Equidebt / Cabot

[jimbo45]

Update time

 

Still waiting to hear back after sending SB letter but have got a response from the telephone harrassment email I sent. The customer assurance team are currently dealing with my complaint but in order to reply by email for security reasons (DPA) they need me the confirm my DOB. Should I?

 

Just wanting to get some advice before I reply, don't want to write the wrong thing!

 

Why on EARTH would they want your DOB for "Security reasons". The fact that they are phoning you in the first place should mean that they have attempted to contact the real debtor.

 

If they have "admitted" that they need "extra security" then another good reason to sting them for harassment as they obviously haven't checked properly to establish if you are the actual debtor.

 

Honestly the antics of these type of people never cease to amaze me.

 

NEVER EVER give ANY information to a DCA. You either PAY or DON'T PAY-- your choice ----but never give them information.

 

Cheers

jimbo

[xboxer]

Morning All, Yet another update!

Ok so this is the response I have finally received of Cabot about the telephone harassment email I sent them.

Dear Xboxer,

Our final response to your complaint

I refer to your e-mails, which were received in this office on xx January 2011 and xx February 2011 and our responses sent on xx January 2011 and xx February 2011. Januarys email was telephone harassment; Februarys email was a response to Cabot saying they were still investigating the complaint.

I regret that you have felt cause to complain to Cabot Financial (Europe) Limited (“Cabot”) and apologise for any inconvenience that you may have experienced in relation to this matter.

I understand that you are unhappy with the amount of telephone calls Cabot has made to you concerning your account. However, following an investigation of your records it would appear that, we have not recently attempted to contact you by telephone. Not recently but at the time daily from two different numbers hence the reason to send the complaint!

I note you refer to the Administration of Justice Act 1970 section 40 in that we are harassing you for a debt. We would respectfully inform you that this section has been amended and furthermore does not apply in your circumstances. Has it? I can confirm that we have not committed any offence of harassment under the Administration of Justice Act 1970 or otherwise. We would like to confirm again that we have taken over your account from Barclaycard (“BC”), the original lender and we are responsible for administering your account, including taking payments, answering your queries and reporting information to the Credit Reference Bureaux. As a result, we are seeking your co-operation in settling your financial liabilities. Notwithstanding I can confirm that your telephone number has been temporarily removed from our records. However, I must re-iterate that if we do not receive your co-operation in paying towards your outstanding balance, we shall reserve the right to re-instate telephone contact.

Cabot takes all legal and regulatory responsibilities seriously and abides by industry codes of practice and guidance. We wish to assist our customers to get back on track with their finances and that is why we may contact you.

You have stated you intend to record any telephone calls with Cabot. Please be advised that should you record, or intercept and disclose any call recordings without obtaining our consent to any third party, this would be considered a criminal offence under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. Is it? Really?

With reference to your e-mail received on xx February 2011, in which you requested additional information regarding our procedures in confirming the alleged debtors identity and address before attempting to contact the same. I can confirm, as above, the Cabot Financial Group purchased your account from BC in good faith on xx November 2005. Your personal information including your contact details were included in the data provided to Cabot during the sale of your account. Subsequently this information was used in our attempts to contact you. Regrettably, we were unsuccessful and your account was assigned to our external agents to pursue collection on our behalf. Please be advised you are not entitled to a copy of the service agreement between Cabot and it's agents.

In addition, with regards to your comments on the charges and fees Cabot may apply to your account, I can advise you Cabot do not apply charges. However in accordance with your original terms and conditions, interest would be applied to your account should no payments be received. Whilst there is an active repayment plan on your account, and regular payments are being received all interest that would otherwise be applied, is held off. Notwithstanding please note the accrued interest will be applied on the failure of any repayment plan.

For your ease of reference the outstanding balance on the above account is £xxx.xx. I would recommend you contact our Collections department, within 14 days, on 0845 0700 116 to discuss the options available in order to settle this account. Which bit of I will only communicate in writing do you not understand? I must inform you that if we do not hear from you within this time frame, this account will be escalated within our collections procedures.

I trust I have set out our position clearly. However, if you remain dissatisfied with our final response, you may bring the complaint to the attention of the Financial Ombudsman Service within 6 months of this letter, who may investigate the same. Please refer to the attached leaflet.

If you have any further queries in relation to the above account, please do not hesitate to contact me on 0845 026 0463. The Customer Assurance department is open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

Yours sincerely

As they have stated this is their final response with regards to the telephone harassment, admittedly they haven’t phoned for about a month now but as they have said they will again! Funny how they have ignored the SB letter!

I have never received a NoA so I suppose that will be the next step for them to prove they own the alleged debt! Unless anyone has another suggestion?

