There aren't any hard and fixed timescales once you've put an account into dispute, or stopped payment with the exception of recieving the nasty threatening phone calls you say you've already experienced.

Not all accounts are taken thru the courts either. Depends on the circumstances of the account, and whether the DCA thinks they're going to benefit by starting a court case. Also some DCA's are more trigger happy in issuing court claims than others.

But if you do get phone harassment calls there are a number of ways to deal with it and you'll find lots of help on the site.

Each account becomes it's own sperate journey so to speak. But until you give more info on what you are trying to deal with, everything is hypothetical. Except for the fact that people on this site will always try to help as much as they can..

There are few clear cut dividing lines when dealing with DCA's and debt. And also no guarantess, so as hardup said it's not just a simple case of making debts disappear.

When a creditor fails to supply a compliant Credit agreeemnt in reponse to your request after 12+2 days you can put the account into dispute and withold payments if you choose to do so. But most DCA's don't give up easily and you will no doubt get a lot of hot air calls and threatening letters for a period of time. All of this can usually be dealt with.

Without an enforceable copy of an agreeement normally a DCA can't enforce you to pay it thru the courts. But for a lot of people they will provide an application form with some of the prescribed terms missing and then the argument is whether it was properly executed or not which decides enforceablility.

Altho there is a number of successful court outcomes noted on the site there are unfortunately also some cases where the judge has ruled in favour of the creditor altho the facts are questionable.

The judge also has more leeway to decide in the creditor's favour, if he sees fit for agreements made after 2006 due to revisons in the Consumer Credit Act made in that year.

As previously said even if the DCA decides not to take the account to court, or it can' be enforced, the debts still remain, you just can't be forced to pay for it, and it's very dificult to get your credit file amended until it drops off naturally after 6 years. As most of us wouldn't touch credit again with a bargepole that usually isn't considered a big problem.

No one is trying to rain on your parade here, but just give you more info so you know what to expect. The devil is in the detail with these things . It can be a long and tiresome road that many of us are still travelling after a couple of years, but you'll never be alone thanks to CAG..

Once you've taken hardup's advice and posted up more details you'll be given more advice and help:).

CCCS should send you a list detailing all your creditors , their addresses and contact nos, and you should have your recent CCCS statements showing amounts technically outstanding. If they don't send it, phone or write CCCS and ask them for it.

A CCA request is a letter sent to whoever is taking your payments, be it original creditor or DCA, you can find the letter in the sites' template letter section. You need to send it enclosing a £1 postal order , don't sign the letter, use capitals or something and send by recorded delivery so you can prove it was sent.

It asks the creditor to provide you with a copy of your credit agreement. After 12+2 days if they don't supply one , you can put the account into dispute and then withold payments until they comply if they ever do. It's always your decison whether to continue payments or not.

If they do come back with something claiming it's an agreement, start a seperate thread for each account , scan the agreement minus any identifying personal details and post it up for people to advise you further, as it may not be compliant, due to missing prescribed terms etc.

while you get all this done , would be an idea to start reading some of the threads on this site to glean more information, as there's a lot of info to take on board.

And lastly don't worry it will all be fine. Lots of us have moved from CCCS to managing our own affairs and survived. You'll get all the help you need on here:)

Sonic, you seem to have a number of threads on this Cabot issue, which is a bit confusing. as no single thread has all the facts and info, which people need to give the most relevant and helpful advice.

Have bumped up your thread on the legal forum.

Bump

Can someone have a look at sonic's other thread in Debt collection Industry called 'Re : Cabot Again' which has some updates to last post and give some advice please?

I left CCCS after being with them for 5 years, and took contol of all of my payments myself. Was very ill when this happened, but it was considerably easier than I thought it would be.

When they dump you, they will give you a detailed list with name, contact nos, addresses of all your creditors. I took the oppurtunity when I left CCCS to make enquiries on the enorcability of my alleged accounts, be sednign some CCA requests, and now have 5 accounts where I make no payments and more possibly to follow.

