Lowell claimform - old vanquis debt **WON** but still trashing credit file

[pluribus 1]

Name of the Claimant ? Lowell Portfolio I Ltd

 

Date of issue 24 Aug 2017

 

What is the claim for – the reason they have issued the claim? Please type out their particulars of claim in full (verbatim) less any identifiable data and round the amounts up/down.

 

1)The Defendant entered into a consumer credit Act 1974 regulated agreement with Vanquis under account reference XXX ('the Agreement')

 

2)The Defendant failed to maintain the required payments and a default notice was served and not complied with.

 

3) The Agreement was later assigned to the Claimant on 30/09/2014 and notice was given to the Defendant.

 

4)Despite repeated requests for payment, the sum of £400.85 remains due and outstanding.

 

And the Claimant claims

a)The said sum of £400.89

b) interest pursuant to s69 County Courts Act 1984 at the rate of 8% per annum from the date of assignment to the date of issue, accruing at a daily rate of £0.088, but limited to one year, being £32.07

c) costs

 

What is the value of the claim? £432.92 (£517.92 inc costs)

 

Is the claim for - Credit Card

 

When did you enter into the original agreement before or after 2007? After

 

Has the claim been issued by the original creditor or was the account assigned and it is the Debt purchaser who has issued the claim. Assigned

 

Were you aware the account had been assigned – did you receive a Notice of Assignment? NO

 

Did you receive a Default Notice from the original creditor? NO

 

Have you been receiving statutory notices headed “Notice of Default sums” – at least once a year ? NO

 

Why did you cease payments? I did not. I paid on time, every time. When I wanted to close the account I requested a full and final balance - was told ZERO. Asked them to clarify and confirm, was told again ZERO. Asked them to close the account. Account closed there and then.

 

What was the date of your last payment? Unknown at the moment, around 2014

 

Was there a dispute with the original creditor that remains unresolved? NO

 

Did you communicate any financial problems to the original creditor and make any attempt to enter into a debt management plan? NO

 

 

Hello

 

I received the N1 in the post today, bit of a surprise as I had closed an account in good standing with ZERO balance.

 

I used to work (many years ago) for Vanquis so I know how they operate.

All telephone calls are recorded and every one held for 5 years.

 

 

I had no reason to ask in writing for the account to be closed as it was in good standing.

Always paid in full, on time.

 

 

When I no longer needed the card, I made a payment and cleared the balance.

I called in 24 hours later to confirm the balance was zero and asked very clearly if there was any outstanding amount showing.

The customer service screens clearly show the balance, available balance and outstanding payments owed on your account.

I was told there was zero balance and zero outstanding.

 

 

I asked them to clarify and confirm (more for the recording than anything) and they confirmed again, zero balance, zero outstanding.

I asked them to close the account and it was closed on that call.

 

No letters from Vanquis after this regarding the account.

Occasional letter asking if I wanted a credit card (still get them now) but they go straight in the bin.

 

No letters from Lowell before the N1.

 

I have filed my AoS with MC before filling out this thread.

I am disputing the entire claim. Left juris box unticked.

 

I am guessing a SAR to Lowell is next?

Do I send one to Vanquis also, or is it Lowells responsibility as claimant?

 

Anything else I should be doing at the same time?

 

Regards

 

Ian

[dx100uk 9,451]

get a CCA Request running to the claimant

leave the £1PO blank and uncrossed

.

get a CPR 31:14 request running to the solicitors

.

don't sign anything

.

not flippin ROP is it?

[pluribus 1]

CCA and CPR letters sent yesterday. Whats ROP?

[dx100uk 9,451]

thought you said you worked for them?

ROP=their secret PPI.

[pluribus 1]

Must have been after my time. I stopped working there in early 2005-ish

Edited August 27, 2017 by pluribus
typo

[pluribus 1]

Letter received from Lowell Solicitors today (scanner not working so I'll type it):

 

Dear

 

We refer to the above matter and acknowledge receipt of your correspondance 26 August 2017.

 

We also confirm from a review of your account and we have received your acknowledgement of service 30 August 2017 which provides you with a further 14 days from the date of service to file a response to the claim form.