Thanks in advance!

[DonkeyB]

1. Administration of Justice Act 1970 section 40 – they are twisting this. Para 1 of this section does not apply “to anything done by a person which is reasonable (and otherwise legal) for the purpose of:

– securing the discharge of an obligation due, or believed by him to be due, to himself or to persons for whom he acts, or protecting himself or them from future loss; or

– of the enforcement of any liability by legal process”

 

And I am not aware of any recent changes. But if you have stated you do not wish to be contacted by telephone and only in writing, then I would aver the act does apply. The act does not only relate to phone calls, which seems to be the way they are interpreting it. If you say no calls and in writing please, and they refuse, complain to the OFT. Perhaps the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 would be useful to quote at them. Look it up.

 

2. Quoting RIPA is plain wrong. RPA is aimed at public bodies, not individuals. Moreover, it is NOT an offence for you to record calls if you wish to use them as private reference, providing you do not disclose them to a third party. You do not need permission to make the recording. However, if there is a dispute to what was said, a judge will in all likelihood allow such a recording or a transcript as evidence. Again, I doubt Cabot tell you they are recording calls when they phone.

 

You have two options.

 

a. You can ignore their ‘final response’ bit and write back pointing out their errors, and also demand to know why they are continuing collection activity on an SB debt against OFT guidelines.

 

Or,

b. as it says final response, escalate your complaint to the ombudsman.

 

Copy everything in to the OFT.

[xboxer]

Hi DonkeyB, I had thought nothing had changed UNLESS cabot has amended their OWN copy!

Think I will go with option A but if I still get the same blinkered view then it's off to the OFT!

[xboxer]

Well I've been having another think and I realise it was mentioned earlier in the thread about SARing BC but I was apprehensive about doing this as I now bank with Barclays.

As equidebt and cabot have both said they have not added any charges or interest then the amount owing is the original amount owing to BC. From what I remember my credit limit was £500 so at least £350+ has been the result of interest and charges.

As the debt was sold in Nov 05 they should still have my details on record.

I know I had PPI but don’t know if I will be able to claim miss selling as I think I applied by postal application but there should still be a large amount of charges! I know there is no six year rule with PPI but what about charges?

From what I've read BC like to play hard ball when it comes to paying back charges but to be honest so long as it at least what I owe, about £250, I would be happy!

I think the SAR is going to be the only way to get a defintitive answer!

[xboxer]

Afternoon everyone,

 

Ok I have now had a final final response 8-) from cabot.

 

Dear xboxer,

 

Our response to your correspondence

I refer to your e-mail, which was received on xth April 2011, in which you state you have continued to receive several telephone calls from us. No I didn't, I stated I had still received calls after my first letter However on reviewing our records we do not have a record of the same.

 

In relation to your comments regarding section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, I must advise you this section does not apply in your circumstances in light of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, which state:

 

“(3A) Subsection (1) above does not apply to anything done by a person to another in circumstances where what is done is a commercial practice within the meaning of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and the other is a consumer in relation to that practice."

Therefore, I can confirm, once again, that we have not committed any offence of harassment under the Administration of Justice Act 1970 or otherwise.

 

With regards to your intent to record all future telephone calls, whilst it is in your right to do so, you are required to obtain our permission in order to disclose these calls to any third party. Therefore if you fail to obtain our permission, as previously advised this will be considered a criminal offence under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

 

You also state we have failed to provide sufficient proof that we are now the legal owners of the debt. I have attached a representation of your Notice of Assignment confirming the purchase of your account for your reference.

 

On reviewing our records it is clear we did receive your e-mail on the xxth January 2011 and a subsequent response was sent. No it wasn't, will ask for a copy Notwithstanding, I can confirm that this account is not statute barred. You have previously acknowledged the debt by making a payment within the limitation period. Will ask them for the dates! As a result the limitation period is extended on each subsequent acknowledgement by virtue of section 29 of the Limitation Act 1980.

 

For your ease of reference the outstanding balance on the above account is £xxx.xx I would recommend you contact our Collections department, within 14 days, on 0845 0700 116 to discuss the options available in order to settle this account. I must inform you that if we do not hear from you within this time frame, this account will be escalated within our collections procedures.

 

I trust we have set our position clearly.

 

If you have any further queries in relation to the above account, please do not hesitate to contact me on 0845 026 0463. The Customer Assurance department is open from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Well they have enclosed a NoA, with barclaycard headed dated when they supposedly took over (xx Nov 2005)

 

Firstly it has been signed but no name of whos signature.

Secondly the amount is about £300 less than cabot have said was owed (so cabot have been adding interest, roughly 8.2% APR).

