MBNA problems!!

punchdrunk

ok folks here's the deal,lost my job in January with ZERO redundancy,or notice it was happening

had a credit card nearly maxed at the time,but with redundancy out of the blue and it taking quite a while to get on the dole i maxed it (5k)
even when I got onto the dole between rent and everything else there was never anything left over to pay MNBA

as it stands the balance on it is roughly 5500

I didn't find a new job until the beginning of July,but as soon as I did I contacted MBNA got talking to a really nice guy and he laid out that if i payed €200 per month for three months they would restructure the arrears on my account
I made two payments in august (one was just a day or two late going through via an post to count as July's payment),one in September and next week i'll make another

today i got a call saying that they had changed their mind and it now will require six months to restructure the account basically I now have to pay them €1200 before I even start to touch the balance on the account

also the double payment i made in august is only being counted as a single,calendar payment so it's now going to be january before i can start working away at the 5500

my question is why suddenly change the restructure from three to six months?

I'm also incurring late fews and it's being flagged by the credit bureau,when i was told if i made the three payments it would prevent that

this has seriously ruined my day

matt70iu

punchdrunk wrote: »

ok folks here's the deal,lost my job in January with ZERO redundancy,or notice it was happening

had a credit card nearly maxed at the time,but with redundancy out of the blue and it taking quite a while to get on the dole i maxed it (5k)
even when I got onto the dole between rent and everything else there was never anything left over to pay MNBA

as it stands the balance on it is roughly 5500

I didn't find a new job until the beginning of July,but as soon as I did I contacted MBNA got talking to a really nice guy and he laid out that if i payed €200 per month for three months they would restructure the arrears on my account
I made two payments in august (one was just a day or two late going through via an post to count as July's payment),one in September and next week i'll make another

today i got a call saying that they had changed their mind and it now will require six months to restructure the account basically I now have to pay them €1200 before I even start to touch the balance on the account

also the double payment i made in august is only being counted as a single,calendar payment so it's now going to be january before i can start working away at the 5500

my question is why suddenly change the restructure from three to six months?

I'm also incurring late fews and it's being flagged by the credit bureau,when i was told if i made the three payments it would prevent that

this has seriously ruined my day

Understand where you are coming from. I had a similar experience with MBNA. I lost my job at the start of 2009. I wrote to them with proof that I was on social welfare, and a statement of income and expenditure. They froze all interest and charges on the account.

A few months later I got a job and contacted them to ask how much to increase payments by. They told me if I paid 181 for 3 months, they woujld wipe the arrears and bring the account up to date.

3 months later I contacted them and they told me I should never have been told that and that basically they would not be re - instating the card but that I could continue to make the current payments until the account was paid off. I then got a formal letter to confirm this.

3 months later, they send me a letter stating that they were going to write off the debt and sell it onto a third party, even though I had kept to the agreed amounts without 1 default.

Have not heard from them since but am fast paying off the card now due to the fact that there's no interest.

If I was in your shoes, I would send them an income and expenditure statement and request that they freeze all interest and charges. Your credit rating would have already been affected due to your arrears, so you're better off getting the card paid off as quickly and cheaply as possible.

I for one will never deal with them again. Change their mind like night turns to day!!

I hope you manage to get sorted!

punchdrunk

well i am due statutory state redundancy soon roughly about 4k,should I just throw this off it in one lump? should i ask for a final settlement amount?

matt70iu

punchdrunk wrote: »

well i am due statutory state redundancy soon roughly about 4k,should I just throw this off it in one lump? should i ask for a final settlement amount?

Yeah that would be an idea, but I would state to them that you will only settle on the condition that they at least wipe all charges and interest accrued as a result of the arrears.

I would be surprised if they didn't agree:)

_Kaiser_

Similar thing, except with AIB that I wouldn't mind a bit of advice on (thought I'd stick it in here rather than create a new thread)..

I have an AIB "Low Interest" Mastercard that has a fairly big 4-figure balance on it. Like others in this thread I was made redundant last last year, and the first thing I did was to call AIB to restructure the personal loan I also have with them.

That end is fine (well, manageable anyway given my dramatically reduced funds), but the credit card keeps ticking over with a few hundred every month as a "minimum payment", only for half of that to be added back on again as interest... so in effect I'm getting nowhere with it.

I asked them about the options 2 months back and the girl (while very nice and understanding) told me that their options were limited as its "all automated" and that her advice was to keep trying to make the minimum payments every month (even if that money then goes right back out of the card "account").

Today I've gotten a letter from them (sent to everyone it seems) saying that from the middle of January they're changing how they charge interest on their cards - I THINK this won't affect me as I make the minumum payment in full and carry the balance over but I'll be checking with them of course!

Before I do though, have I any options to "freeze" the interest/balance on the account or do I have to do something like declare bankruptcy or something. If I went that far, what can they come after? I don't really own anything save for a car (not on finance, but I am considering selling it too and downgrading to free up some cash) so there's no house or anything to repossess.

In the meantime I'm doing my best to get a new job and meet my other commitments (contrary to popular belief over on the Economy forum, these things don't disappear when you're laid off!) but jobs are scarce as we all know, and I need to try and preserve what little cashflow I have until I get something.

Any advice much appreciated.. cheers!