MBNA

Toboldlygo

MBNA just announced that they intend exiting the UK and IRELAND credit card businesses. No comment yet on whether they will sell the businesses or just close them down. What chance that anyone will want to buy the Irish one?

Bad news for the employees in Carrick-on-Shannon.

Random

Assuming they close the business down I'm assuming the chances are it would be similiar to the Halifax pull out in terms of their credit card customers?

Trampas

People might struggle to get another cc, not sure if that is a good or bad thing.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0815/mbna.html

sorry about the jobs

Joey the lips

I have a card with them. I use it but not much. I would like to have it though. I imagine the 3V ones were a death nail to them. Credit cards were a celtic tiger fad that died when used once(usually overdrawn)

I now use my laser more as it comes directly out of my account....

I wonder who underwrites tesco's

Ilovelucy

Joey the lips wrote: »

I wonder who underwrites tesco's

It's Royal Bank of Scotland.

Davy

Ilovelucy wrote: »

It's Royal Bank of Scotland.

Last time I checked they didn't have any way to check transactions online. Bit poor in this day and age.


Will be sorry if bank of america pull out, have had a card with them for years and never really had a problem. Anytime you ring, very helpful. Will be hughe loss to carrick on shannon if 1000 jobs are to go,, didnt think they had so many based there. They often got bad press, and being ruthless but I cant complain about them

jagrey

Joey the lips wrote: »

I have a card with them. I use it but not much. I would like to have it though. I imagine the 3V ones were a death nail to them. Credit cards were a celtic tiger fad that died when used once(usually overdrawn)

I now use my laser more as it comes directly out of my account....

I wonder who underwrites tesco's

It's not competition-they're retrenching and selling their whole international credit operation. Desperate news for Leitrim.

Toboldlygo

Ilovelucy wrote: »

It's Royal Bank of Scotland.

Just a little out of date Ilovelucy. Tesco bought out RBS in 2009 and are now calling the business Tesco Bank.

Joey the lips

jagrey wrote: »

It's not competition-they're retrenching and selling their whole international credit operation. Desperate news for Leitrim.

You miss understood me but thanks i picked that up on the news as well. I just dont imagine they would sell a business that makes money for them but i equally could be wrong and the only way i imagine someone like these who lets be honest gave cards to everyone will only be suffering because

1. No one can afford to own one
2. Everyone is heavily overdrawn

Both can be solved by using the prepaid 3v so there is no incentive to change this if you are in this situation.


Back to the news.... I cannot see any company especially in credit cards taking over this facility.

BuffyBot

They would sell, profit making or not. BOA have their own troubles as a result of the financial crisis, and are selling non-core businesses left right and centre. MBNA is one of the bigger ones of them, but not the only one.

As it stands, we've no way of knowing if MBNA UK/Ireland's operating status in terms of profitability (though I suspect through it's relatively tight lending strategy it's not suffering as bad as some). The UK business will be probably sold to one of the big providers - such as Santander etc. The Irish operation will either go with (it runs on a common IT platform and services are shared). Whether any new owner keeps in the Irish market is another question, but it will be a while before we see any major changes I suspect.

homer911

Tesco Personal Finance:

Davy wrote: »

Last time I checked they didn't have any way to check transactions online. Bit poor in this day and age.

In the UK, Tesco has spun off its own Credit Card business and rebranded as Tesco Bank (http://www.tescobank.com) and it does provide online access. For some reason then haven't rolled it out in Ireland yet

homer911

I'm sure Certus would be interested in buying the Irish portfolio..

ncmc

Very sad to hear this news yesterday. I have fingers and toes crossed for all the Irish jobs, those thousand people have a worrying couple of months ahead of them.

I always found MBNA great, they are one of the few companies still offering the 0% on balance transfers, which i'm sure was a god send for a lot of people who found themselves in a situation where they were barely making a dent in their credit card interest.

I presume the MBNA cards will still be working for the next couple of months? I am off on holidays to the States next month and planned to pre load my MBNA card with cash to pay for accomodation etc. I presume i'll be ok doing this and my money won't get frozen or anything?

Genghis

homer911 wrote: »

I'm sure Certus would be interested in buying the Irish portfolio..

As a services company and not a bank, I don't think Certus would buy anything. They might well step in to work down the book on behalf of Bank of America in the event that MBNA fail to sell as a going concern and decide to close their accounts down.

Tesco is an interesting suitor; it will all come down to the shape the book is in imho.

There will be a big impact on the number of credit cards on issue here in Ireland. Irish people tend only to have one card due to the Irish stamp duty on them, and I don't see other banks being too ready to offer replacement facilities to MBNA customers.

