Starting the ball rolling this week with our application for an IVA, with Melanie and her team, and up until now things haven't been too bad. Spoke to Barclays and Egg last night who were very understanding, then ..... aaaargggh! had the pleasure of speaking to a lovely gentleman from MBNA this morning, what a patronising and aggressive person! He told me that the CCCS would very rarely advise an IVA and there are other better alternatives. Also, tried to catch me out by asking how long I had these problems, responded - for a while, then he asked "why were you spending last month when you knew you couldn't pay". I told him I wouldn't be brow beaten by him and calmly gave him Mel's details, gotta say he did upset me though! He also said there's a possibility my IVA wouldn't be accepted. My husband also has an MBNA account and has to go through the pleasure of speaking to them this afternoon, I have warned him! Anyone else out there who've had similar problems with MBNA. The problem is £18,000 of our debt is with MBNA, I'm really concerned they could vote against us!
I know its easy for me to say but they will say anything for a payment and use anything against you on the phone as they are stumped and want a payment.
MBNA are often aggressive in the amount of calls they make, the ones that call are not the ones making the decisions. No creditors like IVA's as it means they have to write off debt. Melanie has taken your case on, therefore she must feel youre in with a good chance of getting accepted, there are never any cast iron guaruntees.
All you can do is your very best, you are doing that and can do mo more. You did the right thing by standing up to them, they think they have you on the back foot as you owe them money but however many stones you try, no blood will come out. Those are the facts, your not trying to swindle anyone, youre just over committed, like thousands of other people here and out there. MBNA cannot change that fact however aggressive they get.
If they vote against you then they will lose even more money as it will be demonstrated that BR would not be as beneficial to them as accepting your IVA would.
Well done, let it go, smile and get on with your day.
MBNA haven't changed since I had my IVA then! They were the only one of my creditors who was rude and aggressive. Don't let them get to you though, the person you were speaking to won't be voting on your IVA so he was just trying to get a payment out of you.
You're in safe hands with Melanie and her team, and she wouldn't be putting an IVA forward if she didn't think it had a good chance of being successful x
Unfortunately MBNA are know for their agressive tactics with clients on the telephone, and i would take no notice of the person on the telephone from MBNA stating it would proably not work - he has no jurisdiction over the voting and outcome of the IVA Proposal. From dealing with a number of clients who have had similar problems, they caller usually does not even know what an IVA is. Try not to deal with them, if you do not screen your calls and end up speaking to them clamly state you are in the process of proposing an IVA with Melanie Giles give the telphone number of the office *number deleted* and put the phone doen, you don't have to listen to them and they will have no bearing on the eventual outcome.
Try to get all your paperwork into the office as soon as possible to enable a proposal to be prepared quickly which is then sent to creditors and calls will then hopefully cease. Unfortunately they will not update their computer systems until they have sight of the proposal document.
Last edited by melanie.n on Wed Nov 19, 2008 4:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thanks Mel for the advice. The majority of documentation has been sent to Melanie and I'm e mailing copy letters to creditors as I'm dealing with them. One thing has alarmed me, is it true that CCCS don't recommend IVA's and if so, why wouldn't they?
Hi there - funnily enough MBNA is the only creditor that my husband has not managed to ring yet and I think I'm going to tell him not to bother. We have ignored any phone calls to date - they have received a letter from us and I think if we are only going to be faced with threatening green slimy monsters at the end of the phone with bad breath then we might as well not bother - if we're speaking to the monkey instead of the organ grinder whats the point? At least the people we have loans with have been human and therefore have a brain and a heart!! We owe £15,900 to Virgin Mastercard aka MBNA but our biggest creditor is by far NatWest who thankfully have been one of the creditors with a human at the end of the phone! So as we dont need to speak to MBNA to chase up any loan balance as they are a credit card my view is we've written to them so the next stage is for them to hear from Melanie's team. If we get any letters then I'll reply with the same letter we sent out the first time round. Experts is this okay? Hang in there Lizzie - we'll get there soon!! xxxx
Still gathering info....but hope to be on the right path pronto!!
The person from MBNA is incorrect. The CCCS do recommend IVAs and refer them to CCCSVA which is their voluntary arrangements arm. Any professional debt service must be able to offer advice on bankruptcies, IVAs and DMPs or their clients would not be receiving the best advice.
Hey brown lizzie, as everyone else has said, they really will say anything to get you to pay some money. They probably work on commission only so they need you to cave in and agree to pay, otherwise they are not paid. Try to ignore what they say, just remain polite and keep it short and sweet. If it gets too much, don't answer the phone. It won't make any difference to the outcome of your IVA whether you speak to them or not. X
