Did MBNA not have an arbitration clause before 2000 ?

[Donnie]

I recently read on another forum that Before 2000, MBNA did not have an agreement to arbitrate as part of their credit card agreement. Does anyone have any info to back this up as being true? If so, is this a possible defense to prevent their CA from getting a judgement to enforce their arbitration award?

[willingtocope]

I see you've been reading the master "Refusal of Arbitration" thread, so you've got most of the info there. If you do a google search using ...arbitration MBNA 9th circuit... you'll find some case law.

I'm pretty sure it was in the late 2001 early 2002 period that MBNA sent out an addendum to their CC terms that added the arbitration to existing cards. In effect, it said if you used the card after that, you agreed to the terms. And, its not clear whether or not you would have had to pay the balance in full in order to not use the card.

As usual, nothing definite...sorry...

[LadynRed]

I don't know the exact time frame, but I do know there was no arbitration clauses before 2000. I have 2 old MBNA accounts, opened in 93 and 97, neither of which had any arbitraion in them. I also had an FUSA account from the same timeframe opened 97, closed by me less than a year later, no arbitration clause.

What they may try to do is trot out a CURRENT CC agreement, which DOES include these heinous clauses. That cannot hold water if the account was closed before any arbitration clause was added, so you would have to force them to produce the agreement that YOU signed .. not a 'new' one.

[Donnie]

I opened my account in 1996 but I didn't sign any agreement. I have asked for debt validation to prove that there was an account with my signature and the only thing that they produced is their arbitration award. CA submitted an MBNA agreement as an exibit but it doesn't have my signature nor thier signature on it. I refused their arbitration proceedings and the CA that is suing me was not the CA that orinally submitted it to arbitration. It was Wolpoff & Abrhams. Since current CA does not have any first hand knowlege of the proceedings, they can not testify to the validation of the award. Am I correct?

[ghacorp]

MBNA introduced arbitration on their accounts around 1999 or 2000. Continued usage of the affected cards constituted acceptance of the new arbitration provisions. They did not require closure of the account and payment in full for non acceptance. However, continued use beyond a certain date rendered the balance in its entirety subject to the new arbitration provisions as well of course new activity. Most people never read statement stuffers so were not aware any provisions had changed.

MBNA typically uses electronic verification so they maintain few signed credit card agreements which are no longer necessary from a legal standpoint to prove their case against debtors. W&A represents MBNA in arbitration cases as an assignee. W&A also represents some unscrupulous JDB's like UNIFUND and their subsidiary limited partnership known as Great Seneca Financial.

[aints68]

This may explain alot. My BH has a chargeoff account from MBNA. He swears he never paid on it past the end of 1999/first part of 2000 but his credit report is showing payment history up until the end of 2001. I was wondering why anyone there would change the record other than to keep it in the SOL, but now it makes since that they may have been trying to get it past the date that arbitration clause took affect. No one is after him for this right now, but I need to get this account and the CA handling it cleared up so I'm starting to work on it now. Do all states have arbitration? It's past the SOL for NC even with their updated dates, so I'm assuming that even if its valid in NC that the SOL would still stand. Any help?

[hi-liter]

Aints68: I have the same issue as your BH. Have you learned anything new since March in reference to this?

As a side note, the MBNA chargeoff was gone from my reports last week, but yesterday it showed up again as BOA MBNA.

Bastards.

[CarolinaBlueEyes]

There is one thing here... I had a Wachovia card which was sold to MBNA after 2000.. I never used the card but continued paying on it yet I was told by a lawyer that it didnt matter I was still held to the arbitration clause... which makes no sense to me since the card was never used as MBNA only wachovia...

[aints68]

Hi-liter:

Sorry, nothing new as of yet. To be honest, both of us ended up in new jobs last year, and credit repair has been on the back burner. I'm just now starting to get back on it. There is a collection agency that has been contacting him in reference to the debt. I'm not sure if I want to tackle them first or go directly to MBNA and work on that first. According to when he actually made his last payment, it should have already dropped off, but they aren't reporting it correctly and I'm not sure how to approach it.

[admin]

There is one thing here... I had a Wachovia card which was sold to MBNA after 2000.. I never used the card but continued paying on it yet I was told by a lawyer that it didnt matter I was still held to the arbitration clause... which makes no sense to me since the card was never used as MBNA only wachovia...

It's BS. The argument Lady uses here applies.