Littlewoods and NDR

[traceybrowne]

Hi all,

 

This is just a quick Q to see if anyone has dealt with NDR. Well (touch wood) everything is goign ok i am into my 2nd 6month plan with ndr paying off at £100 a month. The only thing that has been making me wonder at night is that when i phoned her the 2nd time to get payments put over 6 month again. She mentioned something to me saying "yes no problem as i have kept to the agreement, but at the end of this 6 month we will have to basically sort something out". Now i am getting worried as that 6 month runs out on 12th december. I thought seeing as i am paying with no defaults they will let me pay £100 a month until the debt is wiped. Now i am scared she is going to say i will have to pay the full balance as it has been a year (dunno why i am thinking this its just what she said on the phone that has got me thinking well what did she mean)

 

Am I being silly thinking something like this?

Will they still allow me to just keep paying off the debt until it is cleared? they are getting £600 every six month with no hiccups or late payments.

[cerberusalert]

It does sound odd, how much do you have left owing, how old is the debt & is it a catalogue?

[traceybrowne]

Hi yes it is for littlewoods. The debt is £5,416.82 i will of been paying NDR for a year in 2 6 monthly agreements on 12th dec. totaling £1,200 a year

[traceybrowne]

Surely they cannoat ask for it in full as i have never missed and its all gone smooth. I sure hope they will just let me continue to pay the way i have been for the past year. This way we are both happy.

 

I am such a born worrier

[cerberusalert]

She probably meant that they would review the payments you are making, probably in the hope of increasing them.

 

How old is the a/c, did you sign an agreement or open it online?

[traceybrowne]

The account was opened in feb 2000. It was a woman who stopped me in the street in the town so i got a catalogue and ordred a kettle. I also have lx direct that account was opened over the phone

 

Well she cannot get the payments any higher am as high as i can go already.

[cerberusalert]

I think you will find that if you send a CCA request to Littlewoods http://www.consumerforums.com/resources/templates-library/86-debt-collectors/581-cca-request-letter unsigned enclosing a £1 p.o and posted recorded delivery you will be pleasantly surprised to discover that it is highly likely that they will be unable to provide an enforceable agreement.

 

This would give you two choices. The first would be to carry on making payments which you think you can reasonably afford if you believe you morally owe the debt. The second choice is that you will be able to tell them to take a running jump for the balance of the a/c.

 

Be warned tho', if you decide on the latter you will be facing a bit of a battle with them with regards to a prolonged game of letter ping-pong and them making unfounded threats & in all probability trying to trash your credit file by defaulting you.

[Mr Worried]

Hey TB,C,mon dont get stressed over this because you have all the help you need from this forum.

 

Do as cerber has advised, I too was initially afraid to send a cca but when I did my first one I sighed relief, just as well because the dca that it went to have sent info saying no further action..

 

C,mon tb get it done and you may save yourself some money, as that is a hell of a lot to be paying out each month.

 

Mr W

[130776ds]

Hey Traceybrowne, I too was anxious about sending off all the letters and asking for a signed CA, but you are well within your rights. I have done all as was advised as I was at the end of my tether and NDR/Littlewoods and Freemans were sending threatening letters/phonecalls. At the end of the day you can only pay what you can pay, but don't leave yourself short at the end of the month. I have received a letter from Littlewoods saying that due to not being able to locate a true signed copy of my CA they cannot enforce the debt (it's in a frame!), now they have probably trashed my credit file but they couldn't have done it that much damage as I was able to take out a 24 month mobile phone contract!!

I cannot tell you what a weight it is off of my mind not to have to worry that they cannot force any more money out of me. If I had the money I would settle but until that time I am quite happy the way things are!! Good luck and keep us posted, don't be afraid and don't lose any sleep over it!!!

[Mr Worried]

Hey Traceybrowne, I too was anxious about sending off all the letters and asking for a signed CA, but you are well within your rights. I have done all as was advised as I was at the end of my tether and NDR/Littlewoods and Freemans were sending threatening letters/phonecalls. At the end of the day you can only pay what you can pay, but don't leave yourself short at the end of the month. I have received a letter from Littlewoods saying that due to not being able to locate a true signed copy of my CA they cannot enforce the debt (it's in a frame!), now they have probably trashed my credit file but they couldn't have done it that much damage as I was able to take out a 24 month mobile phone contract!!

I cannot tell you what a weight it is off of my mind not to have to worry that they cannot force any more money out of me. If I had the money I would settle but until that time I am quite happy the way things are!! Good luck and keep us posted, don't be afraid and don't lose any sleep over it!!!

 

Well said D

 

Mr W

[traceybrowne]

Well my 6 month was up today. I have been with them a year never missed a payment. So i phoned up to continue my payments. They said NO an i have come to the end of the agreement with NDR as their new terms is only 1yr. NOW they are adding £924 interst on my account (after they said it was stopped aslong as payments where met which they where) and they said i have to pay $224.00 a month. There is no way on this earth i can pay that. Why on earth did they come to an agreement of £87 a month which was not meeting my minimum payment then suddenly say my agreement has finished and i have to pay £224.00 a month for 13month.

 

What will happen if i do not pay. Will they sell off my debt to another company (of which i will probably be able to pay less with no interest) or will it go to court (which i do not want.

 

I heard from others that if you offer them money £1 to every£100 owed they cannot do anything.

 

What really gets me angry is they are putting £924 interest after i have paid over £1000 this year so all told scraping money together i have only paid off £120 this is scandolous. OH! and she said i will have an admin charge on my account as she has put it on hold (of which i did not ask for) until i sort it out. I said i cannot sort it out it is £87 or nothing and she said that it was not their fault how ignorant. I try my hardest and this is what i get.

