Lowells. Can I trust this site? goldfishl now Barclaycard

[carpenterchrist]

Hello,

I'm sure I'm probably starting off on the wrong foot. But I received a letter from Lowells yesterday morning. They've been assigned a debt which I'm 50/50 might be statute barred.

 

I googled for help on how to handle them and your good selves came up, but also a lot of links warning me that this site gets paid by Lowells to get posters to reveal as much information as possible so they can use it. CAG is apparently letting Lowells post here and view threads, etc, and even certain posters keep asking for documents to be scanned up as pdfs so Lowells can get a better idea of who/what/etc.

 

Please tell me this isn't true?

 

Again, sorry for sounding paranoid, but having heard things about the owner working for bailiff company Marstons and an over-zealous site team of ESA claimants with too much time on their hands who edit and delete threads because it makes them feel important and gives their empty lives meaning, I just wanted to double check this isn't the case....

 

Thanks.

[unclebulgaria67]

I always go by the rule that you never reveal information online that would be of any use to anyone searching for you. I would not upload any letters or other documents, which had any identifying marks on them. Why give any oppostion information which might help them with strategy.

 

As far as i know this site has no link to Lowells. In fact the current legal Director of Lowells, said that CAG was the nemesis of debt companies, in an article for the association of debt companies. At one time, the Lowells complaints manager posted to various online forums, including CAG, Moneysupermarket ( when they had a forum). CAG gives advice to people that helps them win against Lowell.

 

The rubbish that you are reading comes from other forums, following spats over a number of years between various. It is all just a load of nonsense. I would say more, but i don't want to fuel the same old argument.

 

If you want help with Lowell, just post up some general info on the debt.

 

Nb. Re the Marstons issue that was just the site owner invited to join an independent committee looking into bailiff problems. It was a load of consumer advisors and interested parties, asked to provide feedback on what was happening to people.

[renegadeimp]

This site has no links to lowells and certainly isnt funded by the **** at all.

 

You have to be careful as a lot of freeman of the land sites try to discredit this site, because CAG helps people for free, where those other sites will make you pay for their help, and drop you in deeper trouble 100% of the time.

[carpenterchrist]

Thanks.

(Sorry for joining all aggressive, but I'm paranoid by nature and I just wanted to check first my post wasn't deleted to prove my point).

Okay cool then.

Let's start again,

Any advice I can get will be greatly appreciated.

I've got a credit card with Goldfish from 2004. I got into financial difficulty around 2007 and stopped even paying the minimum monthly payment.

At the time the debt was about £6,000. (What blows my mind was my salary was around £14,000 pa at the time) but each few months they'd raise my limit until I had credit limit around £11,000! Go figure! But this was pre-2008 crash).

Anyway, I moved around a lot Europe until start of 2016, when I (perhaps foolishly) got back on the Voters Roll. Now I've had this letter from Lowell saying blah blah, debt is now £8,500 and we will go for a CCJ.

Trouble is I'm not sure when I stopped offering them £1 a month.

I don't want to kick the hornet's nest by phoning them up, but neither do I want to bury my head and end up with a CCJ by default, as I've finally got my credit rating looking better than Robert Maxwell.

Edited May 22, 2016 by honeybee13
Language.

[unclebulgaria67]

Who has been writing to you ? Lowells have recently started doing their own in house legal stuff, whereas in the past it was farmed out to debt collector Solicitors to issue court claims.

 

Is it just a general debt collection letter or a letter from Lowells legal department ?

 

Did you offer Lowell £1 token payments in writing ? If so, was this within the last 6 years ?

 

Have you actually made any payments towards this debt within the last 6 years ?

 

Have you checked your credit record ? Is this debt showing ?

 

Answer these questions first and then we might be able to suggest next step.

[Bazooka Boo]

Check your credit file first.

 

When did you stop paying them anything?

 

Ignore lowlifes for the time being, they often say this and say that, when in actual fact there is pretty much nothing they can do, if Goldfish wanted their money then they would have acted sooner rather than later, and I very strongly doubt, that they would flog a 6k to a tin pot powerless DCA, UNLESS there was something seriously wrong with the account.

[carpenterchrist]

I've totally ignored the debt since 2007, when I left the UK.

 

 

I had a bank account with Santander that I also defaulted on and left,

which had a dd for £1 to Goldfish at the time - I've no idea how long they paid the pound for.

