Re: Connaught collections

[21lc21]

Hi,

I have a debt which is being dealt with by Connaught Collections. I have been making regular monthly payments for over 3 years now of £15. They have recently been in touch with me asking for £200 a month!!. I explained that I could not afford to pay this amount. They then said that it will be passed to their legal department and that I should contact them with an offer nearer to £200 a month. I cannot afford to pay the £200 a month that they want and I am not sure what to do. Can anyone please advise me? .

Edited January 12, 2010 by 21lc21

[comebackjimmy]

Hi

 

Basic rules for dealing with DCA's

 

1. Never talk. Only accept/offer written communications. (When they were in touch I bet it was not a letter but a phone monkey). This is so you can have proof of what was offered and agreed by either party.

 

2. Only you know what you can afford. It is not for them to dictate to you what they will accept. Recognize what your priority debts are which are basically as follows:

 

a. Rent/Mortgage (as you have to live somewhere)

b. Council Tax (get behind with this and you could ultimatley go to jail, which will never be the case with almost any other kind of debt).

c. Utility/food etc.

d. Transport

e. Child support etc.

 

Any spare money can be used to pay debts but don't leave yourself hopelessly short.

 

3. The DCA may ask you to fill out an Income/Expenditure sheet. You can if you want to but you are under no obligation to provide this information to them, only a court in the unlikley event the case were to go that far. Therefore, if it was me I would never offer them any personal financial information.

 

Connaught are being greedy. It is one thing to ask politely for an increase but another (and quite disgraceful) to bully you into a higher payment. And if you were to make this payment how do you know they would not come back for even more like the evil **** they are.

 

You therefore have a couple of choices:

 

1. Carry on as you are. They would be most unlikely to take any legal action to get more out of you and they would be foolish to try, particularly if you leave them in the financial dark.

 

2. Offer them more if you want to and think you can afford it.

 

3. Indeed, if you do your own income/expenditure statement you may find you cannot properly afford even what you are paying now. In this case you could reduce your payments and see how they like that. (Caution, make sure you are not being charged interest/fees etc).

 

If it was me I would ask them for a copy of the original agreement using the CCA request on here. If you do you should send them a £1 postal order to cover the cost of the request, do it by recorded delivery, check the GPO track and Trace to prove delivery, print of the track and trace web page as written proof, and use the GPO service to track the PO making similar records.

 

If they don't respond within 12+2 days you can stop paying them anything at all until they provide the original agreement which they will likely not be able to do within that period of time. This is no more than they deserve.

 

A couple of quick questions:

 

1. What was the original amount?

2. How much is left?

3. Who was the Original Creditor?

4. Are Connaught collecting on behalf of the OC or someone else who now owns the debt?

 

Best of luck.

[21lc21]

Hi,

Many thanks for the information.

 

The original amount was for £8***.

Im not sure what amouht is left.

Debt originally with Barclays. Not sure if it has been sold on.

 

Orignally in about 2005 I was threatened with Bankruptcy and came to an agreement.

 

They are now stating that I have equity in house which I do not due to the current climate and that I have Credit cards available. Only problem is cannot afford to borrow money to pay this debt - how would I pay of the borrowed money??

Edited January 17, 2010 by 21lc21

[42man]

Hi...i'll move this thread to the debt collection forums, where i'm sure you will get some more advice/comment. As has been correctly said above have you requested a copy of your agreement ? - you can find the agreement request here - Letter number 8 - The Consumer Forums - Debt collectors

[comebackjimmy]

A few more questions:

 

1. Was the original debt a loan or a credit card?

2. What date did the agreement start?

3. Do you have a copy of the original agreement?

4. Was there Payment Protection Insurance on the agreement?

5. Do you have copies of monthly statements?

6. Did you receive any charges as a result of late payments?

 

Depending upon the answers to the above questions it may be possible to challenge the original agreement as it may be unenforceable. Establishing this fact would put you in a stronger position when corresponding with the DCA. If you can establish there were excessive charges you can dispute the amount outstanding. If there was PPI and it did not cover you when you stopped paying then, depending upon the circumstances, you may have a claim against the PPI provider, or alternatively, you may be able to recover all your PPI fees back, plus it is possible the PPI would make the agreement unenforceable if it was misold and could be proved.

