Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

[Quasar]

Good Morning all.

I have been following this site with great interest over the last few months and now i am in the need of help and assistance.

Quite some years ago I had an MBNA credit card account of which i did use and about a year ago i stopped paying as i was made redundant.
I never ever received any letters from MBNA chasing missed payments and the like and never got any other letters but one from Restons saying i owe money to Arrow Global....Wrote back to them asking who on earth are Arrow Global and to prove what the account is.
They replied with MBNA and owing £1100.

I wrote to them offering to pay £20 a month and filled in a finance expediture form. Not heard back from them at all until yesterday when I received a blue Court Letter ( Northampton ) This has now made me very nervous.

I would love some advice and assistance in how to correctly move forward.

Shall i scan/photo the Court letter and paste on here for verification from you wonderful chaps for officiality of the form.

Many Thanks.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

Good Morning all.

I have been following this site with great interest over the last few months and now i am in the need of help and assistance.

Quite some years ago I had an MBNA credit card account of which i did use and about a year ago i stopped paying as i was made redundant.
I never ever received any letters from MBNA chasing missed payments and the like and never got any other letters but one from Restons saying i owe money to Arrow Global....Wrote back to them asking who on earth are Arrow Global and to prove what the account is.
They replied with MBNA and owing £1100.

Did MBNA not send you a default notice? :confused2: Did you not receive a Notice of Assignment saying the debt was sold to Arrow? :noidea:

I wrote to them offering to pay £20 a month and filled in a finance expediture form. Not heard back from them at all until yesterday when I received a blue Court Letter ( Northampton ) This has now made me very nervous.

I would love some advice and assistance in how to correctly move forward.

Shall i scan/photo the Court letter and paste on here for verification from you wonderful chaps for officiality of the form.

Many Thanks.

Yes, please, would be good to take a look at the particulars of claim.:typing: Remove all personal details before posting.

To avoid getting a CCJ, you need to acknowledge the claim (you can do it online on the MCOL website) and tick the box stating your intention to defend in full. That should give you a total of 28 days to put together your defence. :thumb:

[Quasar]

Re: Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

Hello,

Thank you for your reply.

I have not had any letters from MBNA reminding me that i have to pay etc etc
Just a Restons letter out of the blue.

I will get my scanner working later and scan in.

One thing i did notice on the court letter is :

Particular of Claim :

Contract between defendant and MBNA on 21/10/1999 and assigned to claimant on 29/11/2012 for £1112.35

Ok yes, i do owe money buy this reads as 13 years old !

[Quasar]

Re: Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

I have now added to front page of the court letter...

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

OK, as they mention a contract you should be able to ask for the agreement, they also mention a default balance and assignment, so you should be able to ask for a copy of your agreement, the default notice and notice of assignment. Once you have acknowledged the claim stating your intention to defend in full, you should send Restons the following letter, which is a request for documents mentioned on the particulars of claim under CPR 31.14. Although the amount claimed will make it a small claims matter, there's a paragraph on the letter stating that, as this claim has yet to be allocated, they cannot wriggle out of their obligations by saying CPR 31.14 doesn't apply to small claims. :thumb:
Send the letter recorded delivery so you have proof and can be tracked.

Dear Sirs,

Re: XXXX v YYYYY
Case No: xxxx

CPR 31.14 Request

On xx/xx/2013 I received the Claim Form in this case issued by you out of the Northampton County Court.

I confirm having returned my acknowledgement of service to the court in which I indicate my intention to contest your entire claim.

Please treat this letter as my request made under CPR 31.14 for the disclosure and the production of a verified and legible copy of each of the following documents mentioned in your Particulars of Claim:

1. The Agreement. Together with the relevant terms associated with that account, you will appreciate that in an ordinary case and by reason of the provisions of CPR PD 16 para 7.3, where a claim is based upon a written agreement, a copy of the contract or documents constituting the agreement should be attached to or served with the particulars of claim and the original(s) should be available at the hearing. Further, that any general conditions incorporated in the contract should also be attached.
2. The Notice of Assignment
3. The Default Notice Compliant with 87(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974

