Thanks Sliverfox. Your first sentence made me laugh, which was a nice thing to be able to do. I haven't had to wait very long for their next letter which reads: 'We wrote to you recently outlining our intentions to issue Bankruptcy proceedings against you. Having performed a review of your account we have concluded that the pursual of Bankruptcy proceedings against you is no longer a fair and reasonable outcome at this moment in time. It is however our intention to pursue an alternate method of enforcement to secure this debt. You will shortly receive letters detailing the methods that may be pursued. Please contact us on xxx within 10 days to discuss the repayment options available to you based on your current financial circumstances. Should no contact be forthcoming your account will be passed to our solicitors with an instruction to issue legal proceedings once Civil Procedure Rules have been complied with (e.g. after a Letter Before Claim has been sent). Ultimately we do not want to take this course of action and we would prefer to come to a repayment that is both affordable and sustainable for you. If you are experiencing financial difficulties...' etc. As always, any advice on what they may try next will be much appreciated. Epsilon

After a few more threatening letters , I’ve received a letter this week stating that my account has been passed to 1st Credit’s Legal Department. The account will be held for 10 days . “If we do not hear from you, your account will be subject to a case review that may result in a ‘statutory demand’ being issued, which is a formal step prior to issuing bankruptcy proceedings.” There’s that word ‘may’ again. I’ll wait and see what they do. Epsilon

Thank you Ford & dx100uk for your advice and support. I'll think about what to do this weekend. Epsilon

I've just received a letter from 1st Credit headed: Bankruptcy proceedings are being considered. They go on to say, "You haven't begun repayment of this debt. Regrettably, we are considering whether we should issue a statutory demand under the Insolvency Act (1986) , which could result in bankruptcy proceedings being issued against you." etc I'm tired of receiving their threats and I think I should send them a statute barred letter as then the onus is on them to prove it's not statute barred. They did send me a statutory demand back in 2008. I applied to the court to have it set aside. I turned up on the due date. They didn't. Obviously it was dismissed. Epsilon

Ok thanks.

Update - it's been a while since I've posted anything but 1st Credit have become active again. CSL wrote a couple more letters threatening doorstep collections but their last letter was in June 2013. 1st Credit have sent annual statements each October plus “Special Low Discount Opportunity” letters. 1st Credit have made credit searches in Oct 15 and Apr 16 with the agency Call Credit with the indicated purpose of debt collection. Are they allowed to do this? In April 2016 I received a Notice of Assignment letter from Citifinancial: “This letter is to inform you that, with effect from 27/05/2008, under a written assignment, we have assigned your contract to 1st Credit (Finance) Limited of… This means that we have assigned to 1st Credit (Finance) Limited the outstanding balance as at that date and all of our rights and interests in our agreement with you under the above account reference number. This letter is our formal notice to you of the assignment. From now on you must direct all payments due under the agreement, as well as all correspondence and enquiries, to 1st Credit Limited, the servicing company for 1st Credit (Finance) Limited at… Although the assignment does not effect (sic) the terms of your agreement, you should note that from now on, no variation, amendment, release of waiver of your obligation to make payment may be made or granted without the previous written consent of 1st Credit (Finance) Limited of 1st Credit Limited, on its behalf.” A few days later, I received a letter from 1st Credit to introduce themselves! They also stated in the letter, “We ask you to contact this office immediately so we can agree payment terms with you.” Then, I’ve received a ‘Let Us Help’ letter from 1st Credit: “If we don’t hear from you, we can’t help. We are the first in our industry to achieve the highest 3 star accolade from an independent assessment of customer survey responses carried out by ‘Investor in Customers’. From the first time we speak to our customers we endeavor (sic) to understand individual circumstances and discuss the details in a constructive and confidential manner. Please contact us on … to discuss the repayment options available to you based on your current financial circumstances. Alternatively, please refer to the available contact methods at the top of this letter. Should no contact be made with 1st Credit an escalation in collections activity may be considered, which could have a detrimental impact on your credit file. We would prefer to not pursue this course of action and encourage you to engage with us to reach a resolution.” Very helpfully they include an income and expenditure form for completion. Also amazing they are bragging about received a 3 star accolade! I’ve recently opened accounts with Clearscore (data provided by Equifax) and Noddle (data provided by Call Credit) and there is nothing showing for either 1st Credit nor Citifinancial. Is this just a fishing expedition by 1st Credit? Should I send them the Statute Barred letter, amended to my own circumstances? I’ve made no payments to either Citifinancial nor 1st Credit since 2008 and although I had to write to 1st Credit in 2011 regarding telephone harassment and threats of doorstep collection activity, I clearly stated at the top of the letter I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT TO YOUR COMPANY OR ANY YOU CLAIM TO REPRESENT. As ever, thank you for any advice you can give me. Epsilon

