Cabot and Citi Card debt

[Nightmare4banks]

Hi all!

 

Thanks for all your posts.

 

The problem is that Humpty Dumpty totally refuses to respond to my complaints about the balance owed - some unlawful charges and utterly useless PPI.

 

I have also complained to Humpty Dumpty about the harassment and threatened to sue - what did it do?

 

Change the DCA!This is the third time! A matter of fact the harassment is worse!

 

This DCA phones me daily.Yes,I mean daily!I have the mobile ALWAYS switched off so I do not not get into a nasty argument over the phone because nobody attempts to address the disputed amount instead bully tactics are used in the hope I pay up.

 

I spoke to the DCA once and rang off telling the chap that the time to chat was unsuitable.The second time - later on the same day a VERY rude woman started hurling abuse and I just calmly disconnected her.One second later,she rang me back again - telling me off for switching the phone off! and threatening me with bla bla bla!(That was fun!I got to her but she did not get to me!) Since that day,I ALWAYS switch the mobile off.However,whenever I switch on the mobile there is

a message from the same DCA - now on a daily basis.

 

I have also received one or two - "contact xxxx" urgently cards through the snail mail.

 

Anyway,I think I will go to the GP about the stress - pity I did not earlier when it was at its peak but with another creditor - MBNA if you want to know.

 

Also,I may now seriously consider suing Humpty Dumpty for harassing me.

 

Anyone seen any precedent cases?

[seylectric]

Yes, I would love to know about any precedent cases myself. A year or so ago I was phoned on a regular basis by a real motormouth called Mr. Hardy at Sovereign Credit Management or something, acting for Thomson directories.

 

Initially we would argue for ten minutes or so, I just couldn't get rid of him, and if I hung up he would repeatedly ring back immediately time and time again, up to seven times or more each day. They even admitted in a letter that they had contacted me by phone over one hundred times, stupidly I binned the letter, but I always stuck to my guns, repeatedly telling him that I refused to deal with a third party. Didn't stop him ringing again and again day after day though.

[MARTIN3030]

Dont think you would need a precedent case since the law is already very clear on this.

I suspect cases have been brought but settled out of court.

You could also contact trading standards and quote the consumer credit act.

Debt collection agencies are usually licensed through the consumer credit association,and you could issue a complaint as to their worthiness to hold such a licence.

 

I have reported 2 yesterday for non compliance to a cca request.

 

They are quick to back away when YOU start to get tough on THEM

 

 

Its the only way to sort it.

 

[elsinore]

Don't forget malcontent's thread http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/14977-reporting-harassment.html

[Nightmare4banks]

I have already complained to the OFT about Humpty Dumpty and its 2 previous DCAs.

 

What is the point? They - I mean here both the finance companies and the DCAs still carry on regardless.

 

However,I do agree with Martin3030 here because once you show how tough you are.The DCA packs up.

 

Like yourself,Martin3030 I did exactly the same thing with for non compliance with the CCA request.It did get the previous DCA off my back until the next/current one came on the horizon!!!!!

 

Personally,I have found Trading Standards utterly useless and they tell me that 8 calls a day does constitute harassment!!!If I remember I also secretly recorded the call.Maybe I should send a transcript of the conversation to the DTI.

 

Martin3030,it would be really useful I think to have precedent case although I agree with you most cases are settled out of court.

 

seyelectric,I will keep looking around and if I see a precedent case I will post full details about on the forum.

[andrew1]

Don't forget you have protection from phone calls by using the wireless and telegraphy Act. Write telling them that you will no longer accept telphone calls using the act and will only respond to written communication. If they phone again they are breaking the law. There are a number of threads about the act.

 

Also seylectric, you could no doubt get a copy of the '100' times letter with a dca request.

[ecobabe]

hi again. following on from my saga(above posts) after having written 7 CCA requests to companies for this £30 alleged debt, it wouild appear that 1st credit are the debt owners. I sent CCA request and £1 to them, they received it on 4/7/06, & sent out copy of innaccurate account with £1 fees i paid to other companies listed as payments on account. I wrote back saying they hadn't complied fully with request and clearly stated that the £1 fees were statutory fees under the Act and not payments to alleged debt. blah, blah ..request was made on 4th july and clock still ticking. so got another letter today saying in response to your request here is info. again another statement of account, wrong again and crediting my £1 fee to them to the account. I was MAD as hell so again wrote saying that they had failed to comply with request as yet and i required a copy of the said excecuted agreement. I then phoned Trading Standards who I have to say were really helpful (maybe i'll live to regret that statement) they took details of company and my complaint and gave me ref no. they will phone back in 3 days to let me know what they have done. I also intend to complain to first credit's regulating body.

[MARTIN3030]

Thats the spirit.