Although your claim is for a sum which does not exceed £10,000.00 and thus in all likelihood it will be allocated to the small claims track once I deliver my defence, however as I am unable to lodge my defence at this moment, the case has not been allocated to a track for determination upon delivering a defence, as a consequence the provisions of CPR 27(2) have no effect and you should not seek to avoid compliance with your CPR 31 duties by claiming otherwise

You should ensure compliance with your CPR 31 duties and ensure that the documents I have requested are copied to and received by me within 7 days of receiving this letter. Your CPR 31 duties extend to making a reasonable and proportionate search for the originals of the documents I have requested, the better for you to be able to verify the document's authenticity and to provide me with a legible copy. Further, where I have requested a copy of a document, the original of which is now in the possession of another person, you will have a right to possession of that document if you have mentioned it in your case. You must take immediate steps to recover and preserve it for the purpose of this case.

Where I have mentioned a document and there is in your possession more than one version of that same document owing as a result to a modification, obliteration or other marking, or feature, each version thus will be a separate document and you must provide a copy of each version of it to me. Your obligations extend to making a reasonable and proportionate search for any, and all version(s) and include an obligation to recover and preserve such version(s) that are now in the possession of a third party.

In accordance with CPR 31.15(c) I undertake to be responsible for your reasonable copying costs incurred in complying with this CPR 31.14 request.

If you require more time in which to comply with this request you must tell me in writing. You must tell me before the time for compliance with this request has expired. In telling me you require more time you must tell me what steps you have taken and propose to take in order to comply with this request and also state a date by when you will comply with this request. In addition your statement must be accompanied with a statement that you agree to an extension of the time for me to file my defence. Your extension of time must be not less than 14 days from the date when you say you will have complied with my request and you must state the new date for filing my defence.

If you are unable to comply with this request and believe that you will never be able to comply with this request you must tell me in writing.

Please note that if you should fail to comply with this request, fail to request more time or fail to agree to an extension of time for the filing of my defence, I will make an application to the court for an order that the proceedings be struck out or stayed for non-compliance and a summary costs order.

I do hope this will not be necessary and look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

I have not had any letters from MBNA reminding me that i have to pay etc etc
Just a Restons letter out of the blue.

Did Restons send you a letter before action, i.e. a letter stating their intention to issue a claim? :noidea:

I will get my scanner working later and scan in.

One thing i did notice on the court letter is :

Particular of Claim :

Contract between defendant and MBNA on 21/10/1999 and assigned to claimant on 29/11/2012 for £1112.35

Ok yes, i do owe money buy this reads as 13 years old !

That date refers to the date you took out the card, nearly 14 years ago, which is good news as they may not be able to get the agreement from MBNA.

How long ago did you default on this card? When did you make the last payment? :confused2: If it was over 6 years ago (your profile says you are in England), then the debt would be Statute Barred. :bounce:

[Quasar]

Re: Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

Wow so much help Appreciated.
I will sign up to a credit scoring site and check when i last paid. It might have been 2011.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

Wow so much help Appreciated.
I will sign up to a credit scoring site and check when i last paid. It might have been 2011.

Do bear in mind your CRA files don't necessarily paint the whole picture, the default would have been recorded months after your first missed payment, usually 3 to 6 months. :ohwell:

If you estimate it to have been 2011, then there's no point in checking, I was just asking in case it was over 6 years ago. Anything less and it wouldn't be SBd so you couldn't use that as your defence.

[Quasar]

Re: Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

Printing the above letter out later at work to post Recorded.

So even though i admit i do owe money, they just have to PROVE it etc..

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

Printing the above letter out later at work to post Recorded.

I assume you have already acknowledged the claim and stated your intention to defend, because you can only really send that letter once you've done so, as it's mentioned at the start of the letter. :typing:

So even though i admit i do owe money, they just have to PROVE it etc..

It's not a matter of whether you owe the money or not but whether the creditor has followed the rules. The Consumer Credit Act is there to ensure creditors follow certain procedures both when they set up new accounts and when they default them and ultimately sell them on. :thumb:

For this debt to be enforceable, there would need to be a properly executed agreement containing all the prescribed terms as set out by the CCA. They should also have issued you with a default notice giving you enough time to remedy the breach before terminating the account as well as a notice of assignment when it was sold to Arrow. Borrowers are not the only ones who have obligations, so do lenders and those who act for them such as DCAs and solicitors. They have to show they have met their obligations if they want to enforce the debt in court.

