Aktiv Kapital Debt Collection

[OTS]

Hi all. This is my first post. I would like to start by saying hello and what a fantastic site this is. I now know who Aktiv Kapital are and more importantly what they do. I am currently in dialogue with them for a debt of £900.00. Allow me to give you the history.

2000. Bought a Computer from Tiny Computers on a buy now pay later method. I signed the credit agreement as part of the deal. Tricity Finance were the creditors. The interest free period was 6 months. 1 week before the 6 months ended I contacted Tiny Computers to pay the balance of £1200.00. I wanted to pay using my American Express Credit card. Guess what Tiny said, "WE DON’T ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS AS A FORM OF PAYMENT". When I asked why they just said "ITS COMPANY POLICY".

I was unable to pay by another means so I was charged the APR, which I think if memory serves me correctly was 29%. Now, the rest of this is from memory so forgive me if I get some details wrong. I thought it was unfair for Tiny not to accept the credit card as a form of payment. I read the credit agreement that I’d signed 6 months prior; nowhere did it state that the balance couldn’t be settled with a credit card in order to avoid the APR.

I did some research and found the term called “Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts” which states: An unfair term in a contract covered by the UTCCRs is not binding on the consumer. A term is unfair if : Contrary to the requirement of good faith it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations under the contract, to the detriment of consumers.

'Good faith' means that you must deal fairly and openly with consumers. Standard terms may be drafted to protect commercial needs but must also take account of the interests and rights of consumers by going no further than is necessary to protect those legitimate commercial interests.

So, If Tiny Computers know that they dont accept certain forms of payment then they should say so in the credit agreement.

I wrote to Tiny and quoted the above. When they wrote back they didn’t respond to what I had pointed out, they just said becasuse I had now failed to pay the balance withihn the 6 month period, the balance was now subject to an APR of 29% until paid.

I don’t recall what I actually paid back to Tiny, but I managed to pay most of the original balance back. The debt was now soaring with the APR that had been applied to it. The finance company namely Tricity Finance (yes those lovely people) referred the default balance of £1900.00 to a debt collection company whose name I don’t recall. This company said if I paid £1000.00 they wouldn’t persuse me for the rest of the balance. Even though I knew I was being ripped off I decided to pay them.

Guess what? 2 weeks later I got a letter from another debt collection company called Moorecroft Credit for the remaining £900.00. I wrote to them telling them there was no way they are getting any money from me.

This debt has now been bought by (yes you guessed it) Aktiv Kapital of Chester. A few months ago I applied for a credit card, but was refused due to adverese credit. I subsequently obtained a copy of my credit file from Experian. I saw that a default notice had been placed on the file.This is what the file looks like:

Entry Number:

C4

Name and address:

Withheld by me

Date of birth:

Withheld by me

Company name:

AKTIV KAPITAL (UK) LTD

Account type:

Bank

Special Instruction Indicator:

Gone Away

Special Instruction Start Date:

09/2005

Started:

30/04/2000

Default Balance:

£1,900

Current Balance:

£900

Defaulted On:

07/11/2001

File updated for period to:

08/01/2006

Status History:

(brackets indicate most recent status)

( 8 )

 

I took advice from the forums on this site and sent a this letter on 04/07/06

After recently obtaining a copy of my credit file from Experian I was concerned to note that your company has placed a "Default" notice against my name.

Further to this I have no recollection of ever receiving such a notice, and I therefore require you to substantiate this data.

 

• You must supply me with a true copy of the alleged agreement you refer to. This is my right under your obligation to supply a copy of the agreement under the legislation contained within s.78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 (s.77 (1) for fixed sum credit). Your obligation also extends to providing a statement of account. I enclose a £1 postal order in payment of the statutory fee, PO Serial Number************** refers.

• You must supply me with a signed true and certified copy of the original default notice.

• Any deed of assignment if the debt was sold on.

• You are notified that you are obliged to supply these documents, whether you are the original creditor or not.

Non-compliance with my request is a criminal offence under the above Act and will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities.

