BCT 2005/6 car finance, doubtful repo, sold to lowells & 7yrs of misery

[Zaphod83]

Hi guy's,

 

Been having a few sleepless nights of late with regards to my BCT / Lowell issue.

 

I had a HP agreement with BCT in 2005/2006, defaulted in 2008ish due to my partner having a baby and suffering post natal depression,

leaving me with the baby and all the bills etc,

 

ended up with me having to default just to keep the baby fed and clothed,

I ended up trying to take my own life at one point

- FAILED obviously and ended up on a lot of anti depressants.

 

A year or so back I started a repayment plan with BCT, they have since sold the debt to Lowell.

 

Lowell are now asking for 10K which has all sort of BCT fees etc in.

 

Doubt I can claim fees back from BCT are they are winding up.

 

I started a payment plan with them the other day,

I know officially I should be sending them CCA request etc,

but has anyone had any dealings with their CEO?

I know it sounds silly, but I have thought about writing him a letter to explain my side of the story to him,

does he have a heart/soul or is he someone not worth giving the time of day to.

 

If I were to write a letter, can that be used against me in any way should I question the validity of the agreement etc?

 

Regards

[dx100uk]

are they winding up?

 

first I've heard of it.

 

anyhow.

 

you say the loan?

 

is littered with PENALTY charges?

 

get them back then

 

you can reclaim ALL PENALTY fees

 

have you PPI too?

 

i'd not bother writing to lowells

go straight in the bin.

 

hope you are not talking on the phone to lowells?

 

how much was the loan for

how much have you paid

 

got the agreement & all the statements?

[Zaphod83]

Yeah, I got a latter from lowell saying that they have now bought the debt, I spoke to BCT they said they are closing down and are selling off all their debt.

 

I spoke to them on the phone to carry on the repayment plan that I had in place with BCT, the last thing I need is them going any where near a court.

 

My exact details on the loan are very vague, it was a long time ago and a lot has happened since.

 

I got a car cira 2006, fell into difficulty in 2008, they were not interested in helping, i told them to take the car back, they came and collected it, made a few payments in 2009, more money issues, then started paying them back in 2012 £50 a month, not sure on exact figures, but looking at my credit file it says this:

 

 

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec

2013 9,660 9,560 9,510 9,510 9,410 9,360 9,310 9,260 9,210 9,160 9,110

2012 9,710 9,710 9,710 9,710 9,710 9,710 9,710 9,710 9,710 9,710 9,710 9,660

 

I then got a letter from the lowell saying it's £10,1xx.xx

 

I have got BCT sending a SAR.

 

I have a sneaking suspicion this is not enforceable as BCT would have had me up in court a long time ago if it was.

 

I know you say about lowell and letter going in the bin, would that really be the case, I was hoping if I explained everything to the CEO he may have some empathy, or is that just wishful thinking?

 

I really don't want this to go near a court, but don't want to be lumbered paying this for the next umpteen years.

[dx100uk]

woe hang on here

 

how did you do this?

 

by VT or VS?

british credit trust are the old THames Credit.

 

they were renound for fleecing punters blind.

 

if you returned the car by VT

all you needed to pay was upto the 50% mark.

 

if you were spoofed into VS, then yo need to fight it

 

they would never sell an account if they can mke money on it.

 

they've sold the account as it probably toxic

 

re the above.

 

tell us the full story

 

and what paperwork do you still have.

[Zaphod83]

Hi DX,

 

I'm not sure how it was done, I know people probably think i'm being stupid, but I was in a really bad place mentally.

 

I have literally no paperwork I destroyed some of it as I didn't want to look at it, and I was between two addresses.

 

I'll try and explain the full story.

 

2006 after a couple of years being with my partner we (she) fell pregnant,

we decided we needed to get a bigger car, so changed an existing one I had with them for another one,

I think the initial car I got was 7k then changed it for another making the total amount owed £15,690, this is going off my credit file.

 

Come 2008 when my child had just been born we ended up splitting up so

 

I was left dealing with all the rent, food, utilities and debt on my own,

 

I got into a mess with lloyds tsb with regards to bank charges,

my salary wasn't even covering the charges and over draft.

 

I spoke to BCT on the phone who were not at all interested in helping, so

I did what I needed to do to keep my child fed and stopped paying them,

 

a couple of months later I phoned up BCT and told them again I needed help,

they said they needed payment in full and to bring the account up to date

- impossible as I had nothing to give them,

nothing to sell as at this point I had to move into a one bed flat,

I got behind on council tax,

had bailiffs knocking on my door for that.