 

Its no good threatening them if you dont follow it up with action and you have.

 

Their failiure to comply with your cca request allows you to complain to trading standards although some councils are now referring you to consumerline on the net who are working in partnership with TS.

 

Their breaches in consumer law also warrants the question of their licence and their integrity to hold such in the face of their non compliance to uphold consumer law.

 

I am sure you can expect something to be done about it now.

[alanfromderby]

UK bans spam messages

 

 

and will be enforced by the Information Commissioner.

 

 

Oh well, nothing much going to get done about it then!

[MARTIN3030]

Alan that was from 2003 !!!

 

Abit different to the U.S.

 

I was reading about a claim there for $38m ..:o ....no doubt the spammers are more wary.

Of course their legislation dont stop them sending it here...

[Mrs Charlton]

Why oh why didn't I find this place ages ago. *sigh*

 

I have a few questions, I have read through the thread and have a rough idea.

 

Some background:

 

Currently being contacted by 3 DCA's;

 

Moorcroft (for an o2 debt)

Logic Group plc (catalogue)

Lewis (black horse finance agreement).

 

Now, I had already sent inital letters to them all before seeing this thread, asking for proof of the debts, breakdowns of the amounts etc, but enclosed cheques for tiny amounts as 'good faith payments should it be proved that the debts are correct and enforcable, if not I shall seek to reclaim this money'.

 

Lewis and Logic are yet to reply.

 

Moorcroft sent me a letter saying I had ignored communication etc, so I sent them another one suggesting they read their mail, and a copy of the first letter.

 

They sent me another one stating:

 

We acknowledge receipt of your £8 payment. However, it is essential that we have an agreed future payment arrangement and therefore we must ask you to contact this office within the next 48 hours.

Failure to respond to this request may leave us with no alternative but to instruct our solicitors to commence legal proceedings against you without further notice.

Payment must be attached to this letter and made payable to "Moorcroft Debt Revovery Ltd".

 

My arguments with them since initial contact has been that I received nothing from o2 about this debt, no letter, no statements or anything, I haven't had a contract phone since Febraury this year, and my last bill was paid in full.

 

I wrote a letter back to them in response last night (also before I saw this thread):

 

I write in reply to your letter dated 11th July 2006 which I received this morning.

Your ref xxxxxxxx (xxxx) and Client Ref xxxxxxxx).

Can I please refer you to the initial letter I sent to you on July 4th, particularly paragraph 6:

“If it turns out that I indeed do owe the money, then I shall gladly set up a payment plan with yourself for £8.00 per month (I cannot afford more than this so if this is unsatisfactory then you will need to proceed to court).”

I am making every effort to resolve this matter, but you are ignoring the reasonable requests for information that I make. I have contacted O2 who tell me that as the debt has been passed to you I now need to address all correspondence to yourselves, which I have done.

I therefore ask again for you to furnish me with proof that I owe this money, and a breakdown of the amount to show how the amounts have mounted. I do not see this request as being unreasonable, and surely under the Data Protection Act law I am entitled to know details of my own accounts, particularly when Agencies such as yourself are contacting me with regard to debts that I have previously received no correspondence about and know nothing of.

Uninformed requests for payments against debts are unreasonable without providing information on said debts. I am not shirking my responsibilities, as stated, if I see that I do owe this money, then I will gladly pay, all I am asking for is proof.

You will notice too that I have not added ‘Without Prejudice’ to the top of this letter so it can be used if we move to court regarding this matter.

I cannot obviously therefore adhere to your request to attach payment to the letter you sent and return, as I shall be keeping documentary evidence of all correspondence should we indeed go to court.

If you still see my request for information as non-compliance then I expect the next step will be court. Please be advised though that I have court hearings pending on several other cases as I am currently suing my bank and claiming back unlawful charges, so all court dates will need to be agreed upon by both parties.

 

Thank you very much, I look forward to hearing from you.

 

What do you think? Sould I scrap this and send the CCA letter, or an SAR to O2...or what? Any amendments / suggestions welcome.

 

Curious to know why Lewis and Logic haven't responded yet tho.

 

Thanks in advance. x x x

[MARTIN3030]

I am in the same position and here is whats required.

 

For information about the copy agreement and copy of the deed of assignment send a cca request with a payment for 1.00 by recorded.

They have 30 days to respond. If they do not supply you with the info at the 14 day stage then the debt becomes unenforceable until they do so.

If they dont produce by 30 days they breach the act and it becomes a trading standards issue.

 

You dont have to send a full sar if you are only requesting this info.

You can also send the cca request to the original creditor.

Alanfromderby has done letters for non comp to these requests.

