Key Post How best to deal with MBNA if you can't pay the balance due

Have you tried Mabs, they are experts on this?

Ya I was talking to them the other week which is why i sent the letter with my financial assessment... I just got home and have received my bill... they have charged me €70 interest and €15 late fees this month!

I am going to ring them today to see what they say! and see if they are willing to negotiate

MBNA have declined my offer and say that I can afford the minimum payment amount. I can't and wouldn't be contacting them and my other creditors if I could. I am going to write to them again to see if I can make any progress as I want to sort the situation out asap.

This company is known for their easyto sell and hard to ngotiate with stance. I hve a friend in the who dealt with them in similar circiumstances. Word is that some of the management are ex US military. One thing for sure is that they take no prisioners!
I know you guys are asking these questions because you want to deal with the debts and probably have already your back to the wall. My advice, IF YOU CAN, shift your debt another lender ASAP preferably a loan or lesser rate card at worst. Sell some of the stuff you bought on the cards, get a loan from family or friends, anyway if you can. For certain life is too short to deal with these guys - in my opinion they don't deal fair - and will shorten you life with the stress the bring on - you are sub-prime to them now so you will pay dearly.
Sorry can't be more positive than that.

Mister Markie, it aint even worth writing to them again! every time i try to negotiate they say the same thing to me... they tell me "I Can Afford to Pay" even though I know I physically cant!

Woodie, I have been having this argument with them for 2 years now. If they do not come to a reasonable agreement with me then they can do what they like because I'm not going to continue to fight a loosing battle.....

Shifting the debt from MBNA to another lender just isn't an option. MBNA destroy your credit rating so nobody will touch you with a barge pole. They are very difficult to deal with.

Ya i know they do! but to be honest at this stage i have no plans on borrowing any more money! It will go against my credit rating for 6 years!

They are like you said very difficult to deal with but I might as well be banging my head against a brick wall!

Has anyone ever had the experience where MBNA have sold their debt???

With mbna ,I have found that they are very aggressive in chasing the money.

First of all ,you get the phonecalls from the Indian call centres .
Then you get the calls from the call centres from the Irish people in Clare.
Then you get the calls from MBNA recoveries .

At this stage you need to try and strike a deal.If you don't they will sell your debt.

MBNA recoveries will accept about a 1/3 of the amount as a settlement, and you can pay this over approx 5 - 6months.If you want to change the deal to suit you send them a letter with your terms and condition.

All banks want cash as quickly as possible , so without getting into the moral position of paying banks back , keep in mind that if you have some cash you can get a great deal in debt settlements.It will affect your credit rating , but its up to you to decide how valuable your credit rating really is.The quicker you close a deal , the quicker your credit rating will be cleaned.

Im currently doing battle with MBNA - myself and husband owe 21k on 2 credit cards.

I contacted them last week to go on a payment plan which means interest frozen - plan is for 5 years, and you MUST pay 1.67% of you balance at the time you entered payment plan - this works out at just under 360 per month for us for 5 years. It is a lot, but with the hope of being out of debt after 5 years it is worth it.

We got letters this morning warning us to cut up cards (did this 18 MONTHS ago) and to ring them urgently. They are doing an ICB check on us to see if we qualify for payment plan - will let you know if we are accepted, but we have decided if we are not, that we will not pay and face the courts.

We have done everything possible to negotiate a fair deal with these people, and know we have to pay back our debts but with a low income and a willingness to try to clear a debts I dont see how any judge in the land would make us pay even half what we are offering.

Good luck with your own battle!

Netz, did the credit card company tell you to cut up the cards?

Yes, the exact words were " Please cut up your card and credit card cheques and cancel all subscriptions" We cut them up a long long time ago!!! Have been paying just interest for about 18 months, and havent really used the cards in years!!

