Lowell and NCO

[ericthefruitbat]

My OH has defaulted on his two credit cards, one Capital One and the other Barclays. The Cap1 is now with a company called Lowell Portfolio I Ltd. We managed to get a repayment plan with NCO but Lowell wrote two letters to us today (both identical?)

 

They state:-

 

We have been instructed by our client Lowell Portfolio I Ltd to write to you in connection with your outstanding balance as described above. Our objective is to help both you and our client find a solution to this problem. We urgently request that you contact us today before our client instructs us to take further action to recover the balance.

- By sending us payment in full

- By contacting us to agree a method of payment over an agreed term.

 

In previous letters sent to you it was made clear that unless offer of repayment was made, we woule take appropriate steps to recover the amount owing. As you have failed to enter into a repayment plan we may instruct an agent to visit your home to discuss repayment of your account. Unless you make contact with us within the next five days our agent will contact you with a view to arrange a visit.

 

-------------

 

They do not state when they will visit us and we never recieved any details of a repayment plan offer, this is the only letter my OH has recieved. What is going on?

 

We asked a friend of ours who is a solicitor and he found a copy of the OFT guidelines on another site and he has agreed to write to the OFT and complain about this firm. He looked at our letters and is surprised at how they are acting, however he has no direct experience in consumer credit.

 

What else can we do? We do have some funds but not the whole amount they want us to pay. We are at our wits end.

[Halibutt]

Firstly, don't phone them. Keep everything in writing and by Royal Mail Recorded Delivery. Never sign any letters, just print your name.

 

Presumably your OH admits to you that he does actually owe this money?

 

You need to make sure that Lowell are actually entitled to pursue the alleged debt. You can send them the CCA request letter, enclosing a postal order for £1 as is required to cover costs:

 

Please ammend paragragh 1 to suit. ie s77 Fixed sum credit such as loans, s78 Running account credit such as credit cards & catalogues and s79 Hire agreements.

 

 

Your Address

 

Date

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Re:− Account/Reference Number 4563210025897412

 

This letter is a formal request pursuant to s.77(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. I require you to provide me with a true copy of the credit agreement relating to the above account, together with any other documentation the Act requires you to provide.

 

I expect you to comply fully and properly with this request, within the statutory time limit. You are reminded that should you fail to comply with my request, the provisions of s.77(6) will apply.

 

(DELETE THIS BELOW IF YOU ARE SENDING THE LETTER TO THE ORIGNAL CREDITOR AS OPPOSED TO A DEBT COLLECTION AGENCY)

If it is your view that you are not the creditor, s.175 of the CCA 1974 applies in the case of a simple assignment, and places a duty upon you to pass this request to the creditor. In the case of an absolute assignment, you are a creditor as defined by s.189. If you contend that you purchased the rights but not the duties of any agreement, you are reminded that s.189 of the Act is clear that an assignment is of both rights and duties.

 

Your attention is drawn to ss.5(2), 3(b),6 and 7 of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPUTR).

 

I enclose a postal order in the sum of £1.00, which is the statutory fee. Note that these funds are not to be used for any other purpose.

 

If you are unable to comply fully and properly with this request, you should confirm this in writing at the earliest opportunity, and certainly within the statutory time limit for compliance, and return the fee.

 

We look forward to hearing from you.

 

Yours faithfully

 

print your name

[firstship]

Hi.welcome.........The Lowell letter is a typical DCA letter full of threats and we may do this etc,do not panic. You say you have a DMP in place this should be sufficient to keep Cap1 quiet,or slow them down.Send a CCA to Lowell they then have 12+2 days to respond (template on site file),I doubt very much that they will produce a copy of the signed agreement,then send ACCOUNT IN DISPUTE LETTER.Also on template file letter if DCA threatens home visit,send this as well,threats of this nature are illegal,they need confirmation from you first to allow them to call at your home which I am sure you will not give .Regarding Barclaycard send them a CCA letter as well.When where the Credit Card Accounts opened??????????????........FS

[ericthefruitbat]

Dear Halibutt & firstship

 

Many thanks for your kind help which is much appreciated.

 

The cards were taken out around 2001/2, I will look back at our records for the specific date. We have some charges to reclaim and have gone through the FOS route which is slow. I have read around this site a few times since I know someone who went through court action a few years back, the case was dropped since there was a problem with one of the agreements, not sure what/why since they moved away.

 

I will send off this letter and report back.

[harrassed senior]

Many 'older' 'agreements' were distroyed by Creditors and as such the alleged debt cannot be enforced in law without the original Agreement.

 

This is the reason that we suggest applying for a 'True' copy of the Agreement.

[ericthefruitbat]

Also To OP:

 

If anyone from Lowells asks you to email them/phone you then dont. As suggested above keep it to writing only

 

Thank you all for the advice. I have read a lot about Lowell and their treatment of people profiled on here and other sites, they are appauling.

 

My solicitor friend has taken a copy of our documents and agreed to send these to the OFT, I am told that the OFT have set guidelines on how creditors (or their agents) are supposed to communicate with debtors and Lowell are in clear breach of these rules. He has also agreed to litigate through another firm if we wish to go that route, I think he is a little shocked at how the debt collection industry operate.