Statements are £3 per sheet, apparently!

[pwell01uk]

I've recently decided to clear my bad credit, this will include paying off both HSBC, Capital One and a mystery default which, according to my credit report, belonged to Olympia Capital ASA/Thames Credit LTD.

Today, I have posted to the above mentioned banks, requesting statements for the past 6 years etc, although I didn't use one of the templates (I hope I haven't ruined my chances), since I have to first convince them that the accounts belong to me in the first place, due to being always on the move and having no records of the accounts.

However, only 1 hour ago, I decided to give this credit agency a call to find out a little more about this mystery debt.
Initially Thames Credit told me that my account had been passed on to another company called West Crop Credit Services and that I had to give them a call, which I did, only to be told that they hadn't held this account since April. They informed me that I would have to call Thames Credit back as it must have been sent back to them.

I called Thames Credit back and told the operator what had just happened so he asked me to hold the line.
He came back and I asked him a few questions about my account.
He told me that it was a Barclay card which started in 1996, so I told him that it was an awful long time ago since I had held a Barclays bank account and that I don't actually remember owning a Barclay card, I mentioned this and he told me that the last payment was made in 1998.

My next question was, how come it was defaulted in 2003 if I hadn't paid anything since 1998?
He said, that banks can default up to 6 years after.
I requested to see some statements.
The guy couldn't answer and told me that it was his supervisor, I needed to speak with and that he would get him to call me back.

I gave him my number and 20 minutes later the phone rang, a very bullish supervisor called and immediately gave me 2 options:

1. "We could get the statements for you but this could be very expensive as they would have to order them from Barclays and this could cost up to £3 per sheet for the previous 6 years"

or

2. "We could make you a deal and not charge you the extra £160 of charges that have accrued recently" (or something like that).

I immediately asked him about my rights under the Data Protection Act and about the statements only costing me a maximum of £10 to which he replied "not that I know of".

I told him that since I don't remember the card, I would need to see statements but I insisted that he do nothing until I check with the FSA as I don't want to see an additional £6k on top.

Help needed.

[welly]

Hello
The first thing to do is get your old account number and Data Protection Act Barclaycard for the Info they cant charge anymore than £10 under the Data Protection Act but maybe have a read round first and see what other have done.

Start with Tygermoth's Thread first and maybe get West corp or Thames to give you a copy of the CA This will cost no more than £1 and see if they have it as it was some time ago:

WTF - DCA refusing to tell me who the debt is with!

I would also say find out what both DCA's have on you as well and if they have put more charges on then you may be able to get them back

Theres a good letter on the thread and some VERY good info

Welly

[pcr1]

There is a strong possibility that this debt is Statute Barred if you have not made contact with them for some time. If 6 years go by and no payment is made or you do not contact them (doesn't matter if they try to contact you), they can't take court action for it so the debt is unenforceable.

Good advice about the credit agreement too; this would be my first step. If on the off chance they managed to come up with a copy (unlikely) then I'd tell them it was Statute Barred and to go away; if they don't then they've defaulted and the debt is unenforceable anyway.

[pwell01uk]

Thanks guys.

What about the fact that I last made a payment in 1998, could Barclay card then default it it 2003 - some 5 years later?

I'm gonna Data Protection Act Barclay card now but do I just use the 'subject access request' Data Protection Act template or should I use a different one since I have no information, records or even contact with them?

There's definately been no contact between myself and Barclays for many years (longer than 6, that's for sure), so could I have it removed from my credit report if it's statute barred as that was my intention initially?

Cheers

[welly]

Im not too sure but someone will and maybe ask for a copy of the CA from the DCA's first and go from there.

Keep us informed

[pwell01uk]

Right, I'll put the Data Protection Act request on hold for Barclay card and send the CA today.
Thanks welly and will keep you posted.