Mackenzie Hall. Do any of you know of them?

[UKSpartan]

Update

 

Received Mackenzie h Red postcard to contact ' no later than 29th Aug 06'

Did not contact them

 

BEST ADVICE when faced with this is DO NOT PHONE OR SPEAK TO THEM !!

 

Mh try to collect on old statute barred expired dept ..a phone call from you could possibly re open the expired dept , depts expire after 6 years of no contact or payments from lender to company, however ccj's that you may not even know about could have been issued by default and these can possibly be re opened if the company can provide good reasons for doing so to the court (I do not know how high the instance of re opening is but maybe it depends on the amount.also I believe new laws in their favour may have recently come into force, maybe the experts here could comment )

 

Apparently Mh do not even know for sure that you exist or are even the person that they are fishing for , If you give way and phone you could be putting yourself on the map and in line for all sorts of trouble !! (if you know more than I do pls add your comments )

 

No recollection of this dept at all .....

 

 

Received standing Order mandate dated 30th August

Did not contact them

 

Mh have stated a company -v- My name and no other details at all !!

lots of threats of balifs seizure of assets etc etc

 

Checked Credit score and report , result follows ....

 

Your National Credit Score**Your score is: 968 on a scale of 0-1000

A higher score generally indicates that lenders will consider it less risky to lend money to you.

This score reflects the information held by Experian on the date shown here: --/--/2006 Your credit score category is:

 

Very poor Poor Fair Good Excellent

 

(No negative entries at all dating back over the full 6 years held on record )

 

How you compare against the Nation:

In comparison, your National Credit Score is higher than that of 80% of UK consumers applying for credit.

 

What do I do now if anything at all, and what could possibly be coming next

[UKSpartan]

Don't forget to send it recorded delivery. And enclose a postal order crossed and made payable to Mackenzie Hall. This will be your proof that you have sent the request and they have received it. While the fee is theirs to do as they please cashing the postal order will confirm (in a court's eyes) their responsibility for providing the requested details. When they will fail to deliver, as they tend always to do, report them!

 

Can anyone let me know at exactly what stage or under what circumstances you may need to send the standard letter

 

 

Also does anyone have the link to standard letter and details of where to direct complaints i.e consumer council or trading standards addresses

 

Thanks to all who have posted on this thead

 

Best Wishes

UKS

[mortimer_black]

Hi, I had the lady from the chip shop 3 doors away just knock on my door saying they had someone calling them asking for me (at my home address) and asking them to get me to call this guy (name supplied) "urgently".

 

A quick jaunt online (I was suspicious immediately) found that the number was for one "J2 Solutions" and a quick search on them found this thread. It appears that this is the MH people doing their dirty again.

 

The only debts I have are under 6 years old, but it is ofcourse far more likely a reputable debt collector would have already written to me about said debt rather than try these tactics.

 

Can they send bailiffs without giving me actual notice of the debt owed? Or giving me a chance to pay?

 

TIA

[yvanl]

Hi every one.

 

I am Yvan and completly new to this site, and a little bit sceptic about getting money back from the Bank. However I will try and hope it will work, if it does I guarantee that I will donate something, I believe it would be the minimum thing to do to show my gratefulness.

[UKSpartan]

I have received both red post card and bank mandate from Mackenzie hall

 

I have not called them or spoken to them

 

Last communication was 2 wks ago, now it's gone quiet

 

I have a dept free 8 years at my present address and my credit record shows this with no visible negatives or defaults

 

What is likely to happen now ??

 

If Mackenzie h attempt to open an old CCJ , will I be informed first or could Baliffs suddenly turn up at my door?

 

No one seems to be answering questions here anymore, so could one of the Moderators pls help

 

Many Thanks

Uks

[chrismc]

I have received both red post card and bank mandate from Mackenzie hall

 

I have not called them or spoken to them

 

Last communication was 2 wks ago, now it's gone quiet

 

I have a dept free 8 years at my present address and my credit record shows this with no visible negatives or defaults

 

What is likely to happen now ??

 

If Mackenzie h attempt to open an old CCJ , will I be informed first or could Baliffs suddenly turn up at my door?

