Thanks for the above posts about Experian, et al. I shall be firing off a few letters over the next few days based on this info. If anyone has any further info or template letters, please reference them here! As I basically won this case (10 500 pounds written off!) this is obviously Lowell's way of trying to "punish" me for not paying up after they bought the account from the lovely people at Abbey, who laughingly sh*t all over their own debt collection friends by selling them a dud debt. I have a list of people who will be notified: Lowell's, MBNA, Abbey, Experian, ICO, MPs, OFT, TS, to name but some.

Having reported this good news, I noted that Lowell's still have a default notice on my credit reference files. I reported the above letter to Experian, saying that Lowell's do not have the CCA i.e. no agreement, no proof for CRA entries. Unfortunately, today, Experian wrote back as follows, remember this is the UK 2009 and this is what is apparently allowed to happen: Further to our recent correspondence, I have been contacted by Lowell Portfolio I Ltd regarding entry C5 on your credit report. They have confirmed that the details we hold are accurate and have requested that we retain the information on our database. Unfortunately I am unable to amend this information without the authorisation of the company in question. The 'Notice of Dispute' will remain on your report for 28 days. It will then be removed, unless I receive further notification from you: "THE CONSUMER HAS DISPUTED THE ACCURACY OF THIS ENTRY AND WE HAVE THEREFORE ASKED THE PROVIDER TO INVESTIGATE IT. GIVEN THAT THIS DATA IS DISPUTED, PLEASE TAKE CARE IF MAKING AN ASSESSMENT OF ANY KIND THAT MAY INCLUDE THIS DATA." If you have any further queries or wish to discuss this further, may I suggest you contact the company concerned direct at the following address: Lowell Portfolio I Ltd Lowell Financial Ltd PO Box 172 Leeds LS11 9WS Tel: 0845 3009416

Glad to be of help, no problem. My story is posted on here already for you, including scans of my CCA and why it was not enforceable. There are various threads, including a success thread. Go to the top of page and click search. Put it my name and serach for either trheads or posts and you will find all the details there, inclduing the reasosn why the CCA was unenforeceable.

OK, gotcha. By the way, I am still tackling Egg at the moment and in the case of an unsecured loan a similar thing seems to have happened. I got a CCA with all sports of prescribed T+Cs missing. Then, I was sent a further printout of T+Cs apparently claiming to be copies of the originals, same thing as you report, the numbers did not match the original CCA referring to "our terms and conditions". They also used Citibank on there, my CCA dates back to 2003 and Citibank took over in 2005!

SRA, I now realise is the Solicitors Regulation Authority. However, there were no solicitors involved, I did it all myself, so I don't think the SRA would be an option.

Who are the SRA? To clarify, I already reported elsewhere on CAG the success with MBNA/Abbey/Lowells and I am in the process of writing to all the organisations that you list, including details of underhanded techniques that were used by Lowells to try and recover this "unenforceable" debt over the last 5 years, such as the fact that it is still listed on my CRA files, also discussed elsewhere on here. I have the same situation with CapQuest who just wrote off 4900 pounds, also two other Egg accounts. The letters all go out in the next few days. If there are any other places to write to, just let me know!

I agree, but this took 4 years of letters between them and me. So I could not be bothered with court-also i live abroad, but look at the next message belwo from the site team and my answer!

I didn't go to court. I did a CCA request for one pound and the wrote back saying that the original agreement had been lost. They then got a letter of dispute from me and then wrote to close the account. If you use the correct templates you don't need to go to court, they will back down. My letters are recorded about this matter here on CAG if you do a quick search you will find them. Also, somebody mentioned on here that it is does not set a precedent. I wouldn't be too sure about that. The law already exists and is quite simple, so there is no reason for any o us to over egg the pudding: No CCA means the agreement is unenforceable. That's why we take the time to write here, to explain what has REALLY happended.

Don't forget that the same happened to me, as reported elsewhere on CAG. They wrote off 10 500 pounds in my case, but I didn't make the Express!

