Hi All

My brother received a letter from MMF a few weeks ago about a debt with Pounds Till Payday. The original amount was taken out in November 2008. It was scheduled for a doorstep visit, etc.

Having spoken to them and verified his identity, they discovered that his date of birth on file was incorrect. They explained what the debt was, etc. and he asked for more information to be sent out. The account was put on hold. They had an email address for him that he hasn't used in years and is, AFAIK, defunct.

Don't get me wrong, my brother has had debts and he's paid them off. Anyway, we checked his credit report and it had no record of MMF on it at all. No searches, no associate searches, etc. Nothing. No defaults.

He explained this to MMF and asked why he hadn't received the information he'd requested, etc. They said they would email it to him. The next day, a default was registered on his credit report with MMF for the amount in question, etc.

He has received the information he requested and there are some issues. There is no date of birth on the credit agreement but it does have his name and NI number. The loan was paid into a NatWest account but he hasn't had a NatWest account since he was 8 years old and was collecting the piggy banks.

The address on the credit agreement is one that he had moved out of 3 months earlier. He was living in England at the time. More significantly, he moved to Scotland in June 2009. AIUI, the debt (if it is his) should be statute barred as it's now past 5 years. Indeed, under Scots law it no longer exists. However, the credit agreement specifically states that it is governed by English law.

So, I throw this over to all of you for some advice.

1st thing to do? Stay off the phone. MMF are the lowest of the low and will cross the line from general threats into the murky tactics. We've had plenty of cases of them doing it.

From now on, demand everything in writing. If they call, simply hang up and log the attempted call. Also, if MMF are registering defaults, you need to sit down and check the credit files carefully. They cannot add a default of their own or if there was one originally, they cannot change the original date ( although they have been known to try).

They do seem to have bought a lot of pounds to payday accounts recently. They are getting into some trouble for using email as a direct means of communcation. As far as I know, if the your brother lived in England at the time the debt would not be SB however you seem to be suggesting that this is a fraudulent application. They will try to tell you that it is your responsibility to prove t is fraud although actually it is theirs to prove it is not.

By the way , if MMF have bought the debt they can register the default but you would have a claim against them if they placed the default date as now when it should have been registered between 3 and 6 months after payments stopped. Hope that makes sense If they follow the rules then the default will be gone within a year anyway

@renegadeimp Thanks for your reply. For the record, there have been no threats. My brother has used a speakerphone and I've listened to each call. They've been handled in much the same way as any other call centre. Re. the default, we've checked his credit report and the date of default is 28/11/2008 which is when the pay day loan should have been repaid. Technically, I cannot see that they have done anything wrong (as yet...!)

@fletch70 - As above, thanks for the reply. I'm not really sure if it is a fraudulent application. It's been six years and my brother cannot remember if he took out a pay day loan then or not. The reason we're skeptical about this is a) the erroneous date of birth on file and b) the Natwest account. What is most annoying is the absence of any search for him on the credit agencies. In all of the time since this pay day loan was taken out there hasn't been one search in relation to any of this.

To be honest , so long as you don't ignore any letters before action you can probably blag this until the end of November.. I would send them the prove it letter stating that you did not have a Natwest bank account at the time (unless he did) . My payday loan with PTP has never been defaulted and there are no searches . They have provided a copy of the agreement but no bank details .

So I would send a combined prove it, no telephone calls , in writing only. They are so inefficient they are bound to cock it up so you can then complain