They are initially helpful when you're desperate and not familiar with your rights and they don't charge for their service, But not much use if a creditor or DCA gets nasty and threatens court action or charging orders. They just tell you to accept it all including unfair charges and keep paying them.

They used to have a ceiling of minimum of £100 per month to make it viable as a charity to handle the admin of your repayments for you. Sounds like the credit industry is biting them in the rear end. Typical that the greed of creditors , always wanting more , makes them bite the hand that feeds them. They truly deserve it when people get fed up, find out thru sites like this that agreements aren't always enforceable, and stop paying them altogether.

As a charity I can't see the ombudsman being relevant, but you could perhaps write a letter of complaint to someone on the board.

It would be very interesting to see what sort of reply you got.

I thought it had to state on the Particulars of Claim issued by the calimant where the defendent has been resident for the past 3 months to ensure this type of thing couldn't happen. Is it possible that court papers have been raised and sent to your ex only as you say he lives in Reading??

Is it possible for you to scan the letters minus any personal details identifying you then post them up, for people to advise further.

. What should I do next one of the Cabot debts is with the CCCA DMP.

Just a head up on CCCS DMP, when I put an account with nasty DCA into dispute and stopped payments by changing my CCCS payment distribution on their online services, it worked for 2 months.

But constant pressure from the DCA must have caused a CCCS advisor to cave in as without even telling me CCCS reinstated normal payments without my permission or even telling me. Fortunately I discovered this before the payment was made and stopped it again online.

When I spoke to CCCS for doing this, the initial advisor was sympathetic but had to pass me to a senior advisor,who insisted that making payments was CCCS policy because regardless of whether the account was enforcable or not the debt existed.

If I didn't like their policy and resume payments I had to leave the DMP, which I did. Was really worried at first about my decision but it has worked out fine.

They may have changed their policy since this time, but being funded by the creditors would make it diffficult for them to change this policy. I'm not trying to knock them because they do provide a free service which helps a lot of people in difficulty.

But with the exception of a bankruptcy threat, if a creditor turns nasty threatens court or a charging order they'll just advise you to accept it all. Again no doubt because their hands are tied due to their funding.

So keep an eye on CCCS meantime..

Once you have sent d4g's excellent letter, youi've put the account into dispute. Then once 12+2days have passed since you first requested your CCA , you can withold payments if you wish even if previously making them. You're in control now not 1stCredit.

1stCredit will huff and puff but realising you mean business, and knowing they probably can't find a compliant copy, they 'll eventually start sending you begging, once in a lifetime settlement discounts, and offers of a free plasma TV if only you will pay them.:D:D

.

In the good old Poll Tax days I had my wages arrested for a single unpaid amount of around £3.98.which had been caused by me making an error for 30p on my standing order payment during that finaccial year.

They couldn't arrest for a balance of less than £15.00 tso added a charge of £15 and the arrestment of my wages cost a further £40 or so.

Only received 1 letter asking me to call on a Wednesday. couldn't get thru on their busy call line and 2 days later the Friday the personnel dept called me in to say my wages were being arrested.

Legalised robbery,, if it happened now I would create merry hell, but in those days it was much more difficult. I've still got the arrestment sheet with the £3.98 outstanding balance , should get it framed to remind me never to let myself be stomped over again.

Received a letter from CL Finance threatening legal action for an outstanding amount of £5 last year.Think these threatogrms are just churned out by a computer system. It was their mistake so never found out if they'd ever be stupid enough to have taken it further.

Cabot are also telling people claiming unlawful rescsssion, where the OC didn't issue a DN prior to sale to Cabot, is perfectly fine as there is a cluase saying acccount can be sold at any time in the general terms and conditons.

Not true for regulated agreements as well documented by Pinky and a solicitor from a lagre well known company.. More sneakily they are also claiming in their letters numerous misleading and untrue comments regarding the history and true facts of the account. No doubt to be conveniently pulled out in a court in the future and used to mislead and sway judgements.

