Some good advice

My sorry association with MBD statred in beginning 2002. I had a business(CC) that liquidated in May 2001 after enormous medical bills with my childs birth in 2000. I had a MTN contract that was part of the liquidation, but about a year later MBD contacted me and stated that I signed surety in my private capacity and are due roughly R2000 principal debt (cancellation costs of contract and telephony costs). By the time they contacted me, legal fees, interest fees, administration costs ampounted to R6000+. At this stage I was frantic that a bad credit record would not spill over from the CC to my private name and I started paying R500 a month.(To all who is reading this - it is all an illusion, the whole debt collect system feeds on fear, get to know your rights) At first I could not understand why they had to contact me so often, via phone calls, letters and the infamous SMS's. The explanation would always be that it is from"another department"

At one stage I had confusing SMS's confirming re-payment schedules of R250, R500, R1000 per month all at different times of the month! For years I believed them just to be the most incompetent and rude bunch of people imanigable, but soon started suspecting that this was a manufactured strategy to run up costs. In April 2004 after paying for 2 years (I have to admit not every month) my outstanding balance was way over R10 000!

I started diarising their call history and SMS history for a while in 2005 and 2006. After several attempts/requests to get them to stop harassing me (up tp 9 contacts in 1 day!!!), or take me to court so that we can settle this, there was still no improvement and they kept on ignoring my requests to stop the SMS's. I started suspecting that these guys were running a scam. I spoke to an attorney who adviced me that I must get a copy of any credit agreement that I had with them - I also started asking for a detailed list of their fees as well as a break down of interest charges and the rate of interest charged - After several (billed) phonecalls all I got was those...4 line opening balance, paid, now outstanding pieces of paper. I stopped all repayments in 2007 every time that they phoned I refused to pay before I get a copy of where I signed for interest charges of 24% and a detailed breakdown of liability, interest, charges and fees for my attorney to take it further..they kept on saying that my attorney must get it..then I would explain that I have the right to ask for it...they would promise to get it posted to me...never to hear from them again. Case closed, right? Huh uh. Started phoning me again last month after a long silence. 3 times in one month I had to explain what I want from them - not a balance enquiry - A freaking detailed account history from start to date!

Today 8 May 2008 I spoke to Mbali and her supervisor Jafta - after insults like "why have you not paid your account since 17 - 5 - 2002?" (good God man I must have paid way more than R10 000 - R15 000 to them!) and Jafta saying he will e-mail my history now ("are you sitting in front of your system? I am sending it now") I have not received a thing. I phoned 011 560 4679 explained my whole story (again!!!), demanding a detailed history of the account, where after I received a call from Mbali again stating that although I owe more than R4000 they will settle the account for R2000. I declined and said that I want the detailed history record of the account. I phoned this number again and said that I want that record before the end of business today otherwise I will go to the Law Society, WASPA and every Debt Collectors body that I can think of - she put the phone down in my ear! (And I do hope that that call was recorded so that my tone of speech will be open for all to hear)

That was when I hit internet to look at my rights and found your blog. These people are for sure contravening the National Credit Act 34 of 2005, the Ursury Act of 1968 and the normally accepted guidelines of their profession

They harass people with calls, SMS's and threats, they pretend that litigation has already taken place etc.

Refuse to give consumers information regarding their accounts or proper statements of account, which they may legally not do.

The in duplum rule states that the interest levied on principal debt may not exceed the value of the principal debt, after June 2007 the amount of interest and charges after the consumer defaults may not be more than the capital owing at the time of the default. (They will clearly loose more than half of their 'book' if all their victims know this.)

Debt collectors can charge for necessarry letters, faxes or e-mails (how necessary is 6 SMS's per day after 3 calls, just to remind you of your agreement of 10 minutes ago when that agreement has been standing for longer than a year and you are paying every month? - or thanking you for your payment via SMS and then charging you more than R12 for the thank you SMS? Just to phone you tonight to confirm the settlement again?(Another R12+)

Over the 7 years they have often drawn up a settlement account and send it to me (of course charging me for it) - they may only do this at the request of the debtor.

For longer than 3 years I have tried to get them to give me a statement indicating the interest rate. No success there either. I suspect strongly that they have acted outside the law regarding the Ursury Act's interest rate cap.

Collection Cost may not exceed the cost incurred in collecting the debt - within guidelines set by Law Society and Debt Collectors Act.....now if I can just get my detailed statement......

During 2006 MBD started contacting me on another reference number for bad debt from Nashua - this was for a photo copy machine that was part of the liquidated business from 2001 - They used strong arm tactics to get me to pay. There was one exception - because this old huge photo copy machine only fetched R400 at the auction I remembered that it was absolutely settled as part of the CC's liquidation. I told them to get lost and that the debt had prescribed in any way. They still tried a couple of times, telling me to get police affadavits, curator reports etc before it went quiet on that score.

I see on internet that JM attorneys are affiliated with MBD - just to let you know, same procedure with JM attorneys and a Telkom account from 2000 that was also part of the liquidation in 2001. These are unscrupulous greedy characters that have to be stopped. I can not contribute money to your cause, but will gladly testify as part of a drive to get these guys sorted out. They have infringed upon my rights and it is time to fight back!

Nomorembd

Keep up the good work!

Fedup

PS If there is a sharp final year law student or two reading this, why not start an action whereby a reversal of all in duplum 'overcharges' are paid back to all victims and you take a 20% fee from those who sign up? And make name for yourself...and help clean up your profession...

(Thanks for this letter, Fedup, it will definitely help to clear up some questions. Regarding the lawayer - you will be glad to know that I have contracted the services of a young, sharp law firm who are out to make a name for themselves - tackling and defeating a fat firm like MBD is exactly the case they were looking for!) - MBD Victim