I received a strange email supposedly from Lowells with a Zip file attached, asking me to open the document, here are the brief details - (the document in the zip file was a screen saver...haven't opened it up). Weird or what? As far as I know anything they have is likely to be nigh on statute barred - if not already well statute barred - and the last run in with them was over a PDL which had been repaid...they did back off then (I still have their confirmation that they won't chase). Here is a snippet from the header of the email... I have the original if somebody wants to check it out. From - Thu Dec 04 19:54:31 2014 X-Account-Key: account1 X-UIDL: ALRhUtQAAAKFVICOmQfzKJcieJI X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 X-Mozilla-Keys: X-Apparently-To:(me at my normal email); Thu, 04 Dec 2014 16:40:57 +0000 Received-SPF: none (domain of lowellgroup.co.uk does not designate permitted sender hosts) X-YMailISG: 6vlMSrYWLDsUXiRKKrtq5wxaZLx0B6p6_GwdUqEimSYS195Y

At least I assume it's Lloyds Credit Card. Another vague Lowells/Carter claim issued 4 Nov. Assuming it is, this would probably have been issued pre 2007. The claimants claim is for the sum of £xxxx.xx being monies due from the defendant to the claimant under an agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 between the defendant and Lloyds under account reference xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx And assigned to the claimant on dd/mm/yy, notice of which has been given to the defendant. The defendant failed to maintain contractual repayment under the terms of the agreement and a default notice has been served which has not been complied with. And the claimant claims xxxx.xx The claimant also claims statutory interest pursuant to s.69 of the county act 1984 at a rate of 8% per annum from the date of assignment of the agreement to date but limited to a maximum of one year and a maximum of 1000 amounting to 494.58 6 Nov CCA1974 S.78 formal request + £1 po sent to claimant (Lowells) 6 Nov CPR 31.14 request sent to claimants solicitor (Carter) 7 Nov Claim acknowledged on MCOL 11 Nov reply to CPR request from Carter, the usual refusing to supply any documentation under Practice Direction 7C point 1.4 (3A) eliminates the requirement to attach the documents to the PoC when they are issued by the Court. draft defence follows...

Hi, I have a debt with Lloyds, due to a personal loan when I was employed by them. Of course there was PPI on there, as an employee it was required of me in order to get the loan. long story short, I had to resign from my job with them due to moving hundreds of miles into a womens refuge to escape domestic violence. They refused my ppi claim as I had resigned and wouldn't help me transfer my job to another branch. I tried to get them to agree to reduced payments, while I got sorted; again refused. As I had so much else going on, they really were the least of my worries and I ignored them. Right or wrong, I know better now and wouldn't dream of doing it again. The debt became statute barred in October 13, I've found this out through the CAB. I've been getting letters from Lowells, but having read advice on here, ignored them. My credit file was clean, the default had dropped off. I was accepted for a 'proper' bank account, and had to pass a credit check for my current job so I know it was fine. Now all of a sudden, Lowells have placed defaults on my credit file for every month from October 13, which is when I'm assuming they bought the debt. They're saying last payment was made 2009, it wasn't, it was June 2007. I obviously can't ignore them any longer, they're also threatening to take me to court, bless their cotton socks. What do I do now please? Thanks in advance!

I have a debt with provident which is now some two years old, I have arthritis and chrones disease and am unable to work let alone leave the house very often. due to events 2000 my husband now suffers with severe PTSD he has just been diagnosed with arthritis and COPD, he has been told that the extent of his trauma and facts that arose from from counselling ( childhood abuse) that he is totaly unable to work or be in regular contact with people whom he does not know. A debt collector called regular and took a small amount each time for the debt which stopped after a while. Since the government crackdown on benefits by the government our income has decreased significantly and we are now having to pay 25% of our Council Tax, this leaves us absolutely no money to spare, we cut of the gas ourselves and eat once a day. I have now had a letter from Provident stating that they have sold the loan to Lowells who say we now owe them the debt and are demanding payment, what can I do I just dont have any money to give them?

I've been issued with court papers from an old debt from Three/lowells/BW Legal Is there a secure/private part of the forum I can ask questions and get help with writing my defence?

