If we cannot pay our bills as they fall due there is often a price to pay in terms of creditor hassle, hounding and harassment. Credit card providers in particular seem to be the most aggressive in pursuing debtors by letter, phone calls and other means. Can we do anything about it?
It will come as some comfort to harassed debtors that MBNA has been found guilty by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) recently of hounding customers who found themselves in financial difficulties. Even where customers had engaged the services of a third party or an agent to act on their behalf MBNA sent confusing debt collection letters to their customers particularly where offers of reduced payments had been made. Customers who made offers of reduced payments could not tell if MBNA were accepting or rejecting their offers, so confusing were the letters they received from the biggest credit card lender in Europe.
MBNA has been ordered to improve its dealings with customers and the way its in house debt collection section behaves. MBNA must also adhere to its own policies in terms of contacting its customers directly where customers have appointed a third party to act on their behalf. Where a third party has been appointed to act on behalf of the debtor, MBNA’s direct contact with the debtor is limited in its nature and frequency.
The OFT has said that MBNA co-operated fully during the investigation and that they have now agreed to make its debt collection letters clearer and to clarify its policies and procedures for dealing with appointed representatives. The trading watchdog has the power to impose fines of up to £50,000 and to revoke MBNA’s consumer credit licence if it breaches any of the requirements imposed by the OFT.