Mental Mickey

I have an MBNA credit card. Should I consider getting rid of it?

phill106

Mental Mickey wrote: »

I have an MBNA credit card. Should I consider getting rid of it?

I think getting rid of credit cards is a great idea, if you can.
Suppose they will be contacting us shortly, tell us what will happen. Probably be like the halifax closing, with any outstanding balance converted to a loan.

patravers

ncmc wrote: »

Very sad to hear this news yesterday. I have fingers and toes crossed for all the Irish jobs, those thousand people have a worrying couple of months ahead of them.

I always found MBNA great, they are one of the few companies still offering the 0% on balance transfers, which i'm sure was a god send for a lot of people who found themselves in a situation where they were barely making a dent in their credit card interest.

I presume the MBNA cards will still be working for the next couple of months? I am off on holidays to the States next month and planned to pre load my MBNA card with cash to pay for accomodation etc. I presume i'll be ok doing this and my money won't get frozen or anything?

I hope you are aware that if you front load a credit card it then becomes a debit card and MBNA WILL NOT cover this money if your card is stolen i.e. if you put a grand on it and u lose it then that cash is gone as they do not operate a debit facility.

Just to let you know as i used to work for MBNA in HR and we had to do 4 hours 'participation' in TACS every month

ncmc

patravers wrote: »

I hope you are aware that if you front load a credit card it then becomes a debit card and MBNA WILL NOT cover this money if your card is stolen i.e. if you put a grand on it and u lose it then that cash is gone as they do not operate a debit facility.

Just to let you know as i used to work for MBNA in HR and we had to do 4 hours 'participation' in TACS every month

Thank you for that. I won't be front loading by that much as there is a balance on my card, so I should end up about 600 in the black, but even still, that would be a huge loss to me if my card was stolen.

I was looking at the pre pay visa cards, I've heard people talk about Moneybookers, but have always been nervous about using a company I don't know much about.

slickmcvic

ncmc wrote: »

patravers wrote: »

I hope you are aware that if you front load a credit card it then becomes a debit card and MBNA WILL NOT cover this money if your card is stolen i.e. if you put a grand on it and u lose it then that cash is gone as they do not operate a debit facility.

Just to let you know as i used to work for MBNA in HR and we had to do 4 hours 'participation' in TACS every month

What if it was lost with no transactions having taken place?...is your money still gone?

patravers

your money is only gone if the card is used by someone else.. they will only allow liability for any credit on the card after your excess is gone.

broker2008

I'll miss the 0% transfers alright. I can sense the cartels rubbing their hands in the credit card abd banking sector. We'll soon be back to pre tiger days, little or no choice.

omega42

Couple of things come to mind.

Some are saying that there is a possibility That the Biz will be sold as a going concern after all MBNA was sold to Bank Of America couple of years ago with no major loss of jobs (approx 20%). When MBNA announced the sale to BOA they already had a buyer. Biz sence would dictate that before making such an anoucement they would have looked for possible buyers.

If they do decide to sell rather than wind up the company it needs to be kept in mind that the majorety of the staff work on the UK portfolio, So if one of the UK banks buys in it will make more sence for them just to buy the portfolio and transfer the accounts into there own systems and own call centres which will be more cost efficitve. In the off chance that it is bought and some staff are kept on, it would make more sence to keep the chester office open as cheaper overheads, cheaper staff costs and more resources.

That leaves the Irish Biz, with the UK biz is stripped from Carrick the irish biz if sold wont be enough to keep carrick open, again if an irish bank buys the biz they can just move the portfolio to exsisting call centres else where.

When BOA bought mbna they let go about 20% of the staff, which in itself left the carrick complex with vacent space so boa moved in Merril Lynch When BOA pull out Merril Lynch will be going as well leaving to so any new owners wont need a building that size

Just my Thoughts

winter soldier

It is nice to see mbna finally buggering off as I always had the sneaking suspicion that it would not last. After buying a pc and paying for lessons in computer skills I applied for a job with them, filled in the application form, answered a phone interview then got the call to come up to carrick-on-shannon for a face to face interview. The interview at the place itself lasted approx five minutes where I was interviewed by someone who was snidey, sarcastic and just plain nasty. Five minutes of questions put to me in a condescending manner finished off with the comment "thats a lot of big words your using" when I finished answering her queries. The interview was on a Monday 3rd of February, the rejection letter came on Wednesday the 5th of February and it was dated Tuesday the 4th of February. The Interviewer obviously did not consider my application for too long. I had to wait six months to apply again. When I did reapply I did not even get an interview, just a rejection letter. Again another six month wait and after I applied again I rang them up and HR told me that if I was not successful the first few times then its obvious that i was not a suitable candidate for the job. I am not the only one who had to put up with ignorant so and so's during the recruitment process for mbna. I thought I gave a bad interview, but not so, from what I was told from other people who applied. It was only later I found out that the interviewers can be quite rude and have a attitude that "only the very best can work here" even though at the time people were leaving the company by the droves because they could not stand the pressure they were under to hit sales targets. One would think that mbna would be glad that people were applying for jobs with the company given the word of mouth that was going round about them. Now I pass by mbna on my way into carrick and all I can say as I drive by is "welcome to the dole queue you muppets".

