I was in exactly the same situation just a few months ago with Mackenzie Hall, threatening to send 'Mertiforce' round.I wrote my own letter telling them to get stuffed, then sought legal advice. The lawyer said the best thing to do with these types of letters is to throw them in the bin! I think the letter you got is a last ditch attempt for this company to try and scare you into offering a settlement. I'd be very surprised if anyone actually came round to your home. It's too much expense for them to pay someone to go round, and pay for petrol, etc. Write them a letter telling them if they call at your home you wont answer the door, or will ask them to leave immediately as you have nothing to discuss with them. Also, get hold of the non-emergency number for your local police force, to be used in the highly unlikely event of anyone coming round. Make clear in any letters you write that you have contacted the police and been made aware of the total lack of powers that private debt collectors have. You have to make it clear that you wont be intimidated.

Hi everyone, I took out 'new style' (income-based repayment) student loans between 1998 and 2002, then after I graduated I went and worked abroad, not telling the SLC and not making any arrangements to defer payment. I spent the next 6 years abroad. I came back in Sep 2008, did a postgrad course, and still didn't get in touch with them. I've been claiming job seeker's allowance for the past 7 months or so, and still haven't gotten in touch with them, as I'm not earning so there doesn't seem to be much point. So in total it's been almost 8 years since I defaulted on my student loan and stopped contact with them. I took out around 3000 pounds or less per year for the 4 years, so plus penalties and interest its probably 20k-25k or more, god knows. I haven't heard anything from them for a long time. Anyway, 1 week from now I will start working for a company on a temporary contract, for 3 months. The pay will be a fixed 850 pounds a month, with no scope for earning more. Clearly this falls well under the 15k minimum level required by the SLC. Regardless of this, I will have to fill in a p46 form when I start working for my new employer. There is a box on the p46 which obligates me to tick it if I still have unpaid student loans to pay. I dont have to tick this if I have made arrangements to repay loans directly to the SLC via bank transfer. I'm wondering what the best course of action would be? 1. I am still currently claiming job seeker's allowance, and will be doing so for 1 more week. Should I contact the SLC and admit my guilt/plead ignorance/plead poverty, and offer to pay them 20 pounds a month, saying im unemployed, it's the best I can do? Do you think they would accept this? 2. Should I just tick the box on my p46 form, let my employer know about it, and hope the SLC don't hassle me? It's only 3 months, the pay is obviously next to nothing in terms of an annual salary anyway, and after 3 months I will be starting another full time education course, with a possible view to working abroad again. What should I do? Will they tell me to shove my 20 quid a month up my backside and demand huge repayments/threaten court action? I got the impression they would be more reasonable than other creditors, as the debt is never really written off and they will get the money once I start earning a decent wage in the UK. If they are going to be as nasty as other creditors chasing a debt, I'm wondering if it's best just to wait and see if they contact me, rather than put myself on the radar? Help!

