Hello,

I am new to this site really need some advise on how to deal with 1st Credit.

My partner had a credit card with Marbles (balance is £9410 according to 1st credit) as well as other companies some years ago.

In around 2007 our financial situation changed and we wrote to all of our creditors including Marbles asking them to freeze the interest and offered reduced payments,

all of them accepted, and we began making payments to Marbles of £52 per month.

We continued to pay this until suddenly

in 2009 we got a letter from 1st credit saying that they wanted us to make payment deirect to them for this debt.

As we had been making payment without fail to Marbles and and not received anthing from them saying that they had passed the debt on to a DCA we ignored this letter from 1st Credit.

We got another letter approx 1 month later asking for the same thing,

I decided to ring them and find out what was goping on (big mistake I know!!)

The lady I spoke to asked some security questions which I answered I explained that we were paying Marbles without fail so don't know why it has been passed to them.

She was extremely agressive and rude, threatening me with everything from Bailiff to charging orders etc, if I did not change my standing order to pay them direct!!

Thinking about it now I feel she should never have discussed it with me anyway as it's not my name on the account it was my partners!!

we gave in because we were so scared by her threats and did not know what to do,

when I kept asking her why Marbles had not told us that they had passed it on to them

she just talked over me and said that it was not her problaem or her fault that I don't believe her!!

she even forced us to increase our payment to £65 which we are struggling with!!

A few months later we decided that we should contact Marbles and ask them why we have not had anything from them saying they were passing it on

We Spoke to Marbles and they tried to look up our account and we explained that we had made an arrangement which we stuck to so why did they pass it on.

The person we spoke to said they could not see any reason why it was passed to 1st credit as that's not even the DCA that they use.

This had us totally confused now so we stopped out payment to 1st credit,

but I didn't call them or write to them as they were so agressive the first time and I was just scared!

We then got a letter from 1st credit saying that we had defaulted on our arrangement and the full amount was now due, again we ignored this.

Then we got a letter from a solicitor acting for 1st credit and again we were scared!!

They said they were starting legal proceedings.

We were scared of this and so rang 1st credit who again were very nasty and we begged them to accept a payment plan again as we could not afford the full amount now.

They agreed.

on the 15th Feb after reading a lot of posts on this site about them I felt braver and decided to send off a CCA request to them,

my partner had called them about a month before that and asked for it over the phone and the person said "why? are you trying to say that you don't owe it!"

This leads me to believe that they don't have it!

I sent the letter on 15th Feb recorded delivery and it was received by them on 17th.

I recieved a letter back dated 25th which is as follows.

(Removed) - dx

So my questions are this

1. Am I correct that even though thay say the Original Creditor has the aggreement they still only have 12 +2 days to provide it which the deadline is tomorrow.

2. What does section 136 of the Law and property act 1925 have to do with it? Surely we should have been informed by Marbles that they had passed this on to a DCA?

3. My letter did ask for copy of statement of account. Can they charge £10 for this? I thought I was supposed to get all of this after sending the £1 payment with my first letter?

Can anyone help me with the questions above and let me know if I have done the right thing, and what I should do next?

Thanks so much in advance!!

Hi my

Welcome to CAG

The guys will advise as soon as they are available. Thread moved.

The CCA request is just for a copy of the Original, signed Agreement, without which they cannot legally enforce you to make any payments.

If you want copy statements, then the best and least expensive way of getting these and all other paperwork held about you is to send a SAR to Marbles - this costs £10 but includes much more than just statement copies.

As the OC is being 'represented' then it is up to 1st Credit to secure the documents for you, so, if they do not comply with the 12+ 2 days then you need to send them the Account in Dispute letter http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk...ibed-timescale

Hi and welcome, good advice above, Dont worry too much about these people they thrive on being able to bully people, so the best thing is never ever speak to them, if they ring in future just say in writing and put the phone down, I have been dealing with these idiots for 2 years now and they still dont get it - nor do they get any money

Good luck

Hi Guys, Thanks so much for your replies. Well the 12 + 2 days are up and I am just about to send the reminder letter and advise that the account is now in default. Just wanted to make sure that I am doing this right?

Any further advise would be appreciated!

I only joined yesterday and I am having problems with 1st credit too. Although I have never spoken with them personally, as I refused to answer their calls and wrote to them saying all correspondence in writing. But they didn't take the hint and wrote back a week later saying that I hadn't contacted them and so they were going to start legal proceedings. Needles to say I worte right back, reminding them that I will only communicate with them in writing as then I have proof of what has been said.

