MBNA settlement offer

[kjs2025]

Hi everyone - first post today.

 

Have received following email from MBNA offering a settlement figure and terms attached:

 

Hi Mr S

 

In relation to recent telephone conversations regarding your settlement agreements.

I can confirm that both of your Accounts have been accepted on reduced settlements.

Acc: xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx : Settlement agreed £2714.50

xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx: Settlement agreed £2285.50

If both these payments are made on the terms agreed then your total saving is £19237.46.

The Terms & Conditions are as follows:

Both of the above Accounts require a payment in February if the full settlement amounts are paid before 5pm on 26th February via debit card then your settlement completion letters will be issued immediately.

However if you want more time to get the full settlement amounts together we can extend this deadline until 30th March if payments for £223.00 & £269.00 are paid via debit card again before 5pm on the 26th February.

If the above terms are met I can confirm that MBNA will NOT chase you for any more funds.

However if the Terms are not met both of your Accounts will be passed to Default & the settlement agreements will be null & void.

If you have any queries in the meantime can you please contact your Account Manager Richard Lewis on 01244 659 847 ext 15676.

Many Thanks

Melissa Studley

MBNA EBL

1) Should I accept email as an "official" offer or request it on headed paper?

2) It only mentions that MBNA will NOT chase me for further funds, not necessarily that a DCA would not?

3) It is around about 20% of the outstanding balances which makes me doubt their intentions, or perhaps they have lost my signed agreement?

would appreciate any views/feedback

[haggis1984]

Hi and welcome

 

Defo get them to put in writing that neither MBNA or any third parties can seek to collect any monies relating to these accounts in future.

 

How fussed are you about your credit file? You could request that all negative entries in your credit file are removed as a condition of payment.

 

 

If it were me, and I could get those conditions met for 20% of the outstanding balance Id consider it a win, regardless of whether or not they have the agreement. There's so much uncertaininty about the court's recent interpretations of the CCA that you could have a big fight on your hands if you decide not to settle.

 

Whatever you decide loadsa caggers are going through the same thing and will offer help and advice.

[Dotty50]

Hi KJS

 

As Haggis says, there are a lot on here going through the same thing and I agree with everything they have said.

 

What position are your accounts in, have you been paying anything?

[dx100uk]

if they are offering such low figures, there must be an agreement issue.

 

however, if you did have this money [barring the unlawful charges and prob PPI on top]

 

and you feel this is a good deal.

 

then get it in writing and go for it.

 

it might well ward off greater problems downthe line

 

your call on both moral and financial counts

 

dx

[kjs2025]

Thanks Haggis, Dotty and dx100 for your quick replies.

 

As with all of my creditors I am currently only paying them £1 each per month.

 

Have spoken to the MBNA Account Manager since and they will be putting it in writing and confirmed (verbally altho' have asked for it in wrtiting) that the payment would be full & final. That no other payments would be requested in the future.

 

I feel that because the offer will greatly ease my situation that I need to somehow find the funds. Unfortunately that may well be by approaching my sister.

 

DX - if I have understood you correctly, would you suggest that I do not venture down the unlawful charges route, especially if agreeing to their offer?

[PGH7447]

Sounds like a good compromise, looking at the grand total, good on you

[dx100uk]

DX - if I have understood you correctly, would you suggest that I do not venture down the unlawful charges route, especially if agreeing to their offer?

 

not in the least, what i meant was how much of the bal is made of unlawful charges & mis-sold PPI - loads i bet

 

it would be cheeky to do it after an F&F but not unheard of!

 

dx

[haggis1984]

not in the least, what i meant was how much of the bal is made of unlawful charges & mis-sold PPI - loads i bet

 

it would be cheeky to do it after an F&F but not unheard of!

 

dx

 

Do it!!

 

Theres gonna be at least a few hundred quid of charges on there if its got to the stage of them accepting an f&f

[kjs2025]

Hi Guys...thanks for all your support & encouragement. Thought you might be interested in email from MBNA today, I have asked for a copy on headed paper as well. But sounds above board:

 

Dear Mr S

Following our conversation dated 12 February 2010 with Richard Lewis, I can confirm that providing the following payments have been received and cleared onto your accounts by 28th February 2010 as agreed, no further action will be taken by MBNA or any other party to recover the remaining balances:

Account ending xxxx: £2714.50

Account ending xxxx: £2285.50

Following your discussion with Richard Lewis earlier this month, I do recommend that both payments are made by debit card due to the limited amount of time remaining. As soon as the payments have been received and cleared onto your accounts, MBNA will write off the remaining balances and both of your accounts will then be registered as Partial Settlements with the credit reference agencies for six years. I can assure you that we do not continue to recover a balance once a partial settlement amount has been agreed and paid in full by the date specified. I can also advise you that settlement completion letters will be sent following receipt of both payments, again provided that payments are received by 28th February 2010.