I always wait quite a long time, especially as I live abroad-they always end up shooting themselves in the foot. At last, they at least write to my address abroad and have twice attempted to use external DCAs to try and collect threat of CCJ. I always send a "bemused" template letter back, saying that i am surprised I have to point out thsat with a prior dispute, they cannot give the debt to a third party and threatneing CCJ is vexacious and harassing when they know I am abroad and therefore the CCJ does not apply. Slowly letting them no they will never collect.....

They won't be happy once I send out the letters I referred to earlier in this thread.

Hi Perhaps a slight misunderstanding here. I know that it's a tenner for SARS, I have done that to several creditors. the point that I was eluding to is that the CRA info should be free, there should be no charge to see what they hold on us. To charge ongoing monthly fees, not just ten quid a time, is a rip off, as is the fact that they take so long to answer, as I described above, so that the "free" month expires and you have to start paying to find your own information.

By way of an update, this is yet another money making [problem] by Experian. Firstly, i would have thought that under the data protection act, we should al have free access to any information that a CRA has on us. Experian advertises a "free month", but as you can see from my entries, it took a whole bunch of time for them to respond to my request for a correction request. Now I have to wait while they write to Lowells and CapQuest to give "permission" to correct incorrect information. So I now move into the 6.99 a month fee to be able to track the outcome. What a [problem] from Experian!

As reported earlieer in this thread, I got Lowell's to close my account outstanding allegedly at 10 500 pounds, because the original bank, Abbey, did not keep a copy of the original CCA for the credit card. Does this mean I can also claim back my 10 500 pounds, plus any other payments on the card?

The idiots bought the debt and also gave me a letter of assignment! How unfortunate for them.

Thanks, enoughisenough, I will! Actually, everyone told me that i could not write off nearly 20 grannd without going to court, but I did, thanks to this site. Now they are saying you cannot get adverse references removed from credit files without going to court. I will prove them wrong again and I will report it on here!

Thank you for this advice, also all the other people on this thread. As you will see above, Lowell's closed my account because the original CCA was not kept by Abbey (the OC). CapQuest closed the account because of a prior dispute. Despite this, both have still retained an adverse listing on my CRA files. I have some free time over the next few days and, being the organised person that I am, have kept and scanned all documentation from them (well, I did manage to write off nearly 20 000 pounds, so you COULD call me organised!) I am going to take one afternoon, poor myself a tall, cool beer, and write to the following people to try and get the entries removed, using the arguments kindly supplied to me in this thread: The DCAs. The OCs. OFT. Trading Standards. MP. Banking Ombudsman. I will also be doing separate complaints about a staff member at CapQuest who continued to ask for money by email (thanks for putting it in writing) even when they put the account on hold and who also wrote accusing me of being on the UK when I live abroad, intimating fraud i.e. somebody else was signing my letters and cheques from the UK. Also Egg going to the County Court, when they knew I was abroad (I got the case set aside when I found out what they had done). This will be a short and easy task for me to do, as all documentation is stored on my computer. In the meantime, if anyone can give any further advice it would be much appreciated: Any other places to write and complain to? Any other ways to get my CRA file amended. As usual many thanks to you all, I will report back with the outcomes as and when i get them.

Thanks for the referral to the other thread-very good reading. I can certainly go for Lowell's as they have provided me in writing an explanation that Abbey never kept records going back that far and there is no longer a copy of the original CCA in existence. That is why Lowell's closed my account. CapQuest is different. They did provide a CCA from Egg, albeit an unenforceable one, but they closed the account due to the fact that I proved a prior dispute with the OC (Egg). Indeed I had a CCJ from Egg set aside. Not sure how to remove CRA details about this one. In both cases the CRA entries continue.

To clarify there are two accounts. CapQuest was an Egg loand and lowell's was an Abbey credit card.

