Extortionate interest rate after a couple of late (but not unpaid) payments

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Hi Landy

 

I'll have another look at your threads to see if I can be of assistance, but it seems you have people more versed than I already looking. My skill tends to be more in writing scary letters, something I learned from an old boy lawyer I met a few years ago. Shame I am not still in contact with him though as it would be great to get his input on things.

 

Yes I will, but only if they agree completely with my agreement that they cannot wriggle out of.

 

Unlike many people on this forum, I can pay, I am just a "won't pay" at the moment due to their disgraceful behaviour. I only want them to play fair with me and I'd prefer to keep my credit rating if possible.

 

Due to my work, I have always had to move around and therefore don't have my own home so I am thinking about the future in terms of mortgage and even renting sometimes requires a good credit rating. So for me, it is better to pay up a fair amount than to have my credit file ruined. That is my condition to them that they don't do anything damaging to me and anything they have already done they undo, then I will pay them, otherwise I will go to court if I have to for CCA non-compliancy as well as making a general nuisance of myself!

 

It would still be a victory to me and in a sense for us all if they agree to my proposal as it means I have forced them to play fair or face potential consequences.

 

My trouble with them was caused simply because of their greed and my stupidly believing I had a good balance transfer deal which I took advantage of. Little did I realise that after a couple of late payments due to myself being paid late and switching between contracts, that I would be penalised by my interest rate doubling. That's when it snowballed.

 

So if I can get them to rewind to the past before their greed machine kicked in, then that will be good for me.

 

I will of course still be hanging around CAG because I still hate the greedy buggers and will do anything I can to help the cause!

 

FBR x

Edited March 30, 2009 by fleeced_by_rbos

[fleeced_by_rbos]

It may be moot anyway as MBNA are so arrogant they may not go for the deal and simply reiterate that I owe them the full balance and pay up or else. At which point I will go for "else".

 

Btw, I am currently just a few miles away from Chester.......now where is that baseball bat

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Interestingly I just got a call from a Martin (Supple?) from MBNA on 07785 900 822.

 

He is threatening that if I don't call them by tomorrow, the debt will pass out of their hands. They don't understand why I haven't called them and can help me even at this late stage.

 

Total arrogant muppet. They are in default of my CCA request, the account is therefore in legal dispute and they are not permitted to pass it on.

 

They are so arrogant and stupid it makes my blood boil . Really makes you want to track down these t****** and smack them around a bit.

 

Anyway, they obviously haven't got my proposal yet and are still chasing based on my last letter which instructed them that I will seek legal redress if they continue any action on the account.

 

Grrrr. F****** moron!

Edited March 30, 2009 by fleeced_by_rbos

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Calmed down a bit now. Was going slightly postal a few minutes ago!

 

If they pass the debt on, they will now have a fight on their hands and I will see if I can drag the individual asses into court for harassment, Martin being the most recent as he has called and left and voicemail while the account is in legal dispute.

 

May see that f***** in court.....and I thought I had calmed down!

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Well they haven't really responded to my letter except for Gail Powell (she's referring to herself as VP at the moment) .

 

She says that my complaint is being looked into. Have also received a default notice, which is silly because the account is in dispute.

 

Oh well, another nasty letter to them to come.

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Update: I've had a letter from Gail Powell which states that MBNA are allowed to call me up to 3 times a day if a customer is in arrears and that she is sorry I am not happy (yeh right). Her letter also states in childish tone words similar to "well anyway, we don't care anymore about you because we've passed the debt on to Apex Credit and they will do whatever they feel necessary to recover the debt". She also stated that despite me believing the CCA is uneforceable, my duty to pay has remained intact.

 

What a crock of shumthing smelly.....no enforceable agreement = no enforceable debt and my duty to pay non-existent. I wrote back saying as much as well as stating that they are not entitled to pass on the debt since it is in legal dispute and that only legal action is now possible including complaints to all appropriate authorities for all of their disgraceful behaviour.

 

That was about 3 weeks ago and I haven't heard anything from MBNA or the Apex Thugs. I am ready for the scumbags though. I sometimes wish they'd actually call to see me, so that I can demonstrate my disgust to them in person!

