Hi, It's normally after you miss 3 consecutive payments that they consider it a breach of the contractual terms at which point they would send a notice to issue default, I would send of the CCA requests for now, let the creditors prove they have a legal right to collect the debt, if/when you get responses post them up here and we can advise further. kind regards, shane

Hiya, I would of liked to keep accurate records of all correspondance/actions I took here on CAG in threads so others could see how it's done but just didn't have the time unfortunately, I decided to take on all creditors at once and there were quite a few! There are several threads out there that explain the various motions you can use, in my experience I've found the easiest method of removing defaults is in combination with a a penalty charges reclaim. Also, if a default is served where there are charges on the account the 'sum due' it states is over estimated meaning it can be voided using precedent set in recent case law. I've also had varied success with the Information Commissioners Office, though you really can't predict what their decision will be, they seem to contradict quite a lot. you can also question the authenticity and validity of a default if it isn't served properly and contravenes the Regulations Lastly, failing all the above in 3 circumstances you can take court action and ask a judge to exercise judicial powers under s14(1) & 14(3) to force the creditor and subsequent 3rd parties (CRA's) to remove the credit data regards, shane

Firstwithit, There isn't any merit in waiting for a DCA to being assigned then sending a CCA request, if you can avoid involving a DCA you should always try and do so. regards, shane

Hiya, Also send a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) to the original creditor, if there were any penalty charges on the account you can begin claiming them back. With regard to the CCJ if it was registered over 6 years ago it should of been expunged by now, I would contact the CRA's and ask why it hasn't been taken off. kind regards, shane

Hi, Be careful about any correspondance you send, if there is a debt from some time ago there's a chance it might be statue barred, I would send the following 'prove it' letter fro now: Dear Sir/Madam I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT TO YOUR COMPANY You have contacted me/us regarding the account with the above reference number, which you claim is owed by myself/ourselves. I/we would point out that I/we have no knowledge of any such debt being owed to (insert company name). I am/we are familiar with the Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidance which states that it unfair to send demands for payment to an individual when it is uncertain that they are the debtor in question. I/we would also point out that the OFT say under the Guidance that it is unfair to pursue third parties for payment when they are not liable. In not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt you are using deceptive/and or unfair methods. Furthermore ignoring and/or disregarding claims that debts have been settled or are disputed and continuing to make unjustified demands for payment amounts to physical/psychological harassment. I/we would ask that no further contact be made concerning the above account unless you can provide evidence as to my/our liability for the debt in question. I/we await your written confirmation that this matter is now closed. Otherwise I will have no option but to make a complaint to the trading standards department and consider informing the OFT of your actions. I/we look forward to your reply. Yours faithfull

Hi DM, on the latest set of T&C's they've sent does it list the penalty charges as £20 or £12? If the latter you will know they were genrated after the OFT's report on charges in 2006 kind regards, shane

beards!

hehe had a good chuckle when i saw your username! what I suggest you do is send CCA requests to all your current creditors (except bank overdrafts as they are exempt) You can find the letter, you need letter N - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/20758-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html make sure you send them recorded delivery for proof of postage and receipt. You also need to write at the top of each request 'I acknowledge no debt to your company' and enclose a payment for £1 preferably as a postal order if possible. Also, don't sign the letters just printing your name will suffice. We send these requests to ensure the creditors have a legal right to enforce the debt, if they cannot supply an agreement or the one they supply is missing certain terms it contravenes the Act & REgulations and could be unenforcable. From when the letters are received by the creditors they then have 12 working days to respond, until they do the accounts go into dispute during which time no further action should be taken by the creditor. If after 12 working days they still haven't responded the creditor enters into default and is unable to enforce the debt until the situation is recrtified. If after a further 30 days they still don't respond they comit a summary criminal offence. With regard to charges on the account to ascertain those you need to send a SAR to the creditor, this then gives them 40 days to comply and will furnish you with all info/docs they hold on you including either a list of all charges or statements. you can then begin claiming back the charges. Lastly, you mentioned you were served with a default notice, if you paid the sum they demanded to remedy the breach within time then the default would not of been registered against you i would consider writing to the CRA's and requesting copies of your credit report, think they charge £2 each. If you find there is a default and there were penalty charges on that account then there are grounds to have the default voided as it would of over estimated the sum due, will elaborate more on that later on if you have a default. kind regards, shane