I owe what most would consider a small amount but they are ruthless no matter what you owe. I worte to them telling them my financial circumstances are difficult at this time and I made an offer of £10 a month (what I can reasonably afford) I didn't wait for them to write back, I set up a Standing order (not direct debit) straight away, and then requested a receipt to prove they received the funds. They have had two payments off me and yesterday I received a letter from another collections company called Connaughts collections, and thanks to the lovely people here I now know Connaughts are part of 1st credit and they are just trying to scare me into paying the amount in full and trying to get me to ring them so they can bully me.

I wrote back to connaughts and 1st credit yesterday following the letter I received and told them in no uncertain terms they're being paid £10 because I can't afford anymore and I want an explaination of what they're playing at. If I get another threat of legal action from them I am complaining because these people are despicable.

I know i've probably been no help. But please don't let them intimidate you, they're not worth it!

It is indeed wonderful to hear that within a day you have discovered for yourself the facts as above. It is good to know that you can feel so much better in such a short time having sought help and advice that is free!! Well done.

Tiggertastic - Yes, they are a nasty bunch but this website has really helped me to feel a lot more comfortable with telling them where to go if they phone me again, I am also going to be ready when they call with my mobile phone to record any abuse I might get, not going to provoke them but as I said it helps to know that they are acting illegally in they way that they try to treat people on the phone, and if I ever get taken to court I'll have that too.

Harrassed senior - Yes, I do feel much better, and seeing that a lot of other people are doing this and some managing to actually get somewhere is very encouraging - I will be making a donation to this site as soon as I can. Can I possibly trouble you for that link you posted before as I can't seem to open it! and also do I wait 30 working days or just 30 days? and after that is there another letter to send to them?

Thanks so much for your help

I have just received a letter from 1st credit and this is what they say. - no date on the letter but received last week.

Dear sir or madam (would have thought they knew my name!!)

PLease find encloised copy statements/invoices for 1st credit reference.

Upon receipt please contact 1st Credit immediately to make arrangements for payment.

Yours sincerely

Gavin Flynn

I had asked them for a CCA and they said they would get this from Marbles (the OC) but not had that, just received copy statements,

as per my first posting I had made arrangement years ago with Marbles to pay £51.62 per month and requested a freeze on any interest and charges which they agreed,

but looking at these statements that was fine untill Oct 2009 where I have been charged interest and late fees as follows

Oct 2009 = £180.79, £42.41 (interest)

Nov 2009 = £173.81, £39.21 (interest) and £12.00 (late fee)

Dec 2009 = £171.96, £37.91 (interest) and £12.00 (late fee)

Jan 2010 = £194.19, £41.83 (interest) and £12.00 (late fee)

Feb 2010 = £180.52, £38.08 (interest) and £12.00 (late fee)

March 2010 it changed back and they charged no interest or late fee.

May 2010 is when 1st credit made me increase my payment to £65.00

and then I CCA them in Feb.

They hav not sent the CCA nor have the sent the deed of Asssignment,

and they are well over the 14 days,

so do I need to contact them to make arrangements are are they just trying it on with me.

Please can anyone give me some advice!!

Thanks

I wrote to 1st Credit in Feb 2011 asking for my CCA, deed of assignment and copy statements.

They wrote back saying that they would have to get the the CCA from Marbles, and also stating that they did not need to send me a copy of the deed of asssignment and if I wanted copy statements that I needed to pay £10.

After 12+2 days I sent the account in dispute letter and heard nothing untill now,

I have just received a letter from 1st credit there was no date on the letter but received last week.

Dear sir or madam (would have thought they knew my name!!)

Please find encloised copy statements/invoices for 1st credit reference.

Upon receipt please contact 1st Credit immediately to make arrangements for payment.

Yours sincerelyGavin Flynn

As per my first posting I had made arrangements years ago with Marbles to pay £51.62 per month and requested a freeze on any interest and charges which they agreed,

but looking at these statements that 1st plus have sent there was no interest charged untill Oct 2009 where I have been charged interest and late fees as follows

Oct 2009 = £180.79, £42.41 (interest) Nov 2009 = £173.81, £39.21 (interest) and £12.00 (late fee) Dec 2009 = £171.96, £37.91 (interest) and £12.00 (late fee)

Jan 2010 = £194.19, £41.83 (interest) and £12.00 (late fee) Feb 2010 = £180.52, £38.08 (interest) and £12.00 (late fee)

and then in March 2010 it changed back and they charged no interest or late fee.

Then in May 2010 is when 1st credit made me increase my payment to £65.00 and then I CCA them in Feb.

They have not sent the CCA nor have the sent the deed of Asssignment, and they are well over the 14 days, s

o do I need to contact them to make arrangements are are they just trying it on with me.

