Help with Cabot Financial

[Bingohomer]

Hi all,

 

Really looking for some help with some recent and out of the blue letters from Cabot Financial.

 

In the last week I have received letters about 2 debts, I will cover both separately.

 

Next Retail - Retail credit - £1200

 

I received a letter late last week or early this week dated 27th June, telling me I owed them money and to call them etc. I then received another letter today dated 4th July - basically saying they had decided they were going to take court action against me and seek a sheriffs court decree for the debt. Help what should/can I do.

 

I haven't had any correspondence about these debts for years - I know they do not appear on my credit file with any of the agencies, I have checked all online recently, I cannot remember making any payments to them.

 

Vanquis - £750

 

I also received a letter dated 1st July saying I owed them money from a Vanquis credit card, again similar to the above I have not had any correspondence from the for years and don't recall making any payments to them. However I am now worried I will have another letter in it's way shortly similar to the decree one above.

 

I am currently unemployed after being made redundant and am only on job seekers and housing benefit, my wife works but is not on a significant income. These debts can from a 1st marriage which ended badly and I was left with all the debt, including a joint bank account overdraft, we also have a young child and really cannot afford to pay out anything more than we are already doing.

 

Over the years I have managed to get my credit sorted out and have been rebuilding and a lot of my defaults will be dropping off my file in the next 12 months or so, I am now worried that if they take action I will be screwed again for another 6 years and it will seriously impede me getting another job as my background is in the financial services sector and these all carry out credit checks etc.

 

Please can someone guide me on the correct steps to take and the quickest way to stop them taking any court action against me?

 

Regards

Bingo

[fkofilee]

No youll be fine.

 

Why not send 2 x CCA requests?

If you are in Scotland which I think you are then if no payments for 5 years etc then the debt is extinguished.

[Bingohomer]

Hi fko,

 

Firstly thanks for the quick response, and I do hope so.

 

I am not sure if or when any payments were made to these accounts, it is all a bit of a blur and I can't remember who or what I paid when this all happened, how can I find this out as it is no longer showing on my credit file - do I need to submit a SAR to get the detailed info on any payments made to the accounts or will the CCA likely get me that info?

 

Also I live in Scotland now, however the original debts were incurred in England - is it where you live that applies regarding the time elapsed at the time they come calling for the debt?

 

On the CCA, are the templates in the template section still valid as looks like they are from 2006? Just want to make sure I use the correct one, which I think is letter N in that section of the site?

 

Thanks again

Bingo

[Bingohomer]

Just a quick update, I found a more up to date link for a CCA letter template from another post of yours on a different topic.

 

Have sent both CCA's, 1st class recorded, just now with £1 PO, left it all blank, apart from writing on back that it was only for the statutory fee.

 

Will update when I hear back from them

 

Thanks

Bingo

[renegadeimp]

When was the last time you made payments to these debts, and made speific written acknowledgement that they were yours.

 

If it was more than 5 years ago, then the debt is gone. No need for CCA or communications. The debt doesnt exist. Cabot know this, and 99% of their debts are unenforceable. They just threaten you hoping you dont realise it.

[dx100uk]

The debt was taken out in England so its six years SB

 

You need to go read those letters properly

They do not say will anything

 

Shame you've sent the CCA so quickly

Would have been bett3r to hold off till we have seen all the lett3rs first

 

Dx

[Bingohomer]

Hi Renegade,

 

I have just realised my bank lets me download 7 years worth of transactions, so I have just gone all the way back through to try and work out.

 

From what I can see I was making DD payments to the Vanquis debt with them (based on reference numbers I have)and the last payment I made to them being on 01/12/10 - I have not spoken with or paid them anything since then as far as I am aware.

 

Am I therefore screwed with this one given I have just sent them a CCA request?

I will be gutted it so as I guess I could have chanced my arm for another couple of months and it would have been wiped?

 

In regards to the Next debt they are chasing me for

- I cannot see any reference to this one at all,

certainly not with Cabot

- I was paying another account by DD with Cabot but it is a different reference number,

so I assume for a different debt, unless they have reassigned the number.

 

 

There were other DCA's I was paying though and so I am not sure if the Next debt could have maybe been with one

and then they sent it back to Next who have then reassigned it back out.

 

I have sent the CCA off now for this one as well, so will they likely send me any statements etc

so I can work it out for the Next one?

or will I need to submit a SAR to both Cabot and maybe Next to try and work that out?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Regards

Bingo

 

Hi dx,

 

Thanks for clarifying on the 5/6 years rule, so at least I now know it is 6 as I took the debt out in England.

 

I will scan the letters now and remove my personal info and upload them so you can review, how do I upload them to the site once they are ready?

 

Regards

Bingo

[renegadeimp]

Nope. If it was until 2010 then youd still have a year to wait as the debt wastaken out in england. A CCA request is the way to go, as cabot rarely ever have the right paperwork, and even if they do, you can SAR the OC as your debts will be littered with reclaimable charges.

[Bingohomer]

Thanks again Renegade,

 

CCA's are away so I will wait to see what they say and post back what they send.

 

dx,

 

I think this should be the letters uploaded for you as requested, I wasn't overly bothered about the Vanquis one as fairly tame, it was the Next one where they say they are going to next stage which worried me, as I am just about to come out the other side of all this and then these beggars come along and threaten to put me back to square one.

 

Any further guidance fully welcomed.

 

Regards

Bingo

[dx100uk]

letters merged and properly redacted 4mb per page is rather large

tip don't use a PDF prog to hide text

it can be removed

redact as a jpg under a pix prog then pdf things.

 

 

anyway

 

 

the 3rd letter which I assume is the vanquis card , that's a discount letter

SAR to vanquis to findout how much is made of charges or ROP/PPI

which are both reclaimable at thier int rate.

