Moorcroft doorstep collectors

[chunkyj]

HI I have not used this site before so Hello!

I have been reading some of the forums regarding various debt collection companies with great interest.

When I was 18 I (with the help of my then boyfriend) managed to clock up rather a lot of debt on credit and store cards (in my name!) By the age of 21 I was nearly £30,000 in debt and could no longer manage the payments on my salary. Initially I had a DMP through Gregory Pennington who were taking more than my creditors were! I changed in 2004 to the cccs who have been really helpful. I have maintained all my payments to the creditors and even paid some off completely however last night a man representing moorcroft debt recovery turned up on my doorstep asking why I was not paying the egg credit card payments!!! This morning I rang moorcroft who said that as I missed two payments in 2007 they have passed it on to a home collections department to collect direct from me!! I have no arrears with moorcroft however the surly guy on the end of the phone there told me that I could no longer make payments to them by standing order. I have phoned the cccs who basically said this is a load of rubbish as they are still accepting the payments from the DMP that the cccs are sending and they advised that I write to Moorcroft and tell them that I intend to continue with this method and insist they stop sending a doorstep collector.

I have been reading on other threads about cca requests and something else where creditors have to show all the charges on the accounts. Is this something I can do??

I know I sound naive but I was so young when the debt was accrued that I just accepted what they told me. To date I have paid back a fair amount however the debts are nearly 10 years old, is it likely that they still have the signed credit agreements??

[Silky444]

omg and i thought being £8k in debt at the age of 18 was bad!, oh my, moorcroft are EDIT

[mr.ton]

however last night a man representing moorcroft debt recovery turned up on my doorstep asking why I was not paying the egg credit card payments!!!

 

 

I'd have either said "no comment" or "sod off"" (in whatever order you wish?)

If he didnt leave - a quick call to the police would have sent him on his way

[clutchingatstraws]

In my experience most of my debts from this period never had a proper credit agreement 6 of the 8 were applications.

 

How many companies are you paying for credit cards and loans?

 

Don't phone them ever.

 

Tell the doorstep collector that you are paying by standing order and ask him to leave you premises and not to call again. Slightest argument call the police.

 

I would CCA all of them and only pay the ones who hold a Valid CCA If you want to check if its valid scan it in you will get opinions from here.

[Robdblynd]

Him and welcome to the best place on the planet to get the help you need.

 

First off, have a read in here, it's crammed with useful info.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/108467-basic-introduction-consumer-credit.html

 

As for Moorcroft, write and tell them that under OFT guidelines on debt collection they are not allowed to "cold call" on you but must make an appointment, you will not agree to that, you wish all communication to be in writing. Somewhere on these forums there's a letter telling them they can't call cos under common law you've withdrawn permission for them to enter your property.

 

And as they claim ownership of the debt, send them CCA request, enclosing £1, send it "signed for" and DO NOT sign it, print your name.

 

That will establish if they have the right to collect etc. Then post back here when something happens.

 

And don't worry, DCA's are usually pond life, and Moorcroft are one of the bottom of the barrel jobs.

[chunkyj]

I politely told him that I was paying through CCCS and that I would contact him once I had spoken to them. I rang him today and told him and he said he was sorry for troubling me and would send the paperwork back to Moorcroft. I have CCA'd them today recorded delivery so they have until the 29th by my calculation to send one to me.

with regards to how many creditors I owe, from memory it is hsbc about £10k (mix of cc and overdraft and loan!) marks and spencer £7k, american express £1300, barclaycard, ge capital (now cl finance) and a selfridges account all with around £1000 left on them, also the egg one with a balance of around £900. ,

I know it seems bad to have got into such a lot of debt so young but I had a good job and a boyfriend with a cocain addiction and additional cards on my accounts! Hence the debt. we split up 5 years ago and initially he said he would continue to help out with the payments which lasted all of about a month and i have been left to pay it all back!

Am I right in thinking that if I CCA them, the ones that do have proper agreements I can request to see all the charges they applied to my account and try and reclaim them to reduce the balance of what I owe??

Thanks for all the help so far

[clutchingatstraws]

"Am I right in thinking that if I CCA them, the ones that do have proper agreements I can request to see all the charges they applied to my account and try and reclaim them to reduce the balance of what I owe??"

 

Yes and the ones that don't No CCA No Pay ,its your choice.

 

Its 12+2 working days so the 29th is a bit early dont count sats suns or bank holidays.

 

All the best

Cas

[chunkyj]

OK. I will get on the case tomorrow and CCA the rest of them. I will update on here as and if I hear! I may need further advice when the death threats start pouring through the letter box from Moorcroft!

[clutchingatstraws]

There is always someone on here.

 

I dealt with 8 companies at one go and found it useful to organise well.

 

I bought a 4 ring binder and 200 of the punched pockets and cardboard dividers on which I wrote acc number, address of DCA and balance.

 

It felt a bit hectic at first and the threats felt real, reading through the threads allows you to put those threats into perspective ( I couldn't care less now as most of them have given up or passed them onto other idiots)

 

Good Luck and keep us informed.

 

Cas

[chunkyj]

I have today written to three of my other creditors which are NCO Europe, Creation financial services (of which I found old letters which I had written to them requesting they stop charging an insurance amount to my account a total of nearly £900!) and finally CL finance. There are another two left to do which I will do tomorrow.

Just a quick question. If they do not have the cca and do not come up with it, how do I get the debt removed from my credit file?

