# Can MBNA ring 3rd party re my personal acc? & failure to act on written instructions?



## hopesprings (25 Jul 2010)

have two specific questions:

1. The recession has made cash tighter for me.  But I have managed to keep all bills up to date and loans paid on time each month with the exception of missing a couple of payments on my visa.

Last week, a colleague who shares the same accommodation as me rang me to say he received a phone call from MBNA asking him, to tell me to contact them about my MBNA account.  I was shocked to hear that they had contacted an unrelated person about my account.  Out of pure embarrassment I did not ask my colleague for any further details.

I did receive a few phone calls the previous weeks with number "hidden profile."

As a rule, I never answer hidden numbers, leaving them to go onto message minder or text me. If the calls were from MBNA, I was never left a text message etc.

Can MBNA ring a 3rd party about my personal account?

I subsequent contacted them to say I would make a payment shortly and get the card back under the credit limit.  The girl said failure to do so would lead to my account being frozen.

I agreed to pay a minimum of €200 before the 26th July and a further €200 before the 26th August.

Still annoyed, but anxious to put things back on track I made a paymrnt of €1,200 to put my account back well in credit and intended to use the card for  some cashflow during the month.

But haven't made the payment, they have now suspended my account leaving    all my surplus cash tied up for the month!

This leads me on the my 2nd question.


A couple of years ago during the good times, I made a payment to clear my account in full.  I wrote to MBNA (the one and only time I have ever written to them) stating that I wished to close my account.  I got an immediate call from them offering a lower interest rate to stay. I declined.  She then stated that she couldn't close my account because an interest payment meant my account still had a balance of approx €50.

However, on this occasion they did not suspend my account or freeze charging, and when I went to use it my transaction was process and subsequently my credit card ran up to it's limit over the next 2 yrs.

Yes, I accept responsibilty as an adult for using it again.  But they knowingly allowed this happen despite my written request (they could and probably should have suspended the account then). And now today (2 yrs later) where circumstances suit them they have suspended the account.

Do I have any case against them for not acting on my written instructionS?


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## Moral Ethos (25 Jul 2010)

> Can MBNA ring a 3rd party about my personal account?


No way can they talk to a 3rd party about your account. How did they get the number? 

They seem to be freezing accounts left, right and centre these days as soon as one payment is missed. Sadly there is nothing you can do about that.

As regards them failing to close the account, you should have cleared the €50 or so interest and told them forcefully to close the account. There is not much you can do about that now.


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## hopesprings (25 Jul 2010)

My flatmate is an MBNA customer.  They must have used our mutual address record, to contact him to ask me to ring them.


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## Marietta (25 Jul 2010)

They breeched confidentiality by speaking to a third party about your account.  I would be endeavouring to close my account with them asap


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## TheShark (25 Jul 2010)

Report them to the Financial Ombudsman. Inexcusable behaviour.


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## ajapale (25 Jul 2010)

Report them to the Data Protection Commissioner

[broken link removed]:


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## helens (25 Jul 2010)

No help to you only to say that they have rung my mothers house loads of times looking for me.

I was sooo embarrassed.

Don't know how they got that number.


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## Moral Ethos (25 Jul 2010)

If you ever ring them from a number, they keep that number on file. 
Did you ever ring them from your mothers phone?


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## Brendan Burgess (25 Jul 2010)

This is very serious and you should take maximum action. 

Make a formal complaint to them and seek compensation. Seek serious compensation for the embarrassment caused.  If they don't pay it, go to the
Financial Services Ombudsman.

At the same time, complain to the Data Protection Commissioner. 

At the same time, write to the Financial Regulator. They won't handle a complaint from you as such, but they might well investigate MBNA.

Brendan


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## hippy1975 (25 Jul 2010)

Hopesprings, you say they called a colleague, "who shares the same accomodation" , I.e. Your flatmate, so the number they called is your landline number, and they left an innocuous message for you to call them back, are you maybe overreacting a bit?  I can't see how they have breached any DP legislation, and no, you can't take them up now because you let them talk you into keeping the acc open previously.


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## helens (25 Jul 2010)

Moral Ethos said:


> If you ever ring them from a number, they keep that number on file.
> Did you ever ring them from your mothers phone?



