hi there. Basically I think my limited knowledge may be enough to help you. You need to write to the finance company advising them that you are repudiating the contract. This is legal speak for cancelling it due to not receiving the goods/services as promised. If you have a look around here and also google contract law, you will find more about this repudiation. By repudiating the contract it stops being in force immediately and so no cancellation costs occur. I believe you may have to give them notice, again get scanning to find more information. Good luck!

Zoot, I appreciate your input and I have no doubts as to your intentions. I hate to sound like a broken record but how do I legally know that I owe this DCA money?

thanks for that stiffnuts. I'll get your letter out over the weekend. I'll keep ya posted! Mick the Miller

Dave, have you seen letters C and D in the debt template letters? Maybe you could do a bit of handywork on them and customise them for your situation

Welcome Dave. Bit of a sticky one this, I'm sure there are other posts within the forum where similar problems have occured with a dca so might be worth having a read through. My advice: 1) Don't bother ringing up, make sure everything is in writing - I'm not suggesting that 1st Credit would do this but say they agreed to £5 a month on the phone then a month later start hassling you as the last month's payment was not enough. You don't have much in the way of proof to the agreement do you? 2) If you are sure that you owe this debt, then by all means send them £5 a month via cheque. 3) If they still insist they need more, the only real way of enforcement is via the county court. A judge would look very unfavourably on them if they were asking for more than you could afford to pay - especially when you are volunteering the £5 a month. - I really don't think they would do this as some judges have set the monthly payments as low as £1 a month in these cases - again read through the forum As for a letter, I don't really know of any. No doubt a more helpful poster will be on momentarily! Good luck Mick the Miller

Is that true stiffnuts? to be absolutely clear, the alleged debt is on an account 4+ years old. Link Financial are saying that as the agreement was terminated by the original lender due to non-payment (which ended in the account defaulting and being sold on to their good selves). They are argueing that the agreement therefore is no longer current.

Thanks for that file wizzard. Would the note of sale show the amount due? would this note refer to the original agreement? would the original agreement be needed to prove the debt exists?

sorry for being a bit thick, but what other ways are these?

so let me get this straight, defaulted loan gets sold by bank to a debt collection agency. Said agency is then under no obligation to prove they are owed the money.

section 97 is under the part vii defaults and terminations, would this be the relevant section? of the act?

thanks zoot. out of interest, which law would link base a court case on for any "recovery" of the debt?

Hmmmm, I'm unsure. The alleged debt is quite old 4 + yrs and around about that time I was all over the place with illness. My parents agreed to pay off my debts at that time (£2k or so) and I'm pretty sure this was paid off. In the past 6 months or so they have become very persistant however and I've been unsure as to whether this was one paid off or not. So, All I want is some sort of legal proof that the debt exists, if it does, then I'll pay it. I do have a letter from 2002 from Link saying they own the debt, no recollection of anything from Natwest (At that stage though i was just burning letters from banks without opening them)

NatWest credit card

Is there any legal obligation for a debt collection company to prove that a debt exists then? If so how do I ensure they do this?

might be worth a quick phone call to equifax then. I'll have a quick check through my emails and find the exact wording which I sent, but this is not a good enough response from equifax is it? Don't panic, the good folks on here will help you through this!

Would you recomend I write to them again or should I just stick to my original timescale ? (As per the CCA template)

I had the same issue when an equifax check showed the same debt twice with 2 different creditors. Asimple 1 line email went of to equifax and one of the records was removed entirely within a fortnight. Something along the lines of: "I believe that the acounts x and y are the same debt. Please arrange for one of them to be removed from my record." Good luck!!

Sorry, Link Financial are a dca.

Hi folks I made a CCA request to Link Financial over the weekend, and received a phone call on Wednesday relating to my request and that they saw it as an avoidance measure etc. etc. I recall the guy on the phone stating that they would have to request the info from the original creditor (NatWest) so I presume they don't have the papers. Anyway, today I received a letter from Link with the following: "Sections 77 and 78 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 These sections do not apply to your account. This is because Sections 77 and 78 only apply to 'matters arising during the currency of ...agreements'. Since the agreement relating to your account has been terminated (for non-payment) the agreement is no longer "current"" Anyone have any ideas as to my next step? I have a good mind to send a copy of the letter to my local TS now but I await any information from you good people Cheers Mick

Keep going, You can have a hell of a good night out on £68!

I have sent this via email seperately Shaz, I like to keep them on their toes! I've already pencilled in my trip to the court in 2 weeks time to register my claim - might treat myself to a pub lunch afterwards!

Give it to 'em vsouth! I was waiting about 2 weeks from sending the SAR to receiving my statements last Tuesday. Its a weird feeling seeing all the charges on the statements - I was getting happier every time I found one, which makes a change to my inital response when they were taking the money off me! Good luck and keep us posted!

Update: I received my statements on 10th October, so banged off the 1st letter straight away. I agree with other posters that it's a weird feeling reading about where you were 4 or 5 years ago and how much you was spending! I totted up the amount of charges - almost 800 quid so that will be nice come christmas time! I have just come off the phone from a lady in the Birmingham office - Offering me £310 which I politely refused. So my letter before action has been emailed today. Incidently, I sent my 1st letter on the 10th recorded delivery - Royal Mail still don't know where it is so my email chaser yesterday seemed to do the trick. Thanks to everyone on here for their stories and experiences! Mick the Miller

have you got any wage slips from the time you had the account? might have account number and sort code on them. Its a bit poor that they have absolutely no recollection of you, maybe time to go into the branch and speak to a manager (might get a free cup of tea out of them too!)

Hi there, I have 2 old credit card accounts, both with debt collection agencies. Am I right in thinking I can claim for my charges back via the original lenders (Natwest and Capital 1) or do I claim from the DCA as they own the debt now?