Thirdly when the NoA was dated I had been evicted/repossessed at that address so never received it.

 

So CCA to cabot, SAR to BC?

 

Thanks in advance

[DonkeyB]

Well, it’s down to the last date a payment was made. I’m surprised they did not quote this to back up their claim. If it transpires they know the date and it shows the debt to be SB, boy will you have a very big complaint to make.

[DonkeyB]

Suggest you just call Barclaycard with the account number and address you were at at the time, and ask when the last payment was made, and exactly to when and whom they sold the account. This information should be accurate, and will save you £10 on an SAR.

 

0844 556 0066

[xboxer]

Morning everyone,

Well I phoned BC and the last payment was made March 05 so not SB.

They sold the account to cabot 21-11-05 NOT 28-11-05 that cabot claim, does this make a difference?

The representation of the NoA that cabot created yesterday also states 28-11-05.

Any ideas where I go from here?

[xboxer]

With the representation NoA (does it have to be the original?) it is from BC supposedly and signed by the HEAD OF COO COLLECTIONS. Any idea what department this is and who it was at that time?

As the letter I received from equidebt on 23 Dec 09, stating someone would call at my home or work (against OFT guidelines?) if I didn’t pay in full by 28 Dec 09 (effectively only giving me 1 day to pay), can I claim I was forced to pay under duress?

Also as I didn’t have any information on who the OC was and wasn’t told by equidebt who it was isn’t this using deceptive means to make me pay and acknowledge a debt I would have questioned had I been given all the information?

Rambling I know but want to get as much info as possible.

Thanks

[brokebutnotbeatn]

Yes it is SB - March 05 -=6 years and 2 months

[xboxer]

Yes it is SB - March 05 -=6 years and 2 months

 

Unfortunately made payments from Feb 10 to Oct 10 but as I said in previous post, I feel as though I had no option.

[xboxer]

As promised cabot's reply to my NoA request

 

 

And the properties showing when it was made!

 

Edited May 25, 2011 by xboxer
too small

[DonkeyB]

Too small. Can you use photbucket or post inline as PDFs?

[DonkeyB]

I can tell it has been scanned on a Konica/Minolta machine, so they actually reckon this is a scan of a copy of the original? Oh dear...

 

What is the date on the Barclaycard NoA? If it’s before October 2008, it could not possibly have been produced with that logo.

[xboxer]

Too small. Can you use photbucket or post inline as PDFs?

 

I'm on it lol

 

Should be ok now

[DonkeyB]

Clear forgery. Letter dated 2005 with a logo introduced in 2008? That cannot possibly be a copy of what they sent. Massive fail.

[DonkeyB]

When they sent this, did they state in the email that this was a copy from their files of the NoA that was sent in 2005? What was their exact wording?

 

I got a set aside for someone against HFO because they too could see into the future with their paperwork...

[xboxer]

Clear forgery. Letter dated 2005 with a logo introduced in 2008? That cannot possibly be a copy of what they sent. Massive fail.

 

That's why I'm checking about the legality of it.

[xboxer]

When they sent this, did they state in the email that this was a copy from their files of the NoA that was sent in 2005? What was their exact wording?

 

I got a set aside for someone against HFO because they too could see into the future with their paperwork...

 

Post #31 is the email I got with it DonkeyB:-)

[DonkeyB]

The reason they do this is simple, and it’s exactly what HFO does.

 

They fail to send you an NoA, which is a requirement of LoP 1925. Then they sit on the account.

 

Eventually they inform you, sometimes with a ‘reminder’. Without the NoA, they cannot charge interest. So they make them up and say ‘here’s what we sent ages ago, so you owe us interest from then’.

 

But they make some really, really stupid, idiotic mistakes. Like this one.

[DonkeyB]

Ah... they say it is a representation. But that won’t do. They can’t recreate them, especially not with signatures! It remains a misleading and non-legal document. They have no proof they sent it, clearly.

[xboxer]

Most of what is left to pay is the interest they have added!

[teaboy2]

Lol i think my little discovery may have started a new craze "find that dodgy new logo" giggle giggle.

[DonkeyB]

We’ve been doing it for ages, teaboy! HFO once sent a letter supposedly from a Barclaycard employee to a member of the HFO fan club, and put her signature to it (which was amazingly in the same handwriting as an HFO employee). Unfortunately they used the wrong logo, an old one – and so the enquiry and phone calls began... and they were blown out of the water.

 

My system is that you know they are fibbing, because you usually know what you have and have not received. If you didn’t receive it, and they come up with ‘documents’, just look for the clues. Like sending letters out on a Sunday!