I Dont know what to do

[Pinkgraffiti]

I have been recieving hundreds of telephone calls on both my landline and mobile at all times of the day inc weekends/ nights ect. The ealiest being 8am on a sat morning and latest being 9pm on weeknights.
I did answer first call about 5 weeks ago - They said they were DM Ltd and asked me to confirm that i was who they said i was, which i did. He then wanted to know my dob, if i worked and where, I then stopped and refused to answer as i didnt know who they were. He then got very nasty saying they hold my abbey bank account and need me to pay the amount owing (£303) in full right now. I said this i couldnt do and please write to me.
They have wrote to me but are still phoning at least 10-12 times a day. I cannot afford to pay it all off, i do work but am on a low wage.
I havent responded to there letter because i dont know what to say.
Can someone please advise me what to do. I am dreading each day and even weekends. I get called when i am at work and because of the volume of calls my boss is starting to comment. At night and early morning they are waking up my daughter.
Can you help me please

[palomino]

First of all their aggressive phone calls are designed to try and frighten/panic you into paying up. If you are unable to do this (as appears to be the case with yourself) all it does is terrify the person being called.

So, what to do?
1. Keep a log of all calls (date and time).
2. If/when they ring then either just don't answer (if you recognise the number) or tell them that all correspondence must be in writing and hang up. Don't worry about being rude or discourteous - they don't.
3. Write to them saying that
(a) you have never heard of their organisation
(b) you do not owe them any money at all
(c) you have received no advice from Abbey that Abbey has passed the matter to DM
(d) they must stop calling you on the telephone
(e) all correspondence must be in writing.

When they wrote to you what did the letter say? I suspect it was full of the same sort of invective that happens in their phone calls. If you can scan it it and copy the image up here we can see what's involved (edit out your personal details from the image before uploading it). If you don't have a scanner then just type out the essential bits, again leaving out your personal details.

Last thing : don't panic - that's what they are trying to make you do. If they threaten things like bankruptcy, bailiffs, charging orders on your home, attachment of earnings or even prison just ignore it. These are just wild threats. They cannot do anything without a court judgment or order and they don't have one. If they did you would soon know about it.

[surprise]

Send this letter recorded delivery.

Dear Sirs
Harassment by telephone

FORMAL COMPLAINT UNDER THE CONSUMER CREDIT ACT 2006 COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

Account Number: XXXXXXX

I am writing in relation to the quantity and frequency of telephone calls that I have received from your company, which I deem to be personally harassing.

I have verbally requested that these stop, but I am still receiving calls. (Delete if necessary)

I now require all further correspondence from your company to be made in writing only.

I am of the view that your continued harassment of me by telephone puts you in breach of Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

If you continue to harass me by telephone, you will also be in breach of the Communications Act (2003) s.127 and I will report you to OFCOM, Trading Standards and The Office of Fair Trading, meaning that you will be liable to a substantial fine.

Please treat this also as a formal complaint, and send me a copy of your company complaints procedure.

Be advised that any further telephone calls from your company will be recorded. (**Even if you don‘t yet have recording equipment!!**)

Yours faithfully,


[NAME HERE] (type don't sign)
Hours of debt collection are
8.30 to 9.00 Monday to Friday
9.00 to 4.00 Saturday
9.00 to 1.00 Sunday
so if any of the calls are outside these times answer the phone and tell them they are breaking Debt Collection Guidelines and report them to Trading Standards.

[palomino]

I should have explained what has apparently happened.

Abbey appears to have sold your account to DM. In doing so they should have advised that they were doing so but unfortunately they rarely do. Hence the unexpected approach from DM - and why you should deny any knowledge of the debt with them until you hear 'officially' from Abbey. Such notification is called a Notice of Assignment - notifying you that the debt has been assigned to DM.
Incidentally you don't mention that you have received anything from Abbey so I have assumed you haven't.

If the telephone calls persist then there is a letter here on CAG you can send them which includes all the appropriate legal wording. We can send that after they have received the letter in the previous post (give them time to read that one).

One last question : was the bank account a normal current account or some other type of account? What was the debt for?

[Multay]

Hi,

Sorry to hear you are having such a bad time with these horrible "people".

As palomino says, don't ever talk to these people on the phone. They will only bully and lie to you.

Firstly you should send them this letter...But don't sign it, just print your name on it and send it recorded delivery...

Dear Sir/Madam

Account Ref:

Please be advised that I will only communicate with you in writing. I have noted your repeated attempts to contact me by telephone over the past few weeks/months and these have been duly logged by time and date.

Furthermore, should it be your intention to arrange a “doorstep call”, please be advised that under OFT rules, you can only visit me at my home if you make an appointment and I have no wish to make an appointment with you.

There is only an implied license under English Common Law for people to be able to visit me on my property without express permission; the postman and people asking for directions etc (Armstrong v. Sheppard and Short Ltd [1959] 2 Q.B. per Lord Evershed M.R.). Therefore take note that I revoke license under Common Law for you, or your representatives to visit me at my property and if you do so, then you will be liable to damages for a tort of trespass and action will be taken, including but not limited to, police attendance.

Yours faithfully/sincerely,

I'm pretty sure there is a good letter on here that says "prove I owe you money or else" ...As soon as I find it I'll post it up for you..Unless anyone else has a copy handy???

Please don't worry, there are lots of experts on here who will give you as much help and support as you need...

Hope this helps a little..

M

[Multay]

OMG....I'm too late again...lol...I relly will have to learn to type faster...

[berrylover]

All I can echo is what has been advised above. Send the letter to the company, 1st class recorded delivery. Do not sign it, just print your name. Send it recorded delivery.

[Multay]

BTW - Either letter should do the trick...Good luck and all being well they should leave you alone..