Hi, this is my first time using this site, I have read lots about it, and am impressed with peoples reviews and advice, My problem is this... In late 2009 or very early 2010 I stood guarantor for my grandson with Vodafone, I cannot remember if it was for 12 or 18 months contract, a when the contract was up I notified Vodafone I did not wish to stand guarantor any more and assumed they accepted this, I never heard from them at all. on feb.21st 2014 I received a letter from Byran Carter solicitors acting on behalf of Fredericksons ltd. demanding I pay them £614.30, I do not accept that I owe this money so I ignored it. I moved from that address in February 2014, on September 8th. 2014 I received another letter from Lowells demanding £514.30 to my new address, I applied online for car insurance and home insurance which I paid with a debit card in full. I was amazed how they got my new address, I can only assume through someone like Experian, but surely they are not allowed to divulge that sort of information!!! I again ignored the letter, low and behold another letter to my new address on sept.22nd. 2014 again demanding £514.30, saying if I did not pay, they would send to specialist dept. RED debt collection agency. Both letters have an account number they say from Vodafone, the same account number was on the B.Carter letter which was from Frederickson, the 2 Sept. letters from Lowells, would really appreciate some advice, as I am 64 years old and do not need this hassle!!!! many thanks Sandra

Dear All New to this site and have been reading through today. Thankyou in advance for any help you can give me with this issue. I had an HSBC current account dating back to 1994 when I was a teenager. Later when I was a university student they gave me an overdraft with limit £1000 in approx 2001. After losing my job in October 2008 I no longer had an income to put into the account. interest charges took me over the limit and HSBC then put on excess charges for being over the limit and additional charges every time they added more interest taking me further above the limit. After a few months after informing them of my situation they subsequently took the decision to convert the overdraft into a loan. I could not make the loan payments (I'm not 100% if I paid the first one or not) and the account went into default. Either just before the default or maybe a month or so after I sent out letters to all my creditors with offer of a token payment of £1. Although I'm not 100% because of the length of time passed I am assuming I would have written to HSBC who were the second biggest creditor. Again I may have also made the first token payment but unsure if I did. I don't have a record of the default notice from HSBC in my paperwork and do not remember if I received one. In fact the only paperwork I have on this account is a DCA chaser letter from a company called Direct Legal and Collections. For the next year or two I received various chaser letters from Direct Legal and Collections. All of which I binned. Having checked my Experian two years ago I saw an entry for the debt default logged by Lowell Portfolio. This was along with a default logged by HSBC for the same amount with defaults 5 days apart. Both in may 2009. Agreement start dates also differed (HSBC 2008 Lowell 1994). The account number/details also differed. HSBC default was for the new loan account whereas Lowell claim is under the original current account number (although they refer to it as a loan on Equifax/Experian). I also do not have in my records a letter of assignment of the debt to Lowell. Earlier this year I queried the double entry with Experian who contacted HSBC and they removed their record. I have had no other letters about this account for a number of years. Account number on the Lowell record and on the DLC letters differ. A letter has been sent to my mothers address (my original address but I did update HSBC with my change of address in 2009) from Bryan Carter Solicitors who have been instructed by Fredrikson International to commence legal proceedings unless payment is made within 14 days. What would now be the next step?

just like to thank all who post on this site ,dont post much myself but do read and learn and thanks to this have just had £4000 debt wiped out by lowells, had hfc debt sold on to lowells who chased me for two years bombarded me with phone calls and letters never produced any documents or paperwork i ask for today got a letter stating that they had wiped the debt off and would no longer be pursuing it, so to all those still figting dont give in and i found all my answers on this site big thang you to the many good people who post

hi lovely people i sent a CCa request on 21/04/14 to Lowells for MBNA old debt from 2005, i have been paying token payments since 2005. i havent had a reply back to CCA request and have recieved a letter from Hamptons legal re-payment options. i have suspended payments since, but while going through the paperwork, i have noticed the a/c number on all their correspondence over the years does not match the account number in question. should i querry this with them?

Morning everyone, I have just re-surfaced back on my credit record after a good few years staying off the radar, I've had 4 letters from the leeds losers Lowells after different accounts that are statute barred....any suggestions

Hi, hope someone can help, in 2009 I got into difficulty with cap one and I sent CCA request didn't get it just t & c since then other companies have tried to get money I just so no CCA they've gone away. Got a letter from Lowell's saying they've taken over the debt and to pay in full!! Have noticed they've checked my credit report a couple ofweeks ago and today lowells have defaulted us from today, so does that mean the clocks ticking again now? Because cap one Have gone off the credit report. We've ignored Lowell's so where do we go from here. Any help is much appreciated. Tia.

