Listen, first off don't be fearful of them, they trade on fear trying to get you to part with money, even one instalment is a result to them. Is the content of the letter(s) written in an aggressive tone? Similar to the one my girlfriend received? If so can't you fire off the excellent letter Tingy produced for me, except 'tweak' it to your requirements. Or send a CCA request and make a complaint to the OFT, also citing stress related health problems. Pretty sure if you use your car for work no-one can take it off you, if your not using it at present, park it at friends/family residence or if you can afford it put it in a lock up garage, assuming you haven't got one of your own. There's more knowledgable people on here than me, but as someone has typed, start your own thread, it'll get the attention it needs. lincsloon

Another update, my girlfriend had a letter today, from Lowells, (thought Red were dealing with it, lol), anyway the contents of the letter are as below word for word :- Dear xxx xxxxxx 31st March 2011 We're looking into query Thank you very much for your letter. We are now looking into your enquiry and will be in touch shortly with an answer. We can't give you an exact date, as we may have to get information from other departments and outside companies. But we will get back to you as soon as we can. Please do call us In the meantime, if you would like to talk to us about this or anything else, please do phone us here as Customer Services on 0844 844 4716 Yours Sincerely *signature* xxxxxxxx xxxxxxx Customer Services I know what i think, (look at some of the grammar for a start), but what does the forum think? lincsloon

Lol, yes you do feel unappreciated sometimes & she's still dubious as to what i'm doing, but that's the fella i am!!!

Ok mate, will keep informed 1 week at a time, unless anything comes in in between.

f.a.o Tingy especially. Just an update, sent your excellent letter to Red on the 23rd March, as yet to hear from them. Sent a complaint to the OFT, yet to hear fro them also.

Yes mate, read the thread, very enlightning, gives a lot of hope to a lot of people regards lincs

Tingy, thanks for the info., bailliffs cannot ever enter premises without Court papers anyway can they? Even then you don't have to admit them to your home if you don't want them in. Believe me, while i'm there they'll be told to foxtrot oscar in no uncertain terms, but as i found out from experience, 99% of the time they never carry out the threat. Yeah Tingy i'm cool about it, the girlfriend is worried still & is prepared to pay the £15 per month, but i've told her to leave it with me, at the worst case scenario i'll pay anything over & above the £400 they want off of her, she's worried they'll pile on more interest while she delays & any Court action will come down on their side. Letters sent today to Red & the OFT, watch this space Thanks again Tingy you're a star.

Nice one my friend, will keep you informed, i bid you goodnight. lincs

Far from dopey mate/ms, far from it

The letter & answers are absolutely brilliant, i'm well impressed, should i have any concerns or issues i will PM you first, if that's ok with you? I will get the letter printed off tomorrow & send it, i will also keep you informed of any developments. One final question, how do i go about complaining to the OFT, obviously i will send a copy of Reds letter, but is there a letter template or do i just drop a short line saying 'I'm not happy with the content of the enclosed letter, can you ascertain that they are in breach of financial regularities', or something along those lines? Does anyone have the address for the OFT? Thanks again Tingy for the time & effort you've put in, once i've fired off the letter i will make a contribution to the CAG. lincs

Absolutely brilliant!!!! Awe-inspiring letter Tingy, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Just a few questions. Do we send the letter, sit tight & do nothing else? If they ignore this letter & don't respond do i assume they've given it up, then report them to the police/OFT for criminal offences anyway? What will happen with this action? If they do respond & are bullish about it, do i actually report them to the police & OFT for criminal offences? What happens then? If they answer 'yes' to any of the questions that you highlighted 1-8, what happens then? My girlfriend is terrified of Court, so if they try to flex their muscles & are prepared to go further, do we back off & accept a payment plan? The last bit about establishing that my girlfriend is indeed the debtor, she has admitted, (to me), that the debt is hers. Obviously, MYSELF realises this letter is meant to scare them, but the girlfriend doesn't want any 'heavy' action. Brilliant piece Tingy, worthy of a literary prize. lincs

Brilliant Tingy, my girlfriend is very grateful also & passes on her gratitude.

Tingy, sorry haven't been back sooner, been in shower got to get up at 5am for work. What you have offered is so very kind, if it's not too much trouble i'd love your help with your worded letter. Quite simply i'm overwhelmed by the kindness, so if you can help me i'd be delighted. I have to log off now however my friend, as i need to get some sleep ready for a 10 hour shift tomorrow, but i'll be back on tomorrow night. Many many thanks Tingy for your generosity, i look forward to reading the letter whenever it's ready. Goodnight. lincs

That's what my girlfriend said, even she can see a bargain, lol, but i told her it will take 3 years to pay off & only IF Red/Lowells don't make further demands, i know what they are like.