Theres also some good info in the default threads

[mcuth]

Please be advised though that I have court hearings pending on several other cases as I am currently suing my bank and claiming back unlawful charges, so all court dates will need to be agreed upon by both parties.

 

Definitely do not put anything like this in a letter - they'll then want to know how much you're suing for, and whether you're going to pay them out of that, etc...

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[Mrs Charlton]

Good point, I never thought of that.

 

Thanks so much both of you.

[MARTIN3030]

Yep good point I didnt spot that either.

 

Of two of the dcas I am challenging,both of the debts they are trying to collect relate wholly to penalties imposed against the respective accounts.

My understanding is that they have both been bought from the original creditors (banks)

In my requests for info under the cons credit act I have also reminded them that any current enforcement measures should be suspended,as the alleged debt relates to charges which are now in dispute with the original creditor.

I add that there is reasonable grounds to suggest that legal action will soon be

commencing,and that at this stage the legality of the debts will be questioned.

 

This is more or less telling them they should either back off/sell on the debt or face some action from me in the future for harrasment.

 

[robbiecrusoe]

On the subject of 0870 numbers etc. I have a YAC account setup (YAC - The Inbound Call Experts) it is a free service that offers a "personal" number of 070xxxxxxxx, this costs 32p daytime and 22p evenings to call. Your YAC number can be redirected to upto four numbers which are tried in order if one is engaged etc. It can also be used to receive faxes. A nice feature which I just discovered today, is that all calls with no caller ID can be directed to your voicemail which then emails the sound file to you. I am going to have great pleasure in giving the Capquest rep this number on monday (they recently phoned me at work, which I will not stand for).

[robbiecrusoe]

This thread has been a real eye opener for me, and I will be reading it again (and again) as well as all the relevant links over the weekend. Thanks people

[MARTIN3030]

On the subject of 0870 numbers etc. I have a YAC account setup (YAC - The Inbound Call Experts) it is a free service that offers a "personal" number of 070xxxxxxxx, this costs 32p daytime and 22p evenings to call. Your YAC number can be redirected to upto four numbers which are tried in order if one is engaged etc. It can also be used to receive faxes. A nice feature which I just discovered today, is that all calls with no caller ID can be directed to your voicemail which then emails the sound file to you. I am going to have great pleasure in giving the Capquest rep this number on monday (they recently phoned me at work, which I will not stand for).

 

I got a reply today from Capquest to my request for cca info.

They basically say they will be back to me in 5 days..........dunno why because I only want their reply when they have the info I have requested

Nothing more...Nothing less..............

heres my reply to their letter by the way

 

 

Dear Sirs,

Thank You for your letter dated 7th June 2006.

Firstly I am most grateful to you for pointing out your procedures for

collecting debts owned to The Royal bank of Scotland,and I take note of

your stated legal action intent.

Perhaps likewise I could similarly point out some details to you.

1. The amount you are claiming from me consists of some/if not all illegal

penalty charges which were added to my former account with the RBS.

2. I have sent a request(which has been acknowledged by them )to the RBS

for full transaction details under the Data protection Act which will

highlite the said charges.

3. It is my intention ALSO to pursue legal action for the recovery of the

said penalty charges through the proper legal procedure and will include a

request for interest at the stat rate.

May I also remind you that I will be making a request to yourselves to see

the ORIGINAL agreement signed by myself with regards to any Royal Bank of

Scotland accounts,and you are required to supply this under the terms of

the consumer credit act 1974 failiure to do this is an offence.

I will be sending you the above information by special royal mail delivery

with a reminder of the time limits that you have to respond .

In the meantime you may wish to review the contents of your own letter to

me stating your intended action against me on or after 13th June.

I make it clear here that this action will be vigourously defended using

all means at my disposal including references to recent litigation and

rulings.

Yours Faithfully

 

 

ha ha..........you have to laugh its almost as funny as the one THEY sent to ME

 

[chrismc]

I got a reply today from Capquest to my request for cca info.

They basically say they will be back to me in 5 days..........dunno why because I only want their reply when they have the info I have requested

Nothing more...Nothing less..............

heres my reply to their letter by the way

 

 

Dear Sirs,

Thank You for your letter dated 7th June 2006.

Firstly I am most grateful to you for pointing out your procedures for

collecting debts owned to The Royal bank of Scotland,and I take note of

your stated legal action intent.

Perhaps likewise I could similarly point out some details to you.

1. The amount you are claiming from me consists of some/if not all illegal

penalty charges which were added to my former account with the RBS.

2. I have sent a request(which has been acknowledged by them )to the RBS

for full transaction details under the Data protection Act which will

highlite the said charges.

3. It is my intention ALSO to pursue legal action for the recovery of the

said penalty charges through the proper legal procedure and will include a

request for interest at the stat rate.