 

 

not sure on the next letters

the first one does read 'nasty' but it a new 2015 format

so need to get my English dict out to decipher it

 

 

what is the bal to next?

 

 

dx

[dx100uk]

ar sorry see pst 1 says £1200

 

 

well a couple of hearings in a Scottish court will soon wipe out that £1200 profit they think they can make!

 

 

dx

[Bingohomer]

Thanks for sorting the pdf's, appreciate you doing that and I will heed your advice for any future docs I upload.

 

Yes Next is for just under £1200 and as you say costs wouldn't exactly be cheap to take me to court over it, especially given I'm on benefits and don't have eff all to give them anyway.

 

I will send a SAR to Vanquis to get all the data they hold on me and will post back when I get it through for that one.

 

Now that I have sent CCA, does that buy me a bit more time before they can formally instruct sheriff proceedings on the Next one?

 

 

They are so underhand

the letter is dated 4th July and they gave 7 days but looking at the print on the vertical right hand side,

clearly shows the letter wasn't even printed and therefore sent until 07th July

and it didn't arrive with me until today,

so they are not even really giving anyone the stated timeframe.

 

Thanks again

 

Regards

Bingo

[dx100uk]

that's one of the reasons I'm thinking it a cleverly worded threat-o-gram.

 

 

more later or tomorrow.

 

 

although court 'could ' happen its certainly not a quick process for them

and you'll prob get willy waving from Nolans first and then walker love next

before they file a form 1a.

 

 

pers the CCA could well head them off . but, if it was online

they could use a recon.

 

 

lets see

[fkofilee]

that's one of the reasons I'm thinking it a cleverly worded threat-o-gram.

 

 

more later or tomorrow.

 

 

although court 'could ' happen its certainly not a quick process for them

and you'll prob get willy waving from Nolans first and then walker love next

before they file a form 1a.

 

 

pers the CCA could well head them off . but, if it was online

they could use a recon.

 

 

lets see

 

Its Marlin, will probably go through the wonderful people at mortimer clarke.... Scary bunch they are... Oh wait No they arent.

It is a well worded threatogram. "If a decree is awarded" & "We will proceed with the above action if we dont hear from you"

 

Wait until you receive it or send them a CCA request like I said.

[dx100uk]

as the op is in Scotland it will be nolans/walker love I bet

 

 

anyway it say instruct...doesn't say will.

 

 

let it run

 

 

if you want CCA them [cabot]

[Bingohomer]

Quick update regarding the Next debt, I have received a reply to my CCA request stating: 'We confirm that we have requested a Statement of Account and Copy of the Agreement from the Original Creditor and we will forward this to you upon receipt'

 

My account is on hold while they do this. So looks like the letter about seeking a decree was just a threat-o-gram, as to actually carry it out, wouldn't they need to have proof the debt was enforceable etc?

 

Nothing yet re the CCA request for the Vanquis one, will post back when I get their reply to this one, although I'm assuming it will be

[Bazooka Boo]

So looks like the letter about seeking a decree was just a threat-o-gram, as to actually carry it out, wouldn't they need to have proof the debt was enforceable etc?

 

No they only ever send out empty threats to exploit the debtors lack of knowledge, and get them to react exactly like you have.

Make contact and immediately go on the defence.

 

Now they know they have you worried they will threaten and exploit you more.

[dx100uk]

he's learning bb..

 

 

dx

[Bingohomer]

I have received further correspondence from Cabot.

 

In relation to the Vanquis debt

- I received a letter saying they acknowledged my CCA request and the 12 day time limit,

but they are unlikely to have in this time but expect to have something within 40 days.

What should I do if they haven't supplied the information by the 31st July (12+2),

is there another letter I need to issue to them and does them stating it will take 40 days have any bearing?

 

Back onto the Next debt now and

I received their letter about the CCA, that was dated the 15th July,

however a few days later I received another letter from them, dated 13th July, which stated:

 

"Your Fidelity Credit Management (Scotcall) account has been returned to us

 

Your account was passed to Fidelity Credit Management (Scotcall) to recover the balance owed.

It has now been returned to us and any future payments should be made directly to us."

 

It the goes on about getting in touch to arrange a payment plan etc.

 

I just don't get this letter,

I never had any confirmation it had been passed to Scotcall in the first place

and all the recent correspondence had been from Cabot, so not sure what this is all about.

 

The other interesting thing is that the reference number quoted has changed on this letter,

and when looking back through my bank transactions I can see it corresponds to some transactions with the last one being 1st December 2010,

same time I stopped paying the Vanquis one.

 

 

The letter template has also changed from being Cabot Financial (Marlin) to Cabot Financial (Europe),

again not sure if this means anything?

 

 

Does this have any material impact on my CCA request?

 

Any thoughts guidance appreciated.

[dx100uk]

they have 12+2 working days

if they don't comply

you keep quiet and if you are paying anything you can stop

till they comply with an enforceable [checked by us] agreement.

 

 

as for the next debt

just silly letters trying to confuse you

no cca=no pay..end of

 

 

dx

[Bingohomer]

they have 12+2 working days

if they don't comply

you keep quiet and if you are paying anything you can stop

till they comply with an enforceable [checked by us] agreement.

 

 

as for the next debt

just silly letters trying to confuse you

no cca=no pay..end of

 

 

dx

 

Thanks dx

 

I haven't paid anything to either of these since 01/12/2010, so all ok on that front.

 

 

I will do as you say and wait until such time as they can produce an enforceable agreement.

 

 

The default for both has been and gone, so they cannot do any more harm to my credit file,

unless they manage to find an EA, which I am guessing is highly unlikely,

as if it existed they would have already taken me to court.

 

I'll post back when I hear anything else from them.