OK, I have the reply now from Experian. To recap, there are two entries on my credit reference file. one is from capQuest showing a default, although they have written to me saying that due to a previous default with the OC the account is now closed. The letter that they sent me is published on this forum. The second entry is a defauly by Lowell's, who have also written to me saying that the account is closed due to the fact that Abbey have not kept a record of my CCA. This letter I have also published in this forum. However, in both cases they have not updated my credit reference file and as of today both accounts still appear on there as defaults. It says: The account is in 'default'. You failed to keep to your credit agreement and have not responded satisfactorily to requests to bring your payments up to date, so the credit agreement has ended. I contacted Experian on 17th September. They replied the same day with an automated email saying: Your enquiry has been passed to one of our credit report specialists. We normally respond to simple queries within 2 working days, however if your query requires detailed investigation or feedback from a third party our response will take longer to action. We will always endeavour to respond to your query within 2 weeks of receipt. Today, 30th September, after 13 days, they have responded as follows: Thank you for your emails, which we received on 17 September 2009. You have asked us to add a Notice of Correction to your report. A Notice of Correction is a short explanatory statement that will be seen by lenders looking at your report in the future. The content of the statement you have provided suggests that you wish us to investigate your comments, which we are doing. However, please let us know if you actually wish us to add the statement, using the wording you have provided, as a Notice of Correction to be seen by lenders searching your report in addition to our investigations. In view of your comments about the accounts with CapQuest and Lowell, I am writing to them for you, as I cannot amend your report without their consent. While I investigate your comments, I am adding the following statement to the information you have queried. "THE CONSUMER HAS DISPUTED THE ACCURACY OF THIS ENTRY AND WE HAVE THEREFORE ASKED THE PROVIDER TO INVESTIGATE IT. GIVEN THAT THIS DATA IS DISPUTED, PLEASE TAKE CARE IF MAKING AN ASSESSMENT OF ANY KIND THAT MAY INCLUDE THIS DATA." I will let you know what they say as soon as they reply. Your report will change in the next seven days. Please use this correspondence if you need proof in the meantime. So, if Lowell's and CapQuest drag their feet in the same way that Experian do, the whole ting could go on forever. Furthermore, my letters from them closing both accounts are not good enough for Experian. They want approval from CapQuest and Lowell's to change the entry in my account to a dispute. I can only describe this as being one sided to say the least.

Basically, I went to work abroad and had an argument with Egg who topped my Egg credit card as they said it was for UK residents only. I had used all my savings to pay off much of the Egg card and when they withdrew it, it was like a pack of cards affecting all of my other finances, so I got behind with everything. However, it was my Abbey credit card (which had become MBNA when they took over Abbey's card business) that was sold to Lowell's. They sent the usual collection letters and no matter how many times I wrote and emailed saying that I was abroad, they always wrote to my old UK address which dragged out the whole process since 2005. The Abbey card dated back to around 1999. I made small but regular payments but Lowell's never accepted any offers to settle and always sent demands for the whole amount. Until I reaslied that the debt was with Lowell's (remember, it takes months for me to receive my post sometimes), I kept paying Abbey. When i asked Lowell;'s if they had received the interim payments they were a real snotty bunch, saying that it was up to me to prove it and tat all offers of settlement were rejected. So I decided to stop paying them for quite a while. once I read on these forums the details about CCAs and how many CCAs are screwed up, I sent my one pound and a CCA letter to Lowell's. Again, they insisted in writing to my UK old address and not my new address abroad (how moronic is that?). However, it became obvious that there was a problem because when I received my post there were two of three letters saying that they had written back to Abbey for the CCA but were waiting....and waiting...and waiting. Finally, a letter arrived as attached above, simply saying that Abbey never kept old records and the account has been closed. no CA, means no enforcement. Just to round it off nicely, I received after this yet another letter from Lowell's saying the account was in serious arrears and threatening county court action, etc! Obviously they had forgotten to take my name of the threat-o-gram list. I had great pleasure i writing back to them to say sending such letters out after the account had been closed was a clear breach of collection guidelines and that if they write again I will report them! As it happens the default was in 2005 and in 18 months it will clear from my credit reference file. as I work abroad this does not matter too much to me, although I like to clear everything up officially.

Al vs MBNA WON! 10 520.89 pounds.

Agreed!

My sentiments exactly, but a properly worded letter is required to make this effective and that is what I was eluding to. You concluded that, "Though think we've got about as much chance of that, as Tesco's selling chocolate teapots." In that case, who is in charge of regulating all of this, as it is clearly ineffective?

OK, thanks for the opinions and input. Is there a standard library/template letter covering this? The reason that I am going back to earlier discussions in this thread, whatever the legal rights and wrongs of the situation, the DCAs seem to get away with saying whatever they want to the CRAs without any recourse. It's a one way system.