 

The outstanding balance relates to a former Vanquis account taken out 16 October 2012.

 

Please find enclosed a copy of the notice of assignment dated 8 october 2014. The deed of assignment will not be sent to you as it is a confidential agreement between our client and the original creditor containing information to which you are not entitled to see. No other agreement/Deed of Novation exists between you and our client.

 

A request has been submitted to the original creditor Vanquis for a copy of the agreement, statements and default notice and shall be forwarded to you upon receipt. We have therefore placed your account on hold until we receive their response.

 

We ask that you respond to the claim form issued against you 24 August 2017 within the timescale detailed within the response pack.

 

If you wish to speak to a member of our team....etc

 

Yours sincerely

 

Lowell Solicitors Ltd

Next was a photocopy of a non-headed paper letter from Vanquis about the assignment of the debt to Lowell Portfolio I Ltd with Lowells ref number.

 

Finally a photocopy of a headed letter from Lowell introducing themselves as the fair and wonderful people they are.

 

Whats the best course of action next?

 

Regards

 

Ian

[dx100uk 9,451]

you don't miss your defence filing date

[pluribus 1]

I wanted to share my story with you all, hopefully you will find something useful here.

 

Last week I went to court and had the case thrown out by the judge due to "fundamental errors in the claimants case".

 

As I know Lowell's read this forum

- and because I have another case pending against them

- I am going to be vague in some respects,

but hopefully there will be enough information to help someone out there win against them.

 

Over 15 years ago I worked for a well known credit card company.

Shortly after I left, I took out a card with them.

 

The card was operated normally,

payments were made every month

and when I no longer needed it,

I paid off the balance and closed the account.

All good, no problems.

 

I even remember when activating the card,

reading back the customer service ops speech they have to read new cardholders.

We both thought it was funny at the time that I remembered the entire speech word for word by memory.

 

A few years go by and I receive a claim form from the County Court Business Centre on behalf of Lowell,

claiming i owed a large amount of money on the card,

the debt had been sold to them,

they had sent all the required documents and notices

and as I had not responded they had no option other than to issue proceedings against me.

 

The only problem is,

I had received no letters,

no notices of assignment,

no statements,

no defaults,

nothing.

 

The first I heard of it was when the claim form landed on the doorstep.

 

I immediately contested the claim and sent letters to Lowell demand they prove the debt.

I sent several letters over a few months.

Lowell ignored all of them.

I included statutory fees where applicable and sent those letters record delivery.

 

I gave Lowell's more than the required amount of time to respond,

after which the debt becomes unenforceable anyway,

but I was not interested in that.

I wanted my day in court.

 

I received their witness statement a few days before appearing in court.

It contained one of the letters I wrote,

some of the documents I requested and several others they were using to prove their case.

 

Being in mind the amount of time passed since closing the account, I no longer had any statements.

I didn't care.

 

I literally walked into the judges chambers with a copy of the letters I had sent and a notepad, nothing else.

No other documents, nothing at all to prove my case.

Their solicitor walked in with their witness statement, a bundle of documents and enough details to bury me.

I wasn't concerned at all.

 

Because I was representing myself,

the judge explained how the case was going to be handled,

what I had to do,

and that it was normal in his court for the claimant to offer their evidence first.

 

I said I understood and sat in silence while the solicitor gave all the details about how I denied ever having a card,

how I obviously was lying as the account statement clearly showed transactions in and out of the account.

They showed copies of all the letters they said I was sent which would comply with their legal obligations

and even said I was lying about working for the credit card company.

 

They even produced a letter from the HR dept saying no one with my name or details had ever been employed by them.

 

Back on their evidence,

I was not only guilty,

I was also guilty of contempt as I had sworn in my rebuttal statement that everything I was saying was true.

I just sat and waited patiently for my turn.

 

The judge allowed the solicitor to finish and then read from his notes to give a summary of the points they had raised.

He asked if the summary he just read was an accurate representation of the facts just given and we both agreed.

 

Then it was my turn.

 

The first thing I said was that I never denied having the card.

I actually had it with me and held it up saying "here it is".

