please help with debt collection agency!!

[wba]

hi all, i owe abbey approx £700 in charges and today i recieved a letter from a debt collection agency writing on thier behalf asking me to pay up.
Is there any way of sorting this out without paying or should i pay them and then claim the money back? obviously this is quite a lot of money to be paying out in one lump sum so i'd prefer to get this problem sorted without having to pay them.
any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!!

[lookinforinfo]

The easiest way is to read the FAQs and step by step gude on the first page
of the forum. There you will understand how to reclaim your money without
having to pay the debt collector. In the step by step guide is a template letter that you can send to your bank [along with a £10 postal order] to
commence getting your money back.

At the same time, you can write to the debt collector pointing out that the
account is in dispute because of bank charges and as such they are sked
to delay any further action until the dispute is resolved.

If that doesn't work, send them a CCA request.

[indebtstudent]

Don't bother talking to them on the phone in my expereience they are ill informed and barely able to string a sentence together. I wonder if they get coaching on how to be rude to people if it comes naturally?

And yes I sincerly hope one of those very walking peices of dog poop is reading this.

[beancounter]

I agree. Always communicate by letter so you have a record of what has been said/agreed. DCA staff are a bunch of inarticulate morons, they hate having to put things in writing, it really pees them off!

[wba]

hello again, i've checked the faq's on the forum and i still cant find anything to help me, i'm probably just very blind /stupid!!
i have found plenty of help on how to reclaim money already paid but i haven't paid the charges yet so my situation is a little bit differant.
What i need to know is can i sort this out without first paying any money? ie. threaten to take them to court for unlawful chargesif they don't drop the debt

thanks again!

[tevion]

tell them your not paying anything. invite the bank and dca to take you to court over unlawful bank charges so they can explain them to the judge.
they will probably make threats but i doubt whether it will go any where.

[gizmo111]

Which company will you be claiming from?

Start the process of reclaiming bank charges - when you know how much you will be claiming, then you will be able to decide wht to do. In the meantime make an offer of payment that you can afford anything betwen £1 and £25 per month.

[wba]

my claim will be from abbey thanks for the advice gizmo111 i will write them a letter now, but tevion if i do write to them and tell them i'm not paying up they could send a debt collector to my door and i don't particularly want that!!