I have also received a letter today stating that they are able to offer me a discount and I should ring them to discuss.

They have in fact sent about 5 or 6 similar letter before but stating that they will give me a 30% discount.

All since my partner rang them and verbally aksked for a CCA around Nov 2010

Please can anyone give me some advice on what I should do now!!

Thanks

STOP PHONING DCA'S

evertything in writing.....

time to ignore them totally now

ANY DCA ofering a 'discount' is trying to fleece you

pure and simple

they either have not enforceable paperwork

or

the account is all charges and/or PPI

totally ignore them from now on

they have no legal powers and can do nowt to you.

dx

Hi there

When was the last time you made a payment or ackowledged this debt.

Those charges they have put on the account are reclaimable with interest.

They don't have to send you a copy of the deed of assignment....what you should have been asking for is a copy of the notice of assignment.

If you still have not received a true copy of the agreement following the cca request then the account is still in dispute.

Also, get claiming all of your late fees back with interest.

ims

Hi Myf

As your CCA request has not been fully complied with the account is and remains in dispute meaning all collection activity must stop until such time as they can comply, send them this . . . http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?436-Failure-to-provide-a-copy-of-the-agreement-within-the-prescribed-timescale.

Stop/do not make any more payments

The fact that they're offering a discount is a very good hint that they do not have all the paper work

Keep all their letters safe but for now do nothing except try to relax and wait and see what they do next

Regards

R

ps . . any chance you can edit your original post with paragraphs/spaces etc as it's difficult to read properly all in one big block

two threads merged

please keep to one thread per debt.

dx

siteteam.

Thanks dx

Not quite so confusing now

R

Hi Guys, Many thanks for your replies.

Revenant - I made my last payment in Feb, sent the CCA request and got nothing, next payment was due at the end of March but I sent this to them below and stopped my payment, Is this the same as what you're advising me to send or should I send that as well?

I refer to my letter dated 15/02/2011 in which I made a formal request under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (CCA1974) s.77-s.79 for a true copy of the regulated agreement referred to in the above account number. You are reminded that you are obliged to supply this under s.189 whether you are the original creditor or not. I also enclosed the statutory fee of £1.00.

To date you have failed to comply with my statutory request and have defaulted in respect of this account. Additionally this alleged agreement is unenforceable until such time as you come out of default or enforced by a court of law. It is a further offence to attempt to enforce this alleged agreement until such time as your default is revoked.

Similarly, in line with recent OFT Guidance surrounding Unenforceability, I presume you're aware that the OFT has stipulated the following;

Sections 77-79 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 outline the information creditors must provide to debtors under fixed-term, running account & Hire Agreements. Under these sections a debtor can pay £1 to get:

1. a copy of their agreement

2. copies of some of the other documents mentioned in their agreement

3. a statement of account.

If this information is not provided within 12 working days the debt becomes unenforceable. This means a creditor cannot:

1. make the debtor pay the debt before they're supposed to

2. get a court judgment against the debtor

As this account is clearly unenforceable, not only am I ceasing all payments toward this account, but I expect you to write back and confirm that no further action will be taken and that the account is now closed and no further correspondence will take place; irrespective, unless you do supply a lawful agreement I will not correspond with you again and any threats will be averred and unlawful and vexatious with a counter-claim forthcoming. In the meantime, I require that you clarify your position on this point as failure to do so, even by omission or lack of a response, will be regarded as an attempt to deliberately misrepresent or conceal the legal position regarding this matter to which an appropriate complaint will be made to the OFT.

I await your prompt response.

Yours faithfully

DX - Thanks for sorting out my posting! I was trying to format it properly with spaces and paragraphs but tried a few time to fix it and it wouldn't work. I haven't spoken to them on the phone, I learnt my lesson from last time and everyone here says never to phone them so I won't make that mistake again I also got the impression that they have nothing as suddenly they were offering me this dicount every month, I know they probably bought it for next to nothing so a 30% discount on around £9,000 woudl still be a lot of money!!

ims21 - the last payment I made was in Feb, so I don't think I can say it's statute barred (have read a lot about this - I wish it was!!) but I don't see why after making the agreement with Marbles they agreed not to charge interest or fees and then suddenly (without telling me!) they have charged me for 5 months (it amounts to about £1,160!)

Do you know where I can get a template letter to claim this or will I make it worse if I do?

Also I never actually asked them for the deed of assignment in my first cca request, they just told me this part in their reply??

Deed of Assignment - we would refer you to section 136 of the Law and Property Act 1925 which provides that the debtor is notifed of the assignment of the debt in writing and not a copy of the Deed itself.

