Mint card

[itsybitsy]

Hi all,

I'm new to Legal Beagles and have joined up as I've read a few interesting things regarding the Mint Card and in particular the exorbitant charges they made when you didn’t pay up the minimum amount. By coincidence my business crashed in 2006 and my card went from a limit of £6500 to a spend of £8,000 in no time at all because of all the penalties - I could not keep up. I had to get in touch with the Citizens Advice Bureau who were very helpful and I have been paying off £100 a month since – now down to just under £2k. I would like to know though if anyone has had success in getting back the charges – I can remember them being like £100 and more at a time if I did not make the minimum payment on time. I’m hoping they might owe me so I can finish with them.
Anyone got any positive result and know the procedure on how I might challenge them?

[Berniethebolt]

Re: Mint card

I have a Mint card from 2006 , Mint cards are part of RBS or where at that time. All I can tell you is that my charges were nearer the £12 mark, nowhere near £100.
I have no idea if they even provided business cards but was the card a business or personal credit card?
Have you ever sent a CCA request to them?
How did you apply, can you remember , online or in by paper

When did you start paying the repayments?
Did they default the card

Have they been adding interest

Sorry for all the questions but they are all relevant

[nemesis45]

Re: Mint card

Hi all,

I'm new to Legal Beagles and have joined up as I've read a few interesting things regarding the Mint Card and in particular the exorbitant charges they made when you didn’t pay up the minimum amount. By coincidence my business crashed in 2006 and my card went from a limit of £6500 to a spend of £8,000 in no time at all because of all the penalties - I could not keep up. I had to get in touch with the Citizens Advice Bureau who were very helpful and I have been paying off £100 a month since – now down to just under £2k. I would like to know though if anyone has had success in getting back the charges – I can remember them being like £100 and more at a time if I did not make the minimum payment on time. I’m hoping they might owe me so I can finish with them.
Anyone got any positive result and know the procedure on how I might challenge them?

Hi welcome to LB ,
It may be the case that any attempt to reclaim charges is out of time now over 9 years ago and such a reclaim
should have been done much earlier.

You will need to discover what was actually charged for each late/missed payment.
Was the account closed in 2006?

nem

[itsybitsy]

Re: Mint card

Thanks for coming back so quickly BTB - I appreciate it.

To answer your questions directly:
It was a personal business card that I used for generally business reasons but I had to pay it off so in short - yes it was personal and in my name.
I have never sent them a CCA request - sorry for being thick but I don't know what one of those is.
I think I must have applied for the card via Nat West - it wpould not have been on lineas I wsn't then I don't think - I probably took the card out around the year 2000.
I started making repayments from around Jan 2007 - missed a few and they told me last year they had passed it onto a credit agency but I complained they had not tried sufficiently well to contact me which they accepted and now I still pay by phoning up and putting the £100 on my debit card - I have to say they are very nice to me now - does that mean anything?
They stopped adding interest after my meeting with the CAB and I've never been able to use the card - I cut it up anyway.
I can never get credit for anything even now!

And yes I definitely had default/late payment chargers of £100+. Just one more thing - I have been working from home now for 3.5 years so I must have got the CAB to help around 2008/09 if this has any bearing.

Hope this helps and thanks again

[itsybitsy]

Re: Mint card

Thanks NEM

Having thought this through in more detail I think it was more likely 2009/2009 I had to go to the CAB. Is it safe and a good idea for me to get statements from Mint without encouraging them to start charging me back interest?

Thanks

[Berniethebolt]

Re: Mint card

There is nothing to stop you sending a CCA request , this is a request for information. When you send it you will need to include a fee of £1 , if you have a cheque book you can do that and if not a postal order .

You do not say who the credit agency is, have they sold the debt or kept it in-house, Natwest is, as i am sure you know, part of RBS.
If they won it you can send it to the Southend on Sea address . I always use signed for delivery but for some reason I have never had a signature when sending things to that address ( I do for other P.O. Boxes)
Personally i would not include anything with my signature on it just to n=be on the safe side so a cheque signed by someone else, or a postal order


This is the letter for the CCA request

Your name
Your address
Your address
Your Postcode

DATE

Creditor Name
Creditor Address
Creditor Address
Creditor Postcode



Dear Sir/Madam

Re:− Account Number xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

With reference to the above agreement, I/we would be grateful if you would send us a copy of this credit agreement.

I/We understand that under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (Sections 77−79), we are entitled to receive a legible copy of our credit agreement on request. We enclose a payment of £1.00 which represents the fee payable under the Consumer Credit Act.

We understand a copy of our credit agreement should be supplied within 12 working days.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

Once the 12+2 working days are up (the 2 is for the post) then they can not enforce in court although that only lasts until they can produce the correct documents but if they can not produce it you could stop paying. I imagine you have a default on your credit file, www.noddle.co.uk provides a free credit report , a default will come off your file once the 6 years are up so after that obtaining credit should be easier
[MENTION=37786]FlamingParrot[/MENTION] explains these things much better than I can and I am sure they will be along soon.

I bet they can provide a better CCA request letter than that one-meanwhile I will see if I can did one out

[Berniethebolt]

Re: Mint card

This is a bit more in depth

Dear Sir/Madam

Re:− Account Number xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Please treat this letter as a formal request for you to supply a copy of my Consumer Credit Agreement as is my entitlement under sections 77-79 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

I require you to provide me with a true copy, or reconstituted copy of the credit agreement relating to any account you deem to be mine, together with any other documentation the Act requires you to provide. I expect you to comply fully and properly with this request, within the statutory time limit.

Your obligation also extends to providing me with a statement of account. I enclose a £1 postal order, which represents payment of the statutory fee payable under the Consumer Credit Act. These funds are not to be used for any other purpose .I understand that a copy of my credit agreement should be supplied within 12 working days from the date of this letter.

