link financial....can they do this???

[hammers69]

ok i have a debt with link financial that i have been trying to pay every month the best i can. i have missed a few payments on my account. i phoned last month to make a payment of 80 pound, the man on the phone was very rude & said they will not take the payment from me as i had missed some. i tried to explain my situation, & the reason why i had missed payments he said not our problem, because i had missed payments they want the amount in full......by this time i was getting very frustrated & angry with this pompus little **** i said fine you wont take my ayment take me to court!.......the day after i got a call from them again saying that if i dont pay 280 quid before the end of the month (tomorrow) they will ave no choice but to take the matter further. again i offered the 80 pound payment, he wouldnt accept it. i told him i couldnt get that money together & he said not our problem, it has to be paid.

 

ok so can they really do this??.....i thought they had to accept any offer of payment, i still dont have enough to pay tomorrow & i am worried what they will do, can anybody please give me some advice for when i phone them tomorrow. thanks

[hammers69]

i found this....

 

When creditors refuse payments, it's usually because company policy prohibits it. It can't hurt to ask and if your first offer is declined, ask what they feel is an acceptable payment. You may have to negotiate for awhile and what ever you do, DO NOT agree to terms that you cannot afford. Agreeing to terms you cannot afford is dangerous and only leads to another broken promise down the road and ruins your creditability.

 

now this says ..DO NOT agree to terms that you cannot afford, how can you not agree when the company wont accept payment, & bullies you into accepting their terms or else..!!

[debbbbsy]

OK, from what I've read on this forum, negotiations over the phone never work.These people must take courses in upsetting people & lying,when they phone don't accept the call, hang up. From now on all correspondence should be done in writing, and sent recorded delivery. Keep copies of everything, there are template letters on this site that you can send.

Don't be bullied or upset by these people, use this site & become empowered.

Debs

[hammers69]

thanks debbbsy, i have sat reading through various topics relating to my question all day. all of it very helpful. however i still have noi idea what to say tomorrow whe link tell me i have to stump up 280 quid!

i have decided to tell them i cannot afford this amount & will offer 100 quid, to which if they refuse i will pay anyway, also if they refuse i will ask them to send me in writing that they have declined my payment.

they are trying to bully me into agreeing to get myself into even more debt by paying them what i cannot afford. as this is not a priority debt they will have to take my payment or take me to court.:mad:

[reallymadwoman]

DO NOT talk to them on the phone, and above all do not give them card details over the phone. If they call, either ignore it or refuse to answer their security questions. In the meantime send them a letter by 'recorded - signed for' saying how much you can afford and enclose a cheque. State that cashing the cheque will be taken as agreement to your terms.

 

The above assumes that you have absolutely no doubt that you owe the money, link have a legal right to collect, and there are no penalty charges etc included in the balance. If any of these apply, come back for further help.

 

Either way - DO NOT talk to them on the phone. As you have discovered, over the phone they have the upper hand and can frighten and bully you.

[hammers69]

i am not disputing that i owe the money, i just want to be able to make a payment to them. i will write a letter including a cheque. what happens if they dont accept it?

[citizenB]

i am not disputing that i owe the money, i just want to be able to make a payment to them. i will write a letter including a cheque. what happens if they dont accept it?

 

 

If you send them a cheque or postal order... rest assured they WILL cash it. Whatever you do, if you make an arrangement even if they dont agree to it. Make the payments regularly and keep all your receipts.

 

As advised already, DO NOT speak to them on the phone. Keep everything in writing (and do remember to keep copies for yourself) this is for your protection. You can obtain a free Proof of Posting slip from the post office, attach that to your copy of the letter.

 

Good luck and keep us updated please

[hammers69]

thanks for your help, mcan anyone tell me what a cca is & if i can use it. also how will all this affect my credit rating?

[debbbbsy]

If you want to continue with payments send the cheque for what you can pay, explain why it is this amount, be it a reduced amount, And also stress that you are not happy [infact really really upset] with the fact that your offer was rejected on the phone[ date & time included], & the conduct of there staff, & don't ever correspond with me over the phone ever again, or else.

There are template letters on this site about harrassment from DCA's.

Stress that if they cash your cheque, they are accepting this as payment & will not proceed with legal action.Keep a copy & send it recorded delivery.

Debs

[debbbbsy]

hi, again

a CCA is your consumer credit agreement with Link.

Debs

[hammers69]

what cca with link.....i havnt signed anything...

[citizenB]

thanks for your help, mcan anyone tell me what a cca is & if i can use it. also how will all this affect my credit rating?

 

 

Okey dokey, a CCA is the credit agreement you should have signed when you first made the credit agreement.. For instance Lloyds TSB ( I use this as an example because you havent said).

 

A lot of creditors have not kept the paperwork or if they have it is in poor condition and not containing the prescribed terms. Conditions that are required by law.