I never rang them from my mams

The only thing i can think of is that my card is in my maiden name which is obviously the same surname my mam has & its not overly common round here & we live in a small town

so they must have just looked it up & took pot luck as i stopped answering their 'withheld' numbers from my mobile

I stopped answering their calls as i had agreed with them to pay €40 back a month(when i lost my job) on an overall total bill of €1200 & yet they Still continued to Hound me with phone calls


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## hopesprings (26 Jul 2010)

hippy1975 said:


> Hopesprings, you say they called a colleague, "who shares the same accomodation" , I.e. Your flatmate, so the number they called is your landline number, and they left an innocuous message for you to call them back, are you maybe overreacting a bit?  I can't see how they have breached any DP legislation, and no, you can't take them up now because you let them talk you into keeping the acc open previously.



For absolute clarity.  There is no landline in the apt.  They have my mobile number on record.  They rang my flatmate's mobile number about my account.

Thanks for all the advice.  I do intend to take the matter further and will let you know in due course how I get on.


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## Moral Ethos (26 Jul 2010)

Good stuff.


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## nexus6 (26 Jul 2010)

I lost my job last year, got into trouble paying back minimum on card this March as my savings ran out, I asked them to reduce the repayments so they sent me out an income assessment form which I returned, in the meantime they reduced the repayments (verbal not written from them), but they keep sending out letters asking for the full amount and now I'm getting 5 or 6 calls on a private number from India asking me for the full amount even though I explained to them and they accepted the returned income form and said that amount was ok, they're scum.


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## Rudolph (26 Jul 2010)

> Originally posted by Hippy1975
> Hopesprings, you say they called a colleague, "who shares the same accomodation" , I.e. Your flatmate, so the number they called is your landline number, and they left an innocuous message for you to call them back, are you maybe overreacting a bit? I can't see how they have breached any DP legislation, and no, you can't take them up now because you let them talk you into keeping the acc open previously.


 
Do you have any understanding at all of the Consumer Credit Act or the Data Protection Act? Do you think its alright to even 'innocuously' refer to someone's financial affairs with a third party without that persons permission? 
Glad to hear you are going to take it further, hopefully they will learn a lesson, keep us posted on how you get on.


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## Pat Bateman (27 Jul 2010)

hopesprings said:


> For absolute clarity. There is no landline in the apt. They have my mobile number on record. They rang my flatmate's mobile number about my account.
> 
> Thanks for all the advice. I do intend to take the matter further and will let you know in due course how I get on.


 


Rudolph said:


> Do you have any understanding at all of the Consumer Credit Act or the Data Protection Act? Do you think its alright to even 'innocuously' refer to someone's financial affairs with a third party without that persons permission?
> Glad to hear you are going to take it further, hopefully they will learn a lesson, keep us posted on how you get on.


 
There would be no data protection issue with MBNA phoning a customer on a number provided to MBNA by that customer and leaving a message with a third party asking the customer to contact MBNA.

That was my understanding of this scenario.  However, now that Hopesprings has clarified the position it's pretty clear that MBNA's behaviour has been outrageous.  Truly shocking.


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## hfp (27 Jul 2010)

I'm not an expert on data protection but your flatmate may well have a complaint against the financial obudsman as well.  if mbna accessed their records with the specific aim of contacting you, rather than the flatmate then I believe that this would be in breach of data protection of their records, as they accessed their details without specific reason on *their* account.   I'm not sure that wanting to contact their flatmate would be within the regulations.


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## AgathaC (27 Jul 2010)

Brendan Burgess said:


> This is very serious and you should take maximum action.
> 
> Make a formal complaint to them and seek compensation. Seek serious compensation for the embarrassment caused. If they don't pay it, go to the
> Financial Services Ombudsman.
> ...


+1, under no circumstances are they entitled to contact a third party in relation to your account. I was shocked when I read your post. Please do make a formal complaint and also complain to the DPC. Someone mentioned that it would have been okay had it been a shared landline, and a message saying contact MBNA, no no no!


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## travnett (17 Jul 2011)

MBNA are unreal regarding all the calls they make. I got called from them every day for a week when I forgot to send a min payment. When I eventually answered the guy on the phone was very aggressive and demanded I give him my laser card number to make a payment directly. Needless to say I told him where to go and that under no circumstances was I giving out my laser card details over the phone, especially when I cannot verify that he is indeed from MBNA, he could have being anyone trying to scam me! 

MBNA are ridiculous, I have no problem with them chasing me for money that I owe them but harassment like that and what the OP has received is not ethical.


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