MBNA late payment fees

[Northern Star]

Hi - this is my first post on this forum.

I am currently involved in a Debt Management Programme. All of my creditors have agreed to the same. MBNA were particularly nasty and unhelpful to start with but have just agreed to the reduced payments (they were the last to do so). In the throws of the whole sage, MBNA have applied a lot of late payment fees (£25 each). Over the last six years I would think I have been charged in excess of £1000 for not paying on time. Is it worth me trying to recover this in order to reduce my debt to them? I don't want to jeopardise my DMP but I also do not want to pay them more than I ought to. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Geordie_Aaron]

i'm currently in EXACTLY the same position as yourself, they've offered me 0% interest or charges for being over the limt for 12 months (4 months ago) aslong as i dont miss one payment.... and i havn't nor will i....BUT i still requested all my statements to see how much i'd been charged in the 3 years of owning it.... i made a deal with myself that if it was under £300 i'd let them have it as they have tried to help me ETC

 

First lot of statements have come (last 12 months) and this time ALONE, they have charged £290..... so i think i'm still going to go ahead and claim it or what have you, as the card is still open, just unable to use until back in limit (£190 away) they can't very well close the card surely as i'll still be making regular payments ONTIME and will be WITHIN the limit when i get the charges put back on the card.....

 

I've not asked about this, but have thought about it too... so we're in the same boat

 

EDIT: just re-read and sounds like i'm hi-jacking., but i'm trying not to, just giving you what they have offered me and HOPEFULLY you may learn somthing about this? for example you can ask for 0% interest and no fees for 12 months

[Northern Star]

Thanks for your reply. My account is already defaulted (I have got the payments back to well within the limit but still owe about £3500). They have agreed to accept £50 pcm and have frozen interest and charges for the next twelve months and then will review my situation. I'm positive at least £1000 of the £3500 will be late payment charges. I really want to try to reclaim it as it is a great deal of money and would significantly reduce the debt. I had a lot of hassle getting them to agree to the reduced payments and I don't want to upset them.

 

Am very tempting to take them on tho.

[Geordie_Aaron]

well if you've been defaulted anyway you aint got much to lose other than the fact they may hand it to debt collector and no-body wants that ... but then your debt management company could arrange payments to them?

 

I think i've gone over my head at this point and will stop, as i have NO idea what the company will/could do, and wouldn't like to say something for you to action it and get god knows, against you.

[Northern Star]

I guess I've got to weigh up the risks. My credit file is pretty much ruined anyway so I'm not bothered from that point of view. Plus, I work at a solicitors (with a former barrister) so if I do end up in Court, will have plenty of free help!!

 

I will have a good think about it before I make a move.

[BankFodder]

I don't want to slow you down. Is your frozen interest agreement written and irrevokable?

 

If not, then you might consider paying off the £50 per month for a year and then stick in for the charges when the agreement is expired.

Just a thought

[Northern Star]

Thanks - that's good idea. I have had nothing in writing from MBNA but I don't know whether my debt management company has. I think it might be worth me telephoning them to find out.

 

When they review the account after the twelve months, I will see if they start playing silly beggers again - if they do, I'll go for it!

[Bigdaftie]

First post on here.

 

I'm in a similar situation too. I'm paying into a Debt Management Plan with the Consumer Credit Counselling Service and all our creditors except MBNA have agreed the payments.

 

MBNA have said the payment isn't enough to CCCS but nothing to us. They phone us daily (often several times a day) and despite me explaining the debt has been passed to CCCS they just keep on calling. They say they cannot stop the calls and every month we have a £25 late payment fee which when coupled with the interest means our balance is actually slightly increasing despite a £82 being paid by CCCS.

 

If anyone has dealt with an incident such as this successfully, then I would welcome your advice.

[DaveBeek]

First post on here.

 

I'm in a similar situation too. I'm paying into a Debt Management Plan with the Consumer Credit Counselling Service and all our creditors except MBNA have agreed the payments.

 

MBNA have said the payment isn't enough to CCCS but nothing to us. They phone us daily (often several times a day) and despite me explaining the debt has been passed to CCCS they just keep on calling. They say they cannot stop the calls and every month we have a £25 late payment fee which when coupled with the interest means our balance is actually slightly increasing despite a £82 being paid by CCCS.

