Natwest, Capquest and CCS Collect

[chiefmegawatty]

I am being chased by Capquest for a debt of £550

 

which came about due to bank charges with Natwest from 2006.

 

Back then I had no income and was unable to pay the bank charges.

 

Natwest closed my account in 2007 and

 

I never heard any more about it until

 

December 2011 when a demand letter arrived from Capquest.

 

I ignored the letter because I had never borrowed any money from Natwest and therefore considered that I owed them nothing.

 

Many more letters arrived threatening me with all sorts of terrible things but nothing happened.

 

In Feb 2013 after 15 threatening letters from Capquest I obtained my credit reference agency credit report which

 

showed the alledged debt and Capquest were the owners of the debt.

 

I noticed there was a default date recorded of 23 May 2007.

 

Therefore the alledged debt would become statute barred on May 23 2013.

 

Sure enough at the end of May 2013 this default was removed from my credit report as I expected.

 

Despite this, Capquest continued to send letters but offered a large reduction for prompt payment.

I ignored them so

 

they recently passed the debt onto CCS Collect who have sent me more demand letters.

 

In their latest letter thay say if they don't hear from me they will pass the debt back to Capquest for further enforcement.

Seems to me that these DCA's are barmy.

 

I wonder why Natwest didn't take me to court back in 2006 and also why Capquest didn't take me to court before the statute barred date.

 

Maybe because the alledged debt purely consisted of bank charges there would have been little chance of them obtaining a CCJ against me.

 

I have recently considered sending the statute barred letter to the DCA to stop them bothering me.

 

However, I find it quite amusing how they are happy to keep wasting money on paper, envelopes and postage charges chasing statute barred debt.

 

By ignoring all their letters they must surely realise that they can't frighten me into paying, so why do they continue?

 

I know they are legally entitled to chase statute barred debt but surely by now they would have realised they had bought a lemon.

 

Well they say you can't educate pork.

Edited December 12, 2013 by chiefmegawatty

[renegadeimp]

Send them a Statute barred letter.

 

As for the SB date, it can be up to 6 months before the default date.

 

Proof its SB? Theyve offered you a huge discount. Get that letter off, and theyll go away.

[chiefmegawatty]

Thanks for your prompt reply to my posting, much appreciated. Do you think it will be OK to

send the SB letter via Email?

[dx100uk]

I your 1st post - you assumed a common mistake..well poss two actually...

 

there is little or no relationship between a default notice letter date or a 'default' date on a CRA summary with the statute barred date.

 

there is also 'currently' conjecture on CAG as to 'when' a bank account which has/had an OD IS actually statute barred.

 

sadly, the jury is still out at present.

 

however, you need to nail down WHEN YOUR last financial transaction was.

 

in this case it appears there were none after the issue of the DN,

 

'we presently think' that the SB clock starts one day after the date the quoted DD/MM/YYYY on the DN

 

as long as YOU have made no in/out following that date....

 

dx

[ims21]

Yes send the SB letter but I would do it by post and if you can, by some signed for method.

 

Until you tell them that it is SB and that you will not be making any further payment they are most likely to continue to chase you for it.

[chiefmegawatty]

My last transaction on the Natwest account was in Jan 2006. I therefore assume that the default date must be when Natwest closed my account. Are you implying that bank charges never become statute barred? Thanks for your prompt reply to my post.

[renegadeimp]

Of course they become SB. Get the letter off.

 

As said, the law says they can continue chasing you, and even issue a court claim against you, until you notify them otherwise. Get the letter off, and theyre buggered. They may come back and try and lie by saying that you made a payment in 2008, but we can easily give you a letter to tell them where to go and you are now making a full complaint as they are trying fraudulant tricks.

[chiefmegawatty]

OK will do. Thanks for your kind and very helpful advice.

[chiefmegawatty]

Just sent the statute barred letter via email to CCS Collect and had an automated reply as copied below. I therefore assume that they cannot claim that they didn't receive my email.

 

We acknowledge receipt of your email. Replies will be dealt by normal postal methods or by phone for security reasons and by strict order of receipt.

If you have not received an expected response within 7 workings days, please call 0844-412-0344, it maybe that you did not quote your CCS or Payment reference number which we would need to locate your account.

 

Regards

 

Correspondence Team

CCS Collect

[ims21]

Get a copy in the post to them as well as suggested above.

