Red/Lowell - Pre bankruptcy petition!!

[kezza150]

Hi All,

I need a bit of advice on what i should do about this debt i have with Lowell/red collections/Hamptons.

The debt is £1800 for a barclays student account i used to have. The account was closed by the bank in 2002 because i went over my overdraft limit and couldn't pay it back, it was then passed to lowell. Nothing has been paid toward the debt since it was closed in 02, however i did write to lowells in 2003 (feb) to tell them my new address with a budget sheet and a token offer of i think £20 p/month. I never got a reply and heard nothing from them until about 5 month ago when they started sending letters again - just the usual demends from Hamptons, Lowell and Red. I only work part time and could/can not pay the full amount as they were/are asking so i'm afraid i have just been ignoring their letters hoping they will disappear again.

 

I have now received a letter from them (Red) headed 'PRE BANKRUPTCY PETITION' , which says my account has been reviewed by their head of litigation and is going to be fasttracked to their bankruptcy division to consider filing bankruptcy!!

I am quite sure that the likelyhood of them doing this is slim from reading many of the posts on this forum, but wasn;t sure what to do next. I have always convinced myself that if they were able to take me to court they would have done so by now - so why haven't they? I always kind of hoped they would as i believe the courts would set a more realistic payment plan for me!?

 

I could only afford to pay a token amount of around £1 per week now which i know they will not accept, i have no assets, property etc. and no other way of raising the cash - surely making bankruptcy pointless?! . I was going to do a cca request but even after posting on this forum to ask, i am unsure of what i can expect in reply to that as it was an overdraft so is not fully covered by the cca?

 

So basically any advice on what i should do now would be much appreciated, Its looking like I cannot ignore this for much longer so what do i do

 

Thank you in advance,

kez x

[mr.ton]

Hi All,

I could only afford to pay a token amount of around £1 per week now which i know they will not accept, i have no assets, property etc. and no other way of raising the cash

 

Lowells are a law unto themselves & usually full of hot air anyway.

Cease all communication with them & demand that do they same with you.

Let them take you to court (most of the time they dont), but if it comes to that - so long as you can show the court that £1 per week is all you can afford, then thats what they will order.

Lowells can not do a thing about it then

[Guest thecheekofit1981]

Surely if you can provide a copyof the letter you sent to them with the payment offer of £20 a month, they've dug themselves a hole by not responding to this?

 

Just about every letter they sendout will have something like Pre-court or Pre-bankruptcy on it. It's such pants, it scares people into phoning.

[kezza150]

I would have a copy of the letter stored on my old computer from that time but i do not have proof of postage - so guess it would be useless?

 

So basically your advice is to keep ignoring their letters.

I was just a bit worried as from what i can gather from this forum lowells have recently been sending out a lot of statutory demands so this last letter did scare me.

[Curlyben]

This is yet another scare tactic from these "people"

Don't mess about with them.

Get a CCA request in NOW.

 

Before you even think about making any sort of acknowledgement or payment to a DCA you MUST ensure that they have the LEGAL right to collect the debt. This can be done at anytime.

This is achieved by requesting a copy of the Signed, Executed Credit Agreement via a Consumer Credit Act (CCA) request.

There is a template letter to be found here: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/20758-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html

Letter N.

Is it important to start the letter:

I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT TO YOUR COMPANY in Big Bold letters.

 

It is best to send this request via recorded/special delivery as there are some important deadlines to observe.

 

After 12 WORKING days the "debt" is in default and stays that way until the request is complied with.

If a FURTHER month passes then the DCA has committed a summary criminal offence and the matter should be referred to Trading Standards for action once the DCA continues to demand payment.

 

I hope this clarifies some things.

[kezza150]

Thank you for the advice, was wondering:

As an overdraft is not fully covered by the cca what can i expect to receive off them if i send this letter?

What can i do if they simply say 'this type of account is not covered by the cca - so pay up now'???

