Link Financial - advice please

[chatsworth2409]

I didn't not yet. I am worried by the potential for lack of interest in as much as the IVA is in my name but it is my wife being chased. As previously stated, I pre-emptied this scenario before the IVA process was concluded because I wanted to 'cover all bases' before signing on the dotted line. And at that time she (The IVA Supervisor) had stated then that this might happen and our only course (if it did) was to 'try' to negotiate with the creditor by explaining that a large portion of the debt would be paid through the IVA and the remainder by my wife during this process - which is exactly what I did with GE Money - before they sold the debt on. I didn't feel her advice would change now as in truth nothing has really changed except who owns the debt going forward. Am I right?

[stoney47]

chatsworth2409

i think you are right

with regards your question in post 21,i think it would not do any harm to contact them,verifying your position and asking them to state whether they accept it or not.

how are you at letter writing? can you tell me what were your original loan repayments

[chatsworth2409]

Hi Stoney47. I'm pretty good at letter writing I guess. Our original repayments were about £340 per month. As approx 47p in the £ of the original debt will be returned through the IVA payment process we offered to pay the difference (approx 53p in the £) directly in my wife's names with any reconciliation occurring at the end of the IVA process. That would include any interest due and outstanding original debt. The IVA is set to run for approx 5 years from inception which was 6 months ago. That 53p in the £ was about £196 which we had upped to £200 when paying over. Since finding out about the debt being passed onto Link we have continued to send our payments to GE Money so far.

 

Do we know for sure that Stephen Southwood Evans is the correct named person to write to?

[stoney47]

chatsworth2409

when i phoned link to get their e-mail address, I was told that mr southwood-evans was the main man in the legal dept.

they need to appreciate the fact that you will be paying back all your debt and that you have an approved arrangement by the court.

did you received a notice of assignment,because if that has not been sent to you,then keep on with ge money

[chatsworth2409]

Thanks Stoney47. I (we) have no recollection of receiving any notice of assignment from link or GE Money. Just verbal telephone conversations with Link and GE.

 

I will write to Mr Southwood-Evans. Do you know which Link address he is at?

[stoney47]

if you are certain that you have not had a noa from either company,then i would suggest writing to both company,s asking them to confirm their position and sit back and wait for their reply,s

it has to have been assigned correctly.

[stoney47]

i think mr southwood-evans is at the caerphilly address,i used e-mail

stoney47

[chatsworth2409]

Stoney47, if you don't mind I have my letter prepared and ready to send. I would appreciate it if you looked over it for me? Not sure how to attach it though (it is in pdf form)?

[stoney47]

i,m afaid i dont kknow how to do it myself,my computer skills are very basic. i think if you click on the black tringle you can get help from the site team

stoney47

[chatsworth2409]

That's okay Stoney47 - I have sent you a message instead.

[stoney47]

just found it ,im afraid i have to go out for a couple of hours,

i will be back on this evening about nine o,clock

[Bazooka Boo]

Please be EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS of sending PM's and offering advice through them.

 

You will be better advised to post advice and questions on the open forum, so that other who have more knowledge are able to advise you, and correct bad debt advice.

[chatsworth2409]

Sorry Bazooka Boo, I was merely trying to avoid a lengthy post, but I see your point. Here is the letter I have prepared, I welcome comments:

 

"Dear Mr Higgins/Mr Southwood Evans

 

We are in receipt of your letter dated 4 may 2011. On receipt of that letter I contacted your offices by telephone on the 7th May 2011, and had a telephone conversation with two of your members of staff - Zia Houda and Rio (x4017); Rio was reluctant to give his surname for some reason.

 

During the conversation with both Zia and Rio, we were initially told that ‘Link Financial’ has purchased our existing credit agreement from GE Money for a loan we had taken out with them in 2006 (initially), that loan was scheduled to run for 15 years ending in 2022, but you are now chasing us for full settlement of that debt by way of an immediate payment of £10,000 by the end of June 2011 (in stages if we prefer).

 

For your records, receipt of your letter was the first time we had heard of Link Financial Outsourcing Ltd, and the phone call was the first we had heard of the GE Money debt “being sold on” I think it is called.

 

Now, whilst not (necessarily) doubting the scenario of GE Money selling on the debt, I am surprised if that is the case, as we had an agreement of scheduled payments by my wife, which was made since the approval in court of my IVA application in January 2011; and she has been honouring those payments ever since.

 

I’m sure you will understand that just because we get a letter from you, and the fact we are being plagued by phonecalls from your staff, we are loathe to respond further at this point, until we see proof that you do in fact own the GE Money Debt and therefore entitled to try to collect it in the manner shown so far. We have taken advice and have been told to respond in this way for our own safety and so that the rules of the IVA agreement now in place are adhered to; for to act otherwise would render it in breach.

 

My wife is under considerable stress over this matter and the previous issue over my life threatening illness which led to the IVA application in the first place. She is now many months into psychiatric counselling and medication for severe depression. We therefore request that all correspondance is limited to the written word only, and that she is not contacted by phone calls. I’m sure you can understand this request which we do not believe to be unreasonable in these circumstances.

 

So, before we discuss this matter further, we would apprieciate sight of unequivicable proof that you do indeed own the debt...