 

No one seems to be answering questions here anymore, so could one of the Moderators pls help

 

Many Thanks

Uks

 

UKs

 

I think you will find as long as you completely ignore them they will eventually go away. May take a while as they seem to be quite persistent and sound like they go quiet for a while then appear out of the blue again with a new red card or whatever ruse they can come up with next!

 

They cannot apply a CCJ to you unless they go to court first, if they did send a summons then you would have chance to tackle it then, but to be honest I veryu much doubt this would happen. They just use as many underhand tactics as possible to verify you are where they think you are in the hope you will be scared enough to contact them and sort out a payment arrangement. remember it costs them money to take you to court or to send out collectors etc, doubt they would be willing to throw good money after bad!

 

If things do progress further just post back here and someone will tell you what to do next.

 

Chris

[UKSpartan]

Many Thanks Chris for very concise info

 

It would be interesting to know what other rouses they might try to use

 

Have read about them sending someone from a near by chip shop and

 

also stories of knocking at neighbours doors with some line about the death of

 

one of your relatives, etc also that trading standards may need to

 

be informed if they attempt any of the above.

 

How does one deal with a summons, would imagine data protection letter

 

to be an effective weapon, as M h can't ever produce anything official or

 

signed by you for fear of breaking I believe

 

The amount is only £600 so as you say hopefully it's not worth them throwing

 

money at this one or bringing in J.S Solutions, (their own dept collection agency

 

I believe )

 

Good luck with your own Battles and Thanks again !!

 

UKS

[chrismc]

Many Thanks Chris for very concise info

 

It would be interesting to know what other rouses they might try to use

 

Have read about them sending someone from a near by chip shop and

 

also stories of knocking at neighbours doors with some line about the death of

 

one of your relatives, etc also that trading standards may need to

 

be informed if they attempt any of the above.

 

How does one deal with a summons, would imagine data protection letter

 

to be an effective weapon, as M h can't ever produce anything official or

 

signed by you for fear of breaking I believe

 

The amount is only £600 so as you say hopefully it's not worth them throwing

 

money at this one or bringing in J.S Solutions, (their own dept collection agency

 

I believe )

 

Good luck with your own Battles and Thanks again !!

 

UKS

 

They will try all sorts......even leaving messages on your answerphone if they have your number, asking you to call them as they have important news. Just ignore them.....eventually (may take a while) they will give up.

 

I have also heard they send out fake bankruptcy petitions, but the debt has to be over £750 for this anyway.....but again, I very much doubt they would follow through with a petition as it would cost them a few hundred pounds to do it and they would have to be fairly certain you had assets that could produce something for them.

 

I wouldn't worry for now!

 

Chris

[gizmo2007]

Sorry in advance if i have hijacked this post

 

Got a letter from these guy's last month at my old address. I called them up to advise that the debt they was chasing was short settled.

 

They said i needed to prove this - and send them evidence so - i got on to the finance house who issued me with the funds in the 1st place.

 

After Many phone call's spoke to a gentleman there who advised that the debt was indeed short settled, I asked them to inform MH who said they would do so.

 

 

About 3 days later i got a call from the finance company who advised in fact there is an error and that figure of which i was told was short settled was infact what was sold to MH and that they have instructed MH to go ahead and collect.

 

What bugs me is

 

1. They aint even spelt my name correctly

2. They dont have my full address

3. The information they have between them and the finance house is sketchy

 

I called up MH and said if they can prove it then i will pay them the money - they said they will apply for original copies of documets and send me a copy.

 

I am still waiting for these. They want 650 quid off me by end of sept - if i am in the right after they have got the information then they said they will refund me the money.

 

I really dont know what to do. Im sure i have short settled this account.

if i pay them i dont think that i will get the money back.

 

I really need to know what i should do - i dont want a CCJ or anything I am really at my witsend.

 

any information would be great thanks

 

Giz

[chrismc]

Sorry in advance if i have hijacked this post

 

Got a letter from these guy's last month at my old address. I called them up to advise that the debt they was chasing was short settled.

 

They said i needed to prove this - and send them evidence so - i got on to the finance house who issued me with the funds in the 1st place.

 

After Many phone call's spoke to a gentleman there who advised that the debt was indeed short settled, I asked them to inform MH who said they would do so.

