Is anybody else getting calls from their banks?

Jibberjabber · Post by **Jibberjabber** » 26 Sep 2008, 11:17

It may well be just me, but i have had 5 calls from Barclays collections in just over a week. I have been repaying charges, over £250, for several months and got it down to £70. One call a month was about it for any previous missed payments.
Do they really need my £70 that bad.

It is pretty fun to tell them i have better things to spend my money on, like the electric bill and preps. And that i will think about paying it back if they are still in business in a few months.

Mitch · Post by **Mitch** » 26 Sep 2008, 11:42

Oh yea, every day for me. I have 3 accounts with Barclay's, one with G.E. Money, (Debenhams) and one with MBNA. All have been fully Payment Protection Insured for around 10 years. All except MBNA paid out the first month after I was made redundant, (MBNA simply refused to pay out from day one) - and then just stopped. No letters, no explanations, no nothing - just one token payment and that was that. Am now getting loads of phone calls from the banks, and spend at least an hour every day replying to letters. I have a standard reply, "Not Accepted - refer to your chosen P.P.C. Insurers". Doesn't make any difference though, they simply ignore me!!!! We are only talking about a total of 20 grand borrowings here - not a couple of hundred grand mortgage or anything. The banks seem to scrabbling for pennies right now! Even trying to do me out of payments for as little as 50 quid a month!

Andy_K · Post by **Andy_K** » 26 Sep 2008, 12:46

No. But whenever I see a cusomter service rep for whatever reason, they always suggest I see a financial advisor to better 'invest' my savings...

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 26 Sep 2008, 14:17

I got a call from MBNA, my credit card company, this morning, saying they had important information. It was automated and although I expect it was genuine, I'm not taking the risk and supplying personal information if there's not a real person speaking to me.

I have run up an unusually large credit card bill so I expect they want their cash, but they'll be getting it today so they can stick their cold calling droids up their bum.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 26 Sep 2008, 22:00

The LibDems have been ticked off for cold calling too...do you think they are going bust?

We ditched MBNA a couple of years ago when we found out they were serious funders of Bush et al...ethical banking is its own reward!

Mitch · Post by **Mitch** » 26 Sep 2008, 22:33

The Wiki entry on MBNA makes for some disturbing reading. I didn't "choose" them - I was with BOS for a couple of years, then got a letter telling me that suddenly I was an MBNA customer - no choice of my own!

Kentucky Fried Panda · Post by **Kentucky Fried Panda** » 26 Sep 2008, 22:52

Dunno, they don't have any of my phone numbers...

Post by **jmb** » 27 Sep 2008, 01:10

I've been getting repeated calls from (claimedly, and probably) HSBC, from a department which seems disconnected from the usual customer service, chasing for payment. Usually droids with Asian accents who can't pronounce my name or other basic English words, and don't understand what I say to them. They have an atrocious practice of trying to ask you security questions when /they/ call /customers/; someone who doesn't understand security has implemented a dodgy mechanism. I call back to customer services and they usually can't see anything wrong with the account.

http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/08456077088

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 27 Sep 2008, 08:13

Why is it that there remain otherwise sensible people who still don't bank with the Co-Op / Smile?

http://www.smile.co.uk/

They've never call me but answer with a polite and helpful human when I call them.

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 03 Oct 2008, 23:55

biffvernon wrote:Why is it that there remain otherwise sensible people who still don't bank with the Co-Op / Smile?

Inertia, in my case. My bank never annoyed me quite enough to persuade me to move, and I'm too lazy for 100% ethical living.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 04 Oct 2008, 14:03

The Co-op do send out letters and leaflets offering loans sometimes. At least I think they do, as I see bits of paper that look like they're offering loans, and immediately recycle them.

IanG · Post by **IanG** » 04 Oct 2008, 15:37

I had one of these call me when I was in germany on business.

The auto dialer couldn't handle the overseas connection

Every time I answered, it dropped the call, I assume it thought I was an answer phone.

I was there for a number of days, one day I got 30 calls. Drove me nuts.

When I got back to the UK and they called me, I went mental at them, turned out I missed a £20 payment ( I was switching banks at the time)

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 04 Oct 2008, 16:33

JohnB wrote:The Co-op do send out letters and leaflets offering loans sometimes.

Er, yes, that's what banks do. But some do it better than others.