Nonoperational

What an ass. Maybe they required people that understand what paragraphs are.

winter soldier

gpf101 wrote: »

What an ass. Maybe they required people that understand what paragraphs are.

its one long paragraph you kunt

Marcusm

I'm not sure if you are familiar with the word schadenfreude but this is one of the least savoury examples I can think of, winter soldier.

As regards the card business overall, undoubtedly BoA will seek to sell as a going concern if at allpossible. Prior to the financial crisis, a premium would ave been available. Despite the likely credit losses in the business both in the UK and Ireland, I suspect that it would always be capable of being sold for a premium. Question whether A mono line like Capital One might cow back o the Market.

This was always going to be a marginal business for BoA which has no nhatural funding base in GBP or EUR. While securitisation markets were open, funding was easy, now less profitable. The absence of cross selling opportunities will have driven the nail in the coffin.

It will be interesting to see whether one of the major UK banks picks this up - do not fool yourselves Ireland is only a small piece here. If they do,there might be some hope for CoS if it is a true low cat processing operation. Sone of the UK banks are getting more grief for Asian processing sites and might be able to keep this open.

Toots

gpf101 and winter soldier do not resort to petty insults on the thread, if you have a problem with a post then use the report function and a moderator will take a look.

Owen

I had a lot of issues with MBNA down through the years. A lot of underhanded stuff, statements not being sent, then getting hit by overdue charges, getting a statement on a Monday, and a phonecall about being overdue on a tuesday.

Really nasty messy stuff TBH.

Nonoperational

winter soldier wrote: »

its one long paragraph you kunt

Cheers for that. Being so happy at the prospect of those "muppets" working there joining the dole queue is really poor form. It also has nothing to do with the discussion on the future prospects for the business.

I am an MBNA customer but only for a few months. I find they're online service great and have had no problems with them. I would be sorry to see them wind it up.

IMC2009

I cannot believe anyone would be pleased to see so many people in the locality loose their jobs. Its a disgraceful thing to say.
Obviously a lot of people have had bad experiences with the company but that is no excuse for such a show of bad will towards the employees who will be left with very little employment prospects in the surrounding areas.
Not only will it be a disaster for the employees (many of who will have to leave the area) it will also cause a huge loss of business for many of the local industries.
I for one am praying a positive outcome is reached with, at the very least, a percentage of the jobs saved.
In times like these with so many people struggling to survive on welfare surely no body can be so heartless as to "welcome" more on to the dole line.
Horrified by that comment.

Savman

I can empathize with the people whose jobs are in doubt and the inevitable tough times ahead, however as far as MBNA is concerned all I can say is good riddance tbh.

Very hard to see why anyone would want to buy their CC business, surely it must be dead in the water at this stage? Prepaid and Debit cards seem to be the way forward and there are any number of offerings on the market now.

CSC

winter soldier wrote: »

It is nice to see mbna finally buggering off as I always had the sneaking suspicion that it would not last. After buying a pc and paying for lessons in computer skills I applied for a job with them, filled in the application form, answered a phone interview then got the call to come up to carrick-on-shannon for a face to face interview. The interview at the place itself lasted approx five minutes where I was interviewed by someone who was snidey, sarcastic and just plain nasty. Five minutes of questions put to me in a condescending manner finished off with the comment "thats a lot of big words your using" when I finished answering her queries. The interview was on a Monday 3rd of February, the rejection letter came on Wednesday the 5th of February and it was dated Tuesday the 4th of February. The Interviewer obviously did not consider my application for too long. I had to wait six months to apply again. When I did reapply I did not even get an interview, just a rejection letter. Again another six month wait and after I applied again I rang them up and HR told me that if I was not successful the first few times then its obvious that i was not a suitable candidate for the job. I am not the only one who had to put up with ignorant so and so's during the recruitment process for mbna. I thought I gave a bad interview, but not so, from what I was told from other people who applied. It was only later I found out that the interviewers can be quite rude and have a attitude that "only the very best can work here" even though at the time people were leaving the company by the droves because they could not stand the pressure they were under to hit sales targets. One would think that mbna would be glad that people were applying for jobs with the company given the word of mouth that was going round about them. Now I pass by mbna on my way into carrick and all I can say as I drive by is "welcome to the dole queue you muppets".