 

I request that this data is provided to me within the next 28 days; if you are unable to provide this data then I must insist that the default notice is removed from my files as unsubstantiated.

08/07/06 I received this reply:

Your recent communication in respect of the above account refers. Please bear with us while we investigate this account further. We will write to you with our findings in due course.

11/07/06 I received this letter from Aktiv Kapital legal representatives:

We are willing, without prejudice, to accept £675.37 in full and final settlement of this debt, provided this sum is received at this office by 18/07/06.

As I’ve seen on numerous forums very often the debt company are unable to provide any requested documents. I can only assume their record keeping is poor or they never bothered to ask for the any documents from the original debtor. I have now read that they only have 12 working days in which to respond to the request.

Question 1: Does the 12 days mean 12 days to reply to my letter or 12 days to supply the requested documents to substantiate the debt?

Question 2: If it means 12 days to supply the requested documents to substantiate the debt and they fail, can I request to have the default notice removed from my credit file?

Question 3: If I can request to have the default notice removed from my credit file, then what is the procedure?

I hope I've explained this properly. I would really appreciate any help or advice on this issue that I’m sure many other people are going through.

OTS

Liverpool

[blueskies]

I think that must go down as one of the longest first posts ever!

As all the information about your claim is in there I will refer it to a moderator to get the post moved to the general forum where it will get more attention from other users.

 

Good luck with your claim

[OTS]

Thanks, Aploligies if I went on and on, but these things do tend to take al ot of explaining.

 

Ots:-x

[Seminole]

Question 1: Does the 12 days mean 12 days to reply to my letter or 12 days to supply the requested documents to substantiate the debt?

The latter. After this the debt is unenforceable until they produce it. After 30 days in total they commit a criminal offence.

 

Question 2: If it means 12 days to supply the requested documents to substantiate the debt and they fail, can I request to have the default notice removed from my credit file?

 

You should ask for this but the CRAs are a law unto themselves on such matters. You should certainly make a complaint to Trading Standards about these vultures after the 30 days are up.

 

Question 3: If I can request to have the default notice removed from my credit file, then what is the procedure?

In the first instance just speak to them and let us know what they say. Are you certain that this is the only default on this file for this account?

Did you get anything in writing from Moorcroft to confirm that the £1k payment was in full and final settlement?

[OTS]

Hi Simone,

 

The £1000.00 was paid to the 1st debt collection company whose name I cant recall. They are based in Wales as I recall. They stated it would be full and final. When I asked for this In writing they said they wouldn't be bale to do that. They just said they wouldnt persue me for the remainder of the balance. At the time I was In a position where I didnt know what else to do but pay up as I thought £1000.00 is cheaper than £1900.00 and a potential CCJ against me. I actually paid over the phone using my switch card. I now know that this was a very foolish and costly move.

 

Thanks

[Seminole]

Simone? SIMONE??

 

Never mind.

 

Unfortunately if you want to argue this point you may have a struggle. It's essential to get a full and final settlement agreed in writing before you make payment. About the only appproach that might work would be to make a wide ranging subject access request under the Data Protection Act and hope that they give you some details of the agreement you reached. Other than that it will be your word against theirs I'm afraid.

[Rich44]

As far as paying it by credit card goes no company has to accept credit cards for payment, the reason they didnt want to here is it costs them a certain % of the transaction in merchant fees so seeing as they didnt want to lose their nice little earner of 29% interest they make it difficult for you. Debit cards are another matter as these generally only accrue a fixed amount for every transaction usually around 20p so you can see with a large transaction why companies prefer debit cards.

 

As regards the rest I wish you good luck with getting it sorted out

[kyuudousha]

I took advice from the forums on this site and sent a this letter on 04/07/06

 

After recently obtaining a copy of my credit file from Experian I was concerned to note that your company has placed a "Default" notice against my name.

Further to this I have no recollection of ever receiving such a notice, and I therefore require you to substantiate this data.

 

• You must supply me with a true copy of the alleged agreement you refer to. This is my right under your obligation to supply a copy of the agreement under the legislation contained within s.78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 (s.77 (1) for fixed sum credit). Your obligation also extends to providing a statement of account. I enclose a £1 postal order in payment of the statutory fee, PO Serial Number************** refers.