For anyone following this saga, here's an update. 1st Crud have sent through exactly the same letter as I posted on 9th November, except that this time, they've decided to engage the services of Credit Security Limited. Credit Security have then written to say: "As Field Agents for the above Client we have been instructed to collect the above outstanding debt. If we do not hear from you within the next 10 days a Doorstep Collector will be instructed to visit you to discuss your circumstances and arrange a suitable repayment programme. To avoid this action please send a payment or repayment proposal etc" I will send them the standard Doorstep letter and see what happens. Epsilon

Although I've sent the doorstep reply letter to Muck Hall by recorded delivery, it's been ignored: "ATTENTION - REQUIRES IMMEDIATE ACTION Our client 1st Credit Limited, has instructed us to commence with pre-litgation (sic) doorstep visits against you for the balance outstanding. To avoid this action a monthly repayment plan must be in place within the next 7 days. You can set your Direct Debit arrangement by telephone, calling one of our operators on 0844 etc. We require a first payment of £x on 03/02/2013, followed by instalments of £x from 03/03/2013 until the balance is cleared. No response to resolve this matter will leave us with no option but to sanction a doorstep visit to your property by our field collectors, Meritforce. Yours faithfully etc" What's best? Resend the doorstep reply letter by recorded delivery again? As always, all advice is gratefully received. Epsilon

Thanks for your advice dx. I will enjoy my xmas. Epsilon

New letter received from Muck Hall: "REDUCED SETTLEMENT OFFER Dear x Despite repeated efforts for payment by our client, the above account remains unpaid. Our clients are unaware of any legitimate reason for non-payment. However, they are willing to accept a reduced settlement figure in order to draw the matter to a close. __________________________________________________________________________ Our offer of full and final settlement = £x To be paid no later than x date __________________________________________________________________________ Payment can be made by calling our offices on etc with your debit or credit card details, or by using one of the alternative methods on the reverse of this letter. Our client would prefer an amicable settlement, however, should the settlement amount not be paid by the specified date, they will not hesitate to take such further action as may be appropriate. Should you have any questions, please telephone our offices on telephone number etc." Seems to me I've received many letters similar to this already. As always though, any advice is gratefully received. Epsilon

Letter received from Meritforce Doorstep Collection Agents "AUTHORISED COLLECTOR VISIT Due to non-payment of the above we have been instructed by Mackenzie Hall Limited to collect this debt on their behalf. An authorised collector may make a visit to your property within the next 10 days. Should our collector inform us that no positive commitment towards clearing the debt has taken place, your account will be returned to this office and formal proceedings may be considered. If you do not want our collector to call and would rather arrange settlement, you must contact our Clients Mackenzie Hall Limited on xxx asking for xxx before the 6th December 2012 Should you fail to make a payment and action is taken, additional costs may be added to your debt. We look forward to hearing from you. No more reminders will be sent. Yours sincerely" This is from the "Doorstep Collections Manager" at Meritforce. The one piece of good news I see on here is that 'no more reminders will be sent'! I guess my best action is to send Meritforce the doorstep letter that Enron kindly provided on 10th November above. As always, all advice is gratefully received. Epsilon

Well, I didn't have to wait very long to hear from Muck Hall. "Reference: x Client Reference: x Pursuers: 1st Credit Limited Original Creditor: Citicards Principal Sum: £x NOTICE OF OVERDUE ACCOUNT Dear x We are instructed by our client to recover the outstanding balance of this Overdue Account. Despite repeated requests for payment your overdue account with our client still remains outstanding. Accordingly, we may now have no other alternative than to advise our client to take such further action as may be appropriate. ___________________________________________________________________________________ This letter is to inform you of our client's intended action, even if you do not adknowledge (sic) this. It is now imperative that you contact this office within the next 72 hours to settle this account. By doing so, you are showing an interest to resolve this matter and we will endeavour to come to an amicable conclusion to this matter. Should you decide to ignore this advice, our client will not hesitate to instruct the appropriate action be taken against you to recover the outstanding balance in full. To avoid any further action, payment must be lodged at this office within the next 72 hours. If this is not possible please contact x immediately. Important: If you are not the named person above please contact us quoting Address ID to stop any further communication. Yours sincerely etc" Obviously I intend to ignore. Epsilon