Ok so - an update. After 2 weeks of ringing, emailing, and in general letting MBNA take over my entire life - after receiving a letter telling me to cut up my cards and cancel subscriptions, haggling and begging them to put me on a payment plan @ 362 per month (KILLER I KNOW) to do this they actually made me pay 362 which I really couldnt afford this month (confirmation expenses) to show I was able to pay this amount, the sneaky, degenerate, underhanded little buggers have just heaped on another 101 in interest charges on one account before making a decision on my application. They are really bleeding us dry - we have worked out that MBNA have got nearly 15K in INTEREST from us over the past 5 years, and now when times are so, so tough, they really wont give us a break. New customers BEWARE! It looks like they are not going to allow payment plan, and we cannot afford their new minimum charges, which work out at interest + 1% of what you owe. Really angry about this. We want to pay our debts but these people are driving me nuts......

I would let the courts deal with it.

Netz I think Time may be right. As long as you keep paying you are going to get nowhere. Each time you pay them something they will heap on the charges, but contrarily if you don't pay they will negotiate and start to write off interest.

Have a read of Kaz's dealings with them again and my post 19 on this thread.

You need to play hardball or you will get nowhere. Don't make it look like you are playing hardball though.

Hey guys, so just an up date, i am getting absolutely no where with MBNA. I have made another appointment with MABS tomorrow to see what else I can do, just to let you know Time, the last time I spoke to MBNA they told me outright that they do not take their customers to court.... simple fact is if they did the majority of Judges would throw out the case so its not in their interest to do it!!!!

They will however sell the debt to a third party, what happens when they do that I dont know!

To date they have completely ignored my correspondence.... its like they dont want to know. I have done some research and a few people in the UK have actually taken MBNA to court and won! so that could be another road to go down although if you lose it could cost you a fortune!

MBNA do and will take people to court. You just need to completely blank them and they will. You need to simply ignore their calls and letters.
Whilst you are talking to them, they won't and will keep adding on interest.

Do you know of someone that has been taken to court?

They have told me they are selling my debt to a third party!!!

I know of several people who MBNA have sued and have got judgements.

They have told me they are selling my debt to a third party!!!

Click to expand...

Is that supposed to be some kind of menacing threat on their behalf?

Here are a few home truths...

Say you've €10,000 on your credit card and you're struggling to meet the minimum payment. If you contact the bank, they'll refuse to discuss the position with you until you're in arrears. Therefore, it seems as if there's no point in being proactive or acting responsibly when you feel yourself getting into trouble.

You'll then be pestered and intimidated with up to 5 or 6 phonecalls a day from foreign call centres. The staff will treat you badly and you'll start to feel hopeless and despondent.

The next stage is getting to speak with Irish based call centre agents who will be far more friendly and helpful (or so it would seem). They'll talk you through your income and expenditure position, and promise to freeze your interest and charges and put you on a 5 year instalment plan. They'll tell you that the figures stack up and that it's a done deal. But only if you make a payment as a gesture of goodwill. You're in trouble, but you make the payment to secure the deal. Then they renege on the deal and blame their debt management section. It was all just a ruse to get that payment from you. The paradox is that you want to repay the debt and they're making you jump through hoops to get a payment plan.

Next you'll get a more senior member of staff who'll pretend to side with you and assure you that he can secure the arrangement. He'll criticise his colleagues. It's all just a ruse to just get another lump sum from you. Your time is being wasted...you're just being kicked down the road to buy the bank time before your debt becomes a bad debt and hits their balance sheet.

Then your debt's charged off. Believe it or not, the only way is up from there. The clock starts for the rebuilding of your ICB record. The collection agency are fine to deal with. They'll happily accept the repayments that the bank were making you jump through hoops over. And the collection agency will settle for far less than the original debt either now or down the line.

If you're in financial difficulty, having your credit card debt charged off isn't as bad as it seems...in some ways it's a positive development. And some banks are nigh on impossible to deal with.

Gekko you have practically said exactly what has happened with me and MBNA! the only thing they never did was agree to a reasonable repayment deal!!!

So maybe it will be a good thing if they sell my debt!!