 

I then held up my company id badge which had their logo, an expiry date (long expired) and my photo on it.

I explained that I was never employed by the company,

but as is the case with most of their staff,

I was an agency employee.

 

The judge noticed I had no documents with me and asked me why.

I said I had requested documents from the claimant which would be able to prove there was no debt to sell, but they had never replied to them.

Their solicitor said no letters were received,

despite one of them being included as evidence in their own witness statement,

with the recorded delivery sticker on it.

 

I told the judge I had operated the account normally,

and requested he look at the claimants statement of account they included as evidence.

This clearly showed things in my favour and he agreed.

 

I apologized to the judge for not preparing any more than I had and said I was prepared to defend myself based solely on the documents offered as evidence against me by the claimant.

 

He asked if I was sure and said he would be happy to adjourn.

I said I was sure.

 

I asked the judge to turn to the default statement supposedly sent to me and to look at the amount claimed on the default.

I mentioned that it was a completely different amount to the amount claimed as due.

 

I then asked the judge to turn to another default notice,

again this had another completely different number on it.

 

I asked the judge to add together the TOTAL amount spent on the card,

ignoring any money paid back in repayments.

 

That figure did not even come close to the amount claimed I owed.

I then asked the judge to look at the amount claimed on the claim form.

Every single number was different.

Not just slightly different,

not just a fat-finger typo,

but vastly different.

 

The judge demanded they explain how they calculated the amount they said I owed.

They could not.

 

I finally asked the judge to look at a certain date on the account statement used as evidence by the claimant.

That clearly showed I made a full and final repayment,

and that I had made no transactions after that.

He accepted that was true and that I owed no money at all.

 

Their solicitor just sat there squirming through the whole thing.

 

The judge stated that as I had proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I closed the account with a zero balance,

and because of a series of fundamental errors with the claimants evidence,

there was no case to answer and it was struck out in my favour.

 

I am currently waiting for a letter from the court detailing the judgement so I can start getting defaults removed and make repairs to my credit files.

 

Do not be afraid if you get court claims from them.

Most of the time (based on my experiences and reading those of others here)

their information is incorrect,

incomplete or just plain made up.

 

Fight it with the help of people here,

and if it does get as far as a court room,

you will more than likely win.

 

I went in with no evidence other than what was provided against me, and still won. You will too.

[dx100uk 9,451]

did you CCA and CPR.

[pluribus 1]

Yep. CCA, CPR AND SAR. They ignored all 3, but included the CPR in their defence packet.

[dx100uk 9,451]

signed agreement included?

 

dx

[pluribus 1]

No, copy of letter from the credit card company verifying the application was electronic and all in order.

[suffering 1]

Well done for standing up against these charlatans and exposing them for being chancers

[pluribus 1]

Hello Caggers!

 

Back in January I went to court against Lowells for a debt that didnt exist and won.

 

I've just looked at my credit file for another reason and am astounded to see that Lowells are still registering defaults on this account

- the most recent being updated last week.

 

The Judge decided there was no case to answer and that the account had been closed satisfactorily in 2013 with a zero balance.

 

Looking at the credit report, it clearly shows the account is considered active and Lowells have updated the default every month since August 2014 until last week.

 

Is there anything I can make them pay for this?

 

This account was found by the Judge to have never been in debt at any time (other than during the normal operation of the account).

I never went near my credit limit and always paid in full, every month without fail.

 

The account was paid off in August 2013 and closed the next day.

He also found there was no legal basis for any collection activities to take place, including adding defaults.

 

I did get a default notice last year, around the same time I got the N1 from the CCBC, but none at all this year.

 

I really want to make Lowells pay for this.

The judge dismissed all their claims and categorically stated I owed no money to any person or entity with regards to this account.

They are ignoring this.

There should be NO defaults registered against this account at all.

 

What can I do?

 

Ian

Edited June 15, 2018 by dx100uk
spacing

[BankFodder 1,978]

Well if you have enough grudge, I would suggest a small claim for breach of the data protection act not only against Lowell but also against the original creditor. Who were they?

