Hi guys I received a letter from Lowells and would like advice on how to proceed.

In about 2011 I defaulted on an interest free overdraft from barclays and owed £1082. They have passed this debt on I presume. I have a more current account with barclays and a savings account still open that was attached to the original debt.

Lowell financial contacted me to inform me the balance is unpaid and would be referred to a DCA. They are asking me to contact them back to to arrange payment, and I'm not sure how I should proceed.

Previously had fines where I contacted the DCA which was apperently a mistake as a bailiff broke through the chain on my mums house and refused to take his foot out the door until payment was made in full, while threatening to call removal men to empty the property. My mother paid the balance out of fear!

In this instance I'm not sure how best to proceed, should I ignore the letter and any correspondence or communicate with them? If so what is my best approach.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi guys I received a letter from Lowells and would like advice on how to proceed.

 

In about 2011 I defaulted on an interest free overdraft from barclays and owed £1082. They have passed this debt on I presume. I have a more current account with barclays and a savings account still open that was attached to the original debt.

 

Lowell financial contacted me to inform me the balance is unpaid and would be referred to a DCA. They are asking me to contact them back to to arrange payment, and I'm not sure how I should proceed.

Previously had fines where I contacted the DCA which was apperently a mistake as a bailiff broke through the chain on my mums house and refused to take his foot out the door until payment was made in full, while threatening to call removal men to empty the property. My mother paid the balance out of fear!

In this instance I'm not sure how best to proceed, should I ignore the letter and any correspondence or communicate with them? If so what is my best approach.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Not sure why Barclays did not keep your account, as they probably could have negotiated with you, using your new account money as a possible offset option.

Check your credit record to see what is on there.

You could write back saying that you do not have details in regard to any issue they are writing about, asking for original creditor information that any debt exists and proof that Lowell have legal ownership or rights to deal with the matter. At least then you can evidence that you asked for information and it might come in useful later, if they fail to respond i.e if they took it to court, you have evidence of Lowell not providing evidence after a reasonable request.

Or you could ignore at this stage and see what happens. There is a chance with such a recent debt, that Lowells just get one of their Solicitor debt chasers to issue a court claim. They don't seem to leave it too long, before issuing these.

lowells are not and cannot involve bailiffs

they are a DCA.

dx

Hi Rastamouse and welcome to CAG

I too wonder why Barclays didn't use their Right to Setoff, to settle the debt from other funds you have at the bank.

Can you explain fully what you mean by - "........ and a savings account still open that was attached to the original debt".

Alarm bells ringing if you have money desposited with Barclays - if you have I would move it quickly - real danger of off-setting

Hi folks thanks for the replies.

When I had the original student account I also had a savings account too, so two accounts.

When I didn't pay back that overdraft the account was closed and for years I was unable to open a current account.

The in 2014 I went back to barclays to see if it was possible to open an account and pay off that original debt,

according to the advisor that account was closed and debt passed on, but I had a savings account that had 3p in it.

From there I was able to get a cash card and then a current account.

At this point in time it's just not feasible to make any repayments as I'm now a masters student

and I'm making monthly payments for my student loan,

which is massively expensive due to my poor credit history,

but that's my fault and I'm dealing with those consequences.

Ideally if they can wait a year when I have graduated and working then I'd be more than happy, but at this time I just can't afford to.

Hi folks thanks for the replies.

 

When I had the original student account I also had a savings account too, so two accounts. When I didn't pay back that overdraft the account was closed and for years I was unable to open a current account. The in 2014 I went back to barclays to see if it was possible to open an account and pay off that original debt, according to the advisor that account was closed and debt passed on, but I had a savings account that had 3p in it. From their I was able to get a cash card and then a current account. At this point in time it's just not feasible to make any repayments as I'm now a masters student and I'm making monthly payments for my student loan, which is massively expensive due to my poor credit history, but that's my fault and I'm dealing with those consequences. Ideally if they can wait a year when I have graduated and working then I'd be more than happy, but at this time I just can't afford to.

Check your credit history to see if this debt is being reported and whether Lowell have taken over the debt. There are a few free credit check online sites such as Noodle. From the credit record you can see the date of default and the current debt amount. The debt will stay on your record for 6 years. If they get a CCJ, that will appear for 6 years.

If you want to avoid any hassle of court claims and therefore getting a CCJ noted, you could ask Lowell for more information as suggested. Then once you have got this, you could pay them what you could afford. This might only be say £1 a month. Then when you had more funds available you could look to pay more to settle the debt quicker.

If you ignored and did nothing, you could end up with a CCJ, making life more complicated. Having a CCJ could affect employment, obtaining credit services, renting properties etc. You may want to avoid this.

Hi RM,

I thought you'd only start repaying the Student Loan when you start earning in excess of a certain amount.

In any event, once you've established who the debt is owned by, you can work with the creditor to agree a repayment plan that you can afford, backed up by a Budget Planner.

If that shows you can only afford nominal monthly payments of say £1, nobody can make you pay any more than that.

Yeah I'm a postgraduate student so I've had to self finance, I'll check out the credit file and get back to you guys!

So there is no record of this on my credit report according to Noodle, will give experien a try and see if it's any different, if it's not on my credit file should I proceed the same way?

Let us know what Experian says and we'll take it from there.