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Finally, CapQuest sent me a letter demanding payment - don't know what happened to the delightful Apex.

 

I sent them an exceptionnally snotty letter telling them that they cannot legally own a debt that was sold to them in violation of the Consumer Credit Act since the account was in legal dispute and that MBNA had broken all of the rules as to what they cannot do when an account in in such a position.

 

CapQuest wrote back saying that they have referred my letter on to MBNA. That was over a month ago now, and still no word.

 

I also sent a request for a Full SAR to MBNA which they have not responded to, but they should have done by last week. So I'll give it another week and then write an extra snotty letter to MBNA, followed by informing the FOS and OFT. I'm gonna kick those b*ds squarely in the conkers!

 

FBR

[fleeced_by_rbos]

MBNA have responded to my Full SAR, with.....wait for it.......recent correspondence between them and myself!!! Doh! They are morons of the highest order. I'm sure it is a cynical ploy to try to stall and annoy me and to try to avoid handing over damning information that shows just what they've been up to with my account.

 

So I've just finished drafting a fresh letter to them, demanding they comply or else.

 

Anyone else had SAR trouble with MBNA along the same lines as me?

 

FBR

[The abused]

Am now in the throws of sending them an SAR. About 5 years ago they were constantly hitting me with over limit and late charge at £25 each per month. Interesting tofind out how much they have fleeced over the past 6 years. If you are late on a payment you become inundated with phone calls from them then Aegis. Out of interest rbos how long did it take for them to reply? A similar request for CITI took 70 days. MBNA SAR will be sent to them in the morning.

With regards to stalling you I reckon its a case that they have your money with vast amounts of unfair charges and while they have that it can be used by them to either lend at a high rate or invest for an equally lucrative return.

 

Good luck to you in your pursuit

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Hi Abused

 

It took them 60 days to reply, which of course exceeds the permitted 40, but still better late than never, but as I said, they sent me my own letters back! What the hell that has to do with a DATA protection request I don't know.

 

As I studied computer science at uni, I recall the purpose of the Data Protection Act, was to guard against the missuse of information that can occur when data is in electronic form vs paper. It is possible to photocopy, cut and paste, etc with paper but far less effective to harm someone. With data of course, it can be easy as pressing a few keys, and so the DPA is there to protect people whom data is about (the subject) and people who hold that data (the processor) must comply with the act.

 

MBNA seem to ignore that law as much as every other they are subject to.

 

I owe them about £20k of which I think about 2 3rds will be charges and excessive interest they piled on, the rest would be the actual borrowing with the original interest on top.

 

I CCAd them, they sent me a crappy application form. I sent them a CCA non compliance letter, which they ignored. They continued to harass me, so I threatened them back. They sold the debt which they were not permitted to do when the account is in dispute. I told the purchaser of the debt that they can't own it, they referred it back to MBNA. I haven't heard anything about that since. I SARd MBNA as I said and got back rubbish, so today I have sent them a demand before I pass it all to the authorities as a complete case of failure upon failure upon arrogance upon sleezy greed and corruption by MBNA.

 

Good luck to you as well. What's your thread? I will take a look.

 

FBR

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Just had to post this as it contains my new signature!

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Well it did a minute ago, but I can't see any signatures now for some reason, even though they are turned on. And now they are back again!! But keep disappearing.... Anyway here is what I posted in case my sig doesn't show up.

 

I wonder if MBNA are the new Enron

 

I have an idea for a new InterWeb game - how many MBNAcronyms can we make? Here's a couple to start us off, first is well known, rest are my attempts.

 

1. Misrepresentation Bank North America

2. Morally Bankrupt Narcissistic Antiestablishmentarianists

3. Megolomaniacal Bullish Narcissitic gAngsters

4. My Bank balance Nicely Accrues (that of the bosses that is!)

5. My Balance Not Affordable (us!)

Edited September 16, 2009 by fleeced_by_rbos

[fleeced_by_rbos]

It shows on the second post but not the first.....strange. So I turned it off for the last one. Someone please have a look at the forum software as it has gone slight funny.