Hi everyone, I took out 'new style' (income-based repayment) student loans between 1998 and 2002, then after I graduated I went and worked abroad, not telling the SLC and not making any arrangements to defer payment. I spent the next 6 years abroad. I came back in Sep 2008, did a postgrad course, and still didn't get in touch with them. I've been claiming job seeker's allowance for the past 7 months or so, and still haven't gotten in touch with them, as I'm not earning so there doesn't seem to be much point. So in total it's been almost 8 years since I defaulted on my student loan and stopped contact with them. I took out around 3000 pounds or less per year for the 4 years, so plus penalties and interest its probably 20k-25k or more, god knows. I haven't heard anything from them for a long time. Anyway, 1 week from now I will start working for a company on a temporary contract, for 3 months. The pay will be a fixed 850 pounds a month, with no scope for earning more. Clearly this falls well under the 15k minimum level required by the SLC. Regardless of this, I will have to fill in a p46 form when I start working for my new employer. There is a box on the p46 which obligates me to tick it if I still have unpaid student loans to pay. I dont have to tick this if I have made arrangements to repay loans directly to the SLC via bank transfer. I'm wondering what the best course of action would be? 1. I am still currently claiming job seeker's allowance, and will be doing so for 1 more week. Should I contact the SLC and admit my guilt/plead ignorance/plead poverty, and offer to pay them 20 pounds a month, saying im unemployed, it's the best I can do? Do you think they would accept this? 2. Should I just tick the box on my p46 form, let my employer know about it, and hope the SLC don't hassle me? It's only 3 months, the pay is obviously next to nothing in terms of an annual salary anyway, and after 3 months I will be starting another full time education course, with a possible view to working abroad again. What should I do? Will they tell me to shove my 20 quid a month up my backside and demand huge repayments/threaten court action? I got the impression they would be more reasonable than other creditors, as the debt is never really written off and they will get the money once I start earning a decent wage in the UK. If they are going to be as nasty as other creditors chasing a debt, I'm wondering if it's best just to wait and see if they contact me, rather than put myself on the radar? What should I do???

Yeah, you'd think us tight gits up in Scotland would make it about 30 yrs to recover a debt, considering our stingy reputation hehe. I think you're right, all my original creditors probably do have some internal record of me, and that's fair enough, it's just the DCAs selling my information back and forth that concerns me, as I could still have to be writing statute barred template letters into my old age! My credit report had some defaults on it, although that was in Autumn 2008, when I checked back around 7 months later it was clean as a whistle, that was because the 6 year limit had been fulfilled. The limit for adverse credit history on your report is 6 yrs in Scotland and England, it's just the Scottish are a wee bit luckier in only having a 5 yr limit on their debts I just wish I knew how to get these people to stop passing on my info. If it turns out my understanding has been wrong, and it is my debts which are truely 'extinguished' and non-existent, rather than my legal obligation to pay them, then I think DCAs cant have any right to keep selling my personal information to companies which they know will harrass me illegally. I wish I could get clarification on this!

My understanding of the word 'extinguished' in Scottish law regarding debts 5 yrs old or more is that it is the legal obligation to pay which becomes non-existent, rather than the actual debt itself. What I mean is, although you no longer have to pay the debt and nobody can legally compel you to, the debt is still in existence assuming you did actually borrow the money at some point and not repay it. Is my understanding correct? Or are all my unsecured debts (over 7 yrs old with no acknowledgement/payment from me or court action taken by creditors during this time) actually non-existent? Do DCAs have the right to hold information about my old debts and sell it on even if they know perfectly well it is statute barred?

I successfully got Mackenzie Hall to acknowledge my account was statute-barred, and have demanded that they delete all information held about me on their files and do not sell on the debt. Are they legally bound to comply with this demand? What is the best way, if any, to stop DCAs from selling on debts they know are statute-barred? Thanks, V.

Ok, thanks for clearing that up for me!

Thanks. I'm wondering if sheriff court decrees (or CCJs in England ) once given against a debtor, can be used by anyone trying to recover that particular debt, or if they can only be used by the bank/company that originally obtained the decree in court. Does that help?

Thanks Jimmy, I knew that already .

Hi everyone, I am pretty sure none of my creditors have ever taken court action against me, but I am still curious about sheriff court decrees and debt selling. My question: I have several debts which are now almost 8 years old, and know that the debts have all been sold on, probably several times. If the original bank or credit card company had taken me to court and gained a sheriff court decree against me, would that decree be able to be used by any debt-buying companies who later purchased the debt? Or does each company who purchases the debt have to obtain their own sheriff court decree, in order to legally demand the money? Thanks,

