Small Collection of Debts, Grateful for Advice on Procedure

[deannat003]

I honestly have read through some of this forum but wanted to clarify what I should do about these debtsbut for a supposedly intelligent person, find it a bit confusing so here i am posting for clarification.

 

I am on benefits, no spare money at all, and I believe I am getting letters chasing statute barred debts (they were taken out early 2000, and I have paid nothing nor made an agreement to pay).

 

One of the debts is for over £3k (debt was £1,900) for a pc from TimeComputers., there was a payment free year, and by the time payments were due not only had Time gone into receivership, we had moved and were in radically different circumstances ourselves. I have had no contact with the collection agency. It is at least 6 years old.

 

I am also receiving letters from Philips for what I think is a credit card debt (£1.7k) with HSBC. This card was taken at about the same time as the above Debt. I did try to deal with HSBC at the time we hit problems, but they wanted all the debts paid immediately, which I just couldn't do (was trying to set a payment plan with them). The loan and overdraft I had with HSBC is not being chased any longer, possibly because its time barred. I have not contacted them since I contacted them at the time we got into trouble. Again, this was from at least 6 years ago. As its probably a credit card debt, can this still be time barred?

 

With regard to both of the debts, do I start by asking for a copy of the credit agreement as per the template letter on this site?

 

I also have one debt that is not statute barred from Telefonica O2 UK limited for under £500 for a mobile phone. Tried to have this phone replaced under insurance as it wouldn't work, but the delivery company could not seem to manage to get the phone to us. Must be the most incompetent courier company ever, wasted many hours/days waiting for the courier to call, at two different addresses (couriers somehow couldn't find either it seemed altho one was in the middle of a main city) . O2 were singularly unhelpful and as my OH needed a phone urgently for his business which we clearly stated several times, after two and a half weeks, we told 02 we felt justified in saying they'd cancelled the contract with their ineptitude and got a phone elsewhere. They have been chasing this money ever since (2008). They said our argument was with the insurance company /their courier (which was the one 02 used, not an independent) when I tried to argue this on receipt of the debt collection letters. Haven't contacted them since. No payment agreement has been made. What is my position with regards to this debt. It was in my name, altho the phone was my now ex's phone altho I am pretty sure this makes no difference.

 

I have no car, and rent where I live. Nothing I can sell (don't buy expensive tv's etc, don't go out ever, second hand clothes on ebay etc) and can't find work as I am a carer for my older son (he has autism). I'd appreciate any help. Iit is time I stop just worrying about these debts and sort out my position with them.

Edited December 16, 2010 by deannat003

[Paddywack41]

Sorry to here about your troubles..it seems the slimeballs like to get particularly active over the festive period.

 

I am only a newbie here and dont want to give any specific advice...I am sure that will be along soon. However I suspect with regards to the SB debts the advice will be to send the letter below:

 

Written by 42man

 

Letter sent when debt is statute barred (send recorded)

 

1 High Street,

Newtown,

Kent

R21 4RH

 

 

June 28, 2006

 

 

The Loan Company

Company House,

Church Street,

Newtown,

Kent,

R1 7HG

 

 

Dear Sir/Madam

 

Acc/Ref No 4563210025897412

 

You have contacted us regarding the account with the above reference number, which you claim is owed by ourselves.

 

We would point out that under the Limitation Act 1980 Section 5 “an action founded on simple contract shall not be brought after the expiration of six years from the date on which the cause of action accrued.”

 

We would also point out that the OFT say under their Debt Collection Guidance on statute barred debt that “it is unfair to pursue the debt if the debtor has heard nothing from the creditor during the relevant limitation period”.

 

The last payment of this alleged debt was made over six years ago and no further acknowledgement or payment has been made since that time. Unless you can provide evidence of payment or written contact from us in the relevant period under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, we suggest that you are no longer able to take any court action against us to recover the alleged amount claimed.

 

The OFT Debt Collection Guidance states further that “continuing to press for payment after a debtor has stated that they will not be paying a debt because it is statute barred could amount to harassment contrary to CPUTR2008

 

We await your written confirmation that this matter is now closed and that no further contact will be made concerning the above account after that last letter.

 

We look forward to your reply.

 

Yours faithfully

Mr A N Other

 

You will no doubt get a standard reply to say that what they are doing is not enforcement and that they can continue to contact you and contract CRA's - I suspect if this is the case (again other will advise) I would not get overly concerned...make sure that they only write to you and make a note of all contact so that if they become a common occurance you have a remedy against them.

[Mr Worried]

Hi Dean

 

Firstly welcome to the forum, can you please do a list of creditors, with ammounts and comms you have had like this.

