Inside a DCA!

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Have to agree with that.

 

OTB - quick question. How does the size of the debt figure in the equation, ie, it's to big to put through small claims, etc.

 

David

 

The balance owed will have a significant difference. The smaller the balance the quicker the point will come when it is 'uneconomical' to pursue, whereas the higher the balance the greater need will be to recover the debt and less likely that it will just be written off. But the ultimate determination on the outcome of any debt is the assessment of your ability to pay, or more accurately, the OCs ability to recover (through CCJ, charging order, Attachment of earnings, etc.)

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Agree, I don’t think we want to start aiding the debt avoiders

 

This sites all about letting people know their rights, helping them out of debt and stopping DCA walking all over them. Divorce, addiction, redundancy, illness and change of circumstances are all part of life. Loaning money is a risky business.

 

The DCAs should work with people not try and walk all over them!

 

A strategies that don’t work ie running away ect… would be good but also a section on " how to make the DCA see sense would be good to"

 

Interesting comments.

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A letter was recently sent to my address to someone unknown but with with the same surname, a different title and initials. Of course I didn't open it as it was addressed to someone else, but as it went in the trash the envelope tore. It was a DCA letter chasing an outstanding debt from Southern Water.

 

Dear Miss ???

Having confirmed your current address our client is anxious to resolve the outstanding debt.

You must call us immediately to arrange repayment of your outstanding debt.

If you are not the person named above, please accept our apologies and call us on 0845 40 224 30 to confirm this. If you do not call to tell us we will assume that you are the correct person.

Should we not hear from you within 7 days of the date of this letter, we may commence legal action to recover the outstanding debt.

Yours sincerely,

Advantis Credit Ltd

 

Now, first of all, any letters not addressed to a known person at my address would be binned. However, this company expects a stranger to open someone else's post and phone them to say that they are not the addressee. Is this some kind of breach of confidentiality or malpractice?

 

Also, this evening had a weird call. It may have been a voice activated message as they did not ask who they were talking to. The line was fuzzy, I said hello, hello, then a voice said, "Hello, this is an important call from Advantis Credit. Please phone on 0845." I put down phone in mid sentence as the woman did not ask for me by name. Is this another breach of customer confidentiality? I do not know this company, have no debts, and have been getting loads of marketing calls recently and am pretty fed up with unsolicited calls.

 

Could anyone tell me if it is safe to ignore. Pretty weird on their letter that they say, "Having confirmed your current address, our client is anxious to resolve the outstanding debt." I've never had letters or correspondence from any of these people before and have been at this address for several years.

 

Help!!!

 

This is a shot in the dark from a DCA. Just send ALL letters back addressed to this person and write 'not know at address' (that's if there is a return address , if not bin them), worse case they will send an agent to confirm you are not the debtor. to be honest, I have done such visits as part of my 'training' and they last about 5 mins: they just confirm your name and ask for one proof of identity. If you provide it they wipe their records of your details and send it back. Problem gone.

 

It is true that you are not allowed to open mail addressed to someone else, but hay, we all want to know what's going on. But you should just return it unopened (but I wouldn't make a special trip to the letter box ;-) ).

 

Also be aware that it is not unknown for a DCA to be looking for YOU but change the details of the 'debtor' in order to get you to confirm who you really are. Then 2 months after calling and telling them your not Miss X but Mrs Y they start chasing you for a statute barred debt because they were really looking for Mrs Y.

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Quite!

 

How dare they turn up at my front door & demand I tell them who I am....Like you seahorse I would give very short shrift & order them off my property & they certainly would have to walk away..........none the wiser

 

OTB makes a very valuable contribution to this forum but isn't just a little disconcerting that even good guy like him thinks it's perfectly permissible to just turn up to someones door & demand their identity:eek:

 

I would NEVER demand anything off anyone. We live in a free world and we all make our own choices. When I did my home visit work I saw it as give and take, and would give all the information I had (name, previous address of debtor, debt amount outstanding and the OC), and then asked to confirm they were not the person I was looking for - 95% of the people not only gave me the confirmation required but would often furnish additional information including forwarding address or estate agents details.

 

Some of you may argue 'what about my rights under the data protection act, which doesn't allow you to share my information with a stranger', but, I'm sorry - if the debtor has done a runner then so be it, they left their 'privacy' at the front door when they left, and so I'm happy to share what I know FIRST before requesting information.

 

If someone knocked on my door and said 'I'm looking for Mr X who are you, I wouldn't be polite either to be honest.

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Good evening to you all.

 

I actually think all you comments regarding my recent posts have been rather 'tame', because I have been a bit naughty these last few days.

 

It was actually this post that really got me thinking

This sites all about letting people know their rights, helping them out of debt and stopping DCA walking all over them. Divorce, addiction, redundancy, illness and change of circumstances are all part of life. Loaning money is a risky business.

 

The DCAs should work with people not try and walk all over them!

 

and I must apologise to Slc79 for using the original question to move the thread in a direction I needed to go in order to highlight a very important point regarding DCAs. A point I will return to over the weekend.

 

But a brief intro: If you have followed this thread from the start you will notice my comments about 'doorstep calls' (post 566) was out of character to all previous post, and that was deliberate, and a bit Machiavellian (I have never knocked on anyones door 8-) ). But I would ask you read the post again and see if you can see where I'm going, and the point I'm making. look at the tone, and content (what does it remind you of?).

 

I'll let you think about that Saturday and then I'll explain before submitting my latest insight 'Legal loopholes'. After which it will all make sense.

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Why you should think that being Machiavellian on a forum like this would be 'helpful' to it's members escapes me. I mean it's not as if there aren't already enough clowns from the DCA's stalking these boards

 

You had better be careful or many, including myself, will be taking your posts with a very large pinch of salt

 

Then I give up.