 

To clarify:

 

This letter is a formal request pursuant to s.77 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 will apply.

 

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.

 

In the meantime, we are continuing to pay and send the agreed monthly amount to GE Money.

 

 

 

sincerely yours,"

[Bazooka Boo]

I understand, hence the reason why advice should be given in the open forum for others to give their 2 pen 'o' worth!

 

 

Dear Sir/madam,

 

Thank you for your letter dated dd/mm/yyyy, the contents of which have been noted.

 

My agreement was taken out with GE Money in yyyy, and as I am not in arrears with our current agreed monthly payment, your letters demanding full and immediate payment are both unlawful and vexatious. Your actions have been reported.

 

It is also noted that you have been making excessive and frequent phone calls to this address, I consider these to be psychologically and physically harassing, you are instructed that ALL future contact by telephone WILL be construed as harassment and reported to the Police as such whereby I WILL take legal action against yourselves for this criminal offence.

 

I will again remind you that ALL correspondence MUST be in writing only.

 

I have enclosed the statutory fee of £1 which is ONLY to be used to provide me with the following;

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?414-CCA-request-letter.

[Guest]

Hi

It may help to include this somewhere it came into force in Feb this year under amendments to the act from the European Directive

“Assignment of rights

82A.—(1) Where rights of a creditor under a regulated consumer credit agreement are

assigned to a third party, the assignee must arrange for notice of the assignment to be given

to the debtor—

(a) as soon as reasonably possible, or

(b) if, after the assignment, the arrangements for servicing the credit under the

agreement do not change as far as the debtor is concerned, on or before the first

occasion that they do.

[stoney47]

chatsworth2409

back again a bit late in the evening, this post was going to advice about posting on the open forum as per site rules.

there your post would have a wider and more knowledgeable audience,and very quickly that is what has happened

many thanks to bazooka boo and peterbard for their input

regards stoney47

[chatsworth2409]

[quote name=

 

Dear Sir/madam,

 

Thank you for your letter dated dd/mm/yyyy, the contents of which have been noted.

 

My agreement was taken out with GE Money in yyyy, and as I am not in arrears with our current agreed monthly payment, your letters demanding full and immediate payment are both unlawful and vexatious. Your actions have been reported.

 

[/quote]

 

Hi BazzokaBoo, technically as we are only paying 'my wife's portion' of the monthly amount catered for in the original agreement (the rest to be covered in due course by the IVA) can we claim we are not in arrears with the payments? I think I should mention here that the more recent 'agreement' with GE Money for split payments, was not formalised in a written agreement, merely over the phone.

[chatsworth2409]

Hi BazookaBoo,

 

Just re-read the letter from Link and in fact it doesn't demand payment there - merely for us to 'call them without delay'... 'to discuss what options are available to you to settle this debt and would urge you to make contact with us as soon as possible.' It goes on to say they are available monday - thursday 8am to 8.30pm, friday 8am to 5pm and saturday 9am to 5pm on 02920 808685.

 

Having said in their initial sentence that they wished to discuss options, there last sentence threatens that 'if you do not offer to repay this account we may review the information held on you by the credit reference agencies to ascertain how we can best ensure this debt is repaid'.

 

The letter itself is a nonsense I know, i.e. 'not demanding full and immediate payment' in writing (they save that for on the phone), so I would need to change the wording in your suggestion above would I not?

[chatsworth2409]

Hi

It may help to include this somewhere it came into force in Feb this year under amendments to the act from the European Directive

“Assignment of rights

82A.—(1) Where rights of a creditor under a regulated consumer credit agreement are

assigned to a third party, the assignee must arrange for notice of the assignment to be given

to the debtor—

(a) as soon as reasonably possible, or

(b) if, after the assignment, the arrangements for servicing the credit under the

agreement do not change as far as the debtor is concerned, on or before the first

occasion that they do.

 

Hi PeterBard, thank you for responding.

 

I am not very legally minded, but the wording in the last sub point (b.) suggests (paraphrasing) that 'if the arrangements for paying don't change on or before the first occasion that they do' What does that mean then? that sounds like more simply they are saying 'if they (arrangements) don't change before they do' which can't be right as this is nonsense isn't it?

[Bazooka Boo]

There is zero requirement to contact these clowns by phone, the content of their letter is to threaten and intimidate you into paying more than you can reasonably afford.

[chatsworth2409]

There is zero requirement to contact these clowns by phone, the content of their letter is to threaten and intimidate you into paying more than you can reasonably afford.

 

Yes, I fully understand that BB, and have no intention of any further telephone contact, I merely convey their letter content in regard to the suggested response you have posted - and the fact that the intimidation happened not in the letter (per se) - but on the phone - which is probably so I can't prove it on court! I will therefor change the word 'letters' to read 'phone conversation demanding full and immediate payment is...'

[chatsworth2409]

Bazooka Boo - what would be your opinion on my question posed in my post #42 above?

[Bazooka Boo]

So is your wife (OH) paying her half on a joint account?

[stoney47]

bazooka boo

at the bottom of post 10,chatsworth states the payments will be from his wife,s account

[chatsworth2409]

I sometimes struggle with some of the acronyms in these posts - what does 'OH' mean Bazooka Boo?