 

If anyone has dealt with an incident such as this successfully, then I would welcome your advice.

 

Just had a similar situation with Natwest, CCCS said that NW probably haven't accepted the agreement, after a few calls I found out that NW had no record of receiving the DMP offer and therefore could not consider dropping interest rates, I immediatly called CCCS and asked them to resend the DMP offer, left a couple of days, called NW to check they received the offer, they had, but rejected it on a couple of grounds, made new offer over phone, they accepted and confirmed in writting, told CCCS new offer and built it into DMP, charges and interest stopped by NW. I think my advice is don't accept that CCCS are dealing with it just because they are paying them, phone and check if the DMP is accepted.

 

HTH

 

Dave

[Bigdaftie]

Just had a similar situation with Natwest, CCCS said that NW probably haven't accepted the agreement, after a few calls I found out that NW had no record of receiving the DMP offer and therefore could not consider dropping interest rates,

 

Thanks Dave, I did wonder about that, but callgirl (!) said they did have a record of it but they weren't able to use this to stop any phone calls. It's all rather bizarre and it does seem to depend on who is at the end of the phone as to the level of help you get.

 

I got a letter from them today and it had a different phone no, so I will try that tomorrow. I certainly don't seem to be getting quite as many calls, but this is the first letter so maybe they are trying alternative action to get us to pay now.....sadly we can't pay regardless of what they do.

[Nightmare4banks]

Hi all!

 

Anyone that is on the receiving end of non stop calls should contact the CEO of the company concerned - I did this with MBNA several months ago when they were calling me non stop and at all hours etc.

 

Anyway this is the format of the letter that I have sent to MBNA and two other creditors in the past resulting in much less calls and an apology although not from the CEO himself but one the Customer Support Managers.

 

I would highly suggest using this letter,refuse to take any calls or reply to texts but ALWAYS write in reply to the creditor and when writing send your letters by recorded delivery.Make sure you retain copies of your letters should there be any pending legal actions or disputes:

 

I would like to remind you as the CEO of a large banking organisation that it is a criminal offence to harrass a debtor under Section 40 of 1970 The Administration of Justice Act and 1997 Protection from Harrassment Act.The recent persisent calls by your subordinate staff are in breach of these mentioned laws and I trust your staff will refrain from calling me and you will also in a position to provide your staff with adequate job training regarding this legislation.(a bit cheeky,but hey why not?)

 

I understand that:

 

1.the incidents of harrassment have to be no less than two.

 

2.this law was drafted to protect people from stalkers,tenants(mainly secure) from landlords and creditor/debtor relationships.

 

Anyway,I hope anyone reading this posting finds its content useful.

[Cornucopia]

Hi - this is my first post on this forum.

I am currently involved in a Debt Management Programme. All of my creditors have agreed to the same. MBNA were particularly nasty and unhelpful to start with but have just agreed to the reduced payments (they were the last to do so). In the throws of the whole sage, MBNA have applied a lot of late payment fees (£25 each). Over the last six years I would think I have been charged in excess of £1000 for not paying on time. Is it worth me trying to recover this in order to reduce my debt to them? I don't want to jeopardise my DMP but I also do not want to pay them more than I ought to. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Hi there and welcome to the forum!

 

Absolutely, DMP or not! Get your SAR out if you do not have statements. Please make sure you enclose ID or they will try and turn your 40 days into 80 and give you the runaround! ID can be in the form of a copy of your driving licence or a utility bill for example.

 

Please keep us posted and shout if you need any further advice!

 

Regards,

 

Corn x:)

[lorrydriver]

hi everyone

just a thought on all the stress and worry about debt and credit ratings, if it all gets to much for you, you can collect all debts you have (excluding mortgage) and apply for an administration order via a solicitor, this will let the courts know that you want to take control of your finances.

you will have to pay the courts on a weekly basis, it will stop anymore hassle from your creditors, will not affect your credit rating and you will not incur any ccj's and the best thing about it is that the banks will not get there money for 2,500 years.

and they can't do a thing about it

i did this, i had £9000.00 of debt and paid £10.00 per month to the court.

hope this helps.

[Northern Star]

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