1st Credit

[Candlelight]

Hi, I am having a few problems with 1st Credit and wondering if you could advise me on what to do next.

My husband has a debt with them which he is paying £13.00 a month for, that bit isn't the problem though, the problem is since January they have been phoning us again, it started at once every couple of weeks and in April beginning of May time they started phoning everyday sometimes more that once.

We have written to them asking them to stop calling and told them on the phone when they rang we want eveything in writing but this has no effect, I now don't answer the phone anymore as it has got too stressful. After phone stops ringing i do 1471 to find out who called.Last week I reported them to consumer direct and as a result Surrey Trading Standards have contacted me and said they would contact 1st Credit and ask them to stop. Currently they are still phoning though

 

I've contacted BT who have set us up there answer phone service and caller id service (just waiting for the new phone to arrive for caller id to work)

 

What else can i do to stop them calling ?

 

Next query is this year we have recieved 4 letters off them 2 of the letters are offering a discount on the debt, we have ignored these letters as we can't afford to pay what they said we had to to get the discount.

 

3rd Letter recieved this month says " we have written to you numerous times but this debt is still unpaid" well this was only the third this year and the debt is being paid at £13.00 a month it was originally £10 but my husband chose to pay a bit more to try stop them pestering us.

 

they go on to say that they may start legal procedings against us if we don't reach a agreed repayment plan. Then they say "act now to avoid an agent attending your property"

 

Then they say "they will accept any instalment amount as long as it is by standing order mandate"

my husband doesn't want to set a standing order as he pay monthly on the card they sent us to use at the post office. also he doesn't trust them with his bank details.

 

4th letter recieved today from Debt Help Services ( the address on the letter is PO Box 278, Reigate, RH2 7WB, also they included a envelope with the letter that is addressed to 1st Credit) Are they a seperate company or the same under a different name ?

 

this letter wants to know why we haven't responded to any of 1st Credits letters and they are saying the account is over due and that the case has been now passed on to them to handle.

 

the letter includes a form to fill in giving our reasons on not contacting 1st Credit and a space to make our repayment offer also a space for our phone number.

 

also i noticed that on the last 2 letters we recieved the balance of the account has not gone down but stayed the same.

 

If anyone can offer any advice on what i can do regarding this matter it would be appreciated, thank you.

 

Sorry for the long post

 

I'm very sorry i think i posted this in the wrong forum

Edited June 22, 2011 by Candlelight

[dx100uk]

ruddy fleecers

 

if they are offering a discount

that means its not enforceable in court

so stop paying them

 

did you ever cca them?

 

it'll be unlawful charges or crap paperwork that has got them offering a discount

 

simple

 

do not pay them

 

they are trying to fleece you on a debt you do not owe

 

dx

[silverfox1961]

Thread moved to Debt Collection Industry forum

 

Hi

 

What else can i do to stop them calling ?

 

In the library (top left) are some harassment letters which you could use to stop the calls

 

they go on to say that they may start legal procedings against us if we don't reach a agreed repayment plan. Then they say "act now to avoid an agent attending your property"

Yeah right! If they were foolish enough to try the court route wuith this, the judge wouldn't be too impresses as you are paying what you think you can afford. Also in the library is the doorstep letter which you could send them

 

Then they say "they will accept any instalment amount as long as it is by standing order mandate"

my husband doesn't want to set a standing order as he pay monthly on the card they sent us to use at the post office. also he doesn't trust them with his bank details.

 

carry on using the payment card.

 

You should have been getting annual statements from Worst Credit to show the state of the account.

 

Can you say who the original creditor was? What type of debt it was?

[PGH7447]

debt help is part of 1st crud

[Candlelight]

ruddy fleecers

 

if they are offering a discount

that means its not enforceable in court

so stop paying them

 

did you ever cca them?

 

it'll be unlawful charges or crap paperwork that has got them offering a discount

 

simple

 

do not pay them

 

they are trying to fleece you on a debt you do not owe

 

dx

 

I don't think we sent a cca to them as when we first recieved a letter from 1st Credit regarding this debt sometime 2003/2004 we went to the CAB as we didn't know what to do and we followed there advice on what to do which was pay them what we could afford.

[Candlelight]

Thread moved to Debt Collection Industry forum

 

Hi

 

 

 

In the library (top left) are some harassment letters which you could use to stop the calls

 

 

Yeah right! If they were foolish enough to try the court route wuith this, the judge wouldn't be too impresses as you are paying what you think you can afford. Also in the library is the doorstep letter which you could send them

 

 

carry on using the payment card.

 

You should have been getting annual statements from Worst Credit to show the state of the account.

 

Can you say who the original creditor was? What type of debt it was?

 

Thank you i will send those letters, does it matter if they are handwritten as our printer has broken

 

I am not aware that we have recieved any statement of accounts from them i can't find any, do i just send a letter requesting for statement of accounts ?

 

The original creditor was Abbey National, the debt started when my husband went over his overdraft limit in 1998/99 so orginal debt was £197.00 i think, but abbey national added charges to this account even though we were trying to pay it off then my husband lost his job and we couldn't afford to pay anything but all the charges wiped out anything we could put in the account, when the account was passed to 1st credit it came to £1059.