Dear dx100uk, SteveH2508, coledog & Enron Thank you very much for your replies, advice & humour! I mistakenly thought 1st Crud were rock bottom. Is it really possible to go lower? I'll wait and see if Muck Hall write to me suggesting they might make a doorstep visit and then I'll use the doorstep letter above. Epsilon

Account Transferred to Mackenzie Hall New letter received which reads: "Dear x Current Balance: £x We refer to the above and to our numerous previous attempts to discuss with you the payment of this outstanding debt. We are disappointed that despite our attempts you have either not communicated with us or paid the debt in full. Given the above we have decided to engage the services of Mackenzie Hall and your account has been transferred to them. Our instructions to Mackenzie Hall are to seek to obtain the outstanding debt on our behalf. As part of their collection activity Mackenzie Hall may visit you at your property in order to discuss with you the outstanding debt. The intended outcome of any visit is to achieve the repayment of the debt. Mackenzie Hall will communicate with you before they visit you. Whilst your account is with Mackenzie Hall any payments and correspondence regarding your account should be directed to them. Please contact Mackenzie Hall directly regarding this account on 01563 556515. Yours sincerely etc" As always, all advice is gratefully received. Epsilon

Thanks dx100uk. It's good to have your continued support.

Letter received from Judge & Priestley LLP Letter reads: "Dear Sir, Re: Debt due to 1st Credit (Finance) Ltd following an assignment between Citifinancial Cards 2007 F/f - Total Debt Outstanding: £x We refer to our previous correspondence with respect to the above mentioned debt. We have been instructed by our client that you have failed to respond to all reasonable requests to settle this outstanding debt and have failed to identify any reason why the debt is not due or owing. In order to avoid legal proceedings being issued against you and costs being incurred you should make payment of this debt immediately. You can contact us if you wish to discuss possible repayment options on the telephone number and contact details provided above. You can also seek free independent advice and assistance from such organisations as listed in the table attached to the back of this letter. Your remittance should be sent to Connaught Collections, The Omnibus Building, Lesbourne Road, Reigate, RH2 7JP and should be made payable to our client, Connaught Collections. If you believe there is a good reason for your failure to settle our client's account, please advise them immediately upon receipt of this letter. If you do not respond to this letter it will be taken that you have no good reason for your failure to pay the account and that such sum is properly due and payable. We will refer to this letter on the question of costs should proceedings subsequently be issued. SHOULD YOU HAVE ANY QUERIES CONCERNING YOUR ACCOUNT, PLEASE CONTACT OUR CLIENT ON TELEPHONE NUMBER 01737 237 373. Yours faithfully JUDGE & PRIESTLEY LLP" Although they refer to 'our previous correspondence', I can't recall receiving any previous letter or letters from Judge & Priestley. As always, any advice will be much appreciated. Epsilon

Another two letters received. The first reads: Our client has invited us to extend a generous discount of 30% off the current balance shown above which if paid will be accepted as full and final satisfaction of this debt. If you are unable to raise the lump sum of £x, we would consider a slightly lower rate of discount if we can agree more favourable repayment terms with you. Please note that this offer can only be held open for a period of thirty days of the date of this letter. etc The second letter reads: According to Credit Bureau Information we have been advised that you are still residing at the above address. We have not had any response to our previous communications. We are therefore unaware if you intend making payments or are unable to do so at this time. We would therefore ask you to contact us to either: a) Make a 'full and final settlement payment'. We can offer you a discount of up to 50% b) Inform us of the reason you are not prepared to make a payment. If you are unable to pay in one lump sum, we may be able to accommodate an instalment plan. Please forward your payment proposal in writing accompanied alongside your income and expenditure. If we do not hear form you within the next 10 days you details may be referred to our client for further action. etc So a 30% discount has increased to 50% discount in a matter of days. Seems to me if I don't make any reply the discount offered will soon be at 100% - I wish!

