i was a bit bad tempered on my last post so i apologise. the way i got lowell to back down was simple. they tried quoting the law, so i quoted it back, and i was quoting from relevant statutes and existing statutes. they threatened legal action; i told them not to worry, i would be the one taking them to court. i also reminded them of the rules of fair trading, the investigations done by many many people including watchdog, and basically showed them that i had looked into their little business, shall we call it. i also reminded them that pretending to be a solictor's company is fraud and frowned on in this country, especially by solicitors who, as i've found being a law student, get rather tetchy given they've spent years working to get where they are, and have competed against others, and so do not like having other pretend sharks trying to share the same water as them, shall we say. indeed, it tends to make finding legal representation difficult, so they'd have been representing themselves, and given the intelligence of these (hem hem) people, that would have been a thing to see. i also reminded them that they aren't so fast paying their payments to people like us all that they have tried to [problem], and have tried to get out of paying court ordered settlements which are usually less than they have tried to steal...sorry collect. if anyone would like a letter written or more details let me know and i'll type one up and send it on over or post a general one that you can add your own bits to. in recent developments, they hadn't taken the mark of my partner's credit report. so we called them. the person on the end of the phone said there was nothing they could do. we insisted they could and, after being on the phone for a mere 5 minutes, which, when dealing with lowell, is equal to about 5 seconds in normal time, we checked his credit report and, lo and behold, the mark was gone.

sorry i've been pretty ill and just got out of hospital after surgery so to be honest i just need a shortened version and i'll get a letter done no problems

better yet of you let me know what they're up to i can write one for you. i'm just sick of lowell to be honest so anything i can do i don't mind

viiiiiiiiiiiiiictory!!!!!!!!!!! lowell are "thinking commercially" and have decided in the "interest of goodwill" to stop trying to take money that doesn't belong to them. all it took was a letter from me and me being more bitchy than they are we're so pleased i'm debating framing the letter

oh we have success. to quote dear lowell, they are thinking commercially (ie know they will be sued and sued some more by me) and are, without admitting liability (so basically admitting liability) erasing the debt and stopping looking at the debt. not bad given we all supposedly owe the money they are chasing us for is it traceywak? all it took was me being as bitchy as they are i wrote them a letter, they looked into everything, and based on the phone calls and letter they have given in mwah haha. would it be wrong to frame the letter?

if everyone thought they owed the money lowell is asking for, then no doubt they would pay it. however, lowell offers no proof, and because the debt is from so long ago people don't know whether they owe it or not. if you think we are all wrong tracywak, why not google lowell financial watchdog and watch the top link? even bbc watchdog has investigated them. they try to con people out of their money, and yes, no doubt some people do owe it, but we would hardly all be here on these forums if we didn't think, for good reason, that we do not deserve to be chased by lowell. that would make us all look really stupid, as would paying a debt unnecessarily

Hey boys and girls you would think lowell would just learn to give in but nope. My partner got letters from them claiming money off him on a debt we know full and well he paid off over 5 years ago. So we told them this but no, they didn't listen. So we left it a bit and just ignored them. They sent text messages (christ knows where they got his number from) wanting phone calls. Boy does a company that texts fill you with confidence; I know there was an article on it on Red, the other part of Lowell, in the Observer on the 3rd June 2007, and it borders the line between legal and illegal pretty closely. So we sent them a CCA letter and with the £1 in. They tried to say they needed £10. My partner has gotten sick of talking to them, and so has left it to me on the sad occasions when we have to have anyhting to do with these.......I'm not going there. So last time I spoke to them they couldn't access records etc and I remembered reading something about watchdog getting involved with them. If you google 'lowell financial watchdog' it's the top link. It's from 2009 and they were up to the same then, and it fits my partner's problem, as his is supposedly from 3 too. The funny thing is, we checked to make sure he didn't owe it, and the time they are trying to charge for is after the contract was cancelled, hence why they can't show call records. They are absolutely ridiculous. They said they will take us to court. I told them not to worry, we'll do it for them. They seem to think because we are both young, we don't know our rights and that they can bully us and just generally act like idiots. Which is fine. We can take them to court to take the mark off my partner's credit report, and because that mark, which he obviously doesn't deserve, has caused him no end of trouble, we might try to get compensation out of them. Hey....maybe we can get red to collect the money lowell will owe, and lowell to collect the money red will owe.....Na, wouldn't work. They're just not good at debt collection.

ok well lowell have a pretty poor reputation. In january 2009 watchdog did a bit on lowell, if you google lowell financial watchdog it's the top link. I'd suggest you watch the video and just take the advice there. Any debt over 6 years old is statute exempt anyway so you just need to file to have it set aside by a judge after writing them a statute barred letter, which requests your info in 28 days or they can't claim the debt. Do NOT take just, for instance, a piece of paper claiming cut off fee etc as proof you owe it. There are a lot of forums about them and red debt collection, who are basically the same people. Whatever you do, do not pay them any money without absolute proof that you owe it or you'll have a job and a half getting it back again. Hope this helps

I know once a debt is statute barred it stays that way but they keep trying to collect past the 6 years anyway and once you acknowledge a debt you have to pay it, or so I was taught. A statute barred letter demands information from debt collectors in 28 days.