Strange post.

You went for a job interview, didn't get it and kept reapplying to be rejected again and again. The recruiter I assume was telling you not to keep wasting your time applying.

You thought you gave a bad interview - well, obviously something was wrong as you didn't get the job - however, other people who applied told you that you didn't even though they would have no knowledge of what your interview was like.

People leave call centres all the time - it's the nature of the industry and in these recessionary times I would assume MBNA can be more selective of who they want to employ.

You take pleasure in the staff now facing unemployment yet you must be unemployed (or have been unemployed) or unhappy in your current role yourself if you are unsuccessfully applying for a job in MBNA three times over an 18 month period.

GenericName

That's a pity. Hopefully they are sold rather than wound down. Well at least until I have enough SonyCard points saved to cover the LED TV.. oh and to save the jobs of course.

I've used an MBNA credit card since I started my current job. I travel most of the year putting everything through on the card and claim expenses at the end of the month. Obviously it's good that the Celtic Tiger credit card limits are over - but it's not many credit card companies that you can ring, explain your work situation and get a limit that covers flights and living in a hotel for a month. The website is great for filling out expense sheets too.

I always found the Customer Service staff really helpful. Being an idiot I've lost a few cards and they've always got a new one out to me ASAP. BoI just tell me to call into my branch if I need a card sent abroad..

SteoL

GenericName wrote: »

That's a pity. Hopefully they are sold rather than wound down. Well at least until I have enough SonyCard points saved to cover the LED TV.. oh and to save the jobs of course.

I've used an MBNA credit card since I started my current job. I travel most of the year putting everything through on the card and claim expenses at the end of the month. Obviously it's good that the Celtic Tiger credit card limits are over - but it's not many credit card companies that you can ring, explain your work situation and get a limit that covers flights and living in a hotel for a month. The website is great for filling out expense sheets too.

I always found the Customer Service staff really helpful. Being an idiot I've lost a few cards and they've always got a new one out to me ASAP. BoI just tell me to call into my branch if I need a card sent abroad..

It's actually amazing how each individual customers experience with MBNA differs, my own being pretty horrendous. Still, I wouldn't wish unemployment on anyone. Experienced it myself last month so know what they're going through.

winter soldier

CSC wrote: »

Strange post.

You went for a job interview, didn't get it and kept reapplying to be rejected again and again. The recruiter I assume was telling you not to keep wasting your time applying.

You thought you gave a bad interview - well, obviously something was wrong as you didn't get the job - however, other people who applied told you that you didn't even though they would have no knowledge of what your interview was like.

People leave call centres all the time - it's the nature of the industry and in these recessionary times I would assume MBNA can be more selective of who they want to employ.

You take pleasure in the staff now facing unemployment yet you must be unemployed (or have been unemployed) or unhappy in your current role yourself if you are unsuccessfully applying for a job in MBNA three times over an 18 month period.

i neglected to mention the interview took place in feb 2003 and i only found out later on about their high turnover of staff. other people that i spoke to through the years have given me similar stories about their experiences when being interviewed by mbna.

as far as being rejected by mbna the rejection letter said that i had to wait for a period of 6 months before reapplying. people do reapply for the same jobs, sometimes they even get said job. persistence pays off once in a while.

as far as the interview is concerned a five minute interview that was not conducted in a professional manner by a so and so with an attitude problem means that i did not get a fair crack of the whip. i wonder did the interviewer ever received any training in interviewing people or how to conduct in interview properly. somehow i dont think so. i never came across anyone else in an interview situation that acted like that, before or after mbna.

my final point about all of this is that after all that time waiting (6 months) to reapply then just get a reject letter and after another long wait being told to bugger off over the phone is hardly fair. its not like i gave a bad interview i did my homework and paid for computer lessons as well so i had the required skills. people i knew were getting in left right and centre and i was unfortunate to have been interviewed by someone who clearly couldnt be bothered to do her job properly and kinda let the role of interviewer go to her head. of course there were other people who i knew or spoke to that had the same nonsense to put up with like i did.

if my application was taken seriously and carefully considered and i still did not get in well fair enough then thats their call to make. but it didnt happen like that at all. of course now that i have heard about what goes on there in mbna and the kind of pressure to make sales that people are put under i would be in two minds to reapply.

but hey that place will be shutting up shop soon so boo hoo.