Just want to know what to expect before i go ahead with the cca request

Kez x

[Curlyben]

Well Overdrafts are covered by CCA, but in a different way to Cards and loans, so the request IS worth doing.

[kezza150]

OK so i've got my cca request typed out and ready go but today i receive a letter from red's 'statutory demand processing unit'!!????!!

Basically saying pay up or they are sending me a SD.

So just need to know:

1. Is there anything I need to add to my CCA request letter? i.e. something like, this account is now in dispute so don't bother with the SD!

2. Did those that have received an SD from this lot get this letter first or do u think this is them just fishin for me to confirm i do still live at this address?

Any thoughts please.

[Boro]

Sending your cca request puts the account in dispute, if they where daft enough to send you a statutory demand after you have sent your cca request off then it wouldnt look good for them, SD's are used in a lot of cases as a scare tactic to get people to pay up, but if ever you did receive one its important to get it set aside which is actually fairly easy to do and wont cost you anything, now with your cca request make sure that you do not sign your name on it (print it instead or type it using italics or similar) and make sure you include the £1 fee in way of a postal order (not a cheque unless drawn on someone elses account therefore not carrying your signature) then make sure the request is send if possible special delivery, failing that signed for so you can prove it gets there etc

[Curlyben]

SD are one of RED Debts more scary tactics, but the rarely come to anything.

Yes they have been known to send them out, but the service was unlawful and so they hold no sway in the real world.

 

That being said NEVER ignore an SD just to be on the safe side.

 

Now the minimum that can be raised is £750 and normally £5,000 is considered an acceptable amount.

[Jobless Joe]

Hi there, I had the exact same pre-bankruptcy petition a couple of weeks ago from Lowells. I kinda suspected it was just a scare tactic, but wrote up a CCA request anyway (I want to repay my original creditors but simply cannot do so right now, so my tactic is to delay the inevetable until i get better and find work).

 

Ive been unwell and for various other reasons, had just not got round to sending it - so far I have not written to or answered the phone to these people (doing the inadvisable thing of burying my head in the sand), and today I received a letter saying things like 'we understand that..etc' and 'Our aim is to help..' blah blah and offered me 3 quite reasonable options, one of which was to pay half and call it quits! Its like theyve gone from tough and aggressive to kind-hearted and sympathetic! Sounds to me that they may be trying to trick me into finally getting into a dialogue with them...maybe, or perhaps they just want to cut their losses.

 

I know some people just want to avoid paying anything, and that some people are simply the wrong John Smith, but for those of us like me who want to become debt free and get on with life - HOLD OUT- sometimes, it seems, its worth ignoring people like lowells just long enough for them to offer a settlement figure or lose face and accept an amount to cover their losses. I read somewhere on here they buy debts only for about 10p in the pound, so 1/2 the debt is still very profitable to them. Im wondering weather to offer them, say 20% of my debt - theyd still make money and I'd be much better off.. seems immoral, I know, but my debt problems are affecting my health and my whole life right now so Im gonna do whatever it takes to fix them.

Anyway, just wanted to give my 2 pence on the matter..

[bigandyuk1]

I have received the same 'Reasonable' offer.... If they are making offers then they know they have no right to collect the debt or they would have me in court with the correct paperwork by now.....

[DonkeyB]

Hang on ...

 

You haven't acknowledged the debt since February 2003, six years and one month.

 

I make that statute-barred. Game over.

 

No wonder they're desperate to get to you!

 

I just hope you didn't contact them...

[havinastella]

Hang on ...

 

You haven't acknowledged the debt since February 2003, six years and one month.

 

I make that statute-barred. Game over.

 

No wonder they're desperate to get to you!

 

I just hope you didn't contact them...

 

 

Its an old thread BUMPED

 

 

JOgs

[DonkeyB]

Hi JOgs

 

Whoops... saw January and... oh well... I was only out by a year, which is better than some DCAs. Oh, the pain, the pain...

 

(I'm probably the only one on here old enough to remember Dr Zachary Smith)