 

That's when I went a bit off the rails and ended up on the happy pills.

 

I called up BCT and asked what should I do,

they said they wanted to collect the car,

I said to them the car is here, come and get it,

 

the lady said OK, we will get it on this date etc,

that was it,

no further correspondence from them until I moved address,

after that it was just the normal we need you to pay XXXX call us now.

 

No paperwork was sent on the car,

I have no idea if it was VT or VS,

i'm guessing I was not at the 50% mark yet as the dates would suggest.

 

In 2012 I setup a plan to pay them as things had improved for me and didn't want them taking me to court etc,

i'm happily settled and enjoying life with my new partner and child (apart from lowell making me grumpy some mornings).

Now they said they have sold it to Lowell for £10,1XX.XX (Exact pounds and pence at home).

 

So when that letter came though I said that BCT had agreed to £50 a month and they did too.

 

Not sure what else to say.

 

BCT are sending me a SAR in the post so I can detail charges etc. No PPI as I asked when I phoned them up in 2012.

Edited January 2, 2014 by Zaphod83

[Zaphod83]

I got my SAR this morning, no notes on it, just a list of transactions, not many fees on it, the last one on the file is 'write off' with a credit of 10K.

[dx100uk]

was this an official SAR request from YOU with the £10 fee enclosed?

 

dx

[Zaphod83]

No, The guy on the phone asked me if I wanted him to send a full statement of account, I wrongly assumed this was the same thing. I'll get on to it tonight and send it off asap.

 

I presume I still send it to BCT, is there a way I can put it into dispute with Lowell?

[Zaphod83]

I forgot to mention, on the letter I got from Lowell saying they now own the rights to the debt etc, it says they are aware it's been through court litigation - i questioned BCT on this, they said no it hasn't and they may have mistaken the fact the vehicle was "repossessed"

[dx100uk]

starting to smell here.

 

probably a totally unlawful repo.

 

don't tell me

 

you got charged for them coming to get the car too

by an external repo guy?

 

dx

[Zaphod83]

There are some "Repossession Fees" on the account, £475 I believe. The car was collected by a 3rd party company, for the life of me I cannot remember which one though, I just got home from work one day and it was gone with a letter though my door.

[dx100uk]

oh great even better!!

 

so they didn't fil out

and get you to sign any paperwork as to the state of the car

probably spoofed you out of 'repairs' too

 

£475!! you've been had there

 

there should have been no fee at all.

 

that sar is going to be very revealing.

 

no wonder they sold the debt on.

 

although not the same company

 

you might find the threads from adsuk and ukdarren

interesting to read.

 

dx

[Zaphod83]

Nope, nothing!

 

I'll get the request off tomorrow, and see what they have to say, thanks for your input DX, it's much appreciated, thanks to you I got a nice refund of fees from welcome finance a couple of years back!

 

Shall I scan and post up all the docs I have had so far?

[Zaphod83]

Right.... Managed to get a solicitor to look at all the paperwork, and by his reckoning it's totally unenforceable for several reasons, amount of credit was misstated. The price of car was stated as just over 7 k amount of credit section then has 9.3k on it, and it was signed before 2007 http://www.1112.net/lastpage.html/showthread.php?276-UPDATED-A-Full-Guide-to-Unenforceability&p=10805#post10805

 

 

And the Car was repossessed off private property without court order.

 

I have asked him to knock me up a letter detailing this so I can send it to Lowell contesting it all, hopefully they will back down without the need to go to court.

Edited January 10, 2014 by Zaphod83

[AndyOrch]

Well done Zap.... what a difference a few days make from your first post and now you are empowered to fight back.

 

 

Regards

 

 

Andy

[dx100uk]

I was on the right lines then

 

could even invalidate the whole agrrement?

 

which means ALL your money back

 

dx

[Zaphod83]

Thanks guys for all your help, I'll keep you up to date on what happens

 

DX, thank you once again!

[mikeymack2002]

btw stop paying NOW if you are no point in giving your cash away, have you put account in dispute in writing yet? you haven't made it clear if you are still paying them,

 

 

MM

[Zaphod83]

I have cancelled the DD, and awaiting solicitor to come to deal with it. Hoping they won't drag it out too long.