 

 

About 3 days later i got a call from the finance company who advised in fact there is an error and that figure of which i was told was short settled was infact what was sold to MH and that they have instructed MH to go ahead and collect.

 

What bugs me is

 

1. They aint even spelt my name correctly

2. They dont have my full address

3. The information they have between them and the finance house is sketchy

 

I called up MH and said if they can prove it then i will pay them the money - they said they will apply for original copies of documets and send me a copy.

 

I am still waiting for these. They want 650 quid off me by end of sept - if i am in the right after they have got the information then they said they will refund me the money.

 

I really dont know what to do. Im sure i have short settled this account.

if i pay them i dont think that i will get the money back.

 

I really need to know what i should do - i dont want a CCJ or anything I am really at my witsend.

 

any information would be great thanks

 

Giz

Do you have a settlement figure or negotiated reduced amount figure in writing anywhere? if you do then you have them, if not why did you short settle, was it a phone call they made to you? it may end being your word against theirs, I know who I would believe.

 

If you pay them and they eventually find out they are wrong (if they can ever be bothered to look) the chances are they would never pay you back.

 

I would ask them to prove themselves like you have, the chances are they will not come up with the paperwork, so ignore them until they do!

 

If they cannot prove you owe it then it is tuff for them.

 

Stick to your guns, there is nothing they can do, but it may be best to send them a formal CCA letter by recorded delivery, so that if there is a problem, in the future you have some paperwork to back things up. I would never rely on just verbal conversations, they will lie through their back teeth to get you to pay more.

 

Chris

[Tiriam]

Hello, just been sent the MacKenzie Hall "We are attempting to contact the above named person regarding a personal matter" letter.

 

Probably like a lot of people was tempted to call in to have a go and give them the whole 6 years thing (the only debt it could be is circa 1996). But thanks to this site had second thoughts a put the letter in it's correct place, the bin.

 

Anyway just wondering if anyone knows how MH generate these letters and where they source there info from?

 

Reason I ask if that I normally reside overseas and in the last 8 years have only returned to the UK for more than a visit (ie for 6months plus) on 2 occassions and it just seems that each time I do return I get the same letter. Possible a coincidence, or maybe something more sinister?

[gerarddobbin]

Hi gerard dobbin here

Yesterday out of the blue i recieved a call from Makenzie Hall. It was an automated call asking me to contact them quoting some reference and to speak to blah blah blah. I just put the phone down. is it true that these people are just fishing for debts that have expired. If i continue to ignore them will they stop bothering me. I have a feeling they will try to use this method again to try and contact me. They phoned me at my work place. I have told my work colleagues to ignore this call should they phone again. Anyone got any advice from this great site. Everyone on this site are absolutley fantastic and i think unity amongst us is the only way to fight people like these out there who are trying to inflict misery on good people like you and me. Cheers.

[Eddy3oy]

Hi gerrard,

 

As you may have read at the beginning of this thread, I received a mailing from MH asking me to contact them. This I ignored and have heard nothing further from them. I did check my credit record and I have nothing outstanding although I do have a CCJ against me. However, I'm of firm belief that this company just fishes for cases and pounces on people and scares them into payments that they do not have to make or could get dropped with a little bit of effort.

 

i'd suggest making sure you have nothing outstanding before deciding what to do next

 

hope all goes well,

 

eddy3oy

[gerarddobbin]

thanks Eddy3oy

 

Cheers for your advice, i will check my credit reference and see if there is anything on it. Once again thanks.

 

gerard dobbin

[simonjohn]

For the benefit of people on here who are receiving numerous unwanted calls from Mackenzie Hall to I suggest the follwing:

 

1) Obtain the facillity to record both incoming and outgoing calls, "And it has been suggested more than once on this forum to either get skype, or a recorder from mapplins".

 

2) When you next receive a call from mackenzie hall, inform them that you are recording the call for legal purposes.

 

"say no more and let them take the inititive".

 

3) Write to mackenzie Hall, by recorded delivery, Stating that you do not acknowledge any debt to their company.

 

" I suggest that you type this in a font size of 22 at the head of the letter, just below yours and theirs address.

