Bank Of America/MBNA Leaving Ireland & UK

I have to say i am with the other posters who think they were fine. Find the cheque book extremely handy!! Never had a problem with them. Again I pay my balance in full each month. But if you run up a bill you cant afford, why should you be pursued? Its a business not a charity! You didn't have to run up a bill! I make a conscious effort not to and choose to live within my meager means!
 

Yes and fair play to you for paying your bills, however some people recently as you can imagine have found themselves in unfortunate circumstances where they have lost jobs, taken pay cuts, become ill and unable to work and thats how they havent been able to pay their debts, the problem with MBNA is where most other instititions work with their debtors within reason MBNA do not and have vicious debt collecting tactics.
 

Isn't that what Payment Protection Cover is for?

And again, what happend to personal responsibilty? Nobody forced anybody to charge that holiday or that hand bag to ones credit card.

If one uses the credit card to charge food because it's the means of last resort fine, but a credit card is a short term instrument (even if MBNA only asks to have 1% of the card balance to be paid monthly). It's not a long term loan facility to rack up charges that one does not need.

When I first came to this country my bank only gave me 100 £ credit card limit despite me having way more on my current account every day. They argued that I needed to proof that I'm able to pay back what I charge and as responsible lender they need to see how I do. Sure over the years I now have 350 times that amount because the bank knows my spending pattern and knows what I can pay back.

MBNA was able to transfer my US account with it's history over and gave me a credit limit that they feelt i could manage and that's that.

And if I carry a balance and get unemployed I have a payment protection, yes it costs but it's the responsibe thing to have if you carry a balance and if I get sick I have a policy for that too because I rather pay insurance premium now than being in the position to have to fight a bank when I'm down. If you can affort to charge that unneeded hand bag, you for sure can affort a small premium.

As a person borrowing money I have the responsiblity to ensure I can pay back what I take out, be it either with insurance or savings. This principle of lending to facilitate a life style that is in excess of what one can affort is really not the right way.

Now is MBNA very agressive in getting money back, sure. Are they sometimes overstepping, maybe but MBNA did not force anybody to use the card in a shop to buy that one item they did knowing they could not really affort.

And if MBNA has broken laws during the collection I'm sure our fine regulator will step in as they have with the overcharging recently.

But I think MBNA or bank slapping is very common these days and personal responsiblity has gone out of the window. No I'm not only blaming people, banks were enganged in reckless lending too but at the end nobody held a gun to ones head to make that charge.

And who says that if MBNA for example sells the portfolio to some other company that collection efforts are not going to be increased? Just because MBNA is going away the phone calls might not stop, in effect they might actualy increase. I know some collection businesses that are way more effective than MBNA and if those buy the portfolio it's going to be even harder. Do you really think that the debt is not longe pursued just because they are closing shop? Unlikley.

But by the looks of it, they will continue business for a while longer in Ireland and try to find someone that takes it off their hands. Hopefully they find a business that continues the accounts and does not stop like Halifax.
 
I found myself in difficulty with MBNA a couple of years ago and based on my experiences I have also assisted others who found themselves in similar difficulty.

I was lied to and misled by every MBNA staff member that I've ever dealt with. I was harassed and on a couple of occasions I was shouted at. People I've helped have been reduced to tears by MBNA staff.

Based on my experiences and the experiences of others, I will be delighted to the see the back of the company and I sincerely hope that nothing is done to help the staff. If they lose their jobs, it's just karma. I never thought that I would ever say this about a group of people but I actually laughed out loud when I heard this news. John Lennon was right...karma's gonna get you.
 

The thing about karma is that it lands on everyone's doorstep sometime, so we all need to be careful

Former MBNA staff have told me that the corporate culture within the company was poisonous, both in terms of the way they treated their customers and also how they treated their staff.

Unfortunately, in an area like Leitrim, a lot of people have very limited employment options at the best of times, so many MBNA employees would have worked there, not because they liked the company or its culture, but because they couldn't find work elsewhere.

Its unfair and a bit crass to blame these employees for their employer's shortcomings.
 

Karma shouldn't be an issue for people who've behaved honorably in their dealings with others. I've no doubt that the company insist that their staff (say) make as many calls as possible to people during the day. My issue is with the tone and manner of ALL of the staff in the instances that I'm aware of. I very much doubt that the company tell their staff to be rude, abusive and condescending or tell their staff to lie to customers.

Perhaps I'm being callous and emotional about this but my reaction is "let them eat cake". This isn't as simple as irrationally branding a group of people a disgrace just for doing their job (e.g. parking wardens). ALL of the MBNA staff that I've come across have been a disgrace. Let's see them now face the third degree over how they spend their €188 a week...
 
Credit card to clear

Hi

I have a credit card with MBNA and i am trying pay off a couple of personal loans and my car before i tackle paying off the card.. It is 8k on the card. At the momenti am unemployed like most of ireland so its difficult. I will tackle it somehow next year though as i hope to have a job in next couple of months. Does anyone know if MBNA are totally leaving ireland and if so would you still owe them the money? Someone said to me yestereday i would not be liable to pay them i doubt that is the case surely you are still obligated to pay your bill to them which is fair enough.
 

No, you will still be liable.
 
Thanks Sunny i thought that would be the case, i am under pressure at the moment they are saying they want to sell my debt on to some other company i know my credit rating is prob affected for 6 years on the irish credit beauru but can they destroy your credit rating forever ?
 
Time said:
Nope.
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I assume you mean with the ICB because of their current reporting cycles based on payment data only.

But are you sure that Experian for example will not keep a negative remark (for example a judgement) longer on file, they store more than just payment data, they also store registered judgment or bankruptcy information.
 
I switched from Ulster bank Credit card to MBNA and found them great no probs and a hell of alot better to deal with then Ulster bank. Then again I have never gone into arrears.
 
Luckycharm said:
I switched from Ulster bank Credit card to MBNA and found them great no probs and a hell of alot better to deal with then Ulster bank. Then again I have never gone into arrears.
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Banks are always grand and polite to deal with while they're making money off you, its how they treat their long term customers when they fall on hard times through no fault of their own, and ironically more to blame with banks themselves.
Its a bit like measuring how civilised a society is by how it treats its poor, its sick and its prisoners. No personal bad experience with MBNA but always had a very wary view of all moneylenders.
 

Did you miss your minimum payments ?
 
Very happy to hear they are gone. The stories I've heard on AAM and from Irish people in their dealings with MBNA when in arrears were absolutely cruel. Harressing people who are depressed, who have lost their jobs is unconscionable.

They should not have left people build up large credit card bills in the first place and rules should be put in place by the regulator that people have to repay enough to reduce the balance and if a large balance if built up it has to be slowly paid off say over 5 years who no extra charges or interest. The way the credit card companies were able to increase the amount you spent without your consent and also the practice of sending people cheques to spend with are I assume now curtailed.

There was an intersting book on how they operate called 'Maxed Out'
 
Bronte said:
The way the credit card companies were able to increase the amount you spent without your consent and also the practice of sending people cheques to spend with are I assume now curtailed.
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I'm no fan of MBNA but suggesting they were able to increase anything other than the amount available to spend is denying any personal responsibility for running up the bill.
 
I've good experience with MBNA - my sisters experience is not do good.

Their interest free offers are second to none - though I got caught out with their 'pay off the lowest interest first' principle first time I made avail of it.
Used it happilly since.

My sister however fell foul of MBNA UK and once she fell behind with repayments the interest rate got racked up to 35%.
 
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