[PGH7447]

so now send them a cca, they want to play silly buggers, so hit them where it hurts

[Candlelight]

debt help is part of 1st crud

 

thank you I thought it most probably was but nice to have it confirmed

[Candlelight]

so now send them a cca, they want to play silly buggers, so hit them where it hurts

 

ok i will get one sent out tomorrow

[debt4get]

if this debt is made up mostly of charges chances are you have already paid off the bulk of it....you want to start looking at claiming back all these charges that they placed on this account back then.....

[debt4get]

if you have been paying 13 quid a month since 2004 tell em to go and take a hike...ignore their threatograms they will do nothing....looking at what the original debt was i would think you would have paid this up by now..they are taking your money by mugging you

[Candlelight]

hi debt4get

 

how would i go about claiming back the charges that abbey national put on the account ? i'm sorry i don't have a clue about this.

 

My husband only started paying the £13 a month in January before it was £10 a month since 2004, my husband chose to put it up to £13 himself to try stop them harassing us. We have now got this debt down to £171.39 though 1st Credit have not taken off the last 2 payments so they are saying it is £197.39 we still owe.

[Candlelight]

Is there a Statement of Accounts letter Template anywhere ? I have looked in the Library and can't see one. Or will just a standard letter do just requesting a Statement of Accounts ?

 

Sorry to sound so daft but i really want to do things the right way

[dx100uk]

if you not got all the statements you need to SAR the OC

 

letter is in the library green tab to left

 

dx

[Candlelight]

thank you dx

[Kitten1]

Jeez!

 

They wanted over £1000 for a debt that was originally less than £200?????

 

That's disgusting!! I personally would be inclinded to stop paying and tell em to whistle!

 

I'm just waiting for worst crud to start phoning me again..... They seem to like going after questionable debts.

[Candlelight]

hi kitten1

 

it's not great how many charges abbey put on the account, and 1st credit are awful to deal with phoning is there favourite way of contact

[Candlelight]

Trading Standards have spoke to 1st credit for me today and they sent me the response that they got from 1st Credit

 

here is what they said to Trading standards

"They state the last time they made contact with you was on the 18th June 2010, (one year ago).

At that time they requested an income/expenditure form.

The previous call to that was on the 26th February 2009 for an instalment review.

Both calls were with members of staff who have are regarded as having unblemished records in respect of complaints.

1st Credit Limited think that perhaps you may be confusing them with another debt collector?

 

Can I ask that if you receive a call in the near future that you request the name and address of the debt collection business who you are speaking too.

I suspect this may be a debt sold by 1st Credit Limited to another debt collection business who is quoting the 1st Credit reference number.

 

1st Credit Limited also inform me that they have removed both telephone numbers held for you of their system."

 

 

I know that 1st credit are lying as it is there phone number left on my telephone when i do 1471 also when i have answered the phone when i ask who is calling they say 1st Credit, also i have 2 messages left for my husband on the bt answerphone service from this week the messages say that it is 1st credit.

 

Is there a way i can get these messages off there ? to prove to trading standards they are lying, can i record them onto my mobile then transfer to my computer ? will that still work as proof ?

 

I started writing down the time and date of calls from them on the 13th of june the day i first made the complaint to consumer direct. can i use this as evidence ?

also when i have spoken to them i haven't got a name for the person phoning as soon as they say 1st credit i just say in writing please.

 

this has really annoyed me as it makes it look to trading standards that i'm lying and i am not. It is definatly 1st credit calling.

 

what can i do to prove otherwise ?

[Kitten1]

Maybe a SAR would bring the truth out of them?

[Kitten1]

The last dealings I had with them was when I was pregnant. I was very hormonal and literally screamed down the phone at the woman as she was being rude and obnoxious. They had contacted my parents first before

me and so I tore a strip off the woman who had called.

 

Boy did it feel good!!

[debt4get]

i know its a pain when they ring but if you refuse to go through their stupid security questions, they wont even talk to you...i have endless fun with the so called questions...like why? who are they protecting? well those answers are in the public domain...i know a better one...what is my favorite colour? now thats a better security question...after they find it is costing em money they normally give up ringing..the other favorite is to answer and then go for a nice cup of tea whilst they wait endlessly on the phone...their are lots of ways of getting them to desist without getting stressed or worried about their calls...remember you didnt ask them to ring!!

[the kid's mum]

ruddy fleecers

 

if they are offering a discount

that means its not enforceable in court

so stop paying them

 

did you ever cca them?

 

it'll be unlawful charges or crap paperwork that has got them offering a discount

 

simple

 

do not pay them

 

they are trying to fleece you on a debt you do not owe

 

dx

 

Sorry to interrupt here - how does them offering a discount mean its unenforceable in court?

I just want to add another arrow to my bow as we're having dealings with these cretins.

[silverfox1961]

Hi

What DX means is if a company was offering a discount then why? If they had all the correct paperwork to ultimately take this to court, they wouldn't be offering a discount

[debt4get]

1st crud are well known on here for this tactic..of course the only way to be sure is to cca em and see what if anything they do have

[Candlelight]

The last dealings I had with them was when I was pregnant. I was very hormonal and literally screamed down the phone at the woman as she was being rude and obnoxious. They had contacted my parents first before

me and so I tore a strip off the woman who had called.

 

Boy did it feel good!!

 

I bet that did feel real good they are very rude but the last time that i spoke to one of them i warned them i would take action if they continued with the phone calls and thats what i'm doing