 

4) At the end of this letter, below your signature, at the foot of the page, I suggest that you Type:

 

please note that all calls will be recordeed for legal purposes, and you accept this as a condition of using my telephone number as a means of contact.

 

" I suggest that this is typed in a font size 9". After you have proof of delivery of this letter then you are not obliged to inform them that you are recording the conversation as they have already accepted, by contacting you this way.

 

Of all the people that I have advised to adopt this appraoch, Have had their calls drastically reduced by Mackenzie hall as :

 

1) mackenzie Hall conduct most of the business via the telephone

 

2) They are most unlikely to conduct themselves innapropriatly when subjected to their conversation being recorded.

[gerarddobbin]

Thank you for this advice and information, it is most appriciated.

 

Gerard Dobbin

[Nukey]

OMG I had one of their tacky red cards through my door too, but like an idiot I made arrangement to pay. Now whos the silly one! It was about 3 months behind the 6 year policy. Also, this was a debt from the Associates (Citicard now I believe). That card was taken out when I was 16/17 under seperate circumstances. No idea what to do. Ive not had any contact with them of late.

[UKSpartan]

Update

 

Received Mackenzie h Red postcard to contact ' no later than 29th Aug 06'

Did not contact them

 

BEST ADVICE when faced with this is DO NOT PHONE OR SPEAK TO THEM !!

 

Mh try to collect on old statute barred expired dept ..a phone call from you could possibly re open the expired dept , depts expire after 6 years of no contact or payments from lender to company, however ccj's that you may not even know about could have been issued by default and these can possibly be re opened if the company can provide good reasons for doing so to the court (I do not know how high the instance of re opening is but maybe it depends on the amount.also I believe new laws in their favour may have recently come into force, maybe the experts here could comment )

 

Apparently Mh do not even know for sure that you exist or are even the person that they are fishing for , If you give way and phone you could be putting yourself on the map and in line for all sorts of trouble !! (if you know more than I do pls add your comments )

 

No recollection of this dept at all .....

 

 

Received standing Order mandate dated 30th August

Did not contact them

 

Mh have stated a company -v- My name and no other details at all !!

lots of threats of balifs seizure of assets etc etc

 

Checked Credit score and report , result follows ....

 

Your National Credit Score**Your score is: 968 on a scale of 0-1000

A higher score generally indicates that lenders will consider it less risky to lend money to you.

This score reflects the information held by Experian on the date shown here: --/--/2006 Your credit score category is:

 

Very poor Poor Fair Good Excellent

 

(No negative entries at all dating back over the full 6 years held on record )

 

How you compare against the Nation:

In comparison, your National Credit Score is higher than that of 80% of UK consumers applying for credit.

 

What do I do now if anything at all, and what could possibly be coming next

 

I promised to keep this thread updated so here is the latest development

 

To recap, MH Little Red card arrives mid August 06 followed by MH bank mandate letter a month later

 

So three months since Red postcard

 

No actual contact at my address

 

I HAVE REMAINED SILENT THROUGH OUT MH'S VILE THREATS AND NOT CONTACTED

THEM AT ALL!!

 

No phone contact FROM MH (I am ex directory and never speak to anyone about finances over the phone or would confirm who I am, unless I was expecting a call)

 

Latest MH letter arrives , NOV 06 and now the creditor has suddenly changed to BT CELNET ??

(could it be that MH make it all up as they go along ....

 

I have now been offered a wonderful 'one off offer' to clear this NOW REDUCED 'dept' in one go at a greatly reduced rate (discount of £200)

or I can enter into contact IMMEDIATELY with MH to spread the payments..

 

I have no recollection of owing money to either of the two creditors MH has specified

 

Message to all newcomers , Read all the threads here , they have saved me serious damage to my grade A credit rating as well as money that I could no longer legally be expected to repay even if the dept was actually mine which it isn't ..

 

 

MH are chancers who Specialise in trying to collect old out of date dept that is actually statute barred being over 6 yrs old

 

DO NOT CONTACT THEM AND READ ALL THE THREADS HERE !!

