Hi,

I'm really looking for some advice/guidance on this one.

My fiancé had an RBOS credit card - which she paid religiously every month. She received an late payment charge due to moving house (and continued to pay the minimum payment at this time) - as there was a charge on this account this gradually increased the balance on her account over her agreed limit (i.e. further charges!)

She contacted RBOS in January to discuss this and advised she wanted to pay this off - she agreed to pay £50 a month and has kept to this agreement religiously ever since (there has been no missed payments)

She received a letter today from RBOS thanking her for her payment of £50 (latesst payment) and advising that subject to retention of all it's legal rights in default that they will accept monthly payments of £5!!

This came as a bit of a shock to my fiance as she didn't know she was in default and has never missed a payment. We called RBOS tonight who advised that despite the fact she had made a payment arrangement in Janaury and stuck to this religiously that they defaulted her in March (she never received any letters r.e. this) and they basically said there was nothing they could do and the issued the default legally... this is completely out of the blue - she has continued to receive monthly statements from them and they have continued to charge her interest!

My fiance is understandably upset by this and we're really looking for advice on what to do/where to go from here? - if anything? she has an excellent credit record and has always maintained her accounts well.. please can someone offer any advice or guidance??

Thanks in advance and sorry for the war and peace!

Your fiancee should have received written notification of the default being applied. However, as this isn't my area of expertise I'll ask for further advice for you.

Best of luck

Yes Hedgey is correct.

They are required to send proper notification of intended default followed by that action taking place of notification also.They appear to be in breach of the 74 CCA.

There is no requirement to obtain county court judgements in order to register a default with a credit reference agency......they do not go down this route with smaller debts in view of the Courts hearing both sides of the arguement and more than likely refusing it if you can show that you were genuinly unable to pay but did make some arrangements/offers......this clearly appears to be the case here.

Your best shot is to produce all comms with regards to the arrangements including their original acceptance of repayments.

They can referre a default entry at any time to the Cras but as has been pointed out if the proper notifications prior to this were not adhered to then there is a case of injustice to be answered.

As Martin has pointed out a default notice has to be served (s87(1) of the Consumer Credit Act) before a default can be applied in order to give the debtor time to rectify the situation if possible. The default notice also has to conform in its content to The Consumer Credit (Enforcement, Default and Termination Notices) Regulations 1983 in order to be legally valid.

First step I think is to write to them and ask them to supply a signed true and certified copy of the original default notice. They are unlikely to have this.

thank you all for your replies.. i'll send them a letter and we can take it from there.. i take it i can just doctor one of the letters from the library to suit the purpose?

thanks again for all your help/replies!

Yes but I prefere to use "Customise" rather than Doctor.......This is a term usually used to describe dodgy Dca submissions.

(Wont mention names but 2 begin with C )

Lol

Yes keep at it and keep us updated.

Remember if you are unsure.....best to ask instead of guessing.

They have 28 days to supply the copy of the default notice.

can anyone advise what the best letter would be to use for this?

i'm thinking that now she should ask for her charges back as well as for the default to be removed??

can i also ask you guru's whether the current test case going through the courts will have any impact on this? - i'm guessing not as relates to bank account charges and the charges for credit cards have already been laid out etc??..

thanks again for all your help/replies!

anyone??

Does she have a list of the charges? What %age of the debt is charges?