Arrows/Restons claimform - 1996 Midland Bank OD - was paying them then moved

[hadagutsfull]

Following a recent change of address I have received what appear to be phishing letters from Arrow and Restons.

 

The general advice on the forum appears to be that these are best ignored,

 

I have a question.

What happens next?

 

I'm also told that these two companies actually visit this and other debt forums to check out what advice is being given to forum members.

It somehow feels counter intuitive to disclose what you are going to be doing to thwart these parasites.

[unclebulgaria67]

Being in debt can cause paranoia, where you think they are all after you.

 

Truth is that these debt companies hold billions of pounds worth of debts on their books and to them you are just one out of millions they might have data on their records about. They have obviously detected a change of address through their systems link to your credit record. The letters might have been issued automatically by their systems and no human was involved.

 

If you respond to a letter, you are basically saying that you are interested in dealing with your debt and i am sure they will help you. If you don't respond, then you are on a huge list of people they have not managed to contact and nothing may happen.

 

If you want advice, then you need to provide basic details without being specific. I.e you don't state the exact amount of debt or the exact date you defaulted with the original creditor. Just confirm what is happening e.g Restons threatening to issue court claim, orginal creditor x company, debt amount approx £x, defaulted on payment around about month/year, not paid anything since.

 

If you have many debts then CAG has a wealth of experience in dealing with them. Better to inform yourself about debts, rather than hide and end up with CCJ's because you were too worried to deal with them.

Edited August 30, 2017 by Andyorch
edited..

[Bazooka Boo]

It somehow feels counter intuitive to disclose what you are going to be doing to thwart these parasites.

 

Oh you can be certain they do follow what goes on on open forums, BUT they STILL continue to act like two year olds trying to grasp spoons to feed themselves, even after we give them clear instruction!

 

You are also giving the 'parasites' far more credence than they ever deserve, they have no powers, they are simply vultures who prey on the week and uninformed exploiting a debtors lack of knowledge.

 

If you would like some clear solid advice on your particular issue, then fire away, don't forget, these silly little letters they send out are sent by a computer, not a human, so they have no way of knowing at what stage you're at in their silly letter process until you ring them and they then look at their computer screen.

 

But of course, you're not that stupid to ring them in the first place.

 

Please divulge the story....

[dx100uk]

and we rarely lose against them if they do litigate too.

 

whats the debt all about

and if you've moved without informing the debt owners/creditor on your credit file

esp DCA's they'll go for a backdoor CCJ too.

 

don't worry about them reading here

its an anon forum

[ericsbrother]

they have 2 problems when they issue these letters.

 

1 they dont know what the origianl debt is and whether it is actually enforceable

 

2 they are not certain the person they are writinmg to is the real debtor

 

for these reasons they rely on you to engage with them and admit everything.

If you dont do that their actions are limited and as they cant keep chucking money at the problem

they have to decide whether to go to court or drop the matter entirely.

 

If you assume that they decide this on head or tails that give you a 50% chance this is the last you will ever hear,

with the court route they will win 85% of the claims because the defendant couldnt be bnothered to even send back a form with a box ticked on it so a default judgement.

 

The 15 % of defended claims are then normally dropped as they know they are chucking money away continuing or occasionally they continue and get spanked in court.

This action also cleans up you credit file at their expense so another reason they dont like to continue

 

ignore the silly threatograms, and never ignore the court claim form

[brassnecked]

Hopefully GDPR will bite them on the bum with unlawful data processing fines.

[hadagutsfull]

Reston now saying they have been instructed to take legal action against me by Arrow Global (Got to admit I've never heard of either before)

 

I at least know what it is they are chasing now.

 

Not quite sure how much more I should say on the open forum accept obviously I need advice.

[AndyOrch]

Well if you want advice we need the details

 

Andy

[hadagutsfull]

Original debt: Overdraft 20+ years old (Midland)

 

Last payments approx 5 years ago.

I didn't stop paying they stopped collecting.

 

 

The DCA had issued me with a card that I used to use at the Post office once a month.

I had a huge row with them when they tried to get me to increase my payment and the next time I went to pay it wouldn't go through.

 

Balance is approx £500.

I never received a statement showing how much I had paid in all the time I was paying and I have absolutely no idea how this balance was or is arrived at.

 

(cue violins)

Just after all this happened my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer and later I got heart attacks so I had other things on my mind.

 

We moved house to get nearer to a hospital after waiting clutching my chest for an ambulance for a hour and a half followed by a an hours trip to the hospital where I woke up in the CCU. (cease violins).

 

We are both making a steady recoveries and life was going swimmingly until these creeps crawled out of the woodwork.

It doesn't make sense; how come a change of address triggered this?

Why wasn't it chased up earlier at the previous address?

 

I haven't kept any records and I am working from memory for the most part.

I would really appreciate any help you can give

[AndyOrch]

Did you inform them of a change of address ? anyway no need to do anything until an actual claim form arrives on your door mat.

 

 

Andy

[dx100uk]

I can almost guarantee you have been cash cowed blind on this OD debt from 1996.