Tho I had no wish to further correspond to Cabot was forced to reply refuting these imaginative comments. Not willing to provide them with any ammunition against my defence in any future proceedings, kept it basic and short.

Cabot seem so desperate for money theymisrepresnting and twisting the CCA regulations. Hopefully in their desperation they will well and truly overstep themselves and fall down an abyss.

Not fond of people who work for DCA's, but they might be paying off the 50 more humane advisors seems as how they would bring in the least cash each month. Tho not being familiar with Activ, not sure if any of them have any decency.

Says in the article they will be providing support and advice for those made redundant. Can just imagine

Aktiv will guarantee for the 50 advisors a special 5% discount for full and final settlement in the event any of your credit / loans fall into arrears and are bought for pennies by Aktiv in the future.

This once in a lifetime insurance will only cost you a huge payment in advance which you could make from your redundancy payment, or maybe borrow from your family and friends.. Aktiv strongly recommend you take up this offer as we already have all your details and phone numbers on our files .:D:D

Perhaps just my PC but I was unable to view your document letter. Takes me to a link which says 'unspecified attachment If followed from a link to contact the administrator'???

- do you think I'm doing them a disservice as they have done something for me, but not recently. Thanks.

To be honest P-C-B, only you can decide this based on whether you think they are they are achieving what they advised in their initial sales pitch when you first started with them and whether you think they are value for money.

On previous posts other Caggers have made comments and given you the different options available and pointed out all the pros and cons of these methods. But no one can tell you what decision to make, as only you are in possession of all the facts.

I was in a free DMP with CCCS for a number of years, but ran into difficilty when an account was old to an aggreessive DCA who refused my payment offer and threatened a charging order and bankruptcy. CCCS advised continuing payments and accepting a charging order if I was taken to court. so if was faced with accepting CCCS advice or leaving the DMP and go it alone.

I found CAG and received lots of support and help. Based on my personal circumstances I left the CCCS DMP and so far so good I've managed just fine.

These decisions can only be made by the individual after weighing up their personal circumstances having listened to the different opinions and advice and deciding what fits your circumstances best at the time.

It's not easy making this type of decision and no one can be 100% sure of the eventual outcome. I wish you good luck and hope you find the best way forward for you.

"Courts will now have discretion to enforce all invalidly executed agreements; the restrictions on this discretion, which applied in respect of certain infringements, have now been lifted;......." An explanation of the Consumer Credit Act 2006

 

 

Is this relevant to agreeements signed before the the 2006 changes came into force, because they were not in themsleves retrospective?

 

If it is I'm in deep trouble.

i still don't see the point in passing account from one desk to another though , normal thinking people would either go for the throat or give up ,

What gave you the idea that Cabot or any DCA for that matter would employ normal thinking people, or even know how a normal person thinks?

They are in a league of their own for creative thinking and don't seem to work to any predictable pattern of behaviour regarding when court action is instigated allegedly .

The jury is still on out on whether this is actually tactics or due to mass insanity or hysteria on their part- allegedly:lol:

You can now sit back and wait for them to come back with something. If they send what Cabot say is your CCA (because Cabot have some strange ideas on what is compliant allegedly) post it up minus any identifying personal details including their nice barcodes and people can give you further advice.

Finallly never ever encourage them by speaking to them on the phone, keep everything in writing to provide you with an audit trail.

Very unlikely, it's extremely difficult to achieve this especially after the recent high court ruling . Even if a debt can't be enforced through the courts due to lack of a compliant CCA , it doesn't mean the debt doesn't exist, it just means that you can't legally be forced to pay it.

I may be wrong as its 1stCredit who have raised the default as opposed to Vanquis, but it's been said on a few threads regarding this subject it's easier to defend court cases, than taking the matter to court yourself.

The onus then falls on you to prove the case . ie that the business relationship never existed, and they could maybe produce statements and other documntation showing otherwise.

If I've got this wrong I'm sure someone with more knowledge will correct it and give a better expalnation for you.

