Hi Maz, Of course they would follow the correct procedure for obtaining a charging order. And yes, they would try this first before selling the debt on. The default notice is sent when you hit 180 days arrears, if by month end at 180 days you have not paid up, most accounts are 'sold' to Debt Clear Recoveries. Which is a group of desks situated within MBNA Chester, it is part of MBNA and they have a PO Box address registered to Manchester. If you pay Debt Clear, you are paying MBNA. If Debt Clear haven't managed to secure a payment, they then sell the debt on to a DCA for around 10p for every £1.

Hi Lily, It would depend on what you actually owned at the time of being in arrears. Is your name on the mortgage? Are MBNA threatening you with the charging order?

Hi Pudst, 1. Although MBNA service the Virgin credit card, Virgin are still very fussy about how their customers are dealt with (that's why all Virgin cards are Mastercards, because Virgin weren't happy with the service offered by Visa) Virgin will have stipulated that their accounts are referred to a specific company to recoup the payments. 2. When the account is 'charged off' (default) they will send a letter explaining who the account was sold to, the balance of the account when sold and the date it was sold. However, I have spoken to many customers who clain they have never received this letter. You should call them and ask for another copy of it to ensure it matches what they have reported to the CRA

Sorry, I've not replied sooner, my internet died on me last week, so haven't been online. The way it works with reduced payments is, the monthly payments must work out at more than 0.8% of the total balance, otherwise it doesn't pay off your account within 10 years (legally, accounts with USA banks have to pay down within 10 years) if your offer is less than the 0.8% of the total balance each month. i.e. your balance is £10,000 and you're only offering £20 per month then they refer it to SXG (no one actually knows what this stands for) but this department will do all they can to try and get you to sell any assets and perform land registry searches to see if they can obtain a charging order on your property.

Post to that address goes to the same post room as the Customer Advocate Office, specific requests for SAR and copy statments to avoid delay should be sent to the Customer Advocate Office PO Box 1004 address (they will be dealt with quicker) I do agree with Banker though, send anything important to The Company Secretary at the Stansfield House address (avoids any legal loopholes later on)

There was not a lot we could do about them really jaystar. Threaten them with chasing the debt, but if we can't track them down, it's easier to sell the debt on to a DCA and settle for the 12p in the £1. Not sure how the DCA would persue, once we'd sold it on, there are a number of them that we would use.

The minimum payment change has come about as a result of the current financial situation. Banks are getting very twitchy about the amount of money they have lent out and are trying to recoup at a faster rate than before. With the mortgage rate increase, a lot of customers are struggling to meet all of their repayments to all lenders, and of course the first one that any customer will pay is the mortgage before credit cards. Therefore, minimum payments have increased, interest rates have been increased on a lot of accounts - people ask the question 'do they want to lose my business?' and the answer to that is 'yes' - customers that dont make the bank any money (full balance payers) are not profitable, so why should they want to keep their business? keep driving the interest rate up, so it hurts, and the customer moves elsewhere

There are a few Heads of Customer Assistance, Brian Jackson, Dee Dillistone, Sally Moran and Matthew McGrath (these are the current ones) From what I've witnessed as an ex employee in Customer Assistance, Matt McGrath is probably the most receptive to taking calls from customers. He does deal with a number of customers directly - I have personally taken calls where customers have told me they were dealing with him direct and I have emailed him to ask him to call the customer back, and he has done so.

Sorry Banker, have I done something wrong?

Hi Columbo, If you are requesting copies of statements, they will charge you 4.95 for each one that is more than a month old, the SAR is slightly different so they dont charge as much. If you speak to someone on the phone they will try and charge you the 4.95 per statment, and will not be able to waive the fee, so you need to send your request for statements (make it very specific with which statements you want) to the Customer Advocates Office, PO Box 1004, Chester Business Park, Chester CH4 9WW. The Customer Advocates office does not take telephone calls, but they have to deal with every letter they receive.

Hi Jaystar, From my experience this current financial situation has driven a lot of calls into Customer Assistance, unfortunately not a lot is being done to help these people. It is not really until your account falls into serious arrears and that they have hounded you at work, home, mobile and sent you numerous letters warning you about your credit file (which is probably shot anyway) that they will look at offering any sort of solid help. As mentioned in my previous post, any letters you send must be addressed to the Customer Advocates Office for them to be dealt with the quickest at the PO Box 1004 address. I have spoken to so many customers who have sent letters to the payment processing address in Bolton (these letters will never get answered)

Hi Jaystar2020 You need to request the SAR in writing from the Customer Advocates Office, MBNA use 2 adresses, but the post all goes to the same post room. I would recommend writing to Customer Advocates Office PO Box 1004, Chester Business Park, Chester CH4 9WW

Hi moonwhich7 when you say her account is at the stage where it is to be 'terminated', do you mean 'charged off'? how have they communicate this to you, did they send a letter or was it on the phone, what exactly has been said?

Hi Fred, I left because of the pay £14k a year, the hours shifts between 9am-9pm inc weekends and the fact that the job is mentally draining. Having to speak to people in genuine financial difficulty and being trained to tell them that before looking to offer any solutions MBNA would want them to put their house on the market (in this current climate:shock:) or sell their car is very disheartening after a while. It's a game they play, you start off 30 days in arrears, ask for help, MBNA won't help, their stance is you should help yourself (list all your assets), 'Mr Customer you have a car worth more than £2k, that would pay your credit card off in full, why don't you sell it and we'll continue to add on late fees and send letters and make phone calls?' You then go to 60 days in arrears, not much changes here, you just speak to more experienced Collectors. 90 day accounts, still no change 'Have you still got that car Mr. Customer? You could sell your house?' 120, still no change, other than more default fees being added and more letters and phone calls. Can you pay your oldest arrears Mr. Customer, then you are no longer my responsibility, as you go back to a 60 day account, and I hit my debit cards per hour target. 150/180 days 'P Andrews' cards are sent - these are handwritten postcards which are designed tomake you believe that someone has called at your house, but they are just mailed from Chester. This is the stage where they will consider short settlements, if you ask at any point before this and you are offering any less than 90%, there's a good chance they will reject it until you get to this stage, which is just before the account is 'charged off' and sold to a DCA. This is where they want to get some money out of you, becuse if they don't MBNA only get about 12p in the £1 for selling your account on and the closer to the end of the month you get the more chance you have of being able to offer a lower settlement figure

Hi, I worked at MBNA up until a month ago in the Customer Assistance (Collections) department. If anyone has an questions they would like answered, or any advice, please let me know ExMBNA