(Replying to your own post. sad!)
I spoke to another friend of mine about a month ago. He was carrying a few of thousand debt on his MBNA CC and paying 18+% interest on the amount owed. I told him about ringing up and looking for an interest rate reduction. He agreed to try this.
I met him during the week and he's delighted. When he rang them up, the first girl he spoke to in MBNA wasn't quite sure whether she could reduce the interest rate and promised to ring him back. She didn't, and a week later he rang back. The next girl offered to reduce the rate to 10.9% for 6 months. He wasn't happy with this and insisted that he wanted the reduction in interest rate to be permanent. She agreed. They have now written out to him confirming the new arrangement.
Personally, if I were in his position, I'd become a rate tart, and hawk my business around to whoever wouldn't charge me at all for balance transfers, but without any bother, and for the price of a phone call, he is now paying a lot less than he was.
I hope that anyone who is reading this and paying interest to MBNA will ring them up and look for a reduction. The phone no for customer services is 1800 409 511
Murt