And so the fun begins CABOT/BARCLAYCARD

[bigandyuk1]

Hi All,

 

My wife had a Littlewoods account which she disputed. This was before I found this forum and she spoke to them on the phone etc until they set Mercers on her.

 

I then found this site and on the 22nd June sent the standard CCA request to which I recieved the standard "we will deal with it letter". I also sent the telephone harrasment letter.

 

I then received a letter from Barclaycard telling me that Mecers were in charge of the debt and would be in touch in due course.

 

In November Littlewoods/Barclaycard sent my wife a default notice and I sent the following in reply:

 

 

29th November 2007

 

Littlewoods

PO BOX 5592

Northampton

NN4 1ZY

DEFAULT UNDER THE CONSUMER CREDIT ACT 1974

FAILURE TO PRODUCE AGREEMENT

Dear Sir/Madam

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I wrote to Mercers who were acting on your behalf by Special Delivery/Recorded Delivery on 22nd June 2007 asking for a copy of the above agreement together with the relevant information under Section 77-79 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, enclosing a 1.00 postal order as the fee payable. A Copy of this letter which was delivered and signed for is enclosed for your attention.

The Consumer Credit Act allows 12 working days for this request to be carried out before your company enters into a default situation. This occurred on 12th July, 2007. If the request is not satisfied after a further calendar month, your company commits an offence. Therefore on 12th August 2007 this time limit expired.

I have still neither received a copy of the agreement as required by S78 Consumer Credit Act 1974, nor any other information relating to same. As such, this account has become unenforceable by law. As you are no doubt aware subsection (6)states: If the creditor under an agreement fails to comply with subsection (1)

(a) He is not entitled, while the default continues, to enforce the agreement; and

(b) If the default continues for one month he commits an offence.

As such, now that the 12 working days have expired (from your receipt of the request for the agreement and supporting documents) the account is now in dispute. Whilst it remains in dispute the agreement is unenforceable.

 

Whilst it is unenforceable, no interest is to be added to the account. No action can be taken against me. No adverse credit references or defaults can be listed against me with Credit Reference Agencies. The account cannot be passed to a Debt Collection Agency. And lastly, I am not obliged to make any further payments to the account. Essentially, the account is ‘held’ as it was on the date of the CCA request expiring (12th July, 2007).

 

Data Protection Act (Data Protection Act 199

Furthermore, under the Data Protection Act (D10), you are also denied the authority to pass on any of my personal data. To do so in the circumstances is I understand a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998, and also the OFT guidelines, and should you ignore my request it would again result in you being further reported to the relevant authorities.

 

I also require that you remove all my data from your files within the next 7 days and look forward to receiving a letter from you within 10 days confirming that you have complied with this request.

 

 

Well this morning my wife received a letter from Cabot welcoming her and stating that they had purchased the debt. Sorry this is such a long post but what should I do now. I thought the debt could not be passed on while in dispute

 

All help would be greatly appreciated.

[NailPost]

Send a short, curt note to Cabot telling them the matter is in dispute with the original creditor and their interest is not welcome. Ask for written confirmation they are sending the file back to Billycard and Mercenary and add you want their complaints procedure.

 

Check your credit files in case Billycard/Mercenary and Cabot have placed any info on there since the default date. If they have you have grounds for action.

[bigandyuk1]

Hi All, I have received my first calls from Cabot today and decided to send the following letters. Let me know what you think.

 

ACCOUNT IN DISPUTE

Dear Peter Anderson,

Cabot reference number: xxxxxxx

Account Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxx

I must admit that I am rather bemused as to why this account has been passed to yourselves, as it is in dispute with the Barclaycard/Mercers and has been since June 22nd 2007.

Not only is this a breach of OFT collection guidelines, but also in breach of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and Data Protection Act 1998

As Barclaycard/Mercers are now in default of my Consumer Credit Act request, Subject Access request and have also breached s10 Data Protection Act request , I consider this account to be in SERIOUS DISPUTE.

As you are aware while my Consumer Credit Act request remains in default enforcement action is NOT permitted, under s127 this constitutes a complete defence at law.

Now I would respectfully suggest that this account is returned to Barclaycard/Mercers for resolution of these defaults and breaches, as CABOT FINACIAL (EUROPE) LIMITED cannot lawfully pursue any enforcement activities.

If CABOT FINACIAL (EUROPE) LIMITED chooses to ignore my dispute and attempt enforcement, I will initiate legal action and file reports with the appropriate authorities, including, but not limited to, Trading Standards, Office of Fair Trading, Information Commissioners Office, Financial Ombudsman Service and possible court action.

I hope that this will not be necessary and an acceptable solution can be accomplished.

