MBNA Credit Credits - new tactic??
 

Just received notification of PIN number for an MBNA card that I have NEVER applied for. I've tried contacting MBNA by phone to find out why they are sending me the card but after 10 minutes on hold I gave up (the hold line did inform me that my card was due to arrive approx five days after the pin and also kindly ran through the other services that MBNA provide).

Is this a new tactic by MBNA (and other credit card companies) to get you to use their product? I.e they send the card and pin out that and sure enough you'll use it at some stage.

If so, I find it unbelievable that a company can send a fully functioning pin and card out which I did NOT order. What if the card had been picked up by someone else in the post and used?? I would be saddled with a debt for a card I wasn't aware of! :mad:

im getting letter like this as well , ive just threw them in the bin. i only use one card and thats a barclaycard as the insurance on the barclaycard is excellent :)

Phil,

You need to check on this. I've been with MBNA for a very long time and they have always been ethical and responsible with their direct marketing as far as I know - otherwise I'd have gone elsewhere.

I'm concerned that someone may have applied for a card at your address expecting to intercept it. Then someone else is partway to hijacking your identity :eek:
Try calling 0800 062062 which is their customer support line. OK, you may hold for a bit but it's free...

If it turns out to be genuine then please let me know. But likewise if it isn't then be alert...

SB

it sounds like someone has applied using your details but id contact them to make sure.

however, i wouldnt put it past mbna... i get at least one spam letter a week to my current home address AND my old home address from them asking me to join. i also set up a po box a couple of weeks ago and didnt notify anyone of the address yet - and yet they STILL managed to get spam letters into my po box!!!

Thanks guys,

MBNA are prolific senders of letters to apply for their cards and like you, I just throw them in the bin.

Will hopefully be able to get in touch with someone later to try and get to the bottom of this.

Phil

Is it an american company mnba?

Not sure where MBNA originate but it would'nt surprise me.....They are appalling - my other half had problems with them / Abbey National. I agree that the amount of junk mail and continuous offers on a loan or credit card are out of order.

customer service stinks aswell - cut it up into tiny pieces and send it back in the post with a covering letter if you don't want it.

little'un

Mellon Bank (of) North America

They are the world's biggest credit card issuer.

My mum had a card with them and noticed on her first bill a 'spend' of £2000 she hadn't made. She phoned them and they apologised profusely saying it was an administrative error and the money would be refunded. Lo and behold the next month her bill came through with another £2000 'spend' on it, totalling £4000 on a card she'd never used!

Needless to say she got it sorted (over about 3 months) and told them to stick it.

Any of these sods that send me junk mail have their application envelopes returned in the post empty with no stamps. It costs them money to pay for the postage.

What really riles me is when they pre-print your details on the application forms! These all get shreded and if there is a freephone phone number I call up their help line and inform them of my displeasure that once again they have failed to take me off their mailing list like they said they would last month.

An ex-girlfriends father used to post fish bones back to these people :D

All sounds a bit fishy to me. Needs a careful check to make sure there is no fiddle going on I think.

Les

It could be a "chip and pin" pin number, don't throw it away just yet. If your new card turns up with a chip that loois like a sim card on it, then its a chip and pin 1.

Sorry mate but everything is going this way.

Simon

That's all very well if he's an MBNA car holder, but he isn't!

Sounds to me like someone's applied in your name. Get it cancelled, quick.

Why just return their application forms?
If they use a freepost address then send them a housebrick.

Or failing that, do what we did in work when we all got e-mail spam from a UK based film developing company which provided a freepost address, we ran off about 30,000 postcards with the address on one side and "stop sending me spam you b@stards" on the other and distributed themthroughout the various post points in the company

Sounds very suspect to me. If you havent signed a credit agreement with them, then they wont be allowed to issue you with credit. Sure, they can tell you how much you would be entitled to should you sign up, but they couldnt give you an enabled card to just start using because you havent agreed to pay them anything back.
Have you seen the small print on the back of a credit application - all that 'consumer credit act' business?
Either someones applied on your behalf (get a shredder for paper waste), ot something very weird is going on!!!
P

LOL

Suspicious lot you lot!

The new PIN system is coming into place & soon you WON'T be able to pay for anything in a store using a credit card without a PIN number ( :rolleyes: ) so...

Guess you might need one after all :D

Puff, I think you've missed the point - I've no problem with Pin & Chip cards - as long as it's one that I've ordered!...;)

This is not the case and I'm unaware as to why I'm being issued the card.

maybe its to replace the non pin and chip that you already have, i take it you already have a credit card from mbna?...i

No - I don't.

But in true Scooby-Doo fashion have finally got to the bottom of the mystery...........

Seems that Halifax have stopped doing charity cards (of which I have one) and have sold the charity card operation to MBNA - hence why I'm now receiving an MBNA card. Would have been nice to have been informed (but I generally junk anything that has 'circular' written all over it so I've probably binned the letter :rolleyes: ) but at least I know it's nothing fishy going on.

MBNA already issue cards on behalf of other institutions. A lot of those charity cards, football club cards, novelty cards etc. are all issued by MBNA. At their main UK building in Cheshire there are walls lined with all the (UK) card designs that MBNA have - there are thousands of them!

You should have received a letter informing u of the change last April/may time (i did). I was severly p**sed with the Halifax for swopping me to the MBNA without asking, so I cancelled my card straight away! One way of losing customers..........

alan

MBNA are the worst credit card company I've been a customer of.

Used the card for a couple of months, then paid them 1 day late, Lloyds fault. They refused point blank to refund the charge, even when I went through to cancellations they didn't care.

Never have one with these muppets again.

MBNA also seem to be buying out a lot of other companies Credit Cards..They have changed my Alliance & Leicester, SONYcard and they are also owners of my Virgin account as well..maybe their plan is to buy as many as possible and make a fortune out of people not being able to transfer to their other cards since they would own them and you cannot pay off one MBNA card with another.

After you shredded it I hope ;)

David