That's completely false. They are following the Data Protection Act 1998. They need to confirm at least 2 (but can ask for 4 to be safe) pieces of information to discuss any matters. This is to satisfy that they are speaking to the correct person so that personal data is not given incorrectly. That's the law.

First of all, before speaking to OPOS just prepare an income and expenditure which shows you can only pay £10 per month. If they try and get you to increase just stand firm, calls are recorded and as long as you can prove that you can only pay this amount (they accept I/Es as proof) then you will be able to set up a plan. ou may have to send this in via email or letter. Regarding the "what I legally owe" part. OPOS are a debt collection agency that have not bought the debt and have to go by the amount the client tell them. They can accept settlement figures and get a lot of the charges removed. But if you are only going to pay £10 each month then they are unable to adjust the balance at all. Minicredit will not take you to court over this and OPOS will not add more interest on. If you don't pay it it will affect your credit rating etc but at the end of the day they will not take any legal action. Good luck and let me know how you get on! And despite what someone has said here they are two different companies. Any simple checks will confirm that.

You haven't included that debt when you set up your DMP. Tell the collection agency that you are in a DMP and they will give you 30 days "breathing space". In that time either speak to the DMP and see if they can add the debt on to existing plans (may not do it, and I have seen some DMC's add "admin" charges for this with excessive amounts). If unable to add it call the collections agency and say something like "the DMC is going to offer £X per month, but I want to get it cleared faster, Will you accept £Y per month?" I doubt they would say no since the alternative is a DMP. Let us know how you get on.