If payments are not received by 28th February 2010, both of your Settlements will be null & void

I trust this answers your concerns, however please let me know if you have any further questions in relation to the above.

Regards

Melissa Studley

MBNA EBL

[humbleman]

I would ask them to remove the entry on your file altogether. Partial settlement is no different to a default IMO

[haggis1984]

If your happy go for it, and well done getting them to accept that!

 

Keep in mind that a partial settlement on your credit file doesnt look to good, although im not sure how detrimental it is. Being as youve still got 11 days you could be cheeky and insist that all negative entries with credit reference agencies are removed and the account marked as 'settled', not 'partial settlement.'

[kjs2025]

Thanks humbleman & haggis. Have taken your advice and asked for the entries to be deleted or shown as settled.

 

Will let you know the outcome:)

[Dotty50]

Well that's looking good, KJ you were one of the brave one's that dared to speak to MBNA and obviously got through to someone with some common sense. Or they DO NOT have a valid CCA!

 

The person I got through to was horrid!

 

Any chance of a brief history of how you came to get this? I have 2 MBNA threads and if I could get them off my back it would be wonderful!

 

This of course could be a change of tactics with them due to recent cases where they have walked away before taking people to court and so get the money by other means.

[kjs2025]

Hi Dotty. Strange one really as for several months I have just been paying an agreed £1 on both my MBNA a/c's. Wrote to them with a CCCS letter attached but not under any CCCS payment scheme. Just offered a nominal £1 payment to them as per all my creditors.

 

They had classified both my a/c's on to a "severe hardship programme" on 10 Dec 20009 - stopping all fees and interest charges.

 

They are aware that I owe over £100k to C/C creditors when I sent them my Income/Expenditure forms with my CCCS letter last year.

 

They wrote to me around 8 Jan re one of the a/c's saying "we hadn't spoke for a while". Rang them and told them my circumstance had not changed and I think it was the Account Manager Richard who I spoke to said something like "if you could look to find a lump sum to clear both my a/c's you could save thousands..!"

 

My reply was along the lines "that when I spoke to Payplan they said the best % payment they had heard of from their clients was around 40% of the full sum owed." (Altho' Payplan did not say which C/C company that was).

 

In my case 40% of around £25k would be approx £10k which he asked if I could manage and I told him "no possibility".

 

I continued "that would still be way beyond my means and the only chance would be to approach my sister who I know would only be able to afford around £5k which I am sure would be nowhere near acceptable to you (MBNA)"

 

Suprisingly he said that as that was only around 20% of the total outstanding he could not personally sanction an agreement at that level but would have to gain permission from "above" but "it was worth asking the question". (Interestingly at 40% he could have agreed the figures himself)

 

He originally said it would take at least 24hrs to get a decision but within 4-6 hrs he called to say "he was really surprised but it had been agreed" ...subject to the caveates you can see in the emails above.

 

perhaps you are right re no CCA's for both a/c's ??!!

 

Do you have an Account Manager as such? If not perhaps try the guy (Richard) in my correspondences as a start point for negotiations?! Worth a try. He's a very friendly guy.

 

Good Luck

[Dotty50]

Thanks for that KJS.

 

Perhaps an I/E might have an effect and will think about sending one in to them, I am just waiting for response to SAR on the one and on the other (Virgin) only had a tear off slip.

 

I did try to speak to someone that had been recommended, like you, they had managed to get a favourable settlement but when I called the same person, they didn't want to know so I gave up TBH and just write to them now.

[kjs2025]

Latest from MBNA...doesn't look like they will agree to what will still effectively show as a DEFAULT on my Credit File..

Hi Mr S

Many thanks for your swift response.

After looking at your queries I have been to see the manager in the Settlements team.

Your letter is being sent out on MBNA headed paper but it takes time to go through our system & I cannot speed this process up. However as per previous emails I can assure you that this settlement has been agreed by our senior director & if you adhere to the terms & conditions then you will not have any problems.

Also regarding your credit file – We cannot give the credit reference agencies false information, as your Account is NOT being settled for the full £24,237.46 then we have to report this to them as a Partial Settlement. This however does show that you do not owe MBNA or any 3rd parties any more money & the Accounts have been completely settled.

If you want to continue with this arrangement & reduce your debt by £19,237.46 we will require the settlement payment on the Account by 26th February.