 

The normal practice and what I would expect in your case is as follows:

 

a. You miss one or more repayments

b. You receive debt collecting letters from Barclays, possibly their in-house debt collectors (Mercers), and possibly external debt collectors/solicitors asking you for the money.

c. At some point you receive a default notice. This document has to have certain things on it to make it a lawful document. The purpose of this document is to tell you that you are in arrears or that there are other problems, and to tell you what to do to put it right.

 

7. Did you receive a Default Notice?

 

If you did it may be deficient, giving you more power in negotiations.

 

d. At some point the collection of the debt would pass from Barclays to an external agency. One of two things happen. Either the external agency acts for Barclays, or the external agency buys the debt from Barclays (probably for 5p to 20p in the pound).

 

8. Do you know who now owns the debt?

 

It is possible you can find out by referring to any recent letters from the DCA. they might refer to their client Barclays, or their client ANotherDCA

 

9. Have you received a notice of assignment from Barclays?

 

This is a letter telling you they have sold the debt to another party. Once you receive that you should deal with the other party. The other party should also write to you telling you they are now the owners of the debt.

 

From what you say you have been paying £15 per month for about five years so should have paid around £900

 

10. Prior to paying the DCA, what was the date of the last payment you made to Barclays.

 

If you last paid Barclays before 13th January 2004 (2005 in Scotland) you might be able to establish the debt as Statute Barred. This means that whilst you still owed the debt they could not enforce payment as the debt is over six years old. (This could be a long shot. It would be necessary to establish that the payments to the DCA were made under duress and threat of bankruptcy. Others with more in depth knowledge will hopefully come on here and determine your position).

 

11. Are you receiving periodic statements from the DCA?

 

A new Act of parliament (I think the new consumer credit act but again others will hopefully clarify) requires creditors to provide periodic statements (either six monthly or annually I think). The DCA is in breach of the Act if they are not doing so. You do not know what you owe so they may not be providing the statements that they should. You could and should report them just to get in a couple of return shots!

 

Finally, you say they are after the equity in your house. How do they know you have a house or what its market value is or what the balance of the mortgage is?

 

They would only know if you told them. I therefore re-advise that you provide them with no information. Offer only what you can afford and let them pursue it legally if they are that adamant.

 

You say they are after you to pay with credit cards. How do they know you have those cards and how do they know, if indeed they do know, what the outstanding balances are on those cards?

 

Again, probably only if you supplied that information.

 

Did they state the request for you to re-mortgage or use your cards in a letter? It is against credit collection guide lines to entice debtors to get into more debt with other cards/re-mortgaging. You can and should report them to (I think) the FSA , once again getting a couple of return shots away!

 

In short do not borrow money to pay off borrowed money. My personal goal is never to borrow again for any purpose.

 

There is no reason why you cannot repay the debt at your own pace if that is what you want to do, and or to challenge all or part of the debt in the ways outlined above. The DCA is immoral as well as in breach of National Guidelines and if they won't leave you alone you have many opportunities to defend your position and make it very difficult for them.

 

Sorry about the long post and some of it is a bit vague. I am hopefully providing a train of thought for others who can come on here and give you the details.

[comebackjimmy]

How are you paying your debt?

 

If it is by Direct Debit consider changing this to a standing order.

 

a direct debit allows them to help themselves to any amount. Once they have got it you might have difficulty getting it back.

[babybear39]

DCAs often do a land registry search to establish property ownership. A simple CRA check would show credit available

[babybear39]

Oh, one last question, are 1st credit involved by any chance?

[comebackjimmy]

That is very interesting and useful to know Babybear.

 

Would you (or anyone else) know if a DCA could determine the amount of credit left on a credit card? I think they might be able to determine the credit limit from the CRA but not know the balance?

[babybear39]

My CRA reports show how much credit I have remaining and available to use.

