Lowell Financial/Hamptons Legal. (I know, I know, them again)

[Undeadcreature]

Good evening,

 

After 48 hours of solid reading, I have decided to sign up as we have received 3 seperate demands from our good friends Lowell Financial and their cronies. From what I have gathered from members in the same or similar positions is that Lowell are not liked very much around here.

 

I have read numerous threads detailing peoples experience with Lowell Financial and I have decided to use the advice given in those threads as it would be a waste of everyones time if I were to ask the same questions again.

What I am more concerned about and the reason for my post is how the debts have managed to appear in the first place. Please bear with me as this may be a little long-winded.

I will use a loan I had with my bank as a comparison to make my point easier to understand.

I defaulted on a couple of loan payments to the bank and through my own stupidity the outstanding balance was referred to a debt collection agency. The bank sent me a letter informing me of the decision to pass the balance on, the letter was genuine from the bank and not threatening in any way. I later received a letter from the debt collection agency informing me of the situation and this again was done politely and professionally. I payed the outstanding balance and brought the account up to date at the time.

Compare that to what we received on the 17th January 2011,

An envelope arrived containing two letters, one was from Shop Direct Finance Company Ltd informing us of an outstanding balance being reassigned to Lowell Portfolio I Ltd. The second letter in the same envelope was from Lowell Financial themselves informing us they have taken on the debt. There seem to be some inconsistencies as well as some odd CONSISTENCIES if you know what I mean. It appears that both letters were printed by the same machine as two parts of the same document instead of originating from two seperate companies.

The inconsistent part is that neither of us have ever heard of Shop Direct Finance Company nor have ever held a Great Universal account with them.

They also seem to have managed to find our current address despite the date of the reassignment being 30/11/2009 which would mean that, at that time, we were living 150 miles away in North Yorkshire instead of the West Midlands address we have now.

 

I apologise if by reading this post, your brain has fallen out of your nose but I tend to go into detail a lot.

[silverfox1961]

Hi and welcome to CAG

I quite happen to like your style of writing. Very easy to read.

 

If you have a look in the library (top left) you will find a 'prove it' letter. Send that to our friends in the North. Get proof of posting or if you can afford it, recorded delivery. Do not admit anything. I would put at the top of the letter, "I acknowledge no debt to you nor any company you claim to represent."

 

It is up to them to prove the debt, not you prove there isn't one

[Undeadcreature]

Thankyouverymuch, I do try to make sense, sometimes it ends up being more complicated than when I started thinking about it.

 

I intend to challenge any claim they make using the advice given on the site and I assure you it will not be wasted.

 

Is it common practice for a debt collection agency to issue a photocopy of a reassignment notice on behalf of the original creditor? It seems oddly unprofessional and the quality of the print is very poor.

[Sidewinder]

Absolutely normal and typically unprofessional!

 

This, I'm afraid is par for the course with this company.

[Undeadcreature]

I suppose I figured as much, thankyou for confirming a few suspisions.

I posted an open message on Facebook asking if anyone had heard of Lowell Financial and the first reply came in seconds with "Yes, Steer clear" perhaps there is wisdom in what he said?

I did notice a pattern with what they are doing, they seem to represent a lot of accounts from capital one and Shop Direct, they claim we owe money on two seperate Shop Direct accounts and one Capital One account.

I apologise if I am just stating the obvious but it was something that was niggling at me all the time I were reading the other members situations.

[hillards]

Lowell (other just-as-bad debt collection agencies are available) buy in bulk, they'll have thousands of accounts to go through. They cross-reference information from credit reference agencies and quite often the simple 2+2 will come out as 5, where they get the wrong data and send letters to someone who should not be getting them. You can try telling them that, but they usually choose not to believe you and will send further letters, then start making phone calls. Letters will arrive from Lowell, Red, Hampton Legal and Tocatta - all part of the same company.

 

It is not unknown for lists of 'mugs' to be passed between companies, perhaps where a person has paid a debt off with a DCA before. They see some people as easy targets, easily brought to heel with threats of court action that they can never carry out. Sadly, people do tend to pay up when they get such letters. Yes, even for debts they don't have as companies like Lowell will persist to the point where a payment is made just to stop the hassle.

 

There are those who find CAG and advice how to deal with DCA's. A lot would advise ignoring the Leeds Losers if you're sure the debt is not yours. Let them huff and puff, they eventually give up and pass the buck to some other company to try their luck with. There are 'prove it' letters that can be sent, as have been mentioned already. Lowell take a chance that people will pay them, even if only 20% of letters they send out get a result, they're making money.

[Undeadcreature]

Wahey! Red have joined in the party now.

 

Surely, using threat or intimidation to get money that they are not entitled to is the same as walking up to someone in the street with a knife and stealing the money off them that way?

[silverfox1961]

Wahey! Red have joined in the party now.

 

Surely, using threat or intimidation to get money that they are not entitled to is the same as walking up to someone in the street with a knife and stealing the money off them that way?

 

Unfortunately not-if you are the debtor they want. As the debtor is not you, this could be harassment BUT chances are that this letter has followed on quickly from the Lowell one so (on the assumption you have sent a 'prove it' letter) they have crossed in the post. Ignore this one

 

Have you checked your credit file? If not, I would do so. If they have screwed with it, you can go get em.

 

Here is the links to the postal form s for the CRAs

http://www.experian.co.uk/downloads/consumer/cfa.pdf

 

http://www.callcredit.co.uk/media/53063/creditfile-app.pdf

 

http://www.equifax.co.uk/Products/credit/your_equifax_credit_file_0310.pdf

 

I think they all do a free online trial if you want to go that way. I prefer to do it by post

[Undeadcreature]

Well they seem to have given up now, it has been over a month now since they sent the final comunication letter.

Perhaps ignorance really is bliss....

[silverfox1961]

No doubt they will come back eventually or pass it on to another lowlife to chase.

 

Sit back and relax.

 

Did you check your credit file?

[Undeadcreature]

I agree, the only damage on my credit file is what I did to it a few years ago so they didn't put any holes in it.

The interesting thing is, they never acnowledged and letters from us and all of a sudden they have gone very quiet.