Many Thanks

[Dotty50]

Hi KJS

 

In view of the fact that you have only been paying £1 token payments, then I guess your credit rating is trashed anyway so personally if I could get this sort of discount, I would be inclined to take it. I have read on other threads that email is as good as written confirmation. So print all the correspondence and keep it VERY safe.

 

Although MBNA do NOT have to inform CRA's, they will and there is not a lot you can do about it without a lot of time and hassle via the court and then there are no guarantees.

 

It would also be a big chunk off your debt and one less to worry about.

 

If you can raise the funds via a third party, then I think I would send payment by third party cheque (a building society cheque would probably be best, then no personal bank details revealed) stating F & F as agreed in their emails of .......etc and repeat their words that the debt is settle in full and not sold on to DCA............etc.

 

Draft a letter and post it up here for advice

[dx100uk]

something smells here.

 

dx

[Dotty50]

I understand DX

 

I think!

[dx100uk]

This however does show that you do not owe MBNA or any 3rd parties any more money & the Accounts have been completely settled.

 

is what i mean....there is no way to show this on the CRA file, its either settled or partially settled. the latter, leaving you open to further demands for psyment once the debt is sold on. which MBNA WILL do

 

it might be closed in their books but not those of a dca that buys it through a phishing list.

 

dx

[carrotandgrenade]

Regarding MBNA partial settlements I have found an interesting pdf document from the information commissioners office. Additionally this document is published on experiens website:

 

http://www.experian.co.uk/www/pages/downloads/compliance/guidance_on_defaults.pdf

 

Read pages 18 and 19 and make what you will from it. I have also received a partial settlement offer from MBNA. My opinion is that only full and final settlements will mean that a creditor has no more legal right of claiming the debt in the future through the courts. Although it is doubtful that after making a partial settlement you will be chased for the remainder of the debt in future, legally they are entitled to do so if they wish. So if your circumstance were to improve in the future they may want the remainder of what you owe them back and could pursue you in the courts.

 

Lastly, take special note of the wording "borrowers are under no legal obligation to pay more money on completion of an IVA or bankruptcy" It does not state the same for partial settlements.

[humbleman]

Latest from MBNA...doesn't look like they will agree to what will still effectively show as a DEFAULT on my Credit File..

 

Hi Mr S

 

Many thanks for your swift response.

 

Also regarding your credit file – We cannot give the credit reference agencies false information, as your Account is NOT being settled for the full £24,237.46 then we have to report this to them as a Partial Settlement.

 

Yes but you are asking them not to give any information i.e. delete the existence of the account altogether.

 

IF NOT

 

ask them to take a hike

[Dotty50]

Following our conversation dated 12 February 2010 with Richard Lewis, I can confirm that providing the following payments have been received and cleared onto your accounts by 28th February 2010 as agreed, no further action will be taken by MBNA or any other party to recover the remaining balances:

 

So in addition to this sentence it needs to confirm that the remaining debt will not at any time/never be sold to a DCA for further collection.

 

Why do they keep asking for debit card details and stipulate a time of 5pm to pay by?

[Dotty50]

Regarding MBNA partial settlements I have found an interesting pdf document from the information commissioners office. Additionally this document is published on experiens website:

 

http://www.experian.co.uk/www/pages/downloads/compliance/guidance_on_defaults.pdf

 

Read pages 18 and 19 and make what you will from it. I have also received a partial settlement offer from MBNA. My opinion is that only full and final settlements will mean that a creditor has no more legal right of claiming the debt in the future through the courts. Although it is doubtful that after making a partial settlement you will be chased for the remainder of the debt in future, legally they are entitled to do so if they wish. So if your circumstance were to improve in the future they may want the remainder of what you owe them back and could pursue you in the courts...

 

Lastly, take special note of the wording "borrowers are under no legal obligation to pay more money on completion of an IVA or bankruptcy" It does not state the same for partial settlements.

 

Hi, Tried the link but it appears to just go to the home page

 

Did you do anything about your MBNA offer?

[kjs2025]

Thanks all for your comments.

 

Just read this thread from Broooooooooce

Re: Full & Final Settlement Offers - Any Advice???

and does sound very similar to mine. Especially MBNA wanting me to pay by Debit Card which makes me even more suspicious.

I have emailed them again today but my feeling (slightly reluctantly) at this stage is I don't trust the deal and won't take it until certain criteria is met. Based on the thread I've read it would be

1) In writing confirmimg F & F payment

2) CRA file to reflect FULL payment or settled or even deleted (can they do that?)

3) Payment only by a third party cheque with F & F on back

I think that covers what has been said elsewhere. Would you guys agree? Any other points to be included?