[berrylover]

I think a combination of both letters might be a good idea in this case and it then stops the worry of them calling to your home. Personally I would send this to them.

I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT TO YOUR COMPANY.

Dear Sir
Harassment by telephone

FORMAL COMPLAINT UNDER THE CONSUMER CREDIT ACT 2006 COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE

Account Number: XXXXXXX

I am writing in relation to the quantity and frequency of telephone calls that I have received from your company, which I deem to be personally harassing.

I have verbally requested that these stop, but I am still receiving calls. (Delete if necessary)

I now require all further correspondence from your company to be made in writing only.

I am of the view that your continued harassment of me by telephone puts you in breach of Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

If you continue to harass me by telephone, you will also be in breach of the Communications Act (2003) s.127 and I will report you to OFCOM, Trading Standards and The Office of Fair Trading, meaning that you will be liable to a substantial fine.

Furthermore, should it be your intention to arrange a “doorstep call”, please be advised that under OFT rules, you can only visit me at my home if you make an appointment and I have no wish to make an appointment with you.

There is only an implied license under English Common Law for people to be able to visit me on my property without express permission; the postman and people asking for directions etc (Armstrong v. Sheppard and Short Ltd [1959] 2 Q.B. per Lord Evershed M.R.). Therefore take note that I revoke license under Common Law for you, or your representatives to visit me at my property and if you do so, then you will be liable to damages for a tort of trespass and action will be taken, including but not limited to, police attendance.

Please treat this also as a formal complaint, and send me a copy of your company complaints procedure.

Be advised that any further telephone calls from your company will be recorded. (**Even if you don‘t yet have recording equipment!!**)

Yours faithfully,

Remeber not to sign it. VERY IMPORTANT!

[Multay]

Even better....

[Pinkgraffiti]

Hello Everyone
Thankyou for all your replies. I was in a flap yesterday when i posted my letter, im new on here and feel a bit calmer now.
I havent received any letters from abbey saying it will be passed over. I knew i owed them - it came about from an overdraft of 750 which with intrests total about 950, i approached them last year with an offer of payment of 100 pm - they refused and said i can only pay 250 pm or my account would be closed. I needed my account so made the payments with a freinds help.
In Feb this year I had one payment left of 200 which woulds completely have reduced my balance to 0. My cicumstances changed and i couldnt meet it. About a month or so later i recieved a letter from abbey saying i must pay and they added interest on which brought total owing to 250 ish then the following month more intrest was added bringing total to 303. I did have a phone call from them and i said i couldnt pay followed by a letter saying i should pay and return all cards. (i had a debit card & chq book & authorised overdraft of 400. which i exceeded by 350 total of 750 all together).

I didnt hear anything unti about 5-6 weeks ago when i got that first horrible phonecall off a man at dm management.

Since then i have recieved hundreds off them. I noted there number and ignored it but the last few times they have rang they use a withheld number - so i have to answer incase its someone else.

I have recived a letter from them - i will type it out below;

Debt Managers Ltd
PO Box 168
4 Jamaica Street
Edinburgh EH3 6UP


28th August 2008

YOUR CALL MAY BE RECORDED FOR TRAINING PURPOSES
NOTICE OF LEGAL ACTION

Account Due To; Abbey
Client Reference; xxxxxxxxx
Our Referene xxxxxxx
Amount to be Sued £303.13


Your failure to respond to previous letters has resulted in your account being passed to this department for court action and our Solicitors may prepare the Court Papers within seven days. If you wish to avoid Legal action you must pay in full today using the attached giro or you can phone and pay by Debit or Credit card or alternatively tou must immediatly telephone our Legal Manager on 0780 050 1043.

Supervisor
Court Department

-------------------------------------------------------

Then at the bottom there is a giro slip.

I havent had any letters from them before this one, only phone calls.

I hope this is clearer now im a bit calmer

[surprise]

Glad you feel calmer. Unfortunately this is typical of DCA's saying that you have ignored previous letters. I had one DCA tell me that they had written hundreds of letters and I asked for copies of them as I hadn't received one.

I would still send the Harassment letter, remember that you can't pay what you haven't got and even if they went to court a judge would only agree to whatever payment you say you can pay.

Also, for the amount involved they wouldn't take you to court.

[sillygirl1]

Report Debt Managers to THEIR trading standards re the phone calls, they aren't meant to do this. You can also have their calls blocked by your telephone company, even though they dial from a withdrawn no it will still show at the telephone exchange.... I've blocked all incoming calls from India and Ireland on our home phone but some idiots still do SMS messages so I've blocked those too.

[mr.ton]

I do remember back in 2002 getting a phone call 1 Saturday night about 9pm from a DCA asking how much i had in my bank account, was there a cash machine near by & if so, wanting me to go that machine straight away - all while he remained on the phone.
I presume he wanted me to transfer money to another account as i think you can do that from machines if im not mistaken?????
Cant think of any other reason why he wanted me to go there anyway?
The sad thing is..i almost fell for it as well as i was a timid little thing back then.
Eventually it dawned on me what he was doing & he got told to f off - ooohhh he didnt like that & was phoning back until he took the hint

To the OP - You can also ask the police (not 999) to have a word with them for you as ive had them do that for me in the past

[tiglet]

Is it possible this debt consists of any charges?

If so, I would start claiming them back, which would also put the debt into dispute (and may reduce the debt or find they owe you money, if you are successful).

[Pinkgraffiti]

Hi
yes i will send the letter regarding the harrassment and hopefully they will stop calling.

As for charges on the account - yes there is charges, i only owed 750.00 but they added approx 200.00 - and a futher 101 has gone on since i missed the last payment.
I thought that the bank charges claims were on hold and wasnt accepting any futher claiments?