If it is your view that you are not the creditor, s.175 of the CCA1974 applies in the case of a simple assignment, and places a duty upon you to pass this request to the creditor. In the case of an absolute assignment, you are a creditor as defined by s.189.

I understand that under the Consumer Credit Act, creditors are unable to enforce an agreement if they fail to comply with a request for a copy of the agreement under these sections of the Act.


Yours faithfully,


YOUR NAME

[itsybitsy]

Re: Mint card

Thanks BTB - hope you don't mind the abbreviation by the way. I assume the CCA will determine if the original agreement was legit and I will do this. If it turns out it isn't can I get all those over the top penalties back?.The debt is kept 'In House' - I deal with Mint in Southend as I kicked up a stink when they handed it over to a debt collection agency without any pre warning as I had been clockwork with my payments and saw no reason for them to do so. As said they have been very polite ever since.

I do appreciate your help and it is kind of you to take the time.

PS - good tip about the signature!!

[nemesis45]

Re: Mint card

Thanks NEM

Having thought this through in more detail I think it was more likely 2009/2009 I had to go to the CAB. Is it safe and a good idea for me to get statements from Mint without encouraging them to start charging me back intere

Thanks

A Subject Access request may be of some help looking into the charges
the requires the creditor to supply all the personal data it holds
on you/the account, this should turn up all the data and charges
made on the account.

Of course what ever you decide you need to sure who is actually the creditor is it definitely NatWest?

nem

[Berniethebolt]

Re: Mint card

If you are dealing with Mint is Southend there is little doubt that the original creditor is the RBS group . I would get the CCA ( for a credit card it is a Section 78 request ) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1974/39/section/78

I am afraid that even if they fail to produce it in itself will not get the charges back. A SAR request as suggested would be a good way of getting to find out the charges.
If you were able to get a refund of the charges they would I am afraid offset them against the oustanding debt. If the debt were to be unenforceable and the charges equal to or less than the outstanding debt there would be little point in following a reclaim . If however the charges are greater than the debt and big enough to make it worth your while then it would be worth a go , in the same vein , if the debt is enforceable , well anything you can get knocked off the balance may be worth it.

out

[itsybitsy]

Re: Mint card

Thanks - I think I understand. I'm going to do the CCA and hope that is positive for me. If they can't do retrospective interest then I have nothing to lose with the SAR too - if we end up evens I'm happy with that.

Thanks again for your help and understand the 'out'

Cheers and 'out'

[Berniethebolt]

Re: Mint card

itsybitsy

The out was an absolute typo, i was on my tablet and make all sorts of cock ups on there

If you have questions keep asking, I am sure FP will be along at some point , if not I;ll snap the beak off

[itsybitsy]

Re: Mint card

No worries - I think I'm good to go and will let you know the outcome.
Thanks again

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Mint card

There is nothing to stop you sending a CCA request , this is a request for information. When you send it you will need to include a fee of £1 , if you have a cheque book you can do that and if not a postal order .

Once the 12+2 working days are up (the 2 is for the post) then they can not enforce in court although that only lasts until they can produce the correct documents but if they can not produce it you could stop paying. I imagine you have a default on your credit file, www.noddle.co.uk provides a free credit report , a default will come off your file once the 6 years are up so after that obtaining credit should be easier
@FlamingParrot explains these things much better than I can and I am sure they will be along soon.

I bet they can provide a better CCA request letter than that one-meanwhile I will see if I can did one out

Thanks Bernie Been out all day but I see you did manage to dig them up.

The CCA request would be mainly to assess the enforceability of the debt but it would also be interesting to see what the T&Cs say with regards to charges.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Mint card

Thanks - I think I understand. I'm going to do the CCA and hope that is positive for me. If they can't do retrospective interest then I have nothing to lose with the SAR too - if we end up evens I'm happy with that.

You may want to look at this link with regards to reclaiming credit card charges: https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.u...t-card-charges

There is a link on there to how to access your personal info but that's just the generic ICO SARs. Below is a SAR letter I've used a few time, tailored more specifically at obtaining info from banks:

Dear Sirs

Ref: xxxxxxxx

Subject Access Request - S.7 Data Protection Act 1998

Under the Data Protection Act 1984 and 1998, and including the right of subject access under these acts, I hereby request that you supply me with any and all historical data in your possession which, in any way appertains to me, including (but not exhaustively) a copy of the original signed executed agreement; statements of account; duplicate statements and/or printouts of all account transactions; all internal and external correspondence sent or received by you including memos, logs, notes, screen prints and transcripts; notes of manual interventions such as telephone attendants' notes, copies of stored telephone conversations, internal and external emails; any other information held on all types of media in any relevant filing system. If you have disclosed any information to a third party (with or without my express permission), will you please include details of this in your reply, along with notes of any legal action passed or pending (to include a true copy of default notices, court orders and the like).

If you store any of the older records on microfiche, please be aware that the Information Commissioner deems this to be a relevant filing system under the Act. As such, any microfiche data must be sent to me in fully legible and comprehensible form.

Where any information that you provide includes any charges, for example returned payments, late payment fees, and so forth, would you please advise your breakdown of actual costs (liquidated damages) incurred for each charge, and the Term or Condition on which you rely upon to claim such a charge. I also require that you forward, within the above mentioned time scale, a true copy of the Terms and Conditions that were in force at the time my account was opened, and any subsequent amendments to those Terms and Conditions.

Additionally, where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any member of your staff, or any other person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention, or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my business with you. If you are unable to supply this data because there has been no such manual intervention, then please be so kind as to confirm this in your response.

I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10.00 to access ALL data held by you about myself. You have 40 days in which to comply with this request.

Yours faithfully,