when i moved to the Netherlands about 4 years ago i left a small debt in the Ireland and was contacted by Bluestone as i was still in contact with the bank in Ireland. They called me and i kept on saying to them that i had no money and was still looking for a job. They kept on sending letters and the amounts kept on rising, and rising until it was about 5 times the initial amount. I vividly remember them calling me and i actually laughed at them and their ridiculous charges and told em good luck in getting that out of me. As i had only been here a few months i changed mobile numbers, pre-paid not registered and dumped my old number after telling the people who needed to know my new number. They sent a total of 2 more letters threatening to pass it on to a local collection agency, then never heard from them again. Its all bluster my friend, either ignore, or change your number. From personal experience you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

I an not an expert in this however have helped a friend out years ago with someting similar. Looking at he agreement the part thats states the following really says it all-

If you do not keep to your side of the agreement but you have paid more than a third (£3,489.24) then we cannot take the goods back against your wishes without a court order. If we do take them back then you have the right to get back any money you have paid under this agreement

I presume you have paid more than a third, in which case they admit they would need a court order to take back the car, unless of course you voluntarily hand the car back, which i presume will entail intimidation and threats of baliffs, police, etc. As it states above if they do take the car back, you would have the right to claim all your money back.

As wanneebee states, take time stamped photos showing your car on your private property, don't leave it on the road side. It goes without saying that you should keep it locked and with a steering lock on it. It may be worthwhile keeping a camera if you have one spare near the door/ window to the front of your house, or buy a disposable so if anyone does attempt to take it take photos and call the police. If they attempt the court route you will have plenty of time to defend this in court.

Please read some of the thread above. All your answers are in there. Simply put it is irrelevant if they reject your LOD. It is not up to them to reject it, that is down to a court. They have accused your internet connection of downloading some rubbish track, note they have not accused you; you have written to them stating your position on the matter. It is now up to them to either accept your LOD and drop the matter, or pursue you through the courts which they won’t do. To say they reject your LOD is ridiculous as it’s not their decision to make, it is a courts. What they are trying to do it build up a correspondence with you in the hope of eventually wearing you down that you end up giving them something just to stop the letters and hassle. I would bin the letter.

Sorry Blashey but you have just been conned, and you know you've been conned and accepted it. Yes you may have admitted it, however the amount you've paid is something they have determined. There is enough literature out there that the compensation should equal the loss, which is peanuts. you've paid 100 times more than you should have and are happy with that. Even if you've admitted it, i still don't think they would take someone to court as a good lawyer could probably argue that the penalty needs to be equal to the crime, potentially bringing down their house of cards as well. They would have to be crazy to take someone to court, he may be a **** but i don't think he's crazy.

whether they ignore your LOD or not is irrelvant. You have answered their initial letter and have proof of such. What they are trying to do is get into a conversation with you. Standard sales techniques. they can only get money out of people who converse with them. They won't take you to court, however if they badger you enough and you respond to it, you may just give up and offer them money just to go away and leave you alone. The choice is yours, however its pretty obvious from this forum, being threatened, and Slyck that no one has been taken to court, probably won't be, their evidence in all probability won't stand up to scrutiny in court, they have already admitted that they don't accuse you of downloading only your connection was used for this alledged infringement. i do find it cheeky that they are sending a standardised letter out telling people they aren't accepting your standardised letter.

in which case you are in a very strong position. They start getting a little nasty with them, you threaten them with a CCA request, they either back off or you stop paying until they provide it. I know most DCA's are stupid however a little of something is far better than a lot of nothing.

they can't add charges on to a debt. I would start playing hardball with them. Never speak to them on the phone, have everything in writing. Get them a CCA request, dependant on what the debt is. Make sure they have the legal right to collect the debt.

Is it a credit card, overdraft, loan? Who is the company involved?

were you not able to clim on the PPI? And if not why?