As you never sent a request for your credit agreement under s.78 of the CCA, you don't know whether there is a compliant agreement for this account, what you're doing is asking them to disclose the documents they intend to rely on to enforce.

[Quasar]

Re: Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

well its been a few days after my letter giving them 7 days to provide information :

What happens now, and what when the court date looms ?

Nervous !

[PlanB]

Re: Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

well its been a few days after my letter giving them 7 days to provide information :

What happens now, and what when the court date looms ?

Nervous !

Can you clarify if you've submitted your Acknowledgment of Service (ticked box online) because the deadline for that was Wednesday (maybe one day later because of the Bank Holiday)?

After that you will have another 14 days to file your Defence. Obviously it'll be impossible to file your Defence if you haven't got the documents Arrow refer to in the POC :noidea: which is the reason why you've sent them a CPR Request.

If Arrow don't reply to your request then you may be advised to approach them for an extension to the deadline for filing your Defence to give them more time to come up with the goods, so you are seen to be acting reasonably. You can agree this extension between yourselves and then inform the court. I believe the maximum delay permitted is a further 28 days. If Arrow don't agree then you can apply to the court to compel them to comply with your request and they'll have to pay the cost of the application (normally).

So the seven days are up but give it a couple more to see if anything arrives - which I doubt

Post up again on Monday morning so we can suggest what action you should take. Hopefully you'll start to feel less nervous once you realise that you are taking control of the situation.

[PlanB]

Re: Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

Quite some years ago I had an MBNA credit card account of which i did use and about a year ago i stopped paying as i was made redundant.

. . . until yesterday when I received a blue Court Letter ( Northampton ) This has now made me very nervous.

What can you remember about this MBNA account? The reason I ask is because Arrow may send you documents purporting to be the credit agreement which are not necessarily "honest and accurate". It wouldn't be the first time. You will need to be ready to assess what you get from them.

Did you have PPI on this account? I note you were made redundant but no mention of a PPI claim. However MBNA frequently added it to accounts at inception (even if you didn't ask for it) and customers had to call up to cancel. This is important because if Arrow sends you a half-decent looking CCA then we'll be looking for other angles for you. So if there was PPI at the beginning then they will have to provide you with the Ts & Cs of that PPI as well as the credit agreement which will probably be an application form.

So what do you remember about opening this account? Was it online, was it in response to a mailshot, were you approached at a fair or in a shopping mall?

There's really no need to be nervous of four pieces of blue A4 paper :fear:

[Quasar]

Re: Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

Can you clarify if you've submitted your Acknowledgment of Service (ticked box online) because the deadline for that was Wednesday (maybe one day later because of the Bank Holiday)?
Yes i went online to MCOL and ticked ackowledge and defend.

What can you remember about this MBNA account.
I beleive it was a mail shot at a previous address, filled in forms signed it and posted it off.
Whether it had PPI on it or not i dont know.

If Arrow don't reply to your request then you may be advised to approach them for an extension to the deadline for filing your Defence to give them more time to come up with the goods, so you are seen to be acting reasonably.
I have never had any letters from Arrow themselves, only Restons

[PlanB]

Re: Restons sent me a blue court letter for Arrow about MBNA

I beleive it was a mail shot at a previous address, filled in forms signed it and posted it off.
Whether it had PPI on it or not i dont know.

If Arrow don't reply to your request then you may be advised to approach them for an extension to the deadline for filing your Defence to give them more time to come up with the goods, so you are seen to be acting reasonably.
I have never had any letters from Arrow themselves, only Restons

I suppose when I said Arrow I really should have said Restons who are acting as Arrow's solicitors. Sorry if I wasn't clear. I think you'll find that Restons will need to ask Arrow for the documents, and in turn Arrow will have to ask MBNA for them because it's highly unlikely that Arrow received a full paper file when they purchased the debt in November 2012.

Fingers crossed it was a MBNA application form you signed which didn't have all the prescribed terms on it and the Ts & Cs weren't attached to it at the time. Most of them weren't.
Let's see what (if anything) arrives first and not count your chickens before they hatch

Have a good weekend