Hi, I have recently been contacted by Lowells on behalf of Vodafone regarding payment for an account that was active from 1997-1999. According to Vodafone collections, the last payment made was on the 30th June 1999, the subsequent payment did not clear due to no funds being available. I have been informed that 13 years later, on 4th September 2012, another attempt was made to take a payment (I'm not sure why there was no activity in the intervening 13 years), at which point a default was served on my account. My issue is this - I have no problem paying a debt that I owe, although dispute the fact that my credit report will be flagged with a non-payment from 2012 (thus affecting my credit score) rather than from 1999 as there has been absolutely no activity on the account in these past 15 years. Lowell inform me that the debt does not classify as statute barred due to the 2012 notice - as mentioned, I have no issue with paying a debt that I owe and do not intend to try to avoid payment, other than the issue with the date of the notice which in my eyes seems unreasonable due to the timescales involved and the account being dormant for 15 years. After such a long time, I have no records or recollection of this account (and have moved house 4 times since), and Vodafone are unable to explain why the default was served after such a long interval. Their only advice is to write a letter to Vodafone QA, which I suspect will take quite a while to resolve and in the meantime Lowells will be attempting to reclaim their debt. Any advice would be greatly appreciated - is there any way that I can have the date of the default modified such that it doesn't affect my credit rating? Thanks!

Hi all looking for advice a previous credit card debt has now been passed onto lowells who sent a letter asking me to phone. I didnt phone i sent the cca letter requesting my cca with a £1 postal order. I received a reply yesterday saying my account with them has been put on hold because they are trying to get the original cca from barclaycard. This is for a credit card i took out in 2004 and was paying up until 2009 but hit hard times. i have not paid anything since then and was wondering what the next course of action is please? on my credit file it says barclaycard settled my account then lowells took it over/bought it?? any help would be much appreciated thanks ☺

Hi, I've been reading around this forum for days about my issue and thanks to all of you, I know where I stand I've had three letters (2 from Lowells & 1 from Red which I know are the same people) about some alleged credit card debts which are 7 & 8 years old respectively. After reading all the info on here, I am absolutely 100% certain these are statute barred (no written acknowledgment or payments made for 7 & 8 years & definitely no CCJ's). I know I can send statute barred letters, but the devil on my shoulder wants to play with them a bit so I'm toying with the idea of just waiting and seeing where they go from here knowing that it's costing them time and money. So far, I've had two "Hello we're Lowell's and we've bought your debt" letters included with their own notice of assignment letters (made up to look like they came from the bank) and one "OVERDUE, you haven't paid, pay NOW before things get worse" letter from Red. If it weren't for people like you on here, I'd have been panicking, losing sleep and this would have absolutely exacerbated my mental health condition . Your help is very much appreciated. Who knows how many people get scared into coughing up when they're threatened by these vermin????? As it stands, I've got statute barred letters typed up ready to go but haven't sent them yet. Do I send the letters & see these plonkers off now or do I see how long they keep this nonsense up for? I just wanted to say thanks for being here, and if any of you have advice on how I should play this out, I'd be grateful for your input.

I once had a 3G dongle, which persistly crashed and i had many wasted hours having to redo things, so much so i had to either go out with it, or wait for a passing satelite to be favourable to me. I repeatedly complained to 3G, and I asked what happens if I want to end this. In reply I was told if i dont pay £15 at end of the month it would automatically be switched off. This was desperate after months battling with it. It was on a plan, sold to me rather hastily in a car phone shop. So 3G was well aware of the problem, and that i intended to end the use of it. All was going well, that was back in 2008. Now in 2014, I get a letter from lowells, saying i owe £239 !! Following advise I got off reading sites, I asked them to prove it, asking for full statements, contract which they stated I had signed, Notice of assignment etc. All for something I didnt know i owed! Well they sent me notice of assignment, supposedly sent to me in 2012, in place of a full statement i have got a bill dated for the following may, for £39, the other £200 being early disconnection fee, which hadnt made it on to a bill for 3G even though their bill was dated 6 months later. I never received the first bill, much less any notice of anything until 2014. I know i have moved once, but I'm not hard to find. First I knew was actually an ex partner writing to tell me Lowells had discussed with him a bill I had for 3G, I wasnt impressed as this person is not allowed to contact me under any circumstances. This week it has been handed to Red. I should add I made classic mistake of phoning them, and giving my date of birth, tel number etc in the first instance. Phone number has now been changed due to their never ending calls