Wolflikeme

winter soldier wrote: »

i neglected to mention the interview took place in feb 2003

So you don't hold a grudge then? Pathetic.

You weren't good enough for the job. Move on.

chris85

Hey winter soldier i am sure your interview went just as well as your entry to this thread. Grudges like that for 8 years. Cant believe they rejected you :rolleyes:

Anyone who is saying these guys deserve it are tools. This is 800 peoples lives and their families living. A lot of these workers could be sole income for their families given the times we are in and this will have a serious impact on the Carrick area.

BuffyBot

Bring it back on topic folks. winter soldier, your career to date and/or back history has not a lot to do with the issues pertinent to this forum. So unless you have something constructive to add, please don't post further.

juke

I've had an MBNA card for 15 odd years. No problems worth mentioning. That said I use it mainly for online purchases and I pay my full bill at the end of each month.

Should I now be looking for a credit card from my own bank?

I though I had read that, because of my style of usage, some banks may refuse to give me a credit card account, as it wouldn't be lucrative enough for them?

craoltoir

As far as I know most people pay back the full amount on the due date. The companies make their money from the charges to retailers. (and the people who are late making repayments)

jethrothe2nd

I've had an MBNA card for years now - I applied for, and was approved for a BOI credit card about 3 months ago (I wanted to have all my banking under 1 institution for convenience). When I actually received the card, the credit limit they had given me was laughable. It would have hardly allowed me to book a flight and hotel for me and my wife. There was no budging on it when I rang them, so I cancelled the card and stayed with MBNA.

Presumably, if MBNA don't find a buyer a lot of people are going to find themselves in the position where they need a higher limit than they will be offered by other institutions

BuffyBot

Should I now be looking for a credit card from my own bank?

As it stands, it's business as usual, so unless you feel the need to do so, I wouldn't bother until things are clearer.

ScouseMouse

jethrothe2nd wrote: »

I've had an MBNA card for years now - I applied for, and was approved for a BOI credit card about 3 months ago (I wanted to have all my banking under 1 institution for convenience). When I actually received the card, the credit limit they had given me was laughable. It would have hardly allowed me to book a flight and hotel for me and my wife. There was no budging on it when I rang them, so I cancelled the card and stayed with MBNA.

Presumably, if MBNA don't find a buyer a lot of people are going to find themselves in the position where they need a higher limit than they will be offered by other institutions

So front load it to make larger transactions. A couple of days before you want to use it, add cash into it. Then you will build up a bigger limit in no time.

jethrothe2nd

superscouse wrote: »

So front load it to make larger transactions. A couple of days before you want to use it, add cash into it. Then you will build up a bigger limit in no time.

Ok, fair point, I hadn't considered that.

Buy why should I have to? The paltry limit I was offered suggested that I was a potentially irresponsible member of the public who could only be trusted with a few hundred euro. My credit history says otherwise.

thebuzz

I used to work in MBNA aswell, I don't know if they've up on 1000 staff anymore. There has been redundancies in recent months that I don't think hit the news.

Also have one of their Sony CC's and about a month ago got a letter informing me they were no longer going to be doing the cards in connection with Sony and I would be sent a normal MBNA one, so this could have been part of that reason. Ideally would like to see someone come in and buy them out so my card will keep going...and obviously some jobs will be kept.

ush

Anyone know whats happening with this crowd. What will happen to any cards/accounts issued by them. Don't feel its appropriate to ring and ask their customer service people, when they could well be out of a job over this.

BuffyBot

Business as usual for the time being..

I_am_an_angel

I would advise caution here. Any monies you place on top of your credit limit are not fraud protected so if you lose your card and someone spends on it the bank will only cover the amount which was spent within the credit limit

I_am_an_angel

This may not be the worst thing that ever happened. The company has been in existence since 1996 and like everything it has come to the end of the road. Ireland's reputation has been severely damaged by the IMF bailouts and I suspect MBNA is only one of a long list of US companies which will pull out of Ireland over the next few years. Watch this space

i cant log into my mbna account on line to check my credit card statement, it asked me to register with the bank that took the business over but after filling in all my details it says not available at this time when i press the submit button, tried several times and nothing.
Anyone else have this problem. only contacty is a premium rate phone number.
Y

juke

Deleted User wrote: »

i cant log into my mbna account on line to check my credit card statement, it asked me to register with the bank that took the business over but after filling in all my details it says not available at this time when i press the submit button, tried several times and nothing.
Anyone else have this problem. only contacty is a premium rate phone number.
Y

See here:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056851684