[DonkeyB]

Subbing

[21lc21]

Hi,

Thanks again for advice.

In answer to your questions.

 

As far as I know its from Barclays Bank but I did not have any credit cards from them at this time.

At this time I split from my husband due to financally issues (he took financially responsibility of all the bills and I eventually found out that he wasn't paying the bills. I was not aware of this until I found letters about missed payments). We got divorced, he left the area and I stayed.

 

It was only then that I received letters of debts and when I obtained a Credit file there were default notices on there - these have since been removed as they are over 6 years old.

 

Connaught threatened me with bankruptcy and I just came to the agreement to pay by Standing Order which I have done and have never missed a payment (this was in 2006). (I will see if I have still got the letter).

 

I have never seen any letters from Barclays about this debt.

 

They then left a message on my phone on Monday 11-01-10 and I phoned them on Tuesday 12-01-10. They stated that I had not replied to them previously but I have not had any letters or messages. The man I was speaking to said that he had posted letter himself and it was then when he mentioned about the house and credit cards. I have not given them any information about this. He went on to say that people re-mortgage to pay debts or I could use my credit card. I then asked him 'how can I borrow money to pay a debt when I cant repay the borrowed money'. The tone in his voice changed and said the current payment arrangement was now unacceptable to his clients and they want a more than 10 times the current amount each month. He then said that he was passing the debt to the legal department and for me to go away and think about an offer and contact them.

 

I have today received a letter from Connaught.

 

What is the best process for me to go through.

Edited January 17, 2010 by 21lc21

[DonkeyB]

Hmmm... TBI is a debt buyer - so they should not really be implying it's still administered by Barclays.

 

They should have sent default and termination notices about this, plus a notice of assignment.

 

You should start with a CCA to Connaught and a SAR to Barclays (if you have the details of the account number). This will tell you if the account is enforceable or not, and whether there are unfair charges on the alleged account.

 

Once again, a DCA that is receiving payments has gotten greedy, has broken the FSA guidelines by asking you to get in to further debt to pay them, and will probably now end up wth nothing.

 

Please insist that all further correspondence is in writing - don't call them unless you can record the call - it's time for you to stand up and be counted against these bottom feeders.

[babybear39]

The breach is of OFT guidelines here:

 

Physical/psychological harassment

2.5 Putting pressure on debtors or third parties is considered to be oppressive.

2.6 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:

a. contacting debtors at unreasonable times and at unreasonable intervals

b. pressurising debtors to sell property, to raise funds by further

borrowing or to extend their borrowing

c. using more than one debt collection business at the same time

resulting in repetitive and/or frequent contact by different parties

d. not ensuring that an adequate history of the debt is passed on as

appropriate resulting in repetitive and/or frequent contact by different

parties

e. not informing the debtor when their case has been passed on to a

different debt collector

f. pressurising debtors to pay in full, in unreasonably large instalments,

or to increase payments when they are unable to do so

g. making threatening statements or gestures or taking actions which

suggest harm to debtors

h. ignoring and/or disregarding claims that debts have been settled or are

disputed and continuing to make unjustified demands for payment

i. disclosing or threatening to disclose debt details to third parties unless

legally entitled to do so

j. acting in a way likely to be publicly embarrassing to the debtor either

deliberately or through lack of care, for example, by not putting

correspondence in a sealed envelope and putting it through a letterbox,

thereby running the risk that it could be read by third parties.

 

Report them to TS and the OFT via Consumer Direct as soon as possible quoting the breaches I've outlined in red for you and also remind them that they're in breach of the CPUTR 2008 which IS LAW!

[comebackjimmy]

I agree with DonkeyB

 

But also........

 

I wonder if the debt is yours or your husbands?

 

Did you ever sign a joint loan agreement with him or was it he that took out the loan independently?

 

It might be his debt.

 

I am not 100% sure on this but I don't think someone can be held liable for their spouse's debts, even if the loan was taken out whilst still married.

 

Perhaps someone else can clarify that point.

[21lc21]

Many thanks again.

