Section 75 claim - debt sold by MBNA to DLC

[BigNigel]

Firstly - I'm a newbie here - so apologies if I ask the same as others have !!!

 

I had a credit card with MBNA for around 15 years before I used the card to purchase a car (cost approx £9k) in March 2011.

 

The transaction was made by myself with the car dealer that advertised it,

I called the dealer and read out my card details over the telephone for the car that I had seen a description of on the internet.

 

The car dealer delivered the car and upon arrival it was clearly not as described in a number of ways (some damage and no full MoT to mention a couple)

and this is clearly provable against the internet description where it stated full MoT and no mention of any damage.

 

The supplying car dealer was clearly in the business of selling cars as he had about 6 other cars advertised for sale at the time

and I've kept copies of all these descriptions in case they are required later.

 

So under distance selling regulations,

I complained to the supplying car dealer and asked for a refund,

made the car available for them to collect but they refused to accept the car back and refused to collect the car.

 

I immediately made a section 75 claim to MBNA.

 

MBNA stated the disputed amount would be put on hold until the matter was resolved.

Sensing there was going to be a fight I cancelled the direct debit so that the disputed amount would be "on hold" with MBNA

and not with myself and wrote to MBNA telling them that was my course of action

and supplied copies of all information receipts/descriptions/correspondence with the car dealer.

 

Eventually MBNA refused the section 75 claim, for a couple of spurious reasons.

 

One was broken debtor-creditor relationship

- MBNA claimed the car dealer was selling the car on behalf of the previous owner !!

clearly MBNA don't seem to understand how car dealers sell cars and this one was an obviously blatant attempt by the car dealer to attempt to avoid responsibility.

 

The other was that MBNA claimed that I knew about the damage prior to delivery and that I should have checked the car before purchasing.

I demonstrated to them that I relied upon the description and could not have been expected to travel from Oxford to Scotland to check the car over before deciding to purchase.

 

It was clear to me that I had provided sufficient information and evidence to support my section 75 claim,

and I repeatedly insisted that MBNA honour their obligations under section 75.

 

However, they refused and set on a course of pursuing me for what they claimed was an outstanding balance and what I repeatedly claimed was the disputed "on hold" amount.

 

I wrote to them on several occasions suggesting that we should put the matter in front of a judge to decide.

 

Eventually they went through the process sent me lots of demanding letters and default notices which I always replied to

and politely reminded them that the outstanding balance is subject to a Section 75 claim

and that if they felt strongly about it then I would be happy to talk it all over in front of a judge.

 

MBNA's last letter they stated that they would be selling the debt.

I immediately wrote back to MBNA and informed them that they do not have my permission to give or sell any of my personal data to anyone.

 

At this point I made a claim through the financial ombudsman, which is currently in progress.

 

In the meantime,

MBNA have sold the debt to DLC who appear oblivious to the section 75 claim and are now harrassing me with letters and phone calls.

 

I have written to DLC telling them to stop harrassing me and referred them back to MBNA,

stating that it appears that they have obtained my personal data in contravention of the data protection act.

 

Clearly there are several strands to this situation, I feel strongly that this is a valid section 75 claim,

but it seems that MBNA have simply avoided justice and I have been left with a blemished credit history.

 

My first concern is that the claim via the financial ombudsman may be too late.

 

My second concern is that having not paid the balance when I left the "on hold" balance with MBNA may have undermined the claim to some extent.

 

Comments, the experience of others in similar situations and all advice is appreciated.

 

(I will add/update as and when I get updates)

 

thanks !

[Conniff]

Yet another story that proves the banks are one of the most dishonest companies in existance.

 

Welcome to the forum Nigel.

 

You should start pushing the Ombudsman for some action, email and recorded mail both, don't let them sit on it until they decide their coffee has gone cold so might as well do some work.

 

Have you been sent the paperwork that shows the dca has either been assigned or purchased the disputed amount?

 

You can get an explanation added to your credit record if you think there will be enquiries on it.

 

If you want your day in court, you can issue under the DSR against the dealer direct.

[BigNigel]

Yes - I will be pushing the ombudsman - they initially said expect 8 weeks for MBNA to respond to their complaint - so will do this towards end August.

DLC have not provided me with any copies of paperwork/contracts/agreements to support their claim, I'm confident that MBNA have passed the account to them, otherwise how would they know ?! I've written to them requesting they provide copies of any agreement or documentation to support their claims and stop harassing me in the meantime, and co-incidentally the 3 per day calls from them have now stopped.

Spending time going through courts with a Distance Selling claim against the car dealer did seem like the path of most resistance compared with a Section 75 claim against a credit card company - however MBNA have turned out to be particularly unhelpful with this.