Thanx for your reply. Apart from the late fees (originally £25, but later reduced to £12), over the years I don't have any serious complaints. Many times I have made a payment on-line or by post and it seems strange that if I am too near the ' reach your account by ' date, it always seems biased to arriving just too late, thus incurring a fee. (not such a problem now the service is effective within hours of making a payment on-line). Would you advise me to contact them via my on-line banking account, as they have suggested? Would you think it a good idea to explain briefly my situation, acknowledge the debt and offer say, £10 per month? Would they be prepared to freeze the interest charges in your experience? BTW.... my situation would be resolved overnight if I could only just sell my original house we bought in france. We bought a second, bigger house for complete renovation and have now got to the stage that we are living in it.... and now wish to sell the little house, but the market is very slow and the house has been for sale for 3 years... with reducing asking price and still no takers. We have foolishly used our savings and credit cards to finish the big house and live, whilst always thinking that the house sale will happen soon! Now the pot is empty. If these credit card companies knew I had a second property, could they make any kind of move like a 'lien' on it? I do appreciate any help and advice, David

Finally, we have come to this! Work for me in france.... both legal and otherwise is drying up fast. Now I have to make a decision whether to pay my french living expenses as priority (which is difficult enough now), or to continue to get paid where possible in UK to service my credit card accounts. Struggling to get my french bank back into credit before 30 days, (a legal requirement), following paying a large bill, I have had to divert all funds away from my UK credit cards for the first time ever. I failed to make the £200 minimum payment on 24th Oct (MBNA balance: £8000).... and now have received an e-mail asking for immediate payment of £415 (2 months) or for me to contact with my explanation for the non-payment. HSBC are also phoning, I am guessing about the late payment of that card (28th Oct £160 late payment on balance of £6500) I'm just a little scared and wondering what to do! I am 62 and have lived in france since 1999. HELP!