Thanks dx100uk, Enron & silverfox1961 for your replies. I appreciate the advice & support. Epsilon

Hi All It's been a relatively quiet year and a bit and then yesterday I received two letters, though they are dated 10 days apart, both from Connaught Collections. The bottom of each letter states, "Connaught Collections is the trading style of 1st Credit Limited which is registered in England and Wales." The first letter reads: "Re: CITIFINANCIAL EUROPE PLC, Outstanding Debt £x We have been instructed to recover this overdue account and understand that you have already been furnished with the full details of our client's claim. As we are unaware of any reason for payment being withheld, please forward settlement in full to this office within the next seven days. We should point out that in the event of non-settlement, our client reserves the right to issue legal proceedings if necessary. This would result in additional interest and costs being added to the balance as shown. Yours sincerely etc Our company has the sole control of your account. Payment must be sent to this office. DO NOT PAY A DOORSTEP COLLECTOR, without first gaining our authority." The second letter reads: "As we are yet to receive an offer of repayment or valid reason for non payment, we will shortly be returning your account to CITIFINANCIAL EUROPE PLC with a recommendation for further action, which may include a doorstep visit and or County Court proceedings. Should you wish to avoid further action I must ask that you forward your repayment proposals to this office by return of post. Outstanding balance: £x For your convenience, we have printed a reply slip for your completion. Your response should be accompanied with your first instalment if you wish to set up a long-term plan. We look forward to hearing from you and reaching an amicable conclusion to this long overdue matter. Please call us to discuss any available discount for immediate settlement. Yours sincerely etc" There's a payslip at the bottom of the letter. I'd appreciate any comments/advice. Thanks Epsilon

Hi Letter received from 1st Crud this week is as follows: "YOU HAVE RAISED A DISPUTE / QUERY We refer to your recent communication advising 1st Credit Ltd that you have a dispute / query in relation to this debt. We will shortly be contacting our client to advise them of your comments. We will contact you with our client's reply in due course. This process may take at least one month. Unless you are querying the full balance we must ask you to contact 1st Credit Ltd immediately to discuss payment of the debt amount you accept is due and payable. Please call this office to provide a suitable contact number. This will ensure we are able to deal with this matter quickly and efficiently. Telephone us on , your reference is ." I wonder if this is just a ruse to get me to phone them. It would certainly be nice if their letters stopped for a month, but somehow I doubt that they will. Epsilon

Thanks Coledog - that's perfect. Epsilon

Hi I've received yet another delightful communication from 1st Crud, this one suggesting that there's the possibility of a face to face meeting. It reads: "We have written to you on numerous prior occasions with regards to your CITIFINANCIAL EUROPE PLC account. However the debt still remains unpaid. If we cannot agree repayment terms then we will be left with no option but to consider legal action against you. We would of course prefer to resolve this matter by reaching a mutually agreeable repayment agreement. "Please act now to avoid an agent attending your property" As a gesture of good will - We invite you to make us an offer of repayment below on our standing order mandate form. We require that the payment plan is paid monthly and we will accept your offer provided we receive all the monthly payments. Please fill in the below standing order from, sign and send back with the pre paid envelope provided. If you wish to discuss this matter then please call on etc." Is it worth writing back to inform them that any agent "attending my property" would be wasting his time as they have no powers or rights or is it better to ignore? Epsilon

Hi Thanks Silverfox. The statements do go back to 2005. But there's definitely no account history. I'll get back to them about this. Epsilon

Thanks Coledog Your first sentence made me laugh and has cheered me up. I appreciate your continued advice. Epsilon

Hi 2 more letters received from Crud. The first was the 10%/20%/30% discount letter. The second was "Special Low Discount Opportunity" You Pay Half We Pay Half letter. Have they got a marketing department now? The more interesting letter & documents have come from Citi who've finally responded to my SAR request - it's taken them a bit longer than 40 days. The letter reads: "Thank you for your recent request for copies of the personal data under s 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998 regarding your account. Please find enclosed: A copy of the personal data provided as part of the application process. Copies of correspondence received from you. Copies of the statements issued on the account. Please note no statements were produced after [date] as the account was sold to First Credit. You should note that we do not routinely keep copies of all correspondence sent to customers because the majority of our letters are issued by our customer management system, and this does not maintain any records beyond the letter type and the date the letter was sent, and generally this information is only held for a two year period. We have not provided you with copies of the terms and conditions as these fall outside the definition of personal data for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 1998. Similarly, s 7 (1) © only requires a data controller to provide a copy of the information constituting any personal data, not the actual document on which the personal data is recorded; therefore we have supplied a copy of the information on the agreement/application. Yours sincerely [illegible signature] Data Request Team" Enclosed is: 1. A one page printout of personal data - name, address, DOB etc 2. Letter + personal budget + financial statement (both stamped by CAB) sent by me when I first got into financial difficulties. 3. One copy of a cheque + credit slip from many years ago. 4. Copies of statements. As before, comments and advice much appreciated. Epsilon