 

in the details on the account they've put 'date of default 31/10/2012' ,

'Account End Date 31/12/2012' and it shows

a default on October with 'Account Defaulted' on November and December 2012.

 

On my Noddle Open accounts

 

AK have status as Default and

in the details on the account they've put

'Account Start Date as 29/10/1999' which is the date the account was opened with MBNA?

 

They've also put the 'date of default as 31/10/2012'

and on the months at the bottom,

they've put a Default on March 2013 followed by 'Account Defaulted' in April, May, June, July, August and September 2013.

 

For some reason they were very, very late in putting the 'Account Defaulted' on September.

 

It was while I was waiting to hear if they would write the account off or not and it got my hopes up for a few weeks LOL.