Thanks to United Front, PGH7447 & Tingy for the great advice. Tingy, is there a template letter that i can copy & send to Red in respect to finding their letter offensive, if not i'll word it myself? I was initially going to fire off a CCA request template letter to them, but do you think it's best to hold back until i send the 'offensive' letter. Many thanks to all for the great input thus far. lincs

Account was taken out about 3 years ago. Last payment was about a year ago, which is when i presume my girlfriend defaulted. She cannot be exact with dates, so the above is a little vague.

My girlfriend has received a letter from Red Debt Collection Services saying she owes £402.54 on an account she originally had with Shop Direct. She admits she defaulted on the Shop Direct account & although vague with the details, reckoned the original amount was for £140ish, so it obviously appears a lot of charges have been added to the original amount. The letter from Red is as follows:- Your debt remains unpaid We stated in previous letters we could take further action against you if you didn't start to repay what you owe. It is unfortunate that you have decided to ignore our requests for payment and we now intend to continue with further action. Our intentions We have a copy of your credit file and are currently in the process of obtaining your employment details. Once we have this information, we will be in a position to make a decision as to whether to use courts to recover what you owe; serve you with a Statutory Demand (if your account meets certain criteria) or arrange for a debt collection agentto visit you at home to discuss payment. Avoid further action You can still avoid the above by setting up a payment planand by paying your debt back at £15 per month, which is only £0.50p per day. You can setup a payment plan by calling us or by completing the Direct Debit mandate which is overleaf. If you cannot afford £15 then you must tell us and we may be able to arrange a different repayment plan. If you do not contact us we can only assume you are unwilling to pay your debt. This debt will remaining outstanding and you need to honour the agreement you previously made with Shop Direct to repay the money that you owe. Please call us immediately on 0113 308 6004 Now my girlfriend has said she'll pay the £15 per month, but after dealing with Red/Lowells on a personal level & with the help of CAG given them short shrift, they are a pet hate of mine. If my girlfriend wants to pay the debt, then ok, but i'd still like Red to send copies of the original Shop Direct account. After looking at the templates in the library, i think the CCA request the more likely for these circumstances. What does the forum think? Thanks in advance lincs

Nice one Night owl, bit lazy of me really. May well divulge to the forums details of why i'm here, in fact it's on behalf of my girlfriend, but i'll look at the templates first. Thank you.

Haven't been on for a while, (maybe a year), can someone direct me to the letter templates page please. Thanks in advance.

Blimey mate, how thick am i, course i do, when i get back from work later, i'll see my girlfriend.

Thanks ever so much guys, i'm glad you replied in time as i was about to send the letter out. However i have spoke to a solicitor this morning, he thinks the best route is bankruptcy for the level of debt i have & that N.Rock are loathe to accept IVA's. Also, i've been told that the business i gave Monster.com to see if the N.Rock account could be unenforceable, has been a waste of money, because if their paperwork/S.A.R wasn't in order then the Court wouldn't have issued a CCJ against me. I'm still mulling over my options, but any thoughts off of the guys/gals on her would be much appreciated. lexis, i've implemented the exact wording you suggest, into the letter to N.Rock, thanks mate. silverfox, sound advice as ever, thanks mate

Please read the last post on my 'debt elimination' thread, posted in the early hours of this morning & give me some help or advice. Anything would be much appreciated. lincsloon