I would appreciate your due diligence in this matter.

I look forward to hearing from you in writing only.

 

I also sent this:

 

Re: Harassment by telephone

 

Cabot reference number: xxxxxxx

Account Number: xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dear Sirs

 

I am writing in relation to the quantity and frequency of telephone calls that I have received from your company, which I deem to be personally harassing.

 

I have verbally requested that these stop, but I am still receiving calls.

 

I now require all further correspondence from your company to be made in writing only.

 

I am of the view that your continued harassment of me by telephone puts you in breach of Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

 

If you continue to harass me by telephone, you will also be in breach of the Communications Act (2003) s.127 and I will report you to OFCOM, Trading Standards and The Office of Fair Trading, meaning that you will be liable to a substantial fine.

 

Be advised that any further telephone calls from your company will be recorded.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Well if anybody can add anything let me know.

Kind Regards

Bigandy

[slick132]

Hi Andy,

 

The letters look good - make sure you get proof of posting.

 

Slick

[bigandyuk1]

This Cabot group do like to make phone calls. Two a day at the moment even after the harrassment letter. I questioned one of them about making harrassing phone calls and they told me thats how the company does business :o

 

I even told them last night that I was keeping them on the phone just to run up their phone bills. He the said "is your wife not available then" Thick skinned or what!

 

Kind Regards

BigAndy

 

PS My new hobby is DCA baiting

[bigandyuk1]

Yet another phone call yesterday evening. Usual response from me "everything in writing" etc etc. Then the guy says "we have your correspondance entered on the system now and will be passing the case to our dispute department" !!!

 

Whatever next?

 

Kind Regards

Bigandy

[42man]

Log all the calls Andy, dates and times, then you should complain to the FOS, who will charge Cabot £400 to inestigate and there is a good chance that you may receive compensation. It may be the way that they do their business BUT their business is flagrantly ignoring the OFT's guidelines....

 

2.8 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:

k. not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt.

 

The time will come when they will ring you and start lying to frighten you into paying, if you can record their conversations then do !!!

[bigandyuk1]

No more phone calls but a letter arrived yesterday

 

Dear Mrs Bigandyuk1,

 

Your Request for Information under the Consumer Credit Act.

I did not ask you for information...check above letters..Hmm

Further to your recent letter that has been passed to us from Barclaycard.

No I sent it directly to you..Are they really this stupid?

We acknowledge receipt of your request under sections 77 and/or 78 of the consumer credit act 1974.

Definitely did not send you a request. Me thinks you only have one dispute template and are not bright enough to adapt it.

The Cabot Financial Group is not obliged to provide this information but we are pleased to help and have already requested the documentation for you from the original lender.

Obviously Cabot work within the legal system of a parallel universe.

What Happens Next

 

We anticipate that we will be able to provide this information within 12 days. In the event that we unlikely to obtain this information within those time limits, we will write to you again.

Well Barclaycard nor Mercers have been able to provide it within the last 8 months!!

Contacting Cabot

 

If you have any queries about your account or any payment options, call one of our helpful customer advisers on 01732 524615.

Payment options of a seriously overdue CCA request?? Helpful DCA customer advisors..They really do live in a parallel universe...

 

In the meantime we thank you for your co-operation.

I have not co-operated with them.

[furnitman2003]

Hi Bigandyuk1This letter is word for word what I recieved saturday (well except for the bit about barclays) when I did send them a CCA Request but they refused to accept my one pound Fee and returned the postal order, I promply sent it back and told them the original time-frame still stands.

 

This is fun aint it.

Alan

[bigandyuk1]

As I said I think as usual with these dca's its just crap pumped out of their Threatomatic's using mail merge

 

Kind Regards

Bigandy

[NailPost]

So its been about two weeks and no details of Cabot's complaints procedure - and you have plenty to complain about.

 

Either a short note reminding them of their oversight (LOL) and giving them the option of returning this procedure, which they are obliged to have by virtue of their status as a consumer credit licence holder, by return or facing an immediate complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman for umpteen breaches of law, guidelines and plain common sense.

[andrew1]

Have Cabot written to say they have bought the debt or has Barclaycard written to say they have sold it? or are Cabot just acting as an agent?

[bigandyuk1]

Hi, Cabot wrote informing Mrs BA that they had purchased the debt and there was a letter from Baclaycard with it informing her of the same.

 

Regards

Bigandy

[andrew1]

Hi, Cabot wrote informing Mrs BA that they had purchased the debt and there was a letter from Baclaycard with it informing her of the same.

 

Regards

Bigandy

 

The letter from Barclaycard is not from Barclaycard it's a poor attempt by Cabot to send the goodbye letter on their behalf. Which is not what the CCA says should happen.