Don't worry and don't pay anything until you are sure you owe money. If you pay anything, even if it is after the 6 year expiry, you have acknowledged the debt and so you have to pay the rest. As for the service, only a judge can make you bankrupt. If Red, Lowell, Flowers or whatever else they call themselves take you to court then that is just fine and dandy because a judge will not make you pay a debt if you haven't the money to do so. Also, if you are ruled backrupt then your debts will be expunged because obviously you haven't the money to pay them and odds are won't for a while. Whatever you do don't let them bully you. I've had to deal with them on behalf of my partner and it isn't difficult to out think them and eventually they do give in. I've looked into them and I am a law student so I do know about the debt laws etc so if you have any questions you can always email on EDIT and I'll give you all of the information I have and do my best to help out. I know law student isn't as good as solicitor but trust me I'm having fun with them so feel free to ask away

we have requested information from both 3g say it was paid and lowell say not, but lowell will not send us any information that they're working from, and when we asked they said that if they do send the information then they can't let him pay less, which is obviously their way of discouraging you from getting what you want. the latest thing is when we spoke to them they said there had been 5 payments of £50 but then we looked on my boyfriend's credit report and they've not only put a mark on but they're saying he owed £263 and still owes £155, so it doesn't tally up in any way. Why they think we are stupid enough not to check up on these things I don't know. I don't know about everyone else on here but I was reading an article from BBC watchdog and they're under investigation as Red debt collection. Our latest deadline (we've had about 7 now) is on the 8th of this month, so I'm really looking forward to talking to them again with everything I've read. The thing I've noticed on these forums is that people are a bit confused about their rights, so I'd like to clarify in case anyone is unsure because I know finding out about these things is a pain. They can't send a bailiff around, the only bailiffs who have the right to take things from your house are ones appointed by a court. For a court to do that you have to have a CCJ, and to get one you will have been to court. Don't let anyone in because if you do you are consenting to them taking things. If you don't they have no legal rights to come in. If they put a mark on your credit report send them a statute barred letter, since the debts they buy are usually now 6 years plus old, meaning that under the Limitation Act 1980 section 5 they are null and void.They will have 28 days to give you all the information or take the mark off. In all instances where people have done this they've done nothing, so the mark has to come off. They sometimes will send you things making it look like a bailiff has been round and missed you, but if you look in the corner it has the M to show it has been through the Royal Mail. Most importantly, of you doubt you owe money, don;t panic and pay. If you do that then you acknowledge the debt and you will have to pay them back. Hope I didn;t sound preachy, I was reading through things yesterday and it was absolutely absurd the things they've been trying, and I'd hate for someone to lose out just because they didn't have the right information.

Hi Lowell seem to be out for anything they can try to get, and seem to think people aren't bright enough to realise when something is hinky. My boyfriend has been having issues with them since last year. They keep trying to claim £155 off him for a phone contract despite the fact that the time they are saying it was from (2004/2005) was after it got cut off. After it got cut off because he lost his job and couldn't pay his bills he paid 3g all the outstanding debt. Now 5 years later this company is trying to get more money. They say he can make monthly debit payments of £40, carefully leaving out when they would stop the money, or he can pay 3 payments of £33.31 or one payment of £77 or £91 (the amount changes depending on who we speak to from there). They send letters looking like they are from solicitors, but aren't from any registered solictor or firm I know of, and I'm a law student so it was easy for me to check. They also go by the name of Red debt collection and flowers debt collection. I last spoke to them because my boyfriend was getting more and more annoyed with them, and I asked basic questions, like why had the debt not been collected back then? The answer I got was that it would have been passed to other companies. Why then, I asked, had they not collected? No answer, instead I got information on a payment plan. Every question I asked was either evaded or I got an answer that was then contradicted. We've already told them to go ahead and take us to court, and if they can prove he owes anything we'll pay. I even asked for the records they are going on, and she said she would get them sent to us, but there has been absolutely nothing.