Lowell Group after me for debt from back in 2007 !!

[buzby]

ohh yes i just checked the first letter i received they added £300 for early termination of the contract!!!! is that right by law to add termination fee ??

 

Nothing to do with the Law - but whether YOU agreed to it as part of the T&Cs you agreed to.

[buzby]

Because they don't care? YOu appear to believe that just becasue the bill payer did not make the call, there is no responsibility?

 

There is - whether it was misused, lost or stolen, the contract holder is exclusively responsible for any debt run up on an account, and rightly so. Comsumers are fully responsible for the use of their handsets, and are expected to act responsibly, monitoring usage and ensuring their device is protected with the inbuilt secutiy features to ensure unauthorised calls are not made.

[Mady]

I am thinking of sending the letter on 1st page with WITHOUT PREJUDICE on the top of the letter offering the 500 quid to go away

[unclebulgaria67]

I am thinking of sending the letter on 1st page with WITHOUT PREJUDICE on the top of the letter offering the 500 quid to go away

 

Yes go for it, if that is what you want to do. If Lowell don't own the debt and are just chasing it on behalf of t-mobile they will have to ask them.

 

Would be suprised if they agreed to note the debt as satsified in full.

 

I am finding it unbelievable that anyone would take out a contract phone for a 17 year old cousin and to let them run up a bill. You must be a Premier League footballer.

[Mady]

Lowell did buy the debt from t-mobile from the posts i see No way out of it then i just pay for debt full

[watchinginvestigation2010]

Mady if you insist on doing this without doing a SAR and are happy to agree you owe the full ammount then they will ask for more than 500.00. If you are employed and have a regular income they might decide to go to court still and go for the full ammount in the belief you can pay it. If you can pay if you will have to pay the ammount outstanding in full as per the agreement and any charges incurred also eg, the termination fee and interest even maybe.

 

If they decide as is their right to go to court you would be advised to still apply for the SAR to be sure they have a right to collect the alleged debt as have everything legally required.

 

If you find they dont have a true copy of the original agreement its game over for them, so why insist f and f prior to requesting proof of debt. I mean its up to you, but I dont mean to offend but it has to be said. If you are in the position to apply for a loan and can afford such a loan, then I think you can afford to pay for you liability in full if you owe it or at least what they can legally prove you owe as in signed agreement. You see you may offer 500.00 and they may check your credit file and say nope we want it in full, what will you do then?

 

But it is up to you, you have been given advice

[watchinginvestigation2010]

Also if lowell have legally bought the debt from t mobile they are required to have the legal documents to persue you at the same time. If they have simply bought an account with no documentation and the agreement has not been preserved then they have bought a dead duck. In that case it would be sent back to tmobile as would you believe it even some supposed sold accounts return to original creditor if there are no documents to support, or sold on again and you just insist on the production of your agreement.

 

Now if they have the agreement as said as before when have viewed it you can make up your mind, but dont be suprised if they wont accept 500.00 and insist on persuing the full balance, lowell are a little pushy of all the dcas. If you have any calls from them, record them, but if you can keep all in writing. Best of luck

[Mady]

you got a point there mate i will ask for SAR but where can i get the template letter??? thank you very much

[watchinginvestigation2010]

I am carp at posting links, when you first come to CAG main page if you scroll down you will find the template forum and its in there. If have any problems click on the red triangle below your posts and I am sure the site team would help you. You could ask them to post a link of it to your thread for you, they are nice peeps

[Bazooka Boo]

Here it is: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?417-A-Subject-Access-Request-for

 

You need to send it to T-mobile with the £10 fee, they have 40 days in which to furnish you with the documents. It will be beneficial if you state what you are particularly after as well as all the normal docs.

[Mady]

sorry i dont get it do i send the SAR to Lowell or T-mobile??

[Bazooka Boo]

T-mobile, it will be wasted on Lowell.

