Thanks for your help so far. A further question. I have now acknowledged the claim and am currently drafting a letter to MKDP requesting the documents mentioned in the particulars of claim. The standard letter I am using from the library on this site makes reference to both the termination notice and the statement of account, but says to delete if not mentioned. These documents are not, in fact, refereed to in the PoC, but should I not request at least a statement of account - or will doing so invalidate my letter by my referring in this request (which I am stating is under CPR 31.14) to documents not mentioned by them in the PoC? Thanks, Sue

Thanks so much for your reply Andy. I would like to try to avoid getting a CCJ against my name as although I have no present plans to return to the UK I would not like to rule that out as an option and having CCJs on my record would clearly make things problematic for me if I were to head back. I have been digging around a little more since my earlier post. There is a possibility that this could be statute barred. It would appear that my last payment to this account was in Feb 2008. I do not recall now the date that the payment went to them each month. I remember only that at one point the payments went out around the 13th of the month which was just before my payday which was causing issues so it was moved to later in the month, although how much later I really cannot say. The claim was issued on Feb 24th so if it is statute barred it will be by a couple of days at most (which makes me suspect that they knew it was about to become statute barred and submitted the claim days before rather than after the deadline). Do you have any advice on how I would find out the exact date I made the last payment to the account - bearing in mind that I have 28 days to submit a defence and sending a request for information to either HSBC or the lawyers is unlikely to be received and a reply received here in China within that deadline. The request for information I submitted previously is almost certainly in one of the boxes of papers stored in my parents loft, but I cannot in good conscience ask them to go digging through those in the hope that it is indeed there. I am 99% certain that the request I sent previously yielded a mass of statements but no CCA, so am I right in thinking that could be a possible defence also? I presume I would need to choose one or the other before submitting a defence, but without evidence in my hands as to the last payment date or the lack of a CCA do you have any suggestion as to which route I should choose. Thanks again so much for your advice. Sue

Hi there, I'm hoping someone might be able to help me out here. Many years ago I got into some debt with a number of credit cards (the bulk of the debt was accrued around 2001 - 2003 when my then husband was out of work). Until around 2008 I was continuing to make minimum payments on the accounts and crippling myself financially into the bargain. Around 2007 / 2008 I discovered this site and sent off to these cards asking for all the information they had on me. I recall clearly that the information received from HSBC did not include the CCA and I recall writing to them at this time challenging the debt. I ceased making payments on the account at this time. The debt was subsequently passed to MKDP LLP for recovery. Upon checking my credit file last summer I notice that a default was recorded on my account, but not until 27 August 2011 - some 3 years after I ceased making payments. In the intervening period my marriage broke down and for the past year I have been travelling and have settled since August of last year in China where I now have a job teaching kindergarten where I now plan to stay for some while (although no fixed date in mind as yet). I have only recently got what I hope is now a reasonably permanent address here in China so my address has remained as my parent's address in the UK where they can receive post for me. I had an alarmed phone call last night from my mother as MKDP have now started legal proceedings to recover the debt originally accrued with HSBC. I would, of course, be extremely grateful of some advice on what I should do next. However I am also intrigued as the particulars of claim (unfortunately I cannot post a picture of this to show you as I do not yet have 10 posts) state that the account number to which they refer to was assigned to me in December 2011 - close to 4 years after I ceased making payments on this debt and some 4 months after a default was recorded. Does this seem normal? I would be extremely grateful of any advice you can offer. One of my biggest concerns is that trying to meet any deadlines set by the courts could be difficult as on past experience post from here can take anything up to 2 - 3 weeks to reach the UK. Thank you so much in advance for any help at all that anyone can offer. Regards, Sue