[blueotter]

There's a new thread on this subject here,where the originator is questioning the validity of his agreement as it actually contains a ceiling limit on the interest rate that has been breached.

 

[email=http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt-issues/219897-valid-reasons-credit-card-new-post.html]http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt-issues/219897-valid-reasons-credit-card-new-post.html[/email]

[Marcus_ad]

My credit history is perfect. I never missed a payment in the 10 years I've had a Virgin Mastercard. I am solvent and have lots of savings. My interest rate has just gone up to 34.9 % APR.

 

They give me no particular reason for this.

 

Is anyone else experiencing the same issue ? Or am I paying over the odds for someone with a perfect score ?

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Hi Marcus

 

It is what MBNA do I'm afraid. They seem to hammer people whether they are good payers or not. If you read this thread at the start, you'll see my explanation of missing only a couple of payments by a few days after which I always paid more than the minimum. In fact a couple of times I paid half of the balance. It was what you would think a card company would consider a normal running credit card - credit being used, paid back, used again, paid back, etc and with only a few minor delays in paying spaced over a year, due to forgetting to pay.

 

My sister also has an MBNA card, which was orginally not MBNA but taken over by them. They always pay on time, don't go over limit, have a good credit rating, and MBNA have shafted them too.

 

As I said, it is just the MBNA way it seems.

 

FBR

[blueotter]

Unfortunately its the going rate from the self proclaimed "man of the people " Mr Branson.

Scandalous but not unexpected,It's greed personified and the reason for so many people having problems.

[fleeced_by_rbos]

Anyone having trouble on the SAR front with MBNA should have a read of Personal information rights - Data Protection Act (DPA) - ICO - particularly the "Preventing automated decision making" and "Claiming compensation" links as I think it could be something we can use to really grab MBNA by the short and curlies when they don't play ball with our SARs.

[veryweary]

Martin Lewis was on GMTV earlier this week and was talking about all these outrageous interest hikes.

 

He explained that either new legislation or an agreement was made when the government bailed out the banks. If you write to your card provider and say that you will not use the card for buying anything but just make even minimum repayments each month to pay off your balance then they have to return the interest rate to what it was prior to the hike. If they don't the FOS will enforce this on your behalf.

 

Haven't checked out exacty how this all works, but he said on the programme you could find full details on his web site along with template letters.

 

Course it means no more further spending on your card, but there are now prepayment Visa type cards that can be used if you need the security and guarantees a credit card provides if ordering on the internet etc.

[Bradley68]

HI ALL

complained to FOS in regard to mbna intrest rate hike in early august . got a call from a fos meadiator with an offer of £1460 i turned it down because i said they were acting like a back street money lender and asked where they got that figure from .she didnt know because she didnt have any paper work or statements.told her i wanted whole balance cleared she phoned back today saying they cant except my offer so she is going to get it investigated.so every one with a unfair rate cntact fos. on the martin lewis web site it says no bank or credit card companey has let fos investigate and take it further

[blueotter]

hi,

what caused them to make the offer to you ? di dyou write and as for a rebate

[rondodiver]

Hi All I did exactly the same and complained to FOS and they have reduced the rate and refunded the money. So whilst it does take a few months it is worth doing IMHO

[Bradley68]

HI

i just complained to fos saying they put the intrest rate up unfairly and that they acted like a back street money lender making the balance unpayable . mbna never answered my complaint about unfair intrest rate .first i herd was call from fos no letters two phone calls

[blueotter]

Hi All I did exactly the same and complained to FOS and they have reduced the rate and refunded the money. So whilst it does take a few months it is worth doing IMHO

 

If you don't me asking,what did they reduce the rate to ? and from when did they refund money...from the date they raised the interest rate ?

[rondodiver]

Hi They had ramped my interest rate from 17.9 to 34.9 doubled basically overnight with no valid or justifiable reason, so I went through the process of complaining and got a final response saying no changes thats what it is, so I complaind to the FSO and they reduced it back to 17.9 and refunded the money from the date it took effect.