Prehaps they are just trying to cover themselves!! I don't know, but any further advice on this would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you all so much for what you have done so far, I feel a lot better already. Honestly dealing with all this over the last couple of years has really had a bad effect on me, I hate opening post now, and have panic attacks sometimes, I'm just scared about what they could do, I don't want to lose my home etc. But you've really helped today - Thanks

DX - Please help, my posting has done it again, I did put in proper spaces and paragraphs and it's gone wrong again, what am I doing wrong??

Update - Oops not too worry I have fixed it, something in my settings somewhere - changed it and now it works!! sorry for the trouble DX.

Thanks!

Well you've put the account into dispute so can now with hold payment until they comply (If ever)

Glad you feel at bit better, just remember that DCA's have no power they can huff n puff al they want BUT they cannot do anything . . you have much more power and control over things than they like to admit

Try to relax and see what their next step is, which of course can dealt with as and when

R

(By the way . . there does seem to be some problems with the formatting of messages as some of the standard functions aren't working)

Thanks Revenant,

I will ignore them and see what happens, It's just a bit scary, I remember talking to them ages ago and it was awful!! very distressing, I'm gradually getting a bit more confident, thanks to everyone here,

Thanks again I will let you know what happens.

Oh I forgot to ask. Do you think I should look at claiming back the interest and late fees they charged me from Oct 2009 to Feb 2010 or will that just annoy them more? as they've added £1160 to my account, virtually wiping out all the payments I made before?

yep go!!

dx

Hi again,

Sorry dx was that a "yes go for it"??

If so does anyone have a good template letter for this?

Thanks

nt the library section...... green tab top left...........

and

http://www.shweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/interestcalcs.xls

dx

actually reading back over this thread it seems you've been a cash-cow for years.

it would be nice to SAR the OC

find out if your money HAS been going off the debt or to someones pocket.

dx

Hi Dx,

Sorry I'm feeling a bit stupid today!! I looked in the library section and can't find a template, I assume that's what you were pointing out to me. On the spreadsheet you gave me I put in the total charges whcih was £1148.71 and with interest it came out as £3,155.62, is that the figure that I'm re-claiming?

Also who should I send a SAR to and what info would I expect to get back? what would happen after that? I'm worried that if I start pushing them around they might up their game!!!

What do you think?

Hi Dx,

 

Sorry I'm feeling a bit stupid today!! I looked in the library section and can't find a template, I assume that's what you were pointing out to me. On the spreadsheet you gave me I put in the total charges whcih was £1148.71 and with interest it came out as £3,155.62, is that the figure that I'm re-claiming?

 

Also who should I send a SAR to and what info would I expect to get back? what would happen after that? I'm worried that if I start pushing them around they might up their game!!!

 

What do you think?

Hi mf

Here is the letter template you need to claim back those charges

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?605-Credit-Store-Card-Letter-Template

If you post up your spreadsheet I am happy to check it for you to make sure you're getting the correct amount back. (Don't leave personal info in it though).

The SAR goes to the credit card company. You will get back information on your entire dealings with them. It will include statements/transaction history and a whole load of other stuff too. When you get the information back you'll be able to see exactly what they might have been doing to you.

Don't worry about them upping their game........they have no game to up!

Above all, don't forget that you are now in control of this...Not Them

ims

Hi Ims,

Sorry have been manic at work this week. I'm a bit confused by the letter that you suggested I send, the charges that they have added to the account are interest and late fees and overlimit fees (which I didn't notice in my last post) which is cheeky because it's the interest and late fees that they added which caused me to go over the limit!!! but the letter doesn't mention interest fees, am I just claiming back the overlimit and late fees?

I'm sorry to be a pain, I'm trying hard to get my head around these things and I feel I am learning - slowly!!

I know they agreed to freeze the interest but is this a goodwill gesture and so is it cheeky of me to re-claim these, could you possibly clarify how it works.

To top it all off, 1st credit rang my partner this morning and claimed that they sent the CCA with the statements and then demanded payment, he did not know that I had recieved the statements (i didn't want him to worry), I have told him that we got statements but no CCA. He told them that we have not recieved the CCA and will therefore not be making any arrangement.

I have told him not to speak to them on the phone again, he told me that they said we should get something in the next couple of days.

Is there anything else I should be doing?

Is it right that even though they have sent me statements with my partners name and address on it, we still do not need to make payment untill they provide a CCA, they seem to think that sending the statements was enough?

Please help! Getting a bit worried and confused!

Thanks to all who have helped so far

MF