 

 

they'll have no info at all

how did they spoof you into starting to coughing up to them

not been talking on the phone have you?

 

a DCA is

NOT A BAILIFF

and has

NO SUCH LEGAL POWERS

 

 

hope you're not blindly paying other debts like this to other DCA's.

are rectuns/arrows aware of your new address

have you ever informed them in WRITING of it.

[hadagutsfull]

With hindsight and what I know now I agree I was definitely spoofed and feel a total idiot.

 

Now you know I'm an idiot you will understand that I need a bit of hand holding to improve the situation I find myself in.

 

All advice gratefully received.

 

I haven't informed them in writing of my new address and had never heard of them before the phishing letters.

 

I have had no contact with them whatsoever other than the letters they have sent me out of the blue.

 

Did you inform them of a change of address ? anyway no need to do anything until an actual claim formicon arrives on your door mat.

 

 

Andy

 

No I didn't. I had never heard of either of them prior to the phishing letters.

[dx100uk]

you indicated the DCA issued you with a card...who?

 

don't worry about being cash cowed

 

sadly almost 99% of people that pay DCA's blindly think they are BAILIFFS

and sadly never read their letters properly

where they say may this could that

and just start paying with out reading what they ACTUALLY state VERY carefully.

 

the DCA business is by far the biggest banking industry there is

if everyone simply stopped paying a DCA tomorrow

the whole industry would collapse.

 

so you've not written to any DCA since you moved nor received any comms or cards from them since your move?

[AndyOrch]

Did you inform them of a change of address ? anyway no need to do anything until an actual claim formicon arrives on your door mat.

 

 

Andy

 

" No I didn't. I had never heard of either of them prior to the phishing letters."

 

I was referring to the original creditor ?

[hadagutsfull]

I cannot recall the name of the DCA other than I believe it was Britannia something but that might be completely wrong.

 

For clarity I stopped paying at my previous address and never heard a peep from them.

I never informed them of my new address because I hadn't heard from them in years and it didn't cross my mind.

 

My move was fairly recent and the letters mentioned above were received at the new address.

I arrived at CAG looking for advice and the consensus seemed to be reading other threads to ignore letters from DCA's and never talk to them.

[AndyOrch]

In the main that would be the general consensus...but Arrow can be quite litigious so may be worth sending them a section 77/ 78 request (template can be found in the Debt Collection Library) to put them on notice this wont be an easy ride should they decide to litigate.

 

 

Andy

[hadagutsfull]

No I didn't because I hadn't heard from them since the card that they issued me with for payment stopped working.

They had been insisting that I increased the amount I was paying, I refused; the card stopped working shortly afterwards.

I assumed they would contact me with some new threat but they never did.

 

 

Really bad stuff happened shortly afterwards which was my priority and I never gave the matter anymore thought.

I'm not absolutely sure if my creditor was still the bank with the DCA working on their behalf or the DCA had bought the debt to be truthful.

[dx100uk]

as the officially don't know you new address

and could well serve a court claim to your old address

maybe send our prove it letter?

as its an OD you cant use a CCa request?

[hadagutsfull]

It's a thought; I've looked for the letter but can't find it. Would you be so kind as to post a link to the prove it letter. I read a long thread regarding CCA's and overdrafts which seemed to suggest that they could apply, however it was a 2010 thread; I take it this definitely doesn't apply now due to a change in the law.

[dx100uk]

debt collection section of our library

[Bazooka Boo]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?387363-You-know-nothing-of-the-Debt-Prove-It-**Updated-21st-April-2014**http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?387363-You-know-nothing-of-the-Debt-Prove-It-**Updated-21st-April-2014**

[Guest]

I read a long thread regarding CCA's and overdrafts which seemed to suggest that they could apply, however it was a 2010 thread; I take it this definitely doesn't apply now due to a change in the law.

the change is that for o/d's after feb 2011 an applicable o/d credit agreement is required.

a cca request could apply for o/d's incepted after feb 2011, and maybe for prior o/d's that have had a new change in overdraft terms after 2011.

the obligation is to provide an o/d credit agreement, at the time or soon after, for an applicable overdraft.

[hadagutsfull]

Help me out here.

1. So in essence I would be entitled to sight of the original consumer credit agreement if the overdraft was prior to February 2011.

 

2. No you wouldn't be entitled to sight of the original consumer credit agreement because they did not apply to overdrafts prior to February 2011.

Is it one or two? Brain isn't functioning too well this morning after being up all night dealing with the aftermath of a burst water pipe. Ever get the feeling someone has got it in for you?

[dx100uk]

no unless you know you signed anything?

[Guest]

hadagutsfull

re your #23 post

have a look for eg at the Consumer Credit Act S61B etc re 'duty to supply copy overdraft 'agreement' for o/d's after feb 2011 (feb '11 is the date s61b etc came into force)

so generally your point 2 is correct. there wouldn't be a formal o/d credit agreement as such for o/d's prior to feb 2011