Hiya, Can't say that I have but they sound like a debt collector. With regards to the letter they sent you does it specifically refer to a debt, ie with account number, type of debt etc or it is more of a vague letter fishing for information. Would be useful if you could scan or post up the details so we can advise how to respond. kind regards, shane

Hi Weird Al Yankovic, This is typical behavour from Barclays, there are countless others in your situation (myself included a few months ago) who are respondents in legal action to a debt which is simply unenforcable. Optima are expressing scare tactics, no doubt hoping to shove through court action as fast as possible and obtain judgement by default. It would be useful if you could post up a copy of the alleged agreement they provided, if as you say it is completely illegible it contravenes the Act & Regulations and cannot be deemed an enforcable agreement. Also, did they provide any t&c's or any other documents with the response? If you've had sight of the claimants Particulars of Claim it would be useful to post that up as well I would also send the following letter to the claimant requesting disclosure for now: REQUEST FOR INFORMATION UNDER THE CIVIL PROCEDURE RULES. Dear Sir/Madam, I have received the Court claim filed by your Company. To enable me to file a defence and counter-claim, I require specific information regarding the account to be provided forthwith. Given that this matter is now the subject of legal proceedings, you are obliged to disclose under the Civil Procedure Rules, the information and documents detailed below. The information must be furnished by the **DATE**, which gives you ten days to provide what has been requested. If you fail to comply, this will be reported to the Court, a copy of this letter will be provided as evidence to the same and an Order enforcing your compliance will be sought. 1. A true copy of the executed credit agreement and any terms and conditions that applied to the account at the time of default and at the time the account was opened. 2. All records you hold on me relevant to this case, including but not limited to: a. A transcript of all transactions, including charges, fees, interest, repayments and payments and both the original amount of the loan and any repayments made to it the account. b. Transcriptions of all telephone conversations recorded and any notes made in relation to telephone conversations c. Where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention, or other evidence of that manual intervention in relation to my account formerly held with Barclaycard. d. True copies of any notice of assignment and/or default notice or enforcement notice that you or the original creditor sent me, with a copy of any proof of postage that you hold. e. Documents relating to any insurance added to the account, including the insurance contract and terms and conditions, date it was added and deleted (if applicable). f. Details of any collection charge added to the account; specifically, the date it was levied, the amount of the charge, a detailed financial breakdown of how the charge was calculated, and what the charge covers. g. Specific details of the fees/charges levied by any other agency in respect of this account and a detailed breakdown of said fees/charges and what each charge relates to and on what date said fees/charges were levied. h. A genuine copy of any deed of assignment, or proof that you have a legal right to this money. i. A genuine copy of any notice of fair use of my data as required by the Data Protection Act 1998 j. A list of third party agencies to whom you have disclosed my personal data and a summary of the nature of the information you have disclosed. 3. Any other documents you seek to rely on in court. 4. A copy of your complaints procedure, as required by the Consumer Credit Act 2006. 5. Clarification of the date you acquired the debt, what organisation you acquired it from, their registered office, their company number (if any) and what legal title they had to this debt, and what credit license number they had at the time that the debt was purchased or entered into. I will require this information within the next ten days. I must advise you that if the information is not forthcoming, it will be reported to the Court that you are trying to frustrate proceedings and denying me the opportunity to file a defence and counter claim. I would appreciate your due diligence in this matter. I await your rapid response. Yours Faithfully,

Hi Cartti, Sounds like they are on a fishing expedition! Given how vague their letter was I would just sit tight for now, if you get another more threatening letter demaning payment then you would need to respond accordingly. If/when that happens post up details here and we can advise you further. kind regards, shane PS Was there no reference number on it, sometimes they quote account numbers which can give you an inkling as to what the alleged debt is for.

