Default with Style Financial Services

[Courtovsky]

Hi all

 

Im new to these forums but as the title suggests I've got a little problem. I got a copy of my credit file about 2 months back & found that I had a default on there registered by Style Financial Services. I never received the default letter & only remember some company phoning me stating that I owed money so I paid it straight away.

 

After reading through these forums I sent a CCA request. However their reply threw me. It stated that as my debt was settled they had no obligation to provide me with the information I requested & that my debt was not sold on.

 

Anybody have any ideas in regards to what I should do next? I was thinking of sending a Subject Access Request but are they obliged to respond to that? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

Cheers

[PaulW922]

What is it that you are trying to do exactly? If you are looking at card default fees - and you should because they are not covered by the current stay on bank account fees - you need to submit a SAR for transaction details as you suggest and that is somehting they must reply to. This costs £10.

[Courtovsky]

Thanks for the reply Paul. Im basically trying to get my default removed. I didnt even realise that I had 1 until 2 months back. May as well claim back the charges as well while I'm at it.

[42man]

They MUST reply with all they hold on you. They have to send you everything within 40 days, if not then you have send a reminder letter, if they fail to respond within another 14 days then report them to the ICO

 

Take a read here...

 

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/subject_access_-_guide_for_data_subjects.pdf

 

Send this SAR request...

 

Data Protection Act 1998

 

Subject Access Request

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxxxxxxxx (or multiple numbers if more than one account)

 

Please supply me with all data that you hold on me. This includes in particular, but is not limited to, the following:-

 

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

3. 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 ORIGINAL CREDITOR.

4. 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.

5. 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).

6. Details of any collection charges 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.

7. 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.

8. A genuine copy of any notice of fair use of my data as required by the Data Protection Act 1998

9. A list of third party agencies to whom you have disclosed my personal data and a summary of the nature of the information you have disclosed.

10. Copies of statements for the entire duration of the credit agreement.

 

I enclose the statutory maximum fee of £10. You have 40 days in which to comply.

If there is specific information which you require in order to satisfy yourself as to my identity, please let me know by return. However, please note that the above address is the one which you normally use to communicate my private business to me and which you have hitherto found to be acceptable.

 

Yours faithfully,

[PaulW922]

It is very difficult to get defaults removed. I would suggest that your best course might be to see what level of charge shave been applied, and if they are significant, ask for the default to be removed on the basis that the actual debt defaulted was substantially wrong.

[Courtovsky]

Thank you for the replies so far guys. They are really helpful. I defaulted at 251 quid or summat which is really what ticks me off. MY credit limit on the card was about 150 quid and I paid em back close to 300 quid. Really silly if you ask me to be honest. Doesn't do them any harm to remove it considering I paid it straight away.

[Courtovsky]

Sent the SAR about a month ago now & still no reply. What should I write now?

[Courtovsky]

Any ideas guys?

[42man]

Yes you need to send them a reminder.(I would head the letter LETTER BEFORE ACTION)....(by recorded) if they don't respond within a further 14 days then you can take them to court....OR you can get the ICO to pursue them....(very likely you will get compensation too, but you'd probably get more + costs if you took them to court yourself...

 

Have a read here....

 

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/taking_a_case_to_court.pdf

[42man]

And this one too (sorry) meant to include this one before the one above....

 

http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/subject_access_-_guide_for_data_subjects.pdf

[Courtovsky]

Hi guys just a little update on where I am with Style.

 

Sent them an SAR request. They sent me statements. Told them there was no default notice there and no proof. They now say they have references to them being sent. Is this viable or can I still have them on grounds they cant provide original copies???

[Courtovsky]

This is my draft response. Tell me what you think

 

Dear Mr .......

 

Thank you for your letter dated 31/10/08. I am very concerned with some information in your letter. On the 28th July Miss ......... wrote to me stating that my debt was not passed on. You now say it was. So I have been lied to. You also say that the default letter was sent yet this was not sent to me within the information I requested. If you have these default letters you are in breach of my rights under the Data Protection Act. If you don’t have these then you are in breach of principles 1, 3 & 4. You are not fairly & lawfully processing my information. It is not adequate or relevant & certainly is excessive. It is also inaccurate as you are unable to provide me with proof that this was sent. I don’t want reference numbers. I want a hard copy. If this cannot be provided I ask that you remove the data in its entirety.

I refer you to the last paragraph of my letter dated 28/10/2008 stating that I will have no further option but to refer this case to the Information Commissioners Office, Banking Ombudsman and Trading Standards as appropriate. One thing I will add is that if necessary I will look to take legal action as my rights have been breached under the Data Protection Act.

Would you please reply to this letter within 10 days giving the details of the data provision previously requested.

Yours sincerely,

 

[Courtovsky]

Anybody?

[42man]

Yes it looks good....keep us posted....did they send you any agreements ?

[Courtovsky]

They sent me my signed agreement and a load of statements half of which I've never seen but it's the whole reference thing that worried me as I've been told reference numbers are enough in court.

[42man]

Does this help at all ?

 

CCA RULES FOR PRESCRIBED TERMS

CONSUMER CREDIT ACT

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.