....should i tell them that i dispute the amount of different companies chasing this debt??

No, not just now. Because they wiill immediately jump on this to tell you that this statemnt is an admission that the debt exists.. Altho its difficult to keep getting this type of letter in the post, don't worry about it.

Giive them the 12+2 days to comply with your CCA request.

For all their threatening letters they may not be able to produce any compliant documentation. Some of us having been waiting more than 2 years and they still haven't produced anything of relevance.

And remember never phone them, as Alfwithair said , they will keep sending you nonsensical letters designed to get you on the phone so they can try out some of their dubious persuasive phone tactics to get you to agree and make some sort of payment.

If the unlikely event they send out any SD or court papers post them up minus any personal details for advice on how to see them off.

Post up a copy of the illegible agreement they've sent you, minus any personal details for the posters on your thread to check for you.

The more illegible the agreeement form is the better for you in your defence:).

Seems DLC/hillesden have sent this letter out en masse to all the people with accounts in dispute where they can't find the paperwork. They're obviously getting desperate for funds and are willing to beg.

File their letter in the drawer with the large pile of monthly repeat letters they'll have sent you saying they unfortunately still can't find your agreement.

If you want to use a stamp send a complaint to the OFT about them requesting payment on an account which is in dispute due to their failure to find any agreement. Then forget about it.

 

I am considering taking a leaf out of their book with a reply similar to this:

 

Thank you for your letter addressed to +++++++++ however, this person no longer exists, having married and changed their surname. however, they chose not to take the surname of their partner, but rather revert to their Mothers' maiden name. Again, that has caused further confusion in that they were getting their grandfathers' mail and have therefore changed their name entirely by Deed Poll.

 

I am sorry to say therefore, that due to the confusion caused by the change of name of the company you say you represent and that of the supposed receiver of your letter, no certainty can be acknowledged that there is any relationship between either parties.

:lol::lol::lol:

Honeypot,

You must take the great advice you've been given on here and stop phoning them, as they are winding you up.

I used to be with CCCS and they did annual income and expenditure forms which they forwarded to about 15 different creditors. On my I & E form I had an allowance for my 2 dogs for their food and also for their veterinary insurance policy.

No creditor ever questioned the food bill nor the insurance bill, and DLC were one of our creditors!!. CCCS said that a creditor is well aware if it came to the choice of someone having to pay a necessary vet bill or making token payments to a creditor the dog would win every time. So an insurance policy made sense.

It's well known that because the idiots in the threat call centres earn commission on getting people to agree higher payments then they will push and lie to get people to agree unrealistic payment figures.

Have a good look for that letter which says they don't need a Default Notice. there's a number of reasons why it's to your advantage to find it.

If you can scrape together the funds to buy this machine, it's money wisely spent. I saved the payments from my disputed accounts each month till I could afford one. Proved invaluable when I had Cabot phoning umpteen times every day for months.

Debt collectoprs use the threat and practice of incessant calls to grind and wear people down inot making payments on accounts they can't even provide a scrap of paperwork for, or into making payments they can't afford or maintain. It's the main weapon in their arsenal, together with their ability to twist facts and mislead people on the phone by profuse spouting of hot air and empty threats.

Once you take that from them, they don't have much left as they're usually a bit more careful (except maybe for good old Cabot who seem to have lost the plot recently) about what they will put into writing.

And the call log and recording facility is great.

Just wish they were a bit more affordable to the vulnerable people who need them most.

Enjoy:)

Laughed out loud when my OH received same letter from Hillesden. Must be getting desperate, and have sent out a bulk mailshot of begging letters in the hope that someone contacts them and can be misled into giving them a payment.

And do they really think that we're going to be influenced by the industry guidelines of the Credit Services Association?

It could mean a small flurry of begging calls from their threat call centre for a short period, until they realise they're wasting their time and money.

Won't be sending them a reply and have just blocked their numbers on the Truecall machine so won't be disturbed by their calls either. They'll just become another sad statistic on the monthly harassment figures log.