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Frank Leigh

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  1. I'm always on the lookout for cunning stunts from debt collectors and have no intention of encouraging them by making contact at this time in any way.
  2. Now that I understand how they will have accessed the mobile phone number, and why they phrased the call as they did, that answers my question very well. Thank you. The account is a 13 year-old credit card one, with no payment or acknowledgement in that time. I told National Debtline the full story some years ago and they recommended the statute barred letter, as did a member of another forum, shown there as a solicitor dealing in Consumer Credit Act cases. I did send the statute barred letter to Robinson Way for another account a couple of years ago. That had a similar history to this one. After a wait of eight weeks, a little anxiety crept in, and I wondered if it might have been better to let sleeping dogs lie. Then a letter arrived informing me they had closed the account. Still, different credit card company, different debt collector, different claim value, different outcome? You never know. I'm cautious. I keep in touch with this forum and have seen the advice regarding unexpected CCJ applications, especially when there has been a change of address. I don't take anything for granted regarding debt collectors, or Judges. I think with this one, for the time being at least, I prefer to wait and see if they try to ramp things up from the usual begging letters. It's quite interesting, really, a bit like a hobby. Changed days from when I first registered here, when I was a nervous wreck and my heart would pound as I opened a letter from a debt collector. So thanks to all who help with their calming advice. Keep up the good work. And before you ask, yes, I have made a financial donation to the site.
  3. I received a voicemail message today on a mobile phone that I just use for data. Only two close family members know its number. It has a sim on a monthly rolling contract. My Equifax CRA file, via ClearScore, has an entry showing TalkTalk and the last 2 digits of the account number, but no details of the phone number. The call was from 03445560216: "This is a private call from Cabot Financial. If you are available now, please press 1" ...pause for a few seconds... "This call was placed by Cabot Financial. We can be contacted on 03450700112." Equidebt wrote to me over six years ago, soon offering 80% off. When they went out of business, Cabot took over. Last year, they wrote that they, Cabot, a debt collector, were passing my account to Ruthbridge, a debt collector. Serious stuff. Ruthbridge offered 70% off. Meanies. If I didn't take them up on this magnificent offer, they might, they wrote, return the account to Cabot, who might 'look at alternative activity'. Do they mean skullduggery? Does anyone here have experience of this sort of thing, debt collectors getting hold of phone numbers unlawfully? Or is it just some kind of scattergun approach where they don't actually know who they're phoning? I'm not really bothered, more curious. I just haven't got around to sending them the Limitation Act letter, which I used a couple of years ago on another matter to stop Robinson Way. Which was nice.
  4. Something to look forward to, perhaps? "Dear Valued Client Congratulations on reaching the age of 65! A wonderful achievement! Now that you are a senior citizen, however, you may have noticed some of your friends have started dying off. We of course sympathise with you for your loss. However, as someone of your mature years and experience will appreciate, every cloud has a silver lining, and I am writing to tell you how you can turn this situation to your advantage. Yes, it's true! Now that you are in receipt of the state pension AND having to spend less money on Christmas and birthday presents and cards as more of your family and friends pre-decease you, you find yourself in the fortunate position, unavailable to many younger people, of being able to reduce your debts to us! Please phone us today to talk to one of our caring customer services assistants. Don't delay! Who knows, you might die yourself before too long and you wouldn't want to have missed out on this glorious opportunity to give something back! Call now! Discounts available for prompt replies! Yours, dying to hear from you Armand Aleg Chief Officer for Ethical Debt Management"
  5. You helped me with a couple of minor enquiries not so long ago. Since then, I have kept looking in on the forum in readiness for what may or may not turn out to be a confrontation with a well-known debt collector. Now, armed with the knowledge about statute barred debt and the help of the friendly and experienced people who selflessly contribute their time and expertise here, I no longer feel anxious, afraid and depressed, as I did for many years. Only the other week, I noticed how you'd answered someone's enquiry at some ungodly hour and I thought 'does this man never rest?' Thank you, Brig, and all those like you on this website. Your work here has changed lives.