 

Read through the Cabot Fan Club threads on this and how to deal with it.

[bigandyuk1]

Can any of you experienced legal eagles tell me:

 

a) Can littlewoods/bcard sell a debt that is in dispute? If not what action should I be taking against them now?

b) can someone point me to a link with regards to andrew1's post reference the (fraudulent) notice of assignment.

 

Kind Regards

Bigandy

 

P.S. It looks like Cabot are taking court action a lot quicker these days, Is this to try and get CCJ's before the uninformed can react?

[42man]

To search on Andrew1's threads try this...

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/search.php?searchid=1344651

 

As for the answer to a) then the OFT say this...

 

2.8 -

k. not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt.

 

They also say here...

 

2.6 - e. not informing the debtor when their case has been passed on to a different debt collector

h. ignoring and/or disregarding claims that debts have been settled or are disputed and continuing to make unjustified demands for payment

[andrew1]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-collection-industry/131321-cabot-threads.html

 

 

There's a few of them, but I can't tell you exactly which one you'll find it in, but this is the history of Cabot and all the work the people on the forum have done involved and the Cabot Fan Club worked on. There's a library we have off line which unfortunatly only we few rogue debtor morsals have access to (too many MIB's! ), but we are up to ears in crucifying these people just now and things is getting hotter

[bigandyuk1]

Thanks for the replies, I am still wading through the posts and am sure to find it soon

 

Kind Regards

Bigandy

[bigandyuk1]

Well now I am really confused Mrs BA received a letter from Littlewoods this morning. Taking into account they sent a default notice back in November and I sent them a letter telling them the debt was in dispute and nobody sofar had been able to produce an executed CCA and they (barclaycard) had then sold the debt to Cabot (sorry just have to take a few deep breaths).............................................................

 

This letter informs Mrs BA that there are some intrest rate changes to her credit card account and if she is not happy about it then she can cancel her credit card agreement and return her card !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Surley I can take someone to court for completely cocking just about everything up ????

 

All advice greatly appreciated.

[bigandyuk1]

Had a letter from Cabrot telling Mrs BA that there is a delay in retrieving information from Bcards archives (apparently they are archived as scrolls which are put into jars and hidden in caves somewhere near the Dead Sea).

As a gesture of goodwill they will put the account on hold until bcard contacts them. (unless of course I would like to make any payment offers.)

 

Kind Regards

Bigandy

[NailPost]

As a gesture of goodwill you will refrain from making a complaint to your local trading standards department, the Office of Fair Trading and the Financial Services Ombudsman until Cabot have exceeded the 30-day calendar month period when their default becomes a criminal offence.

 

Cabot cannot pick and choose the bits of law they like and don't like. They have 12 working days to comply with a CCA request. If they don't have the paperwork that's their problem, not yours.

[bigandyuk1]

I have had this reply from Cabrot today:

 

 

 

And this looks like an application form to me without the prescribed terms and barley legible. Perhaps I could have some opinions and maybe point me in the direction of an official reply.

 

[bigandyuk1]

Oh, I forgot to add, No T&C's and the letter included two statements from 2007 of which the figure on both did not agree with Cabrots original amount.

[Curlyben]

Are there any prescribed terms on that awful scan as there doesn't appear to be any at all ??

 

 

S61(1)(a) CCA provides that, for a regulated agreement to be properly executed, it must contain all the prescribed terms of the agreement and conform to regulations under s60(1) – see Q1.14.

 

Reg 6(1) provides that the terms specified in Sch 6 to the Agreements Regulations are ‘prescribed terms’ for the purposes of s61(1)(a) and s127(3) – see Q8.2.

 

8.2 What if prescribed terms are missing or incorrect?

 

s127(3) provides that the court may not make an enforcement order unless a document containing all the prescribed terms of the agreement was signed by the debtor – see Q1.21.

 

If therefore any of the prescribed terms is missing, or incorrect, the agreement is not enforceable against the debtor, and the court is precluded from making an enforcement order.

 

 

8.3 What are the prescribed terms?

 

The prescribed terms specified in Sch 6 are as follows:

 

* amount of credit – see Q8.

 

* credit limit – see Q8.5

* repayments – see Q8.9.

* rate of interest – see Q8.6

 

Sch 6 was not amended by the 2004 Regulations.

 

 

Also check out Peter Bard's excellent thread on the subject: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/103383-agreement-enforceability.html

[bigandyuk1]

That awful scan seems to be an application form of sorts and I cannot see any prescribed terms at all. What should I do now reference a reply to them?

 

Kind Regards

BigAndy