Living abroad

[Tweety Pie]

Can someone advise please. My husband of 82 has a debt with MBNA (8K) and we are struggling to pay. We are paying just a little every month. We have been repaying an agreed amount every month for 3 years but now are unable to pay this amount. They have stopped the interest but now we are having threatening phone calls and now they say they will sell the debt. They have received a statement of our expenditure which shows we have no more money to pay them. We are very frightened as we cannot afford to pay anymore. Does anyone know the proceedure if abroad please?

[Amy]

Re: Living abroad

How much is the agreed amount you've been paying?

[Mochamoos]

Re: Living abroad

What country are you in?

[Tweety Pie]

Re: Living abroad

Hi the agreed amount was £85.00 but now we can only pay £15.00.

[Amy]

Re: Living abroad

Have you sent them any letters yet telling them they are not allowed to telephone you?

Do you have charges on this card?

[Tweety Pie]

Re: Living abroad

They have stopped the interest charges. we have not written to them to ask them to stop telephoning us, should we do this?

[Amy]

Re: Living abroad

Yes you should definitely write to them. Something like this:

Account Number: **********

Please take this letter as confirmation that I will no longer be discussing my financial business with you over the telephone. I now require all contact to be made in writing only.

As I am sure you are aware Harassment of Debtors is a criminal offence in England and Wales under Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970.

Furthermore, continued telephone calls after the receipt of a request not to call may constitute a criminal offence under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.

In addition every individual has a right to be free from harassment under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. The offence of causing harassment is arrestable under the provisions of Section 24(2) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and attracts the powers associated with such offences. Additionally Section 3 enables a person who is, or may become, the victim of behaviour prohibited by Section 1 to take civil proceedings against the perpetrator.

Further it is my contention that your company is in breach of the Office of Fair Trading guidelines on harassment.

If I should receive another telephone call from any person from your company at any point then I will be contacting the police to report the criminal offence of harassment and will be naming you in my statement to the police.

I trust that I have made myself clear and that all future correspondence with your company will be in writing, therefore kindly remove my home telephone and work telephone numbers from your system at once.

Yours faithfully,

[Amy]

Re: Living abroad

I don't mean interest charges. Have they applied any charges or penalties to your card ie. late payment charges or exceeded credit limit?

[Tweety Pie]

Re: Living abroad

No, no charges or penalties.

[Tweety Pie]

Re: Living abroad

Thank you so much for your help and advice.

[Amy]

Re: Living abroad

You're welcome xx

[Amy]

Re: Living abroad

No, no charges or penalties.

Are you sure? Was the £85 that you were paying the minimum amount payment requested? If it wasn't I'm sure they would have applied charges to it.

Do you have all your statements to check?

[Tweety Pie]

Re: Living abroad

£85 was a figure we agreed with them to pay not the minimum payment - I have checked all statements - no penalties or charges. Going through all the file I have found a letter from them dated 04/07 saying "the balance is scheduled to be written off imminently" - but this has not happened.

[Amy]

Re: Living abroad

How much of the debt has been repaid?

[Tweety Pie]

Re: Living abroad

We have paid off 4K.