Hi again everyone, help is desperately needed, to do with the above posts & more, but i think i'll start with giving the forums a full detailed history of where i started & where i am now. Incidentally, silverfox, ida, etc.... i haven't found anyone with a scanner, so that i can show you that poor excuse for a S.A.R that Eversheds sent on behalf of Northern Rock, nor have i had the time to get to an internet cafe to use one, or been able to afford one myself, as yet. However i did write out the letter today, suggested by ida in the above post, of which i'll mention in my post later, but haven't sent yet until i receive some advice off of here. I'll call this account N.Rock 2. Right then here goes. Back in the late 90's, early 00's i was getting in too deep with debt, partly my own fault, partly my ex-wifes, i was blinded by love, too soft for my own good & whatever she wanted she got. She got me to get credit for her & promised to pay it back. If i said no, she'd put on the 'puppy-dog' eyes & if that didn't work she got more bullish & made me suffer. I'd always give in, as i was besotted with her, didn't want to lose her & the very thought made me feel ill. Our relationship deteriorated & during the last year of our marriage i found out she had been cheating on me, i was gutted. I'm sure you can imagine what response i got when i asked her to pay back what she owed, as it was all in my name i didn't stand a chance, short of killing her there was nothing i could do. She paid for & was granted a quick divorce & went back to live with her ex-boyfriend. I still had my flat & mortgage at least. However 18 months later, i was getting very depressed, barely getting through each month, financially & emotionally. The debt was too much, i had no social life, it was my beautiful Mom that was keeping me from going under, i.e. helping with my washing, cooking my tea etc... I then started looking at Debt Management companies & eventually decided to contact Spectrum Financial Protection. A salesman turned up, looked at my finances calculated my debt, which included the maximum interest possible & advised it would be better if i took out a 5 year plan called an Informal Arrangement, due to the amount of debt i had, which in turn would mean my mortgage would be relatively safe. My total debt owed to 5 creditors was - £42,000. I don't want to talk about my 3 lowest owed creditors, they aren't a problem & i'm confident i can sort them out soon. My 2 largest creditors are both Northern Rock, which totals over 30 grand between them, i'll call them N.Rock 1 & N.Rock 2. Anyway i took this Informal Arrangement with Spectrum in Nov 2004, i had to pay them a fee of a lump sum of £816 over 3 months initially, then £30 per month thereafter, up to the present day, this arrangement is due to expire next month, but i believe will carry on if i so wish. Now i was happy enough, because my debts were greatly reduced, although my lifestyle still not good & therefore got rid of my mortgage in early 2005 & have rented ever since. Life was better, health improved etc.. The thing is, N.Rock 1 account was still sending letters of varying degrees & of the 5 creditors, were the only ones who didn't sell the debt to a DCA. Everytime i called Spectrum they sort of reassured me & contacted N.Rock on my behalf, as they should have anyway. That is until March this year when the N.Rock 1 account issued a CCJ against me & Spectrum sent me a letter saying because a CCJ had been issued i would have to pay the N.Rock 1 account myself, albeit the same amount as what i was paying to Spectrum to disburse on my behalf to N.Rock 1. I protested to Spectrum about this, but they said that as an Informal Arrangement is not a legal thing, that they can do this. Now i weren't happy at all, because back in 2004 the salesman said i'd be protected for 5 years & that there'd be a review then. All vebally told, you see. N.Rock 1 said that the payment i'm making to them would be for 6 months. Anyway i then started to read about debt elimination & if mis-sold PPI or that the contract had fatal flaws in the wording the debt could be wiped out. I took on Monster.com in May this year to challenge N.Rock 1 of the legality of the debt, it hasn't been decided yet, (next week i was told over the phone last Monday), but i'm getting worried because the 6 month period of me paying the reduced amount to N.Rock 1 is up this month & they're getting bullish & started harrassing me about paying the full contractual amount. Which leads me to believe that i/Monster haven't got anything on them. What do the folks on here suggest? I still can't afford to pay them much more, maybe £30 a month, that's it. I decided to test the N.Rock 2 account myself, requested the S.A.R myself & their DCA/Solicitors, i.e. Eversheds, sent out the poor reply i received in August, of which i told the forums about in the above posts. Today i wrote this letter out, with the intention of sending it to N.Rock 2 , shall i send it to them?:- "Further to my letter approximately 6 months ago requesting a Subject Access Request for the above account, you have not complied with the request. I received what can be termed 'loosely' as an S.A.R, from Eversheds LLP, who i presume are a debt recovery agency. It was not worth the paper it was typed on, to be honest. There was a series of transactions and residual notes that only go back as far as March 2007, through to April 2009. I need a full S.A.R and i require all information from yourselves, from the inception/start date to the present. I am not acknowledging Eversheds or anyone else, only yourelves with whom i signed the contract with, as it is your responsibility and only you should have the information. Therefore:- You have failed to comply with my Data Protection Act, Subject Access Request. If you do not comply within the next 7 days, i shall seek a Court order obliging you to do so together with damages at the discretion of the Court and without notice." Yours Faithfully xxxxxxxxxxxxxx What does the board think? Any advice would be gratfully appreciated, as i'm getting worried. I had a go at Spectrum the other day, about receiving my money easily enough, but not protecting me enough. lincsloon P.S. By the way, all my debts either loans or credit cards are unsecured.

Anymore expert advice before i send the Section 7 letter as suggested by Ida?

Hi Ida, I sent the SAR request initially earlier this year to N.Rock, for ages they didn't reply, so i sent one of those 'comply in 7 days' letter, suggested , i think by you or silverfox. Anyway, it was Eversheds who sent 6 pages as i've described above. Even i, a novice, realises that these pages are not the full request because the transactions & residual notes only go back to March 2007. I think personally they are stalling for time, Eversheds are obviously acting on behalf of N.Rock and the latter do not want to contact me for some reason, but i do realise now that N.Rock should be sending me this info. Oh, the letter acompanying the 6 pages read :- Re: Subject Access Request for account xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Please find attached the detailed history of the above account. If you need any further information please do not hesitate to contact us. I had to laugh at the word detailed. What do i do from here then, send the letter in the post above suggested by Ida? N.Rock have already received £10 for the SAR, so i think they are defaulting, am i right? Sincerely lincsloon