May I also remind you that I will be making a request to yourselves to see

the ORIGINAL agreement signed by myself with regards to any Royal Bank of

Scotland accounts,and you are required to supply this under the terms of

the consumer credit act 1974 failiure to do this is an offence.

I will be sending you the above information by special royal mail delivery

with a reminder of the time limits that you have to respond .

In the meantime you may wish to review the contents of your own letter to

me stating your intended action against me on or after 13th June.

I make it clear here that this action will be vigourously defended using

all means at my disposal including references to recent litigation and

rulings.

Yours Faithfully

 

 

ha ha..........you have to laugh its almost as funny as the one THEY sent to ME

 

The Royal Mail must be rubbing their hands with all this extra mail and Recorded Deliveries business they are receiving from us all. Watch them post record profits next quarter I seem to be at the damn Post Office every day recently filling in those RD forms!!

[thunderpuss2k]

The Royal Mail must be rubbing their hands with all this extra mail and Recorded Deliveries business they are receiving from us all. Watch them post record profits next quarter I seem to be at the damn Post Office every day recently filling in those RD forms!!

 

Tell me about it, I'm just on the way down the PO to cash one returned Postal Order, and with the change do some RD stuff. It's like Groundhog Day..

[MARTIN3030]

This is an area thats unavoidable and unfortunately theres no short cuts as the frequency of having to send them off is so variable (would be great if they could be timed all at once)

I actually thought about this one early and was for that reason most of my claims are running at the same times give or take a day.

I have got 14 sep files and have done a quick look through and found up to now 37 recorded delivery confirmation slips.

 

As people will know they have a habit of slipping out of files....so I have kept all mine together in one place.

However I have been racking my brains as to how to manage the whole bloody process more effectively and have devised a little system which I have already started.

 

Heres the details.

 

I have got a handful of blank rec del slips from the p.o.

Filling them out at home saves queuing time when your turn comes up at the counter.

Heres the best bit.........I am using the track and trace numbers as my ref on all my communications now so its printed on the top of the letter directly from the slip.

There is no need then to be constantly checking individual slips later and when you get your reply to the letter your number is on there too.

Plus if you DO happen to mislay the slip........you have still got a record of the signed for number and can print off the Royal mail site this info as proof.

 

Whaddya think ??

 

Ultimately creates a little more time to do other things..........like writing the next letter ha ha

 

 

[thunderpuss2k]

I've got a spreadsheet I use for bank stuff, was planning to adapt it for DCAs but haven't had a chance. On it I log each bit of correspondance, date it was written, sent, delivered, tracking number, and most importantly number of days since an event. I glance at it every morning and can tell very quickly what is at which stage, and whether it's outside the required deadline.

 

Also, every letter I send I print off another copy (as well as keeping the file on the PC), staple the recorded slip to it and also proof of RM delivery (preferably the proper signature POD if available).

[MARTIN3030]

Ive done this using Sasco wallplanner which is right above the PC on the wall.

I have put the deadlines in and just glance up everyday......basically a glorified calendar but with really big spaces.

[chrismc]

 

Heres the details.

 

I have got a handful of blank rec del slips from the p.o.

Filling them out at home saves queuing time when your turn comes up at the counter.

Heres the best bit.........I am using the track and trace numbers as my ref on all my communications now so its printed on the top of the letter directly from the slip.

There is no need then to be constantly checking individual slips later and when you get your reply to the letter your number is on there too.

Plus if you DO happen to mislay the slip........you have still got a record of the signed for number and can print off the Royal mail site this info as proof.

 

Whaddya think ??

 

Ultimately creates a little more time to do other things..........like writing the next letter ha ha

 

 

 

Good ideas Mart.....I have also started a spreadsheet with everything on it, but you have to remember to keep updating it.

[chrismc]

Ive done this using Sasco wallplanner which is right above the PC on the wall.

I have put the deadlines in and just glance up everyday......basically a glorified calendar but with really big spaces.

he he imagine walking into court with your Sasco under your arm, and the Judge asking how you can be sure everythng is in order and the dates correlate etc

 

Well here is my chart m'Lud as you can see, I sent my DCA letter off to Barclays on XXX and here you can see their first attempt at fobbing me off, marked for calirity in RED and dated xxx and here you will be able to see a note about a letter I received stating they want to charge me £3 a statement, but wait a minute a few days later these statements arrive in the post here is the date xxxx, I remember it well as the postman had to take a week off work following that with a back injury I have noted it here!!!! see??? etc etc Oh and here we are now in court as per the date as shown on my chart, and you will notice anothere date marked in RED here that is when I expect Barclays to finally pay up!! simple really!!

 

So what makes you think you will win this Mr Martin....just a hunch ,m'Lud, just a hunch!!