I've been sent a letter from mackenzie hall, for a debt which I know is statute barred, its been almost 8 yrs since I've had any contact whatsoever with any of my creditors, and nobody has taken court action against me for all of that time. They list a client they are pursuing the debt for 'Cabot Financial Europe' and an original creditor 'Morley', neither of which I have ever heard of. I assume they wouldnt have my original signed credit agreement, as the debt has been sold on about a dozen times or more. It's a totally unenforceable debt. What worries me is it threatens me with a 'doorstep assessment' within the next 10 days, which involves people from their company 'meritforce' coming round. Im staying with other people who I dont want to be bothered and hassled by debt collectors, and I must admit the prospect has me a little anxious. Has anyone had experience of this type of letter? Did they send people round? I am unemployed, I qualify for legal help and assistance, and legal aid if need be. I am planning to go to a solicitors' firm on Monday and get a consultation, and hopefully get them to send a letter telling them to get stuffed (in legal terms of course). Should I do this? Or am I worrying over nothing about them sending people round? Their 'meritforce' website does seem to advertise hiring self-employed debt collectors, so I suppose they do have people available to come round and hassle me and the people I live with, right? What should I do: Get some of my own solicitors involved, or just ignore the letter?

Are you saying that nobody will come round? I looked on their 'meritforce' website and it does seem like they really do hire field collectors, or is this just engineered to make it look like their doorstep collection agency is a real and present danger to people like me? Have you ever heard of anyone who has had debt collectors come round from 'Meritforce'? or anyone from this company?

That's what I sent them, along with a warning about making a doorstep call. Are you saying they will ignore that completely?

Thanks for your advice, although it read kind of like a sonnet . Surely writing the something that I did will help deter them from making in-person visits? Will this just keep getting sold on and on, even though the selling companies know it's statute barred? Yeah I know it's 5 yrs in Scotland, I was just saying I was abroad for 6 years .

Hi everyone, I'm in Scotland and I have debts from several creditors, one of which has popped up again recently, after over 7 years, in the form of a letter threatening a 'doorstep assessment'. I havent had any contact at all with my creditors for over 7 years, much less written to them acknowledging the debt or made a payment. There is no record of any court action ever having been taken against me on my credit report, and no court documents have ever been delivered to my address, so I'm 99% sure nobody can have taken court action against me. National debtline has said its almost certain that my debts are statute barred, assuming nobody has taken court action against me, which as I deduce from the evidence, has not happened. The thing is, I was living abroad for 6 years, and my creditors knew this, and even though they sent threatening letters to my parents address, I dont think they would have wanted to waste their money taking to court someone who was living at the other side of the world, right? The name of the company is 'Mackenzie Hall', they are claiming to be collecting on behalf of 'Cabot financial Europe Ltd', and they say the original creditor is 'Morley', and they are threatening to use a 'field collection agency' called 'Meritforce' (I have never heard of any of these companies before in my life but I am guessing at least some if not all of them are part of one and the same group). I notice that in their letter they didnt even bother to threaten court action, they just said they may have to 'advise their client to take any further action which may be appropriate'. I suspect they know they cant take court action against me, and this may be an attempt to intimidate me into a last minute payment. Am I wrong? Anyway, I wrote a letter of reply(recorded delivery, printed signature), telling them the alleged debt was statute barred and for them to send proof of my payment/written acknowledgement of the debt if they disputed it being statute barred. I also said I gave no permission for them to call on me, stating that I would make a complaint of harrassment against them and seek damages for a deliction of trespass should they call at my home. I also mentioned that I had called my local police force, who told me these debt collectors have zero legal powers, and I have no obligation whatsoever to communicate with them, and indeed i would engage in no communication with them should they call. I also said that if they could not produce the evidence I requested but continued to contact me then I would consider it harrassment and file an official complaint with the financial ombudsman service. Can I ask some questions? 1. What is their likely response to this letter to be? Will they Ignore it and send people round anyway? And continue to hassle me for the money? 2. Has anyone had dealings with these companies? What happened in your cases? 3. Assuming they do ignore it, who else apart from the financial ombudsman can I complain to? The OFT? Police? Can I get legal aid to take court action? Thanks alot, Vince.