[chunkyj]

Hi Today I have had a letter from Creation Financial services who run my Selfridges account. They have included a copy of my cca 1974 agreement which looks OK and is signed by me. Should I now send them an SAR request?? The balance when I took out a DMP was around £700 but they did not stop charging late fees and kept adding the insurance amount on the balance despite me faxing them and writing to them asking them to stop. The balance now is £1800 and I have been paying it off for the last 4 years!!! so the charges are double the original debt.

Can anyone offer some advice please???????

Thanks

[jaxads]

Hi chunkyj

 

Yes, send them an SAR, and include the £10 fee. Then when you receive your statements you can add up your charges and start the ball rolling to reclaim them. Good luck

[joe1965]

Could you scan the agreement and post it up? Sometimes they look ok but have terms etc missing which make them invalid. Just remember to blank out personal details.

[chunkyj]

Yes sure I will scan it in a bit and post it on. Thanks for your help too

[joe1965]

Any luck scanning it yet?

[chunkyj]

HI

No luck with the scanning! The attachment kept failing everytime i tried. I think it would be better to take a photo of it and upload it that way which I will do tomorrow. Thanks for checking though

[andrew1]

Hi chunkyJ, I've read through your thread and it seems to me you have your work cut out. You are getting some great support. Stick with it.

 

There are a few things to keep in mind. A CCA request is to prove the people asking you for money have a right to do so. As stated above they have 12 days + 2 for postage from the date of your request to supply this after which they will require a court order to enforce it - they may well do this although most haven't. If they do not supply a copy the original agreement ( NOT the Application form ) within a further one month from the end of that 14 days then they have committed a criminal offence ( all be it the authorities rarely prosecute as such). They have to supply this information whether they are the original creditor (bank) or not (Debt Collection Agency like Moorcroft). However, you must be aware that they can come back at ANY time once the document is provided and they have their court order - (which is asking the court to enforce the debt). Not many do, but you must be aware the debt is not exactly written off until the company is pressed for a letter saying so once you have proved the unenforceability.

 

If you send your Subject Access Request to the Original Creditor also (letter in the Templates Library) you can then get all your account details and begin working out if you have any charges or PPI insurances which can be reclaimed. If you do, you can then write to them putting the account into dispute, which is a useful tool we can explain about later. As suggested above, separate all your claims and keep separate files at home as sometimes when DCA's are involved the paperwork gets messy when there are so many, start separate threads in the relevant bank threads for each one and keep recording everything on there. This is a wonderful site and everyone will help you through every step.

 

On the Cabot threads and General debt threads we have found many misdemeanors by these companies which render debts unenforceable for a whole string of reasons and it would be worth your while following some of them. It's a bit of a long haul when you've had so much debt but it's worth it. Getting your credit history cleaned up is not easy at the Credit Reference Agencies but a £2 Postal Order to Experian, Equifax and Call Credit will tell you exactly what they have recorded on you. (You are likely to get Loan companies sending you offers after you apply - seems to trigger these things - but just shred and dump them).

 

Never speak to these people on the telephone unless absolutely necessary. If you are contacted, you can request under the Communications Act 2003 that all calls stop and that everything HAS to be in writing thereafter, be intimidated by NO ONE.

 

Check everything you get and share it with us to make sure it is okay, not everything is what it appears.

 

Good luck - actually you don't need luck when you have CAG!

 

 

Sarah

[chunkyj]

Thank you so much for that, I had pretty much worked a lot of that out by reading others 'journeys'! I have today had a letter from Interim Justitia saying I owe them a payment as the last one recieved was in dec (last month!) it goes direct from CCCS who I have a DMP with so I know they are probably getting cold feet as they have banked my £1 cheque for the cca request but as yet have not provided anything! i am pretty sure that most of these accounts are heavily made up of charges and insurance so I am sure if nothing else I can get the balances right down. I am so annoyed as CL finance bought my biggest debt which was HSBC just before Christmas and hit me with a CCJ and as I had no idea what to do I just sent the documents to them and now have a CCJ - I wish I had known before but hey ho!

i will keep you updated

[chunkyj]

I am now attaching the photo of the agreement from creation financial services (if it works this time!) can someone take a look at it and tell me if it is right and what the next step should be. If it is the right document then I will S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) them, if not then what do I need to write back to them requesting etc. Thanks so much

[joe1965]

Hi Chunky

I think others will agree when I say this is and application form, not a credit agreement.

Though you may want to use something like Paint to go over the image to blank out your details properly as some important bits are legible.

[chunkyj]

Right I have edited it a little better and reattached the paperwork that Creation sent me. If it is an application and not a cca then what do I need to do next??

Thanks

[joe1965]

Can you wait until someone else also looks at it?

It's always better to have more than one opinion to be on the safe side.

[chunkyj]

Yes of course - hey it's been nearly 10 years since I signed it a few days won't hurt!! I have attached it again as the last one was just a thumbnail and was rubbish! I'll get the hang of it eventually I'm sure!

Just tried attaching it three more times and it keeps failing! Soooo annoying! I will try again later!

[chunkyj]

Hi again

Right today I have had in the post a 'bundle' from C L Finance with a copy of my APPLICATION for credit on the House of Frasercard and a deed of assignement and the last 2 years worth of statements (basically since I had the DMP with the CCCS) but not including the ones where charges insurance and interest were being added on. Funny that!

Now It clearly states application form on the top so this is presumably not the CCA?? Do I need to write back to them? Also I notice on the application that I ticked the box for PPI so that probably means that I have paid a fortune for some insurance on the card too. I will try and attach the application they sent me but might be tricky as i had all sorts of problems with doing it yesterday.

 

Also I had a reply from RMA resolve who have sent me some sort of mix mash photocopy of stuff from them and doesn't really say if it is a credit agreement or application! I will scan that one in too.

[chunkyj]

Here goes with the fraser card application!