MBNA stalking me for an overdue payment of 25euro.

Are Credit Card institutions allowed to contact named card holders, (not the named account holder, i.e. my husband) in relation to overdue payments ?

I just forgot (i know, bad management) to pay the minimum charge two months in a row. It means an overdue payment of just under 24 euro on my statement which I got late last week. Having spent some money in Feb on the card, when i got the statement, I cleared it all (690 euro) off by payment though my bank BOI on Monday last. I knew it would take a couple of days to go through , so being a good , conscientious person, I rang MBNA, spoke to a guy, told him I had paid off the full amount and could he make a note on my account to that effect. ( I did this really because there was a threat on the statement to say my name would be sent to Credit Reference Bureau as a defaulter... ) The guy agreed that he would put the note on my account, to avoid any such problems.

Then on Wed evening, MBNA phoned my home, spoke to my partner, who is a named cardholder but not the account holder. They gave him all the details and requested him to pass on a message to me to pay the minimum.
Then I come to work this morning, and get a voice message left after 5.30 last night, stressing that it was important that I should ring a certain number before 8 pm last night . It was MBNA, although to be fair , they didn't say that on the message or refer to any debt.
Mind you at after 5.30 in the evening, I don't know how they thought I would get the message and phone back before 8 pm!
I have three questions:

Do MBNA have the legal right to speak to a named cardholder in this instance. ?? I phoned this morning to complain and was told that they do have the legal right. Can anybody confirm ?
Second question : Are they allowed to phone people's place of employment? ( I suspect they are , but does anybody know for definite?)

Third question: am I being unreasonable to expect them to read the notes on the computer before making such calls (When I called to complain, it was agreed that the guy who took the message about my payment, had done as he said, and had put a note on the account, but the excuse was that it was on a different system so could not be seen by the person who was calling me. Frankly , I don't believe that, I would prefer an honest answer, sorry , I made a mistake., I missed the note...

I am annoyed because I feel like I was stalked, for an over due payment of just under 25 euro ! So maybe this should be in letting off steam, but I would really like answers to question 1 and 2 .

Should I move my business ?? Take this opportunity to get the best deal ? One last question - could they put me on a debtors list because I had to be chased to pay the 25 euro ??

Thanks for reading this long saga...
Big Maggie.

I know with Bank of Ireland (and had the impression this was a legal requirement rather than just a bank policy) they ask on every form if it is okay to contact me at home or at work, by phone or by email. I think if you're not okay with them contacting you at work they will ask for a mobile number - the idea being, I imagine, that they want to be able to contact you during the day. You'd need to check your credit agreement with them to see what information you gave to them and if you did tick a box which said it was okay to contact you at work.

As for talking to someone who's a named cardholder - I'm not really sure - but it could also be a tickbox on the form, this seems like the kind of thing they should have to have agreement from you for too.

Regardless of the in's and out's of the law-It's 25 poxy Euro! They won't win any business with stories like that floating around. I had an MBNA card for about 2 years and I always found their service top notch. Sad to hear about our experiences, especially them calling your job, that's not nice.

Are Credit Card institutions allowed to contact named card holders, (not the named account holder, i.e. my husband) in relation to overdue payments ?

...

Do MBNA have the legal right to speak to a named cardholder in this instance. ?? I phoned this morning to complain and was told that they do have the legal right. Can anybody confirm ?

Do the terms & conditions governing the account mention anything in this regard?

In regard to the main issue (the overdue payment and their attempts to collect it) I don't really get the complaint. If there was/is money outstanding in some respect on the card then I can't see what the problem is in the card issure attempting to collect this, whatever about how they do this. Maybe I'm missing some subtle, or not so subtle, point here...?

HI Clubman

maybe I am being unreasonable, but I objected to my business being discussed with a third party, and also that they ignored my call telling them I had paid in full ( including any amount not yet due) through my normal channels (BOI transfer) and continued calling both my home and my workplace.

I fully accept I was 25 euro overdue... no quibble with that.


thanks for comments.

but I objected to my business being discussed with a third party,

You mean your partner (who is the account holder?) or the voice message left at work or somebody else?

Many small business fail because they don't manage their debtors properly. MBNA might appear to have an strict policy when dealing with people who owe them money but maybe that's why they're a big company? 100 pennies makes a pound, if you know what I mean!

Have to agree with you about the 'different computers' excuse.

Hi BigMaggie

Had a similar experience with BOI many moons ago.

When you miss a minimum due payment bells start going off - when you miss it twice in a row it's more like a siren.

Financial institutions will do anything they can to recover what they perceive is a potential bad debt. - You might be a lovely person who by simple oversight, has missed 2 min due payments. They have guys and girls working 24/7 with never ending lists of debtors trying to get money back in house. Some institutions set targets for those employees. They will pursue all angles - incl. putting pressure on you to cough by calling your workplace or telling another card holder - morals don't have any place here.

Not nice but if you'd missed a 3rd payment they might have considered selling on your debt to a debt collection agency - they're the lads in white vans, beer bellies who'll take your 3 piece suite in part payment.

As to whether it's legal or not - I doubt if you could take the high moral ground when you owe them. I do sympathise however with you - maybe this will be a wake up call for you - don't believe all the blurb in MBNA's glossy adds -

There are fairly strict controls in the Consumer Credit Act about how the banks can manage these situations. Have a read of the Act (Google will find it) and see if they have breached it.

Contacting at work

Having worked in debt collection, I know when filling in loan paperwork there is a box you tick if it is ok for them to contact you at work. It is made out like they will be contacting you in relation to the application, ie to get further details or to tell you that you have been accepted and most people do not think it is any more than that. But it also means that through out the life of the loan that they can contact you in relation to arrears.

It also makes it easier if eventually the loan does become a bad debt, it is easier to trace the person from a debt collection agency point of view. You would really not believe the things people do to avoid paying!


I suspect if you check the small print on your credit card application form, there is a similar clause

Read the smallprint!

When you applied you agreed to:
I agree that you may telephone me for any purpose connected with my MBNA Credit Card.

And unless you ticked this you also gave them the right to call you at your place of business:
If you do not wish to be contacted at your business/place of employment please indicate by clicking on to this box

And if you look into your T&C for the additonal card you will find:

You authorise us to pass all information to the additional cardholder. This information will include, but will not be restricted to, details of your account.

In respect of your question if they can tell the ICB about our missed payment, yes they can because:

Where you borrow or may borrow from us, we may give details of your account and how you manage it to credit reference agencies.

To my knowledge the ICB just started accepting performence related Credit Card Data (I think Barlcays started it).

So in summary read the smallprint when you get a card.

Re: Read the smallprint!

Thanks guys, I guess i did tick the boxes, just a pit peeeed off with such a concerted effort over 25 euro and AFTER I had phoned them to say the full payment was working it's way through the system. All sorted now, payment cleared in four days, so my account is showing up in credit..

I take the point about debtor people working off spread sheets, and that overdue payments , not matter how small the amount , would probably trigger the same response.

thanks again.