But the Santander account is now SB and has dropped off my credit file.

 

All my other liabilities have now dropped off too

- except for the original goldfish credit card default which still shows as red D each month.

That's why I thought it was now safe to go back on voters roll and register a UK address again.

 

The letter looks like a typical DCA letter, it's all "may", "might" "could well do, if you ignore us, etc"

But I'm just nervous because it's so much money and I'm not totally sure when the last pound monthly payment might have hit the original goldfish account.

 

Edited to say - thanks BazookaBoo.

I don't think Goldfish as a company exist anymore,

so that was my concern,

who knows who they might have sold the original debt to,

albeit for pennies in the pound back in the day,

but I could still be liable?

[Bazooka Boo]

On your credit file what is the date of default against the red marker?

 

If the satansbank is now SB then you can bet your bottom dollar that this is also SB.

[carpenterchrist]

Each month previous has a red D.

It goes as far back as August 2012.

It won't allow me to search back further than that.

[unclebulgaria67]

The Goldfish default should not still be on your credit record, as the default was more than 6 years ago.

 

If Lowells have added this default back on your record, that is wrong.

 

It might be a good idea to find out which Bank took over Goldfish accounts and to send them a Data Protection Subject Access Request. In the request, specifically ask them for copies of all statements of account, as well as all other records held. With this information, it might help you with this debt and enable you to get the default removed.

 

If the Santander account which paid the £1 payments is SB'd, then this Goldfish debt should also be SB'd.

 

Given that Goldfish no longer exist, you could send Lowell a CCA request, as they might have difficulty getting it.

 

Nb. Barclaycard would deal with your Goldfish Subject Access Request.

[fkofilee]

For the record of the OP. Lowells do not pay CAG to get information.

 

If the OP is concerned then please contact us on the site team.

[carpenterchrist]

Good advice. Thanks mate.

I'm on it first thing tomorrow.

It's just in my nature with things like this that it's usually better to let sleeping dogs lie than start the whole letter tennis bollox.

Appreciate the input. I'll let you know when it comes back whether a bark or a bite.

[dx100uk]

you say you are not In this country?

 

oh and where did you read we are tipsters for lowells

i'd love to read it

 

ah just read that later unspaced post

you are back here not

if they are all from 2007

pers i'd ignore then.

 

yea go get your credit file

that could be useful.

 

goldfish will now be Barclaycard as it was sold to morgan Stanley then BC bought them out.

 

whats the default date not the D's from the calendar section

[carpenterchrist]

you say you are not In this country?

 

oh and where did you read we are tipsters for lowells

i'd love to read it

 

ah just read that later unspaced post

you are back here not

if they are all from 2007

pers i'd ignore then.

 

yea go get your credit file

that could be useful.

 

goldfish will now be Barclaycard as it was sold to morgan Stanley then BC bought them out.

 

whats the default date not the D's from the calendar section

 

not sure if i'm allowed to post links, but to answer your question I googled cag and lowell and this was one of the first results: http :// forums.moneysavingexpert.com/ showthread.php?t=2594633

 

EDIT. as I thought, I can't post link. But close the gaps on the above one, to see what I was talking about.

Anyway, it's all good now, I've had some good advice without being told to post up pdfs, etc, so I'm comfortable. forget it.

Edited May 22, 2016 by carpenterchrist

[dx100uk]

well even if we do want scans we always ask you to totally redact stuff

and if you don't

we do it.

 

 

just go look around

you'll see scans of peoples letters but as we know 99% of stuff from

dca's are templates anyway they cant tell who its too or from

even if they do 'read' the forum..

its also worthy to note

if you look in the legal successes forum

by far the greatest number of 'wins' against DCA's are from lowells

pretty conclusive answer me thinks....

 

 

dx

[dx100uk]

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2594633

 

oh that ole debacle...

 

they never did keep up their membership...

trouble was they couldn't be honest and upfront

with how they conduct themselves

even on the phone

esp when we posted up several telephone conversations where they were telling 'debtors'

they were bailiffs and coming round to get stuff.

 

as for the bailiff thing and marstons..

yes we do/did have member on their customer relations team/meetings

better to fight them from within to play fair etc etc.

 

doesn't mean we bend over mind...

 

dx