SAR should always go to the original creditor, what you want to see, is if Lowlifes have added anything in the way of charges to the debt, and if T-mobile have added any charges also.

[jimbo45]

Hi there

 

1) First Don't mention ANY reasons as to why you can't pay the debt in full -- don't mention special circumstances etc etc --these will only come back and bite you later.

 

2) Anything to do with Bailiff's as far as a DCA is concerned is usually just threatograms -- unless there is an official Warrant of Execution which has to be issued by a Court you DO NOT EVER EVER have to let these scumbags into your home or deal with them in any way whatsoever --hide all vehicles however. There's lots of posts on the Bailiff section of the forum under Council Tax demands so you can get an idea of your rights dealing with these real dastardly ****.

 

3) If you DON'T own property the DCA can't issue a charging order so they really don't have any serious enforcement powers even for a CCJ.

 

The DCA is unlikely to go to Court as you could probably get a Court to agree to something like paying 1 GBP a month. The LEWIS group are a really NASTY outfit who buys debts for PENNIES in the pound and then try and get the WHOLE LOT back. This business model has passed its sell by date now -- One of the companies in their group CATTLES has thankfully already gone out of business.

 

 

4) If you want to make a Full and final settlement just say I can offer XXXX -- of course also insist that your offer is accepted as a FULL and FINAL settlement in writing so the other part can't be sold on to yet another piece of pondslime. I'd start at say 10% and you'll probably get an agreement from them after two or three refusals of around 17 %.

 

5) If they insist on saying NO just say OK I can't pay so TAKE ME TO COURT. You'll always get a better deal from a Court than from these lowlifes.

 

I wouldn't worry about Credit Ratings - since you've got into debt it's a good time to attempt to totally do WITHOUT credit -- not so difficult and you'll have much more money at the end of each month too.

 

If you DON'T have money or property there is TOTALLY NOTHING the DCA can do.

 

Now if you DO own property they will go for a charging order --actually these days that isn't such a horror as it used to be since Interest is STOPPED stone dead especially for ANY debt under 5,000 GBP whether its consumer credit or otherwise, and for relatively small amounts there is ZERO possibility of them getting a forced sale.

 

You are perversly in a better barganing position than before since you can say I'm not moving for 30 years by which time your debt will be worthless so how about a Full and Final settlement --then make your offer --suggest start at 10%.

 

It's time this DISGUSTING practice of selling on debts was either stopped or becomes not profitable. Nobody would be sorry to see people like CL Lewis / Lewis group / Cohen Solicitors go out of business.

 

 

Cheers

jimbo

[Mady]

would Lowell know if i am working or not? Jimbo45 how about the F & F letter i got in this thread in the 1st page do u think is good enough? or should i start buy letter NOT acknowleging the debts and then when i get reply i make them and offer??

[unclebulgaria67]

would Lowell know if i am working or not? Jimbo45 how about the F & F letter i got in this thread in the 1st page do u think is good enough? or should i start buy letter NOT acknowleging the debts and then when i get reply i make them and offer??

 

Lowell would only need to know about your financial circumstances, if they took this to court and the court wanted the information. You have not obligation to provide Lowell with any information about your finances.

 

You have decided on an F&F which is fine, but I thought you wanted to obtain full information from t-mobile using an SAR before you did this.

 

So what do you want to do.

 

1) Just make Lowell a F&F offer OR

2) Find out the true debt level and information from t-mobile and use this to inform you of the amount of F&F to offer Lowell.

 

If 1), then use the Insolvencyhelpline letter which is similar to yours. http://www.insolvencyhelpline.co.uk/debt_factsheets/full_and_final_settlement_offers.php . In the letter you should add that a contract phone was taken by a cousin on holiday without your knowledge and they were responsible for the phones usage. However, to resolve the matter, you are able to offer £xxx.