  6. Nothing's 100%, but it's about minimising risk. I thought at least they could require something that's not written down in the letter such as the answer to a security question, for example. Noddle were able to do everything online. If someone else was trying to get my report, they'd have had to know my personal information, including my debit card details. Admittedly, this could happen, but it would take a deliberate organised effort. Sending a letter out with all the login details is almost an invitation for a bit of opportunistic snooping or worse if someone else opens the letter. Anyway, I did google this and came across one similar post in the entire history of the universe on another forum dated more than a year ago. The guy said he'd written to Experian, and obviously he got nowhere. As he and I are in such a tiny minority (no-one could even be bothered to reply to his post, so thanks, Brig, for at least having a stab at it), it's clearly time to stop flogging this particular dead horse. End of, as they say.
  7. Royal Mail. It's well known that mail is sometimes wrongly delivered or not delivered, rarely but it does happen. It seemed to me to be potentially insecure and not best practice to write down all the log-in details to an online confidential personal financial report and send them through the post.
  8. Been opened/read by someone other than the addressee.
  9. I requested a £2 statutory credit report online from Experian, and was sent a letter with a Pass Key and instructions to enter that plus my postcode to access the report on their website. It took 6 working days for the letter to arrive, and I was just beginning to wonder if it had gone astray, as Experian said to email them if it hadn't arrived after 5 working days. As it turns out, if the letter had fallen into the wrong hands, anyone could have logged in to my report, as no additional personal information was requested. Am I correct in thinking that Experian should make it harder to prevent possible identity theft, or is what they do normal practice?
  10. Emailed Noddle, and was quite persistent in arguing the case with them, but no go. It's not something I can be bothered taking further.
  11. When I can be bothered, I may just send a written request with two squid, a copy of a bank statement, and a complaint at the same time. Or do they need an original bank statement in case I'm an ace forger? Tell you what, I could phone them up to check! Now, where's that number...? (led off foaming at mouth to lie down in darkened room...)
  12. As I'm on the electoral roll, and as neither Experian or Noddle required further evidence, it just seems ridiculous to have to go through a whole online application for Equifax only to be asked to phone, then have to go through verbally a list of checks of what I'd just entered online, finally to be asked to send documentary evidence through the post. As I said, I'd even been given a choice of past addresses which they generated going back to 1999 to confirm, which neither Experian or Noddle asked for, so they already had extra information that they were obviously checking out online. At the very least, the online application could finish with the statement along the lines of 'we're sorry, but in order to make absolutely sure we have the right person, we'll need you to send the following documentation by mail ...' and offer the customer the choice to cancel the order there and then. In fact, at the start of the online application, they should tell you they may want documentation. Making you phone them, which takes at least 5 minutes and on a mobile which is all I have isn't cheap, seems unnecessary and significantly adds to the statutory fee. I'm very unimpressed with Equifax's inefficiency, customer unfriendliness, and what I regard as poor business practice.
  13. I wish I'd read this before. I've just gone through the online order for a £2 report from Equifax, only to be informed at the end that I had to phone them. Spent 5 minutes on a mobile phone talking to someone to whom I had to talk slowly and repeat things, only to be told at the end that they wanted me to send documentation including bank statement and ... At that point, I lost my temper (which is extraordinarily rare for me, usually the epitome of calmness) and refused, telling her there was nothing in the online application about this, that I'd just ordered a report from Experian without all this extra palaver, and to cancel the order. She was good enough to confirm that no money would be taken from my card. Jeez, they'd even checked past addresses back to 1999 online! What an expensive, time-consuming, frustrating and ultimately futile experience. To echo the OP, sort yourselves out, Equifax.
  14. Thank you. No doubt they've done this on all the other credit reference agency files too, the rascals. Although it's a slight peeve, as otherwise my file would be unblemished, I wonder if it really matters. At my age, I'm not looking to apply for credit again. I could envisage me doing the rounds of all the CRAs to ask for its removal (and I don't know if they'd just do it on request or not), only for the DCA to put it on again, so I'd have to keep checking. They may not be the only DCA that might surface, either. Decisions, decisions - I struggle sometimes when asked if I'd like tea or coffee.
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