 

Also the letters I am receiving from Connaught are addressed to me in my married name and I have reverted back to my maiden name. Do I correspond using my married name or my maiden name???

 

They have advised me that my instalment plan has been terminated (they collected payment yesterday, the same date as on their letter!!) I am concerned that if I miss a payment that they could use this against me and say I have not paid???

Edited January 14, 2010 by 21lc21

[21lc21]

I am not sure:(

Edited January 14, 2010 by 21lc21

[DonkeyB]

Get the CCA request in quick - they have 12 days to respond. This should reveal who applied and signed for the loan. If they fail to respond in that time, you can choose to withold payment until they do comply, which would mean no payment next month anyway.

 

Do they take the money by DD? If so, cancel the DD and just continue to pay the £15 by cheque or PO, if you'd rather not miss payments. They cannot simply demand you pay more - they have no CCJ, in fact at present they have no rights at all.

[comebackjimmy]

I agree with Donkey B (again!)

 

And definitely cancel the DD.

 

If you want to continue to pay set up a standing order which is under your control.

 

OK I will put forward some suggestions to your questions just a bit earlier in the thread:

 

I have today received a letter from Connaught titled re: TBI Financial Services - Barclays Outstanding Debt £8024.63 requesting for £135 a month!!!!

 

What do I do about the letter from Connaught - do I wait until I have sent the CCA and they get back to me??? or do I need to contact them???

 

Do I correspond using my married name or my maiden name???

 

I post the following letter up for you and in particular OTHER CAGers to review and comment upon.

 

Assuming a good edit can be made of this letter I suggest you send it by recorded delivery and a CCA request with a £1 postal order by separate recorded delivery and see what happens.

 

Dear

 

Account No: YOUR ACCOUNT NUMBER

 

Further to recent communications I am writing to make you aware of the following:

 

1.I acknowledge your notification that you have terminated the instalment plan. I have therefore cancelled the direct debit enabling this plan.

2.I reject all demands from your firm for payment levels that I cannot afford. I am uniquely able to determine the level of payments I can afford and will resume payments at that level once the condition in 3 is fulfilled.

3.I am sending by separate post a request under the consumer credit act requiring you to provide evidence of your right to collect this debt. You will have a limited time to reply beyond which you have no right to collect further sums from me until such time as you do comply.

4.Subject to you fulfilling your obligations in 3 above I will resume payments at a level I can afford. Should you find this to be unacceptable your only recourse will be to take the appropriate legal action to enforce the debt. Should you do so I will be putting you to strict proofs regarding the documentation you produce in court. I cannot predict the outcome of any action you may take but should you obtain a court victory I will ask the court for time to pay and it will be the court that decides my repayment levels, not your firm.

5.You should note that following the separation from my husband on DATE I resumed my maiden name and now confirm that my old married name of MARRIED NAME is no longer used by me. My maiden name is MAIDEN NAME . From now on I will be writing to you in this name and I request and require that you respond using my maiden name.

6.It is apparent from your conduct, particularly in your insistence that I get into further debt to address your own demands, which is counter to official guide lines, that you are not a trustworthy organisation. Therefore, I will not accept any more telephone calls. All communications between us will be by written means allowing me to provide a written record to a court, should such be necessary.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

don't sign this

 

YOUR NAME

[lilly white]

just looking in ,

 

May i say you have been given good advice todate,

 

crack on and do it.

 

 

lilly

[ODC]

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES speak to these parasites on the phone. I would bet they will not be able to comply with your lawful CCA request

[21lc21]

I have since worked out that I have been paying Connaught for 4 years, I thought it was 5 but it must have been 5 years when I received the 1st letter from them.

 

I have never received any letters from 1st Credit.

 

Many thanks everyone for your advice.

Edited January 13, 2010 by 21lc21

[21lc21]

If you do not receive a reply to the CCA within the timescales what happens?? and what happens if I do???

Edited January 13, 2010 by 21lc21

[lilly white]

may i ask who owns the debt

[21lc21]

Im not 100% sure. Connaught just refer to them as their 'clients' on the phone.

However TBI has been referred to in letters together with Barclays.