IS MY AGREEMENT ENFORCEABLE( Via section 127(3) CCA1974)

PRESCRIBED TERMS FOR THE PURPOSES OF SECTIONS 61(1)(0) AND 127(3) OF THE

CONSUMER CREDIT ACT 1974 Taken from sced.6(1983/1553) regulations

(If you just want to find out, skip the bits in between the stars it’s just some extra information)

 

**What do we mean by unenforceable?

In the Consumer Credit Act section 127 there is a provision for making an agreement unenforceable if it does not contain certain pieces of information.

Subsections 1,2,3,4 state which pieces of information these are, and everything mentioned there must be included within the body of the agreement, if one is missing the agreement is unenforceable.

 

How does unenforceable differ from enforceable with a court order only?

When an agreement is unenforceable it means that the court or the judge cannot make a ruling on it. The court cannot make it enforceable.

When an agreement is enforceable only by ruling of the court it means that the agreement can be stopped by the debtor but the court has the power to re-instate it and allow the credit to continue to enforce.**

 

The Prescribed Terms are these

 

A Amount of credit

A term stating the amount of credit

 

B Repayments

A term stating how the debtor is to discharge his obligations under the agreement to make the repayments, which may be expressed by reference to a combination of any of the following-

(a) Number of repayments;

(b) Amount of repayments;

© Frequency and timing of repayments;

(d) Dates of repayments;

(e) The manner in which any of the above may be determined; or in any other way, and any power of the creditor to vary what is payable.

 

C Rate of interest

A term stating the rate of interest to be applied to the credit issued under the agreement

D Credit limit

This may be a term or the manner in which it will be determined or that there is no credit limit.

--------------------------

 

Which of these applies to you depends on the type of agreement you have?

 

For a Running Account (credit card) agreement

 

BC and D Apply

 

For a Restricted Use Debtor Creditor Supplier

• Where the dealer is the supplier and the creditor is the one providing the finance.
  
• The money can only be used for the purpose it is given.
  
• There is no interest on the purchase (the cash price is the same as the total price)
  
• And there is no advance payment
  

A is applicable

 

For a fixed Sum Credit Agreement

A conventional credit agreement with none of the above restrictions

 

A and B apply

 

For a Hire Agreement

 

B is Applicable

 

This paper only covers section 127(3) of the Act agreements can also be unenforceable by contravention of sections 1 and4 this will be the subject of the next paper.

Please note that these Prescribed terms where not changed in any way by the 2004/1482 Ammendments although the form in which they appear on the agreement was. Subsection127(3) was repealed on the 6th of April 2007 so that unenforceability due to 127(3) will only apply to agreements executed before that date.

[Courtovsky]

unfortunately no . The form I signed has all of those details on it. My only leg to stand on is the fact I never received the default notice. But if what I'm told is true & reference numbers are enough in court I don't have much to stand on by the looks of things . Might just keep writing to them till they get annoyed with me & remove it .

[42man]

Reclaim the excessive charges if you can....also I would write to them explaining that they have not fully complied with your Subject Access Request and that they have not enclosed any copies of default notices....!! (did they send you the default notice in the SAR ?)

[Courtovsky]

No they never sent me the actual default notices or copies. Just claimed to have reference numbers and quoted these.

[42man]

As mentioned Courtovsky, I would write to them explaining that the subject access request is incomplete....head the letter - LETTER BEFORE ACTION

[Courtovsky]

Sent the letter saying they still have not provided me with the original default & requested the data to be removed. They sent me a template of a default, then quoted section 176 of the Consumer Credit Act. They then said they are satisfied with the actions they took. Am I stuck? Do I proceed with the complaints process & take the matter to court?

[Courtovsky]

Anyone?

[42man]

Is the default compliant ?

 

quote the following from Consumer Credit (Enforcement, Default and Termination Notices) Regulations 1983 (SI 1983/1561)

 

 

Quote:

SCHEDULE 2

FORM OF DEFAULT NOTICE BEFORE A CREDITOR OR OWNER CAN BECOME ENTITLED, BY REASON OF ANY BREACH BY THE

DEBTOR OR HIRER OF A REGULATED AGREEEMENT, TO TERMINATE THE AGREEMENT, DEMAND EARLIER PAYMENT OF ANY

SUM, RECOVER POSSESSION OF ANY GOODS OR LAND, TREAT ANY RIGHT CONFERRED ON THE DEBTOR OR HIRER BY THE

AGREEMENT AS TERMINATED, RESTRICTED OR DEFERRED OR ENFORCE ANY SECURITY

Regulation 2(2)

Details of agreement

 

1

A description of the agreement sufficient to identify it.

 

Parties to agreement

2

(1) The name and a postal address of the creditor or owner.

(2) The name and postal address of the debtor or hirer.

 

Details of breach of agreement and action required to remedy, or pay compensation for, the breach

3

A specification of:--

(a) the provision of the agreement alleged to have been breached; and

(b) the nature of the alleged breach of the agreement, specifying clearly the matters complained of; and either

© if the breach is capable of remedy, what action is required to remedy it and the date, being a date [not less than

fourteen days] after the date of service of the notice, before which that action is to be taken; or

(d) if the breach is not capable of remedy, the sum (if any) required to be paid as compensation for the breach and

the date, being a date [not less than fourteen days] after the date of service of the notice, before which it is to be paid.

[meanbean]

I have a simlar issue with the claimant reconstructing a copy of a default notice they say was sent out. This post by surfaceagentx20 may be useful to you:-

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/dca-legal-successes/145452-stayingcalm-abbey-no-cca-8.html#post1713968