 

1 Lloyds tsb circa 2004, approx 2 k loan, comms.....................

2.........

3.....................

so on so forth

 

Advise and assistance will follow

 

Mr

[harrassed senior]

 

OK, all good advice already received.

 

A couple of bits of advice:

 

Do not talk to anyone about these matters on the telephone - you need to create 'a paper trail' so get a multi file folder and start doing this.

 

Once we get the answers to the above questions we can start to offer individual advice for each one and to that end it may be easier for all concerned if you keep this thread for one debt and create new threads for each of the others. Most of us have or did have many threads during our times of trouble, we don't count!!

[Tingy]

Main thing is the ones you have mentioned - as long as there has definitely been 6 clear years with no acknowledgement or payment towards these debts, they are definitely SB. Send the letter and forget about them. You do get DCA's who try to collect these debts by using scare tactics to get people to pay up. If you receive any of these just remember they are SB and the law is on your side.

[harrassed senior]

Indeed, seems to be alot of SB debt being chased at present.

[deannat003]

Hi, thanks for your replies, sorry for the delay in answering my older son doesn't understand that I might have things I need to do on MY pc each evening lol.

 

Debt 1: Originally for £1,500 with GE Capital (finance company) for a PC purchased through Time Computers around 2003 (but can't be certain of the date, I may be able to find the purchase receipt but can't be sure I will).. passed into the hands of Buchananclark & Wells, now being pursued by Aktiv Kapital (yes, I've seen the threads). The amount they have been asking for for the last few years has been stable at £3112.98 (it went up to £4480 in 2007)

No phone calls, made no acknowledgements of the debt, agreements to make any kind of payment to any debt collection company, just received letters. I now have a letter dated 10th December 2010 offering a 'full and final settlement' figure of 2179.09.

 

Debt 2: Originally for roughly £1000, for a debt originally with the HSBC .., I had a loan and current account in overdraft and a credit card with them. I have not heard from them in recent years re the overdraft or loan amount, but I think this relates to the credit card account i had with them. I did offer to make payments when we were originally in trouble (quite high payments) but they said they wanted all three debts settled at once, immediately. I haven't contacted them since. It has passed through a number of collection companies but is now with Philips. Received a letter dated October titled pre-visit notice. I am certain that this is statue barred as I got into trouble 2002/2003. The letters are asking for £1,675.61

 

Debt 3: Telefonica 02 UK £404.20 for a phone that stopped working, tried to get the phone replaced through the insurance I took out thru 02 but their courier company seemed unable to manage to make delivery. After 2-3 weeks of waiting in with non delivery (and we needed the phone urgently) I phoned 02 and informed them that due to their ineptitude, I regarded the contract as cancelled. I have repeated this to a couple of finance company's but was told my dispute was with the insurance company so I still owed 02. I have made no agreement to pay. Last letter was labelled interim notice and dated 2009.

 

Debt 4: Credit card with PC World, now being pursued by Scotcall Debt Collection Services. They are looking for £772. Again, I think this should be statute barred or close to it. I can't remember exactly when I took out the credit card though. Last letter received 2009

 

With the last two.., do I just wait and see if they are pursued? The first two should be statute barred as over 6 years old. Do I send a 'prove it' letter, or a statute barred letter to the first two companies.., or something else.

 

I do also have a horrible problem with a tax credit overpayment but doubt this is the right forum for that (totalling £3k). Typical story, phoned to tell them of a change of circumstances at the same time I phoned everyone else (on benefits), a year later they denied I'd made the call, and that I'd been claiming single parent family benefits fraudulently. Appeal denied. I have no proof I made this call. They are not taking the money back as yet, but I expect them too soonish. I won't go into more details, but what they are doing is totally wrong.

 

I receive Income support, tax credits, DLA and carers allowance. Recently split up from an iffy relationship rather traumatically and my finances are in a mess. Am barely managing to buy food right now because I am in debt in other areas but paying them off.

[Tingy]

Going to go through your post mentioning things in red as they occur to me - maybe add comments at end as well.

 

Hi, thanks for your replies, sorry for the delay in answering my older son doesn't understand that I might have things I need to do on MY pc each evening lol.

 

Debt 1: Originally for £1,500 with GE Capital (finance company) for a PC purchased through Time Computers around 2003 (but can't be certain of the date, I may be able to find the purchase receipt but can't be sure I will).. passed into the hands of Buchananclark & Wells, now being pursued by Aktiv Kapital (yes, I've seen the threads). The amount they have been asking for for the last few years has been stable at £3112.98 (it went up to £4480 in 2007)

No phone calls, made no acknowledgements of the debt, agreements to make any kind of payment to any debt collection company, just received letters. I now have a letter dated 10th December 2010 offering a 'full and final settlement' figure of 2179.09.Sounds as though it's SB and they know it, hence the offer of the discount. Send the SB letter, but if there's any doubt at all in your mind re the 6 years make your you write somewhere in the letter that you do not acknowledge the debt.