They can do nothing apart from the standard threats. You don’t have to prove anything. I would honestly tell them to get lost and to stop bothering you as you aren’t paying. Then never speak to them again. Never call them, it’s a waste of your money. Even if they could prove the debt was yours they wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway, apart from possibly trash your UK credit file, which as you don’t live there will have no consequence on you. The only slight possible way to enforce this would if you had a county court judgement against you in the UK ,technically they could sell the debt to a local Debt collector who could try through the courts in your country, however this is expensive with absolutely no guarantee of success. Also if you don’t have a CCJ against you for this, they can’t apply for one now as you need to have a registered English or welsh address which you don’t. file under ignore and forget.

i did a search for me and i found me. Couldn't believe it. Admitedly its well out of date, as i moved out of that house in 2002. It also listed all my old flatmates, 1 like me doesn't live in the UK anymore, and another is now semi-famous. Not one of us lives at that address, and hasn't done since 2002. i pity for poor fools who pay for that info. unless its a DCA of course.

overdrafts are not covered by the CCA.

Hi I was wondering if someone could give me some advice. I have 2 old private pensions from 1998-2002. I paid into each for less than 2 years. As I no longer live in the UK I was hoping to get me money back on these, now 1 company have agreed to refund me my pension pot, it’s not a lot, under £300, whereas the other company say they can’t refund my contributions until I reach my retirement age. My question is, is there any reason why 1 company would refund and the other wouldn’t, and am I legally entitled to my contributions back?

however it will mean absolutely nothing if thre still isn't any enforcement of the rules.

as someone mentioned earlier tell them to sod off. You have no debt to pay. Given the fact that the whole banking industry can't justify excessive charges, i seriously doubt these can. It seems they are trying it on, in the hope you'll pay up and they make a quick buck.

If they ever tried to get a CCJ which is unlikely, they would need a UK address, as you don't have one they can't get a CCJ against you. I would not worry about it, and would just ignore.

I think it is as you were really. there is no legal recourse without a CCA however they can still pursue you for the debt and register it with the credit reference agencies. However i've just looked into my crystal ball and see a letter from a DCA to some poor unfortunate soul explaining,-

that due to the recent high court case we now no longer have to provide a valid CCA to enforce collection.

they can use the, we can proove the debt exists, we can proove you haven't paid it back, just because we can't enforce the debt doesn't mean it didn't and doesn't exist, therefore we can report it to the CRA's.

they can, and will i'm afraid. Just becuase the debt in unenforceable without a CCA doesn't mean the debt doesn't exist. However if you do want to keep yor credit file clean it can put you in a very strong position with regards to offering a full and final settlement as long as you get in wriiting that you need it taken off your credit file.

I had a similar situation with a permanent TSB credit card, however I moved from Ireland to Holland. I lost my job I had been promised in Holland and couldn’t afford to pay back the credit card, I spoke to them saying I need to top payments, they said they couldn’t do that, however I stopped sending payments anyway. They passed the debt to, initially an American company, called Bluestone, who sent me a couple of really nasty letters, after adding €1000 of charges onto the debt and called me a couple of times, leading to the best/ worst threat probably in the history of debt collection. They passed it on to a dutch company who threatened me with court, I then requested them to do so( a bit of a bluff), never heard from them since, that was 1 year ago. Simply put the DCA will threaten, frighten and bully you into paying, however if you stand firm then they will eventually go away.

The point is they can't take you to court unless they have a valid CCA. they will threaten to but without one they haven't a leg to stand on. This is why you shouldn't speak to them on the phone, they are able to put threats straight into your head, making you doubt yourself. Promise yourself to never speak to them on hte telephone again and you will be happier for it.

i always used to say 'i'll go get him' put the phone down on the table and get on with my day. It has the added benefit of wasting their time, meaning if they are on hold for me they aren't bothering somone else, coupled with the DCA having to pay for a longer phone call.

what happened? congratulations by the way.

How many times have people applied to the CRA's for their credit score and low and behold 2-3 weeks later start receiving letters from DCA's? I believe this issue is a serious case of passing personal data to other institutions so they can then harass the very people who came to them originally for information.

wouldn't be bluestone international by any chance? I had some very funny conversations with them and they are based in america. turned out they were going to bankrupt me in america for a small debt, €600, from an irish credit card even though i now live in the netherlands. needless to say i had a good laugh about that, at them, on the phone.

do as above states, these cards have been used in court cases as proof of the debt. DO NOT RETURN THE CARD.