 

Are you able to give us any idea of any damage or loss or stress/distress that you might have suffered as a result of this inaccurate information being placed on your credit file.

[Andyorch 10,467]

Thread moved to the appropriate forum.Please continue to post here to your thread.

 

Regards

 

Andy

[pluribus 1]

Original creditor was Vanquis.

 

I'm self employed and have had several high-value tenders turned down in the last 6 months or so, but I cant prove thats because those people did a credit check (likely though, due to the industries involved).

 

Feeling a tad stressed now you come to mention it.

Headache too.

Nothing at all to do with the primary school next door...

I might have to lie down for a minute or two...

 

Seriously though,

I did have an application for a mortgage refused last year,

(which I could easily afford to pay off in as little as 8 months).

These defaults would not have helped that application at all.

Edited June 15, 2018 by dx100uk
spacing

[BankFodder 1,978]

I suggest that you start off by making an SAR request to Vanquis and also to Lowell – although Lowell may well pass on to Vanquis. You may as well try and find out the whole story and see what they got on the records at the moment.

 

Is there no trace on your credit file of the searches which have been made? You could also send SARs out to the people who have refused you credit and also to the company which refused you the mortgage to obtain solid evidence of what has happened.

 

I would also begin a complaint to the information Commissioner. You can probably start that on the telephone and then supply evidence such as a copy of your credit file and a copy of the judgement – although what you have probably won't contain all the judges comments and that would be important to have.

 

Suggest that you call the court and ask them if you can get a transcript of the judgement. You will probably have to pay for this.

 

This all might sound like a load of hassle if what you say has happened then it may well be that you can get some compensation from Vanquis and also from Lowell as well as a judgement against each of them and so it is probably worth taking the trouble.

 

You won't get a firm decision from the ICO but what you are likely to get is a confirmation that they are "unlikely to have complied with the Data Protection Act" – and that will be good enough.

 

I would suggest that you send the SARs out first and then once the disclosures have been returned you can then start to approach Lowell and Vanquis and demand that the matter be dealt with. This won't prevent you suing them, of course.

[pluribus 1]

I've already got the SARs from when I gathered docs for my claim.

This was in court in January though, so I will have to dig them out of the filing cabinet and take a look through.

 

Definitely want the compo - dont really care how much, just want them to be out of pocket.

 

I've downloaded the complaint forms from the ICO website, they've said because I have supporting docs it would be better if I sent copies through the post with my complaint.

Happy to do so as it forces them to write a response back to me.

 

Too late to speak to the Court when I tried, so will do so again on monday.

 

Thanks for your assistance.

 

Ian

[BankFodder 1,978]

Make sure any documents you send – even to the ICO, are sent tracked special delivery – next day delivery. You need to keep in control of everything. Don't leave anything to chance. Don't assume that deliveries will be made. If you go to court, don't assume that they will be efficient and not lose your papers. Don't assume that they will communicate with you correctly. Check, double check, telephone and check. Any phone calls, read our customer services guide – although you've been here since 2006 so you record your calls already don't you?

[dx100uk 9,451]

sadly but its nothing to do with lowells

only the original creditor can default a credit file

lowells have simply updated the calendar section which means ZERO.

 

your beef is with Vanquis

they would have legally defaulted the loan by a default notice either prior to the sale or sometime before the sale

that date will be listed on your credit file as 'defaulted date'

 

go after vanquish and the compo of the total sum of everything 'credit' you have been since that date

 

they cough as they've been fined by the FCA and the FOS and are STILL under investigation.

 

i'd be quick though

 

jungle drums have it that provident. vanquish, moneybarn & sunny are all going to be wound up by the end of the years as theres noway the FCA will allow them to re register for a consumer credit licence once they each expire.

 

dx

[pluribus 1]

Just waiting for replies to my new SARs to Vanquis and Lowell.

 

Attached in a screenshot (info removed) showing my credit file with Lowell listed as the Lender. Each red dot is equal to £400.

 

Vanquis isnt even listed anywhere on the credit file, either open or closed accounts.

 

[dx100uk 9,451]

Lowell are not the lender

they are whos name replaced that of vanquish when they purchased the debt.