 

YOu can ask for this at any time, there is a legal fee of £1.00 which must be enclosed with the letter. Template N from this link

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt-issues/20758-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html#post162367

 

What you can do is send a request to Link Financial to see if they have this, what you are in effect asking is do they have a LEGAL right to collect on this debt.

 

If this debt is for a credit card, do you know if there are charges that can be claimed back ?, late payment fees.

 

Have you received a default notice from either the original creditor or Link. If so then this would have already been registered with the Credit reference Agencies.

 

Sending a CCA request wont affect your credit rating.

 

If you decide to send the request and if/when you get a reply, post on your thread and someone will take you through the next steps.

[AndyOrch]

Good advise frm CB as usual however i would be more inclined to find out who Link bought this debt from originally.also did you ever recieve a notice of assignment (NoA) from either the original Creditor or the new bunch?

 

 

Regards

 

Andy;)

[hammers69]

it was a loan from lloyds about 6 years ago......cant remember any signing of anything

[AndyOrch]

Hi Ok well request your CCA as advised above to find out if they are legally entitled to collect said debt.If they fail to produce it after 12 working days have no more to do with them.

BTW you dont sign a NoA its their duty to inform you that the debt as been sold to the DCA in question.These are just a few things to arm yourself when they make their tiresome threats of Court CCjs Charging orders etc ...bla bla bla

 

Wish you well with your endevours

 

Regards

 

Andy;)

[hammers69]

ok thankyou all.....is there a template to write a cca?

[AndyOrch]

Post 12 Citizen B

[AndyOrch]

PS dont sign the request type name and use a postal order no cheques

 

Regards

 

Andy;)

[debbbbsy]

Ok, tomorrow send your Consumer credit agreement request , include a postal order for £1 to Link. They have 12 + 2 working days to comply with your request.They will need to send you a True, signed copy of your origonal credit agreement with Lloyds ,incl all T&C's, & interest. Once the time is up, the debt is now in dispute.

Basically until they come up with this agreement, they can't phone you, they can't add interest & charges, they can't chase you until they provide proof that this is your debt.

Debs

[AndyOrch]

Ok, tomorrow send your Consumer credit agreement request , include a postal order for £1 to Link. They have 12 + 2 working days to comply with your request.They will need to send you a True, signed copy of your origonal credit agreement with Lloyds ,incl all T&C's, & interest. Once the time is up, the debt is now in dispute.

Basically until they come up with this agreement, they can't phone you, they can't add interest & charges, they can't chase you until they provide proof that this is your debt.

Debs

 

If only it was that simple Debbbsy just pop over into Legal and see how we deal with what they shouldnt do but thats another story one step at a time hammers 69

 

Regards

 

Andy:cool:

[hammers69]

ok well just recieved a letter back from link this morning

 

 

dear *******

 

unfortunately at this time we are unable to supply you a opy of your agreement however the Financial Ombudsman Service have made it clear that in situations such as this it is not unreasonable for us to continue reporting a default if it is a accurate reflection of how the account has been paid. The Infomation Commissioners Office have also made it clear that ifa default on a credit file 'accurately reflects payments on the account' then the fourth principle of the Data Protection Act 1998 has been complied with and therefore the continuation of reporting the account is acceptable.They also state:

 

"...the failure of a creditor to produce a copy of the signed credit agreement is not, on its own, evidence that your debt does not exist or that it is not enforceable and should therefore not appear on your credit file.If the credit grantor can supply some other evidence of the agreement and you have no evidence to the contradict this then it is likely to be proper for the debt to continue to be recorded on your credit reference file"

Therefore if an agreement is not available it does not mean the account is unenforceable and should be deleted from your credit file.The payments you have made towards your account are proof an agreement exists. please fill in and return the personal budget plan, whih has been sent to you seperately today so an affordable repayment plan can be organised.

 

if you have any questions or queries in relation to this letter please feel free to contact me directly on *********

 

yours sincerely

 

ms j pearcey

 

 

 

ok so what does this all mean?......help please.....

[odds]

Hi H69,

Well they have relly just told you they can't find a copy of your agreement at the moment, which means that they can't prove they have the right to collect anything from you. The rest is just waffle about how they don't need to remove the default off your Credit File, but if they don't have a CCA then they shouldn't have put it on in the first place.

So in real terms it means that you should pay them NOTHING untill the elusive document shows up. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

Oh don't bother phoning them as you have nothing further to discuss with them.

Pete.

[hammers69]

hi pete, thanks for you reply. when this came today i thought what the hell.....hopefuly it is what you say it is.so what do i do now?.....just wait?...they are still phoning.....i am just ignoring their call. what amazes me is that they want to help now with an affordable repayment plan but they wouldnt take an 80 quid payment when it was offered.......

[hammers69]

any one have any other idea about this letter???

[citizenB]

have a read of this thread.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt-issues/148383-finlander-wants-soak-abbey.html?highlight=finlander