 

I am sooo worried and right on xmas i do not know what to do.

[cerberusalert]

Send the CCA request, as simple as that.

[traceybrowne]

I want to send a CCA but i am scared of what it entails. I am not disputing i bought he goods and i WANT to pay but there is just no leeway with these guys no matter how hard i try.

[cerberusalert]

Sending a CCA request is your legal right and they have you provide you with a 'True Copy' which is enforceable before they can pursue, this is enshrined in the CCA 1974 & amendments.

 

Before we can advise on how to proceed we need to see this agreement, but for heavens sake please don't be scared of NDR they are only the in-house collection arm of Littlewoods & they feed on the ignorance and guilt of people like yourself. They will bully, lie and intimidate you in order to get money from you.... you must stand up to them and exercise your legal rights.

[traceybrowne]

Ok so if i ask for a cca will it not make them even more determined and angry if it comes back signed.

 

Wat do i do? I have read some threads about it but not sure exactly what to do.

 

Kind regards

 

Tracey

[cerberusalert]

If it's not enforceable you do not have to continue paying if you don't wish to, if you feel morally obliged you can repay at a level which you can afford.

 

If it is enforceable you can still make repayment arrangements which are affordable to you. In the unlikely event event that they applied for a CCJ a judge would only order repayments at a level which he thought you could comfortably afford after looking at you circumstances. But do not worry this is a last resort & a long way off yet.

[traceybrowne]

Ok thank you i guess there is no hurt in seeing if they havd a cca for me.

 

The thing that gets me i have been a loyal customer to them for 10yr never ever missed, and i hit hardship so they send me to ndr who happily accepted my £87 a monthe for lxdirect and £100 a month for littlewoods. But now after a year they stopped and sent back to lx and littlewoods. They new i was not meeting my minimum payment so why on earth accept £187 complete total fromme. I wasoriginally only paying lxdirect £146 a month so not like it dropped that much and now they ask for £224 a month for 13month with added interest. WHY on earth could they not happily keep accepting my payments until it was completed would only take 2 1/2yr. Because they are greedy B*****ds.

 

I have heard the name Moorcroft debt agency mentioned alot.

 

See the thing is i was thinking asNDR is only an in house part of littlewoods and my account is still open. If a cca came back and was right what would they do? would they close my account? (which i wanted anyway so i got no more interest as after what they have done i will never ever go back to them) and sell my debt off to another company of which i can then probably pay less. See the last thing i want is to go to court i do not want a ccj....I did hear they will go to other debt collectors before court.

 

Its got me sooo scared. I keep thinking they are going to take contents from my home. I cannot eat or sleep when i see others smiling i feel like bursting into tears. I try so sooo hard to pay and i get zero back and no help. I am going to CAB on thursday see if they can do anything. All ndr said was see a money advisor i do not even know wat they do or what they are.

 

So sorry for my bla bla just i have to vnt somewhere.

 

thank you so kindly for your advice

 

Tracey

[cerberusalert]

If your a/cs are 10 years old it is almost a certainty that they will not be able to produce an enforceable CCA, during that period the catalogue companies just didn't send them out in the majority of cases. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that they started to send blank ones to their existing customers asking them to sign them. Even if you had applied online during that period they would still have had to send you a agreement to sign. But at the moment we must find out what they have before we can advise you correctly, so send the letter in post #7 as soon as possible & please do not worry because nothing is going to happen immediately it takes months for things to progress. All that will happen for now is that you'll receive threatening letters & maybe 'phone calls, so do not speak to them on the 'phone. tell them everything must be in writing and hang up & do not be bullied into making any payments you cannot afford.

[traceybrowne]

Right i am gong ahead with the CCA on Monday. Who do i send the request to and how do i do it?

 

So what happens if i have no agreement?

[IdaInFife]

send it to NDR.

 

 

also they will probabrly lots of charges/interest on the account that can be reclaimed to reduce the balance.

 

if there is no agreement then you are in control of how much you want to pay

[traceybrowne]

Thank you.

I just come across this web page that some cca's are infact enforcable even if not signed they can and do take you to court and 9 times out of 10 a signed cca will show up

Debt: Negociating with DCA's - Consumer Wiki

 

What is a DCA they sound scary. Something about harrasing you and family and neighbours.

[IdaInFife]

dca = debt collection agecy = NDR

[traceybrowne]

Ok thank you,

 

So lx direct is straight forward. But what about littlewoods as i have diiferent items over different terms. Do i have to send seperate cca requests or is it just the one for the whole account including extended terms?

[cerberusalert]

I just come across this web page that some cca's are infact enforcable even if not signed

Those are usually online CCAs where a 'tick-box' is seen as a signature, but only those after Dec 2004. Yours are 10 years old, do not worry.

[traceybrowne]

Well been a while since i was here BUT nothings changed apart from harassment.

 

They have sent me no cca agreements or anything just nasty letters. Now they say i cannot continue with my agreement as i have been on a year and that is their limit. Now Lx direct are asking for £224 a month instead of the £87 i was paying with no late payments. Littlewoods are asking for £385 a month instead of the £100 i was paying never once late.

 

I phoned them and she said they can do nothing more and interest and default charges will be applied to my account.

 

I suggested to go to CAB but she said that they WILL reject the CAB offers as they are just a charity and they won't accept their offer. She said to go through debt management.

 

What do debt management do?

Is it a good idea to go through them?

PLUS what information do they ask from you?

 

I feel like i am going to have a breakdown. She said i can make a token payment but with not meeting the minimum payment i will get charges. If i just keep paying what i was can they not close my account and enforce anything else on me? As i do not care of the charges just soooo scared of court and even the dreaded Bailiffs incase they come knocking. But i think if i am paying atleast something they cannot enforce that am i right?