Verbal agreement with Debitas What obligation do I have?

[nawtwrong]

Hi,

A debt collection company called Debitas are currenly dealing with £3000 I owe Capital One.

I received a very threatening letter from them in January when they took over the debt. I called them straight away and said I could affort about £100 a month, but the person I was dealing with basically said "no you have to pay £250 a month (£3000/12 months) or the full £3000, those are your only options!".

Not knowing any better I agreed to this and paid £250 from my debit card, that was last month. They've since been in touch asking for another £250 which I can't afford this month; I've just started a new job and don't get paid for another 2 weeks and I'll be on emergency tax so £250 is out of the question. I was only paying Capital One about £90 a month before missing a couple of payments and this happened.

Since I agreed 'verbally' to £250 a month, am I obliged to pay this? They did send a letter confirming I'd spoke to them and agreed to pay £250 a month, but I've not signed anything.

I'd really appreciate some practical advice because all Debitas have done is bullied me into a worse situaltion than before and left messages asking me to 'call them urgently' and 'please have the decency to return my call' which has really got my back up!

Thanks

[smashedbobo]

Hi welcome to the board. First off do not speak debitas at all. anything you do from now in must be in writing and sent recorded delivery. If you hang on a little while someone who knows more about the subject than i do will be along. Dont worry so much now. Just so we know how old is the debt and do you know for certain that debitas has bought the debt. They will say anything to frighten the s**t out of you and have you paying more than you can afford. Is any of the debt made up of charges from the credit card companyh. you could actually claim most of these back. There are letters on the site you can print off to send to debitas. Am not totally sure which ones though. As i said someone woth morw knowledge than me will tell you what to do next. And good luck chick.

[mamatemi1]

TRY TO READ FAQS
Do you keep your statements? If not send a Subject Access Request (subject access request) to your capital one requesting your statement for up to 6 years. This will cost you £10 send cheque/p.o. with your request. It can take up to 40 days to get them!!

Send A CCA(Consumer credit act) request to Debitas with a one pound postal order. The templates are the library section(moderators please help with link?). They have 12 working days to respond.

Please no conversations, all communication must be in writing because yiu may have to file claims in court, it is good to do it properly!!

Good luck. Just ask..I am an amateur but the experts will soon respond I'm sure.

[whats a mook?]

Dear Sir/Madam

Re:− Account/Reference Number 4563210025897412

With reference to the above agreement, we would be grateful if you would send us a copy of this credit agreement.

We understand that under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (Sections 77−79), we are entitled to receive a copy of our credit agreement on request. We enclose a payment of £1.00 which represents the fee payable under the Consumer Credit Act.

We understand a copy of our credit agreement should be supplied within 12 working days.

We understand that under the Consumer Credit Act creditors are unable to enforce an agreement if they fail to comply with a request for a copy of the agreement under these sections of the Act.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

[whats a mook?]

n.b - obtain a proof of postage certificate from your P.O. They are recognised in a court of law and free, unlike a recorded selivery slip.

[nawtwrong]

Thanks for all your replies.

I never thought of dealing with them by post, good idea. I think that at least 15% of the debt is made up of late payment/over limit changes. I've kept all my statements from day 1 so I can check.

The debt is about 7 weeks old. Capital One wrote to me saying my credit card account was being passed on to Debitas on 5th January, then I got a letter from Debitas a few days later.

I missed 3 or 4 payments to Capital One as I was self-employed at the time and waiting for payment of 2 big jobs for ages - cash flow basically. I told Capital One this several times when they rung from their call centre in Calcutta but this was never logged and they defaulted me.

Will I be still able to claim back these charges even though I was defaulted? And if so would I claim these charges from Capital One or Debitas?

Thanks.

[nawtwrong]

UPDATE:

I received a letter out of the blue from Capital one the other week saying 'please make payments to your capital one account'. I filled in the enclosed direct debit form to make the minimum payment (about £130 a month), sent it off and I've not heard anything since, no phone calls from Bombay, no letters, nothing!

It looks like Debitas have passed this back to Capital One as they were getting no where with me, I'm happy to deal with Capital One again because Debitas were a shower of ****e...

I am planning on claiming my late payment/over limit fees back from Capital One but will I still be able to do so even thought I've missed payments in the past and it's been passed to Debitas and back?

Thanks in advance for your replies...

[allykat]

Yes you will still be able to claim back charges from Cap 1, just send them the Subject Access Request with £10, recorded delivery, it's worth getting the charges back

Good luck

[nawtwrong]

Thanks, that's good to know because I think there's at least £500 - £600 of charges to claim back.

I'll keep u updated.