Hi can anyone help me please? I have today received 2 letters - one from Bryan Carter and one from Northampton Court. The one from Bryan Carter says> As you have failed to make repayments on the above account we have now issued litigation proceedings in the County Court. You will recieve a claim form in the next 48 hours direct from the court. Balance including interest court cost and solicitor fees is £1125 I emailed Bryan Carter this morning with the following> Ref your letter dated 18th July 2014, with instruction to pursue through court please find below Re:− Account/ xxxxxx Reference Number :-xxxx I do not acknowledge any debt to your company or its clients. With reference to the above agreement, I require you to supply the following documentation before I will correspond with you further on this matter. 1. You must supply me with a true copy of the alleged agreement you refer to. This is my right under your obligation to supply a copy of the agreement, under the legislation contained within s.78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974. 2. A full statement of account. 3. A signed true copy of the deed of assignment of the above referenced agreement that you allege exists. 4. A copy of any other documents referred to in the agreement. I understand that under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (Sections 77−79), I am entitled to receive a copy of our credit agreement on request. Please note that under no circumstances should this payment be set aside against any alleged debt. If you are unable to supply the documentation requested. I understand a copy of our credit agreement should be supplied within 12 working days. I understand that under the Consumer Credit Act creditors are unable to enforce an agreement if they fail to comply with a request for a copy of the agreement under these sections of the Act. I look forward to hearing from you, as the alledged matter does not show up on any of my credit reports and i shall defend this in court. Their reply back was> LOWELL PORTFOLIO I LTD V xxxxxxxxxxx ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxx CLAIM NUMBER:xxxxxxxx Thank you for your email, the contents of which we have noted. We confirm that we are instructed by Lowell Portfolio I Ltd to act on their behalf in relation to the collection of an outstanding balance in the sum of £1,125.70. The debt relates to HFC Bank LTD account number xxxxxxx which was assigned to our client. It is the original creditor’s policy to provide an agreement to its customers at the point of contract and statements throughout and therefore you have already been provided with validation of the debt. Our client will provide a validation of the debt in accordance with the court’s directions. A Claim was issued in this matter on 17 July 2014. Please respond to the claim using the Response Pack provided by the Court. You should comply with the deadlines outlined by the Court in order to avoid a default judgement being entered against you. We recommend that you seek independent legal advice in this regard. Yours sincerely Bryan Carter Solicitors LLP 11 De Havilland Drive, Weybridge, Surrey KT13 0YP Tel: 0845 219 8686 Fax: 01932 341 517 e-mail: [email protected] I checked my credit file and i have nothing showing on my account for this debt. The last time it was acknowledged was July 2008. I have had no letters from either HFC or Lowells. Nothing I have signed for by anyone. The date on the claim form says 18th July. The claim form says it was assigned to Lowell portfolio ltd on 23/10/2013 pursuant to the law of property act 1925 What do i do as really do not want to get a ccj as i want to move in 6 months time. Please can anyone help me ==================================================================================== What is the value of the claim? £1125.70 Is the claim for a current or credit/loan account or mobile phone account? Credit account for pc When did you enter into the original agreement before or after 2007? JUly 2008 Has the claim been issued by the original creditor or was the account assigned and it is the Debt purchaser who has issued the claim. Debt purchaser who has issued the claim Were you aware the account had been assigned – did you receive a Notice of Assignment? No nothing at all. I would remember if i had Did you receive a Default Notice from the original creditor? I think maybe so yes but if i did it is not showing on my credit file for either experian, equifax or Callcredit for anything relating to this matter Have you been receiving statutory notices headed “Notice of Default sums” – at least once a year ? Nope nothing Why did you cease payments:- Completely forgot about it when the now ex was pregnant and we was struggling Was there a dispute with the original creditor that remains unresolved? Nonei know to - theyve never contacted me Did you communicate any financial problems to the original creditor and make any attempt to enter into a debt managementicon plan? No never

Claimant: Lowell Portfolio I Ltd Date of issue: 12th June 2014 What is the claim for – This Claim is for £1100 the amount due under an agreement between the original creditor and the Defendant to provide finance and/or services and/or goods. This debt was assigned to/purchased by Lowell Portfolio Ltd on XX/07/2013 and notice served pursuant to the law of property act 1925 Particulars Re: Lloyds A/C No xxxxxxxxx And the claimant claims £1100 The Claimant also claims interest pursuant to S69 county court Act 1984 from XX/07/2013 to date at 8% per annum amounting to £81 What is the value of the claim? £1300 Has the claimant included section 69 interest (8%)within the total claim or is it shown separate within the Particulars but not added to the debt? Claimant has included it in the total claim Is the claim for a current or credit/loan account or mobile phone account? Current Account When did you enter into the original agreement before or after 2007? Before 2007 (2005) Has the claim been issued by the original creditor or was the account assigned and it is the Debt purchaser who has issued the claim. Debt Purchaser Were you aware the account had been assigned – did you receive a Notice of Assignment? I've received a letter from Lloyds giving me a notice of assignement of the debt to Lowell Portfolio. It has a date of 24/06/2013 and the letter ittself has been dated as a 10th July 2013 Did you receive a Default Notice from the original creditor? Not aware of Have you been receiving statutory notices headed “Notice of Default sums” – at least once a year ? Not aware of Why did you cease payments:- The Alleged debt is made up of ‘Unplanned Overdraft Charges’, ‘Returned DD Default Charges’, no money was physically borrowed or any DD etc paid for. Also Lloyds "upgraded" my free current account into the "select" account without my knowledge or request. This implied a monthly charge of £3.50 rising to £7 after 3 months (as far as I'm correct) Was there a dispute with the original creditor that remains unresolved? Yes, I disputed the alleged debt but they did not resolve it. Did you communicate any financial problems to the original creditor and make any attempt to enter into a debt management plan? I wrote to them about Financial Hardship but they rejected to refund the charges. FURTHER INFO Thanks in advance for any help. I need to file my Defence by Sunday 1st June 2014, it is a very similar issue as one of the previous forum member but I'll give a brief outline to the claim, I believe it is statue barred but obviously I'm a total amateur The Original alleged debt was with Lloyds TSB for a Current BANK ACCOUNT, debt is made up of all 'default charges applied' to the account, no money was physically borrowed or any Direct Debits etc paid for. The last action on the account was a returned DD 3rd Septemeber 2007, after that I didn't use the account, but Lloyds TSB kept applying Account Charges, interest and finally the account was closed/passed to debt recovery. On 12th June 2014 Bryan Carter wrote to me and stated they have issued a claim and we should receive it in 48 hours!!! In fact I had a letter from the Court dated 12th of June as well Any help and advice would be highly appreciated, my deadline is 1st July 2014, not a lot but we just came back from a holiday to have this rather depressing surprise. Am I correct in thinking that my next steps should be to send a CPR31.14 to the Bryan Carter Solicitors? Also, should I fill the "Acknowledgement of service" now? Sorry about the basic questions but I'm a bit lost, this is the first time (and hope the last one) I'm involved in something like this. I'm also attaching a checkmyfile credit reference file, one picture shows original Lloyds TSB entry and the next one shows after the debt has been purchased by a Lowell. I'm not sure if it should be showing as a 2 separate entries though. Kind regards

Hi all, Just received some county court papers from Northampton CC filed by Bryan Carter about a debt Lowells bought from a 3 year old HBOS credit card. I used the cag forums a few years ago to get a claim from BC thrown out of court due to lack of proof of the debt but my memory isn't as good as it used to be and I wanted to double check to see what i should be doing. First thing I plan on doing is sending a CPR 31 request to Brian and secondly acknowledging through MCOL whilst I work on a defence. Is there another letter I should be sending out to either BC or Lol's in the meantime? Kind Regards

Name of Claimant: Lowell Portfolio 1 Ltd re Lowell Finance Ltd Documents and payments send to: Bryan Carter Solicitors. Date of Issue: 23 May 2014 What is claim for: This claim is for 800 the amount due under an agreement between the original creditor and the defendant to provide finance and /or services and/or goods. This debt was assigned to/purchased by Lowell Portfolio on XX 07 2013 and notice served pursuant to the law of property act 1925. Particulars Lloyds A/C No xxxxxxxxxxx And the claimant claims 800. The claimant also claims interest pursuant to county court act 1964 from XX 07 2013 to date at 8% per annum amounting to 50. Value of claim: Total £980 Claim is for a defaulted current bank account/overdraft. Unsure when entered into original agreement (See below) overdaft occured in 2007 so possibly original account pre 2007. Claim is issued by the debt purchaser. Unsure if a notice of assignation issued. (See below) Original creditor sent default notice early 2008. Unsure if Notice of default sums issued yearly. (See below) Payments ceased because unable to pay the £20 a day bank charges which then became £40 a day. The bank were telephoned to state unable to afford bank charges. No acceptable resolution could be reached. All further contact has been ignored. Further info I'm posting this to try and help the son of a friend. As such I don't have the full details but have looked through a pile of paperwork they kept. I think a fair bit has been thrown away. The debt was originally around £100 of unauthorised overdaft with Lloyds in 2007. Lloyds started adding bank charges including a £20 a day charge, which at one point i'm told doubled to £40 a day. After an unsuccesful conversation with Lloyds the youngster abandoned the account and ignored further communications, which went on to come from debt collection agencies and finally Lowells who have now issued a claim through the courts via Bryan Carter Solicitors. I would like to help him defend the claim rather than see him offer no defence and get rubber stamped a CCJ. Two things strike me... 1) This debt arises from bank charges that were ultimately ruled unfair I believe. There was a time when these could have been reclaimed, sadly he didn't do that. So can these charges now be enforceable? 2) It's over six years since any payments/debt acknowledged and I'm fairly certain the default notice is over 6 years old, the last payments certainly were (I can check the date as they have the notice). So i think this debt should be statute barred. Any advice on the best way to proceed would be appreciated. I'm thinking we need to get them to prove they have the appropriate proof of the debt in place and that it's not statute barred but no idea how to go about that. Also the claim is from the County Court Business Centre in Northampton. This is no where near us and not his local court. Should this be transferred to his local court? And if so how is that done. Thanks in advance!

Hello all I am having a dispute over a loan that was last acknowledged in 2006. Last year i started to get letters from Lowells saying i owed close to 7k. I sent them a statute barred letter and noticed a default was put on my account in the August of last year by Lowells. I have now been receiving letters every couple of months from Lowells saying We're looking into your query... blah blah blah Then today i received a letter dated the 16th of may saying We have replied to your query we wrote to you recently with answers to your query and we can now sort out a payment plan. I called them to tell them i had not received the reply. I didnt go any further or be dragged into any conversation other than to ask them to resend the reply as i had not received it. they said they would resend the reply which was dated the 2nd of may, and guess what? i had 14 days to reply ! isn't that quite the coincidence. I am now awaiting their reply to my query, which i am guessing is some sort of dodgy payment i have never made ( I have heard they use this tactic ). I guess I am just wondering what my next step should be? I thank any of you that take the time to look at this for me. Collins1983

I had a credit card debt with Alliance and Leicester going back 6 years ago (at an old address and a different name). The debt has changed hands a number of times (although same group of companies). just received the following claim form from Northampton Bulk Centre on behalf of Lowell Portfolio 1 from BW Legal (are they part of the same Group??). ‘The Claimant’s Claim is for the sum of xxxxxx being monies due from the Defendant to the Claimant under a Financial Services agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 between the Defendant and Equidebt under account reference xxxxx and assigned to the Claimant on 08/10/12 notice of which has been given to the Defendant. The Defendant failed to maintain the contractual payment under the terms of the agreement and a default notice has been served and not complied with. The claim also includes statutory interest pursuant to section 69 of the County Courts Act 1984 at a rate of 8.00% per annum (a daily rate of 0.94 from the date of assignment to the date of issue () being an amount of xxxxx’ My questions are as follows: I am 99% sure that the last payment I made was in February 2008 and therefore the debt is over 6 years old and statute barred. However, checking my credit report it states the account was defaulted on 16/08/2008. Which date should I be using? If it is when the account was defaulted by the Company then surely all companies would leave their default notices until later periods. I have never acknowledged the debt to anyone. The account with Alliance and Leicester (now trading as part of MBNA I think), was opened in 1999 and I do not have a copy of the original agreement. The account reference they have used differs from the account numbers I have received previously (although any letters I had received recently from Lowells went straight into the bin!) The name on the form is my married name (I have since reverted to my maiden name). Also I have never had any dealings with Equidebt apart from a letter from MBNA informing me that they have assigned my account to Equidebt (did they not go into administration some time last year?), who must have then sold the debt to Lowells, who moved it to Red and then Hamptons and then to Lowells Portfolio (so confusing!!!!). I am going to defend the case on the basis that the debt is statute barred but need to know what information I need to try and obtain for my defence (e.g. copies of the original agreement, etc) and who do I request this information from. I am quite sure that as the account was opened pre-2000 that they will not have a copy of any signed agreement. I also strongly believe that this is a last ditch attempt by Lowells to try and scare me into obtaining the money as I have completely ignored their letters and messages in the past and they know that if I do not defend it they will get a judgement against me which they can chase me for any money. Any help greatly appreciated.

Hi, Lowells have been pursuing a debt they have bought. I sent a 'prove it' letter with my pound postal order. After waiting the 12 working days, i had received nothing other than ' We're still looking, Bear with us' letter. I then sent the failure to respond to my legal request letter and account has entered default. Both templates i copied from here. Since then i have had two 'Still looking' letters, and this week they sent one saying that it has been 8 weeks since they received my 'complaint' ?? but they are still gathering the necessary information. They also include a little booklet from The Financial Ombudsman Service, should i desire to escalate my complaint. My first request was dated 18/2/14 and the default letter dated 6/3/14. Now, on checking my credit file on Noddle, i can see a default from Lowells dated 22/4/14 , some time after my second letter. Can this be correct?. I have also been searching for a template letter to request the removal of the default from my credit file. Incidentally they haven't returned my postal order yet. Many Thanks

Hi, My son has had a number of threatening letters regarding a '3 ' phone contract, they(lowells) reckon he owes £446, he said the debt was originally for £90, they have obviously sold it on to 'Lowells'. He has just had a letter saying they will half the bill if he pays it all at once, but I think they will only take it in instalments for the full balance! He is worried it will affect him getting a mortgage, he says 3 did not replace the phone he states was damaged. Any advice? Should he offer to pay the reduced amount in instalments? Cheers

Hi, I've just received a Northampton Court Claim Form for a debt owed to Lowells/Bryan Carter. This debt is about 7 years old - in fact I'm not sure who the original credit agreement was with. I set up nominal payment agreements with all my creditors about 5-6 years ago, which I am still paying (£1 a month). However lowells arent on the list, and they bought the debt off another DCA on 28.06.13. I assumed that if they bought the debt, then they also bought the payment arrangement by default. I have consistently thrown away all DCA correspondence unopened, assuming my payment arrangements were in place and sufficient to avoid court proceedings. Putting aside the questionable wisdom and maturity of my behaviour in dealing with this, does anyone have any advice on how to proceed I can't pay the amount owed and I'm hoping I can somehow contest this on a technicality, and not admit to the debt. Or to argue that I'm still sticking to the original payment arrangement, and it's not my fault if they're not receiving it. I've looked at the threads on here with the legalese and templates and stuff, but I can't make head nor tail of it all! If anyone has any idiot proof advice for dummies I'd be hugely grateful.

Hi guys just looking for some advice, I just have received a litigation letter from Bryan Carter courtesy of Lowells debt recovery telling me I will be receiving a county court letter within 48 hrs. The claim is apparently for an old phone contract with 3 mobile. The letter claims i owe £297, However I also received a letter from lowells a few days before stating the amount owed is £220. I had thought the old contract was closed long ago and any previous letters for the debt must have been sent to my old address where the contract was registered. I opened a noddle credit check account to see and it states that the default amount was only for £50, surely such additional charges are illegal? Just wondering what to do next, i have never had to deal with such things before. I would have happily payed £50 if i was aware, now £297 seems ridiculous.