Hi CB, I guess it just comes down to personal preference at the end of the day. Personally, I think once they have passed the 30 day deadline and commit the summary offence regardless of whether they are demanding payment or not I would report them to Trading Standards, we shoudln't give them any leniency in the matter and they should be held fully accountable for the offence (even though TS won't bl**dy prosecute fully:mad: ) Just my opinion though:) kind regards, shane

hehe!! lovin the new Avatar as well, what possibly inspired you!

Hmm well thanks to what I have learned from the site so far I managed to get 12 defaults removed, along with 6 entries in entirety! Still working on the rest but plan to have a clean record within the next year or so. I have to agree with Under Seige though it may well be a blessing in disguise bad rating = no credit in the future!! regards, shane

no problem! Oh and if by some miracle they do happen to send you an alleged agreement post it up here so we can advise if it's enforcable or not

you have me interested now, and you have a PM! I'm sorry to say I haven't had the luxury of dealing with HFO, dealt with so far 34 (yes i keep count!) separate DCA's yet to encounter HFO, think i should tell a creditor of mine, hey please when you illegally tranfer my account to a DCA please use HFO so i can bash them as well! lol regards, shane

It depends if they have the debtor tick a box saying the are happy for them to share their info with a third party

there arn't any restrictions as such but given their aim is to coerce payments out of you you'll more than likely get some response within 12 days anyway. Once they reply back they should be a bit more specific about what the alleged debt is, at which point you can then adapt a suitable response be it a SAR if its an overdraft or CCA if loan or credit card. Actually it might well be a loan, I know lloyds open a separate account with a separate account number for loans, could be perhaps why you didn't recognize the account number? anyways, their next response will shed some more light on the matter kind regards, shane

NI Numbers? Why would they possibly need those, sounds very fishy to me. Sounds like an american sort of thing, everything in the US is tied to peoples NI numbers.

you've got me interested now DM! I'm thinking Dorset, Devon perhaps? Went to school in dorset, nice little town called Sherborne! regards, shane

Hiya, if you sent the CCa request on June 30th they have gone way passed the timeline, you need to report them to your local trading standards for non compliance.

Hi all, Telogram are a debt tracing company. ChloeJane I see where you are coming from but speaking to them on the phone might be construed as acknowledgment of ownership which is why i would advise against it. Legend07 can you type up or scan a copy of the letter you received, most likely they are fishing at the moment trying to estalish whether or not you are the debtor. If you think the debt is more than 6 years old I would send the following letter to them, the burden of proof is on them to prove there has been contact/payments in the last 6 years, if not then the debt is statue barred. http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/20758-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html you need letter M but post up the letter from telogram first before you send them anything kind regards, shane

paganpete101, If you want to be absolutely sure send a CCA request directly to lloyds, then if at any point you get contacted by another DCA simply send them a letter stating the account is in dispute with the original creditor and will remain so until they can furnish me with a 'true copy' of the agreement. That way you get clarification from lloyds and don't have to keep wasting £1's to other dca's kind regards, shane

Yeah you are quite right, its in breach of the OFT guidelines on debt collection as well as section 13.6 of the banking code. my local postmaster cringes evertime i walk into his little village post office, probably coz i send on average 15 recorded letters a day!! He does appreciate the business though:D kind regards, shane

hiya, If they haven't complied with 12 working days of receiving the CCA request they enter a default situation and are unable to enforce the debt, at this stage you are within your rights to withold payments. After a further 30 days they then committ a summary criminal offence, at which stage you should report them to TRading standards,. kind regards, shane