[chiefmegawatty]

I received a written reply from CCS Collect.

 

They claim that a payment was made towards the debt on 28th March 2013

and is therefore not statute barred.

 

They request that I phone them to discuss this. I have no intention of speaking to them over the phone.

 

Their claim that a payment was made is total rubbish.

 

However

I did notice that the amount being demanded dropped by £10 somewhere between Feb 2013 and Aug 2013 when Capquest were sending me letters.

I assumed that was an admin error.

 

Seems that my sending the statute barred letter has opened a can of worms.

I assume I now need to ask them to prove that a payment was made and by whom.

Their lies and deception are now beginning to really wind me up.

[renegadeimp]

Ask them to prove it. Its a well known con used by a lot of DCA's to try and get the debt not SB. Tell them that if they do not provide conclusive and complete proof that youm ade the payment towards the debt, you will go to the regulators with an accusation of fraud.

 

You want the method of payment, the palce of payment, amount, date, any serial numbers etc etc. Call their bluff.

[chiefmegawatty]

OK will do and thanks very much for your help and advice.

[chiefmegawatty]

Letter written and sent as per your good advice.

 

CCS Collect don't realise that I have been monitoring my credit report on a monthly basis throughout 2013

which clearly showed that no payment was made in March 2013 or at any other time.

 

I will be astonished if they produce details of a payment that never happened.

 

Hopefully they will back off now and close the account.

 

They have mentioned that they will pass this back to Capquest if I don't pay up.

 

I don't see what good that will do them.

[renegadeimp]

Whatever the outcome, make sure you let teh regulators know whats going on. The DCA will claim it as an admin error, but that just shows that if its true, their systems are not fit for purpose. Think how many other people they have done this to, and who have fell for it.

[chiefmegawatty]

I think DCA's need tighter regulation to stop them trying to fool people into paying statute barred debts by fraud and deception. However, how can a person fall for this if they know full well that they have never made any payments? I am surprised that CCS Collect think they can convince me that I made a payment when I know full well I never have. They seem to assume that I'm thick.

[renegadeimp]

Just remember, the majority of people with debts have no idea of the legalities of it, or even phrases such as statute barred/CCA/SAR etc.

[chiefmegawatty]

Yes understood. However CCS Collect are still chasing a debt after I wrote to them saying I don't acknowledge the debt, won't be paying and telling them it's way past it's statute barred date. I will complain to the OFT as CCS seem to be acting outside the guidelines. Should CCS write back with a load of fake payment details I will be tempted to take them to court myself for attempted fraud using my house as security to pay the legal fees. I own a large piece of land in Wiltshire so I could sell that to fund taking CCS to court.

[renegadeimp]

Thats because CCS is a bottom of the barrel DCA> WHat they do is threaten and say anything to get you to pay them. ANd lots of people do, just to make them go away.

[chiefmegawatty]

Thank goodness for this forum and people like you who are kind to give others good advice.

[renegadeimp]

Let us know what CCS come back with. If you genuinely havent made a payment, it will be very easy indeed. I bet you they will try and say you made apayment with a postal order or through your bank. If they say postal order and you challenge it, theyll say they dont have the details anymore.

[chiefmegawatty]

I have never made a payment and never acknowledged the debt. I will let you know immediately after I receive a reply from CCS. I have all my bank statements dating back over 16 years. The postal order accusation is interesting, but how can they prove I made a payment with no details of any postal order?

[renegadeimp]

No clue. But they'll try. For now though, you've called their bluff. The ball is in their court now so lets see what they do next. They might simply go quiet, not contact you and pass the debt on. If they do so, then you can simply resend the SB letter and tell the new DCA they just took on a lemon debt.

[chiefmegawatty]

OK thanks for your advice. Does that mean that sending the statute barred letter to prevent further chasing means nothing if the current DCA sell the debt to another DCA?

Now if that is the case, this process could go on for ever.

[renegadeimp]

WHat it means is that the DCA and the current owner should mark the file as SB and cease all collection activity. Should they pass it on to someone else, then you can make complaints against both. Especially if you notify the new DCA that the debt is SB. It may take a while to get through to them. Remember, their main business ethic is to harass and intimidate and lie to get money from debtors. It works the vast majority of the time, so they continue. Thats why you MUST make full complaints to all concerned.