Barclay/Link chasing 2 old debts

[ka1974]

Hi

I'm looking for some advice so I can assist my elderly auntie with some recent letters she has received that have got her worried and upset. She gets a bit confused so here's the details as best as she can remember them.

 

She defaulted on her Barclaycard back in the late 1980's she says possibly 1987.

This debt seems to of been split between two dca's.

 

The first one is Central Debt Collection Services based in Manchester.

The last correspondence she had with them was 2012 and she has been paying them £1 a month by standing order ever since.

 

At the end of October Barclays sent her a letter asking for new income and expenditure information.

This was followed up by them in early November with a letter from their collections and recovery team saying that her outstanding balance was £1085 and asking her to contact them if she has any queries. 

 

The second letter came from Link Financial also in early October saying that her account was due for an "affordability review".

She has been paying them £2 a month also by standing order and prior to this letter the last correspondence from them was also in 2012. The outstanding balance to Link now stands at £6951.

 

She also has some arrears on the electric which she pays £20 a month on but she hasn't had any problems with them.

 

In a panic she contacted Step Change and she completed an income and expenditure form with them but it's not correct. She has underestimated her outgoings, for instance she has put £10.50 a month for gas as she based this on summer usage and she was trying to make her outgoings look smaller to Step Change. They also have her income higher than what it actually is for some inexplicable reason and have her disposable income as being £170 a month and want her to use this to pay off the debts. It is not £170, she's a pensioner not Bill Gates.

 

Step Change have also frightened her on the phone asking her had she considered selling her house and moving into a flat or releasing equity in her house. She has a very small 2 up 2 down which she's lived in all her adult life and has no mortgage. They've spoken to her about the possibility of Barclays making a charging order against her house which left her crying. As far as she is aware she doesn't have a CCJ.

 

They also told her to cancel her 2 standing orders which she did.

 

To say I'm livid is an understatement.

Step Change are calling her back after Christmas to see if she wants to go ahead with a DMP with them.

I've promised her I will help her sort this out without them.

 

I only found out about all this a few days ago so what should be the first step to sort this out please? 

Edited December 17, 2021 by dx100uk
formatting

[dx100uk]

cant see how the debt is 'split in 2'

 

send barclaycard a CCA request

send link a CCA request.

 

stop payments to both.

stop talking on the phone

 

and most definitely STOP using stepchange.

 

neither will be ever able to provide the SIGNED agreement from that era.

 

bye bye debt!!

 

dