1st Credit - Advice Please

[WillR]

I hope someone here can help me.

I've had an agreement with 1st Credit for the past 2 or so years and not missed any payment to my knowledge, I believe this relates to an old Mastercard debt.

I received a letter from the asking for a review of this account and contacted them in writing confirming I wished to proceed on the same basis. I also requested a breakdown of all payments I'd made to the account, details of the original loan amount and confirmation of any charges added to this debt.

Since I sent that letter 1st Credit have been completely unreasonable. I didn't get a response to the letter so called them and agreed a continuation of the current payment terms. As far as I am concerned this was agreed. Several days later I received a default notice saying I had not paid the December payment. I called and advised them it was still december and the money will be paid, when I get paid on the 28th December. I was then informed I must pay the full settlement amount or face court action. I told them this was not possible and that 1st Credit had already agreed payment terms. 1st Credit then said they would not accept any further agreements from me since they claim I have defaulted 3 times (which I dispute) and proceedings would be brought against me.

I have this morning received a letter from Solicitors acting for 1st Credit advising me that they will begin proceedings in 14days unless I contact 1st Credit and pay the full amount.

I haven’t phoned 1st Credit yet, after the seriously abusive phone call I received the last time I spoke to them, threatening my jointly owned home. The Debt is according to 1st Credit £7400, although they would accept a settlement of £5400.

I really don’t know how to proceed with this. Is it worth writing a CCA letter off to 1st Credit. How can I buy some time?

Many thanks for your help

[ThisVeryMoment]

As you say it is an 'old' debt and therefore this company have been very patient. The settlement is in my opinion very generous and I would suggest you accept it. If you own your house remortgaging is a simple way to clear this debt.

[firstwithit]

NEVER EVER SPEAK TO THEM ON THE PHONE now you realise that they talk rubbish and nothing is ever remembered as being what you thought it was.

CCA them asap recorded or special delivery so you get proof of delivery and dont take to much notice of their threats.

Post any response from them up here for more advise and if they call refuse to answer security questions saying everything in writing!

[WillR]

Thanks for the reply. I will keep you & the board informed. Letters going on the 27th Dec......

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Will

[diskmandave]

Hi Will, welcome to the forums...

I have this morning received a letter from Solicitors acting for 1st Credit advising me that they will begin proceedings in 14days unless I contact 1st Credit and pay the full amount.

Can you scan and post this letter after taking out your personal details?

Is it worth writing a CCA letter off to 1st Credit

Yes, absolutely. Don't forget to include the P/O for £1 and to send by signed for delivery, or guarenteed delivery if funds will stretch.

 

And as has already been stated, don't deal with First Credit on the 'phone, they're a particularly nasty bunch which is putting it nicely. (From experience & IMHO)... It's in writing all the way!

 

Good luck & best wishes, Dave.

[pt2537]

Account In Dispute

 

Dear xxxx,

 

I acknowledge receipt of your notice of intended legal action sent by your company on xx/xx 2007 which was received on xx/xx 2007.

Please be aware that any proceedings will be extremely vigorously defended . I am unable to respond further at this time, since you have given me inadequate information to investigate the claim. Please note that under the Overriding Objectives, you have a duty to act reasonably at all times.

 

As you are aware, under the pre-action protocols of the Civil Procedure Rules, your letter before action should have included the following information:

4.3 The claimant's letter should —

(a) give sufficient concise details to enable the recipient to understand and investigate the claim without extensive further information;

(b) enclose copies of the essential documents which the claimant relies on;

© ask for a prompt acknowledgement of the letter, followed by a full written response within a reasonable stated period;

(For many claims, a normal reasonable period for a full response may be one month.)

(d) state whether court proceedings will be issued if the full response is not received within the stated period;

(e) identify and ask for copies of any essential documents, not in his possession, which the claimant wishes to see;

(f) state (if this is so) that the claimant wishes to enter into mediation or another alternative method of dispute resolution; and

(g) draw attention to the court's powers to impose sanctions for failure to comply with this practice direction and, if the recipient is likely to be unrepresented, enclose a copy of this practice direction

 

I note that your letter failed to enclose copies of the essential documents upon which you will seek to rely, failed to ask for acknowledgement of the letter, failed to ask for a written response within a reasonable period of time, and did not draw attention to the courts powers

to force all parties to comply with the practice direction.

I intend to provide you with a full written response, but as yet I have not got adequate information to investigate your claim.

To enable me to investigate this claim I require specific information regarding the account to be provided forthwith. Given that this matter is now the subject of legal proceedings, you are obliged to disclose under the Civil Procedure Rules, the information and documents detailed below.

If you fail to disclose this information, I may apply to the court under Part 18 and part 31 of the civil procedure rules.

I will be unable to respond to your claim without this information, and by failing to supply it before starting legal action you would breach the overriding objective of the Civil Procedure Rules.

 

Request for disclosure;

I request that you send me information vital to investigating your claims, including:

1. A true copy of the executed credit agreement and any terms and conditions that applied to the account at the time of default and at the time the account was opened.

2. All records you hold on me relevant to this case, including but not limited to:

a. A transcript of all transactions, including charges, fees, interest, repayments and payments and both the original amount of the loan and any repayments made to it the account.

b. Transcriptions of all telephone conversations recorded and any notes made in relation to telephone conversations by your company, or by any previous creditor.

c. Where there has been any event in my account history over this period which has required manual intervention by any person, I require disclosure of any indication or notes which have either caused or resulted in that manual intervention, or other evidence of that manual

intervention in relation to my account formerly held with ** CREDITOR **.

d. True copies of any notice of assignment and/or default notice or enforcement notice that you or the original creditor sent me, with a copy of any proof of postage that you hold.

e. Documents relating to any insurance added to the account, including the insurance contract and terms and conditions, date it was added and deleted (if applicable).

f. Details of any collection charge added to the account; specifically, the date it was levied, the amount of the charge, a detailed financial breakdown of how the charge was calculated, and what the charge covers.

g. Specific details of the fees/charges levied by any other agency in respect of this account and a detailed breakdown of said fees/charges and what each charge relates to and on what date said fees/charges were levied.

3. Any other documents you will seek to rely upon in court.

 

 

Please note, I will respond to your claim in full within 14 days of your providing this information. I must advise you that if the information is not forthcoming, or if you start proceedings without furnishing this information, it will be reported to the Court that you are denying me the opportunity to settle this matter amicably.

 

I would appreciate your due diligence in this matter.

 

I await your rapid response.

Yours Faithfully,

 

 

 

 

since they are threatening litigation, i would consider even a pre-emptive strike and fire off this letter to the Solicitors

 

i would send this in addition to the CCA request to 1ST CREDIT

 

thats my thoughts anyway

 

 

Merry Christmas

 

 

Kind Regards

paul

[WillR]

Thanks for all your help, I've tried to ignore this over the festive period (unsuccessfully).

 

Re diskmandave request for a copy of the solicitors letter, I cant scan it at the moment, however the letter from LCS Solicitors dated 21st December is as follows:-

 

"We act on behalf of 1st Credit Ltd who has instructed us to write to you concerning this seriously overdue account. You will appreciate that the debt has been formally assigned to our client by LloydsTSB.

 

Unless full payment is made to our client withing 14days from the date of this letter we are instructed to issue proceedings against you in a County Court for recovery. Should this step prove necessary our clients claim will include statutory interest, Court fees and Solicitors costs. If judgement is obtianed against you then, after a period of 28 days, it will be automatically be registered at the register of county court judgements and will have an adverse affect on your credit rating.

 

Please note that we are not instructed to enter into correspondence with you regarding this matter prior to the issue of legal proceedings.

 

All payments and communications should be made direct to our clients. Please ensure you quote the account number on all correspondence.

 

If you are unable to make payment in full you MUST contact 1st Credit immediately..."

 

I am going to send a CCA tomorrow, but having read this letter again, my concern is that Solicitors letter states that the debt has been formally assigned to 1st Credit, should I take this at face value?

 

I also dont understand why the solicitors have asked me to contact 1st Credit again if I am unable to make payment in full (which I'm not) 1st Credit turned down my last offer and said I would be offered no payment terms again.

 

Finally this account is not seriously overdue, I've not missed a payment but have paid a week late on 2 occaisions.

 

I also dont understand that if LCS are about to take me to court they then say they are not instructed to enter into correspondece with me.

 

I'm hoping this is just scare tactics in an effort to get me to pay up in full asap or up my monthly payments (neither of which I can do) but would like some other more knowledgeable views if possible.

 

Thanking in advance.

 

Will

[NailPost]

"Please note that we are not instructed to enter into correspondence with you regarding this matter prior to the issue of legal proceedings."

 

The judge is going to love that!!! Make sure you show it to him if it ever gets to court.

 

I doubt whether it will vere get that far. If I've understood this properly you were making payments and it was these idiots who asked for a review. That led to your asking for the current arrangements to continue.

 

They will be aware as much as anyone that a court action will cost them money up front and they may never get this back. The judge, in his wisdom, may decide the current payments are too onerous and could reduce them to an affordable level. That could be as low as £1 a month.

 

These t****s are trying it on and you should fight them all the way. Non-compliance with a CCA is a complete defence to any legal action they may take.

[babybear39]

Almost certainly trying it on as per their usual scare tactics and if this ever gets to court a judge will laugh them out of it. When you request your CCA ask for a full statement of account which is free of charge to see if these ***** have added any charges.

[linz2011]

subbing good luck

[Finlay07]

I've had a recent succesful battle with this lot and a very similar letter from their in-house solicitors some two years ago now.

 

Go on the attack as the others have said and see what happens. they are evil though so don't do anything without checking in here first.

[WillR]

I've sent off the CCA today recorded delivery. Very nervous on how this will now play out!

 

Will obviously keep everyone informed.

 

I was looking back through my records earlier and it looks like the debt got transferred to 1st Credit in Sep 2005 ish, I started paying them in October of 2005 and have not missed a payment to date. Decembers was taken today as usual.....

 

Thanks again for everyones support and advice.

 

Will

[Fuzzgin]

Also subbing. I've had no dealings with this lot but several others have claimed that they've not received payments when I know that they have and threatened legal action. Funny how they back off completely when you refuse to be intimidated.

 

Funny also, how Christmas seems to bring them out. I think they enjoy making you suffer these days. Well don't, you'll get great advice here.

[WillR]

Happy New Year to you all.

 

To update you it seems 1st Credit have received my CCA request since they have just called my home number and spoken to my wife, whom they do not have authority to speak to. She was told I MUST call 1st Credit today about the CCA letter I sent them.

 

My wife asked them again that any further correspondence is to be put in writing, they said they cant until they've spoken to me.....she told them I was at work and could not be contacted at the moment, and a message would be passed on to me when possible. Ist Credit then informed my wife that they will treat this as my refusal to cooperate and put the phone down on her.

 

I know I've been told by the people here never to speak to them on the phone, but should I call them to see what they have to say....? I'm just not sure how to play this today

 

Any advice as always welcomed!

[pt2537]

Hi,

 

NEVER NEVER EVER speak to them on the phone

 

they will not be interested in discussing the matter with you, all they will be looking for is an offer of payment,

 

my guess would be if you did call them they would try to use the CCA as leverage by saying that you are trying to avoid the debt blah blah blah

 

 

ive heard this type of thing happen many times

 

you are best to conduct every thing in writing

 

 

regards

paul

[babybear39]

Don't call them!!!

 

Make detailed notes of the conversation with your wife, they have comitted a serious breach of the data protection act by even discussing this with her and report them to Trading Standards ASAP, here's the link:

Trading Standards Central - Trading Standards and Consumer Protection information for the UK

 

Also request in writing a copy of 1st credit's complaints procedure and get a formal complaint in regarding this to them straight away.

 

Good luck...

[remus]

Hi WillR, DO NOT RING THEM, DO NOT SPEAK TO THEM. You are doing everything right, and the only way they know how to respond is to put even more frightners on:mad:

Just take time to read our dealings with them, we understand how it feels, but they are full of hot air.

[WillR]

Thanks for the quick response. Will get conversation documented and request complaints procedure. I will definately NOT call them.

 

Thanks again.

[NailPost]

In your note asking 1st Crud for their complaints procedure tell them (or remind them) that all discussion regards this matter is to be in writing. Tel them to remove your telephone number from their database. Tell 1st Credit you require written confirmation the number has been removed within seven days. There's no need to remind them that continuing to call after receipt of the letter is a breach of the Data Protection Act and could be construed as harrassment which is a criminal offence.

 

 

There's also no need to remind them the CCA request is valed and standing with the clock ticking they have only a few days to comply with it.

[mr.ton]

[quote

Please note that we are not instructed to enter into correspondence with you regarding this matter prior to the issue of legal proceedings.

 

It makes me laugh the way they always say that...it doesnt stop them contacting you any other time.

I would also say the same thing to them in return...

[Hopeful1]

Hi Will. Just adding support.

 

I had a DCA who defaulted on a CCA request. I included this and continued telephone harrassment in a complaint to Trading Standards - funnily enough the calls stopped soon after

 

And the moral of the story is??? By only corresponding in writing and logging all calls i had lots of evidence for my complaint, also showing exactly how well behaved i'd been

[WillR]

Evening,

 

To update you on my latest dealings with 1st Credit.

 

The Royal Mail shows the CCA request as signed for on the 7th Jan (10 days after it was posted, but I guess thats another matter).

 

I requested by email on the 4th Jan their full complaints procedure, along with a statement of account. The complaints procedure was received by me on the 10th Jan.

 

As yet I've received no correspondence from 1st Credit directly acknowledging my CCA request, however I have today received the following letter from 1st Credit, which I guess is associated (still cant scan so quoted it directly below)

 

"We give you notice that Lloyds TSB Bank PLC has assigned 1st Credit Finance Ltd all of Lloyds TSB’s rights in to and under the above detailed account.

As a result of this assignment the full amount outstanding on the account is now due to 1st Credit Finance Ltd.

You should not make any payments to Lloyds TSB in respect of the account as it will take longer to process the payment and credit it to your account debt with 1st Credit Finance Ltd.

You should contact this office immediately so that we can agree payment terms with you.

Following the assignment of this account by Lloyds TSB, 1st Credit Finance Ltd is the data controller of your information in respect of this account.

1st Credit Finance Ltd has the same rights as did Lloyds TSB to give information to credit referencing agencies about the personal debt that you owe in respect of this account.

We and 1st Credit Finance Ltd will comply with any request for a copy of the personal information that is held about you in your records. If you want a copy of your Personal Information, send your request (along with an administration fee of £5.00 and a stamped addressed envelope to the above address)

Please do not ignore this letter. We look forward to hearing from you."

I'm not sure where to go with this now - It would appear that this isn't a CCA, as far as I can see. Is there anything obviously nasty in this letter that I am missing?

 

Should I contact 1st Credit and ask where my CCA is? Or at least get them to acknowledge receipt.

 

Look forward to your comments.

 

Cheers

 

Will

[tomterm8]

that's interesting. I'm at this stage with 1st credit as well; I have sent them my notice of dispute (that is, a formal notice disputing the assignment ), plus formal complaints & etc, but it is interesting that they are taking a slightly more legally "correct" line with me.

 

e.g. 1st Credit Finance Ltd has the same rights as did Lloyds TSB to give information to credit referencing agencies about the personal debt that you owe in respect of this account

 

was substituted with words to the extent that they only have a right to disclose this info if there is no dispute on the account.

[WillR]

Evening

 

To update, 30 plus days since my request for a CCA was signed for.

 

No CCA has been recieved, I've had two letters however, the most interesting was from 1st Credit 'Introducing me to 1st Credit' That was nice of them, I thought - after all I'd only been paying them for 3 years...! Anyway it definately wasn't what I asked for.

 

I have lodged an offical complaint with 1st Credit as to their non compliance with my CCA request, non complaince with my request for a statement of account sent a month before and no acknowledgmet of my request for them to stop calling me and only correspond in writing.

 

They have acknowldged my complaint and the the calls seem to have dried up at least - as yet everything else is outstanding.

 

The ball is in their court and I feel signifcantly better than I did at the start of the year. Still not sure how it will end, but grateful for the support received here and the stories of people in similar positions.

 

Unless I hear different from 1st Credit - no more payments from me!

 

Will continue to keep everyone informed

 

Cheers

 

Will

[babybear39]

Good luck and best wishes Will...

 

Just remember that as soon as they start asking for payment report them to Trading Standards ASAP if they still haven't fully complied with your CCA request. Here's the link:

Trading Standards Central - Trading Standards and Consumer Protection information for the UK

 

If you do recieve anything from them post it here so one the experts can check it over for you