 

2) Suggest that you submit the SAR request to t-mobile and then send Lowell a letter advising that you have written to request further information from t-mobile regarding the account (enclose a copy of letter sent to t-mobile) and that you will respond to Lowell on receipt of the information. Explain in both letters of the circumstances of a cousin taking the phone on holiday without your knowledge and that they were responsible for the usage. In order to ascertain the usage you have made an SAR to obtain full disclosure of the conduct of the account.

 

PS. As a by the way. Why don't you take this matter up with your cousins parents/guardians.

[jimbo45]

Hi there

If its for a Mobile Phone Bill I'd just tell Lewis to Foxtrot Oscar. It won't go to court.

 

Getting an SAR in this case seems to be a bit of overkill since this will cost you 40 quid in the first place and it might *legitimize* the debt.

 

If you really want to pay these lowlifes something just offer your Full and Final with the provisor that it IS a full and final and all references in the credit files ARE REMOVED.

 

If Lewis don't play ball just as I said in the start of this post tell them to Foxtrot Oscar (or "make a Sexual move with a Duck") if you get my meaning.

 

Cheers

jimbo

[babybear39]

Hi there

If its for a Mobile Phone Bill I'd just tell Lewis to Foxtrot Oscar. It won't go to court.

 

Getting an SAR in this case seems to be a bit of overkill since this will cost you £10 in the first place and it might *legitimize* the debt. It won't legitimise the alleged account if you add a line like 'I do not acknowledge any alleged debt to your company or any that you claim to represent.

 

If you really want to pay these lowlifes something just offer your Full and Final with the provisor that it IS a full and final and all references in the credit files ARE REMOVED. Don't jump the gun. You need to find out if there are charges etc. SAR, which, if offset, substantially reduce the balance, or indeed, may turn out that they owe you money.

 

If Lewis don't play ball just as I said in the start of this post tell them to Foxtrot Oscar (or "make a Sexual move with a Duck") if you get my meaning.

 

Cheers

jimbo

 

Good advice jimbo but I've highlighted the errors in red for ease for the OP

Edited January 5, 2011 by babybear39
spelling

[Mady]

i am sending the attached letter

2011.01.06 Lowell F offer letter[1].pdf

[jimbo45]

Hi there

My error -- was thinking of something else. An S.A.R costs 10 GBP and not 40 GBP as I posted.

 

Cheers

jimbo

[Undercover-Elsa]

Hi Mady,

Please try not to worry so much.. even if in the worse case scenario they issued a summons, there is still time to come to a payment arrangement so they would withdraw it. Furthermore, if they issued a CCJ and you paid it within one month, it wouldn't be marked on your file.

So please don't pay a penny to Lowell or send a F&F offer yet. You need to make them prove what they say you owe. It's your legal right.

It's no use sending a CCA request for a mobile contract, however as already advised what you do need to do is to send a SAR (Subject Access Request) direct to the mobile company, so that you know what charges they have added and whether the correct amount is being claimed, for the correct period. You also need a copy of your agreement terms and conditions so that you can check whether they have a right to charge what they have.

It costs £10 to apply for the SAR.

In the meantime you could either send the standard "Prove it" letter (linked in the debt blog below) or write to Lowell and state that you have concerns about the accuracy and validity of their demand and have therefore sent a Subject Access request to T Mobile and that they should consider the account in dispute and hold further action until you have received the requested information and completed your enquiries.

 

If you want to go the SAR route just shout and I'll do you a template amended for mobiles.

Elsa x

[babybear39]

No worries jim, just keeping your on your toes lol...

 

To the OP if you want to offer an F & F lose the WP as this cannot then be used in court at a latter without permission from both parties

[Mady]

No worries jim, just keeping your on your toes lol...

 

To the OP if you want to offer an F & F lose the WP as this cannot then be used in court at a latter without permission from both parties

 

what you mean by the above?

[babybear39]

Don't use Without Prejudice.

[Mady]

Elsa do you have mobile phone contract SAR ??? i will do it today if have it.

[Mady]

Don't use Without Prejudice.

 

I think i will get SAR from t-mobile 1st best option