[bazzy]

Lol, I also have recieved a new letter from MH this morning and the creditor has changed from HSBC to BT Cellnet. I know I owe money from the past to HSBC but not BT Cellnet. They want you to look and the creditor and phone up to say you dont owe any money to BT at which point they say it was a typo and they have you on the end of the phone to bully you. This is great that they are going to such lengths because they are just digging themselves deeper, creating more and more evidence of bad practice.

 

I have never contacted MH by letter or phone despite 3 nasty-grams from them threatening of all sorts of things like court action, bailiffs and attachment of earnings. My question is, has anyone actually ever been taken to court by MH? I haven't read of any cases yet.

 

Thanks for this great site!!!

[Nukey]

Please dont think Im thread hijacking, I am just a little worried.

 

Ok, this is the situation with me, in some brief points, and was wondering what will happen.

 

The debt was a credit card that was taken out when I was 16/17.

 

- Jan 2006 - Living in London, receive tacky red postcard

- Jan 2006 - I got scared that day and called them, admitting to debt (oops)

- Feb 2006 - Made arrangement to pay so much per week

- Feb 2006 - Name changed to Nukey Pearce, after informing them they told me they cant change the name on the debt because the debt was taken out in the old name

- Changed address

- Payments stopped

 

Im just a bit unsure. I heard in another post that even after contact (or something) after 6 years the debt will automatically close. Can some confirm this for me? Also what shall I do? Also nothing is on my credit record whatsoever with this debt. Thanks in advance..

 

-Nukey

[NailPost]

Couple of questions;-

 

Admitting the debt verbally on the phone does not acknowledge the debt. Making a payment does though- did you actually make a payment?

 

Are you sure this credit card debt relates to you? Credit of any kind cannot be granted to anyone under the age of 18. If this is the case then the bank would not have been able to document the account properly.

[Nukey]

I was scared into making a payment unfortunately

 

There were exceptional circumstances as to why I took it out at 16/17, because of some personal issues relating to my mother. I admit that I did lie on the application form, but I think the fact they are charging me £1,200 just for £250 I'd spent is a bit much.

 

I really dont know what to do with this company, they kept phoning me, sending me text messages and telling me to pay too much I could afford.

 

With the fact I was 16/17 when it was taken out, does that help at all? or am I still completely liable for it?

 

Thanks

 

-Nukey

[NailPost]

If you have paid something towards this account you may have some difficulty but all is not lost.

 

First of all write to Mackenzie Hall demanding proof of the debt. This is the S77/78 letters, a template can be found on this forum. Send the demand by recorded delivery and with it a postal order for £1. Mackenzie Hall must, by law, send you a copy of the agreement signed by you, a letter confirming their right to chase the debt (from the original creditor) and a statement of account (explaining how they reached the sum being claimed.

 

This response must be sent within 12 working days. If they don't they are in default and cannot take any further action without a court order (Mackenzie Hall never take court action!) and if the default continues for more than 30 days they have committed a criminal offence. They would be laughed out of court if they tried to collect.

 

You may find this will be enough to chase Mackenzie hall off. But they may just pass it back to the original creditor who may then pass it onto some other collector and you'll have to go through the same procedure again.

 

You could demand the payment(s) you have already made back from mackenzie Hall. You could argue that no evidence = no debt and any money paid by you has been handed over under duress. If they don't hand it back sue them! I bet MHall, like the banks, will pay up pronto rather than face a judge in a courtroom, especially if they have no paperwork to back up their case.

[Nukey]

Wow I had no idea I could request the money back! I'm sending off from the template asap! theres no way Im letting them get their grubby little paws on my cash.

 

Ill let you know what happens from there. If they do send proof that I ask for, what will happen then? surely I wouldnt have a leg to stand on. Just a question..

 

Thanks for your help

 

-Nukey

[NailPost]

If MHall send you the correct documents showing you signed an agreement and it is less thansix years old and the statement of account and the deed of assignment then it is likely you'll have to come to an arrangement with them.

 

But MHall actually having these to send is very unlikely. Check some of the other threads - Cabot for instance, in which they have stated in writing theydo not receive documents with a debt from the original creditor! That's an outrageous claim. If MHall respond at all they are likely to acknowledge recipt of your letter and then claim to need more time to obtain them. Stick to the timetable set by law and not by MHall's workers. Then when they default and commit a criminal offence stick it to them.