• You must supply me with a signed true and certified copy of the original defaultnotice.

• Any deed of assignment if the debt was sold on.

• You are notified that you are obliged to supply these documents, whether you are the original creditor or not.

Non-compliance with my request is a criminal offence under the above Act and will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities.

 

I request that this data is provided to me within the next 28 days; if you are unable to provide this data then I must insist that the default notice is removed from my files as unsubstantiated.

Was this letter sent to AK or Tricity? Or both?

I am having the same problem with them and would be interested in ganging up on them and jumping on them in a dark alley somewhere...

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-consumer-issues/18126-akitv-krapital-again.html#post140154

Link to my gripe on this forum just so you can compare notes.

Regards

Kyu

[OTS]

Hi

 

Yes I sent the same letter. They have now missed the 12 day period. Now only about 2 weeks from the 30 deadline. Once thats up i'm gonna make them have it, big time. Dont know how long it will take to get the default notice taken off my credit file, but its looking good so far. The letter was sent to Aktiv Kapital, the idiots bought the debt from Tricity Finance.

 

Hope your claim goes well.

 

Ots:o

[kyuudousha]

Thanks for that, good luck with yours aswell...

[rambot]

i have just been informed by AK that they do not and cannot get hold of a copy of the agreement, under the cca and statutory £1.00 fee letter template,

not sure where to go from here but no agreement no debt

[OTS]

Hi. Ive just had my default removed from my credit file. I sent 3 letters to AK requesting the defaulst notice. They gave me the usual crap about giving it thier attention and all that. I then phoned thier office in Chester. I spoke to one of thier training staff. I told her that if they didnt remove the default notice from my file i would make a formal complaint to the Office of Fair Trading. The OFT issue the licence to companies like AK. If those companies breach the terms of that licence, as i alleged AK did by not furnishing the requested information, the OFT can suspend the licence. Guess what? 2 days later the default was removed. My credit file is now clean. Companies like AK just need a swift kick up the arse. Hope this helps:lol:

 

Ots

[elsinore]

Well done, OTS. A victory for direct action!

 

I took the more conventional route by complaining to Trading Standards, but I just know that I will have to adopt your method to get a similar result.

 

Maybe you should now complain to TS in order to stick the knife in! If you do, make sure you send a copy of your complaint to Cheshire TS, who should be making a case against AK.

 

Elsinore

[Miss Vanian]

Hi,

I have 2 debts with Abbey which were passed onto Debt Managers Ltd and Scotcall Ltd. I arranged a payment plan with both companies and have been paying off the balance off monthly for the last couple of years (Scot Call would occasionally send me letters showing the remaining balance, Debt Managers Ltd sent no correspondence). In Feb 08, I recieved a letter from Scotcall saying that they were no longer collecting Abbey's debt and to send them no more money. In June 08 a letter was sent to my mother's address (despite me not living there for 16+ years) from a company called Link Financial Ltd telling me that they had taken over the debt previously held by Scotcall - the amount they were asking for was £80 more than listed by Scotcall. I called them to arrange a new payment plan and queried the extra £80. Although they were very friendly they could not explain the extra £80 other than saying Scotcall must not have passed on all the payments I had made. Additionally, Link also said that they were now collecting the debt previously held by Debt Managers (apparently they had been collecting money from Debt Managers since the previous year but had only recieved 5 payments despite me sending monthly payments to Debt Managers). I called Debt Managers who said yes, they had passed the debt to Link and they were not obliged to inform me of this. However, they did acknowledge all the payments I had sent them. To cut a long story short, Link are now asking for £500 (approx) more than what I owe - none of the companies involved can give me an answer on where the missing money has gone (they all say that they haven't put additional charges onto my debt). I have told Link that I won't send them any money until this final sum has been resolved.

Does anyone know if I can legitamately ask the companies involved to send me full details of original amount owed, details of when the debt was passed on (and to whom). If anyone has copies of relevant letters, please let me know (I've been to CAB and they were no help at all).

Many Thanks