 

Debt 2: Originally for roughly £1000, for a debt originally with the HSBC .., I had a loan and current account in overdraft and a credit card with them. I have not heard from them in recent years re the overdraft or loan amount, but I think this relates to the credit card account i had with them. I did offer to make payments when we were originally in trouble (quite high payments) but they said they wanted all three debts settled at once, immediately. I haven't contacted them since. It has passed through a number of collection companies but is now with Philips. Received a letter dated October titled pre-visit notice. I am certain that this is statue barred as I got into trouble 2002/2003. The letters are asking for £1,675.61SB - send them the SB letter.

 

Debt 3: Telefonica 02 UK £404.20 for a phone that stopped working, tried to get the phone replaced through the insurance I took out thru 02 but their courier company seemed unable to manage to make delivery. After 2-3 weeks of waiting in with non delivery (and we needed the phone urgently) I phoned 02 and informed them that due to their ineptitude, I regarded the contract as cancelled. I have repeated this to a couple of finance company's but was told my dispute was with the insurance company so I still owed 02. I have made no agreement to pay. Last letter was labelled interim notice and dated 2009.When you say you've repeated this to a couple of finance companies, do you mean DCA's? If so who were they? Who was the letter from in 2009? When did you sign the contract for the phone? Have you made any payments at all towards it? 2-3 weeks in did you put the cancellation and reasons for doing so in writing?

 

Debt 4: Credit card with PC World, now being pursued by Scotcall Debt Collection Services. They are looking for £772. Again, I think this should be statute barred or close to it. I can't remember exactly when I took out the credit card though. Last letter received 2009Scotcall like debts that are near to being SB. If you haven't heard for a year I'd let sleeping dogs lie. If they write again, ignore the first letter, then if they write again send a Prove It letter.

 

With the last two.., do I just wait and see if they are pursued? The first two should be statute barred as over 6 years old. Do I send a 'prove it' letter, or a statute barred letter to the first two companies.., or something else.

 

I do also have a horrible problem with a tax credit overpayment but doubt this is the right forum for that (totalling £3k). Typical story, phoned to tell them of a change of circumstances at the same time I phoned everyone else (on benefits), a year later they denied I'd made the call, and that I'd been claiming single parent family benefits fraudulently. Appeal denied. I have no proof I made this call. They are not taking the money back as yet, but I expect them too soonish. I won't go into more details, but what they are doing is totally wrong.

 

I receive Income support, tax credits, DLA and carers allowance. Recently split up from an iffy relationship rather traumatically and my finances are in a mess. Am barely managing to buy food right now because I am in debt in other areas but paying them off. Straightforward! Get in touch with your MP and inform them of the situation.They will get involved and if necessary refer your case to the parliamentary ombudsman who deals with overpayments of tax credits and some other benefits. Has to be done via your MP though.

 

Hope the advice has helped,

 

Tingy

[deannat003]

Going to go through your post mentioning things in red as they occur to me - maybe add comments at end as well.

 

Debt 3: Telefonica 02 UK £404.20 for a phone that stopped working, tried to get the phone replaced through the insurance I took out thru 02 but their courier company seemed unable to manage to make delivery. After 2-3 weeks of waiting in with non delivery (and we needed the phone urgently) I phoned 02 and informed them that due to their ineptitude, I regarded the contract as cancelled. I have repeated this to a couple of finance company's but was told my dispute was with the insurance company so I still owed 02. I have made no agreement to pay. Last letter was labelled interim notice and dated 2009.When you say you've repeated this to a couple of finance companies, do you mean DCA's? If so who were they? Who was the letter from in 2009? When did you sign the contract for the phone? Have you made any payments at all towards it? 2-3 weeks in did you put the cancellation and reasons for doing so in writing?

 

The phone contract was in my name, but was my now ex's phone (altho I am aware I am legally liable). Purchased it online on an 12 month contract. We were roughly 5 months into this contract, so payments had been made and were up to date up until we were supposed to get a replacement for a completely non working phone through 02's insurance. I spoke to 02 as soon as they sent overdue notice letters, and also the initial DCA .., but not sure which one.., I'm afraid I haven't kept all the letters on this debt. It has been pursued by buchananclark + Wells May 2009, then Scotcall July 2009. Not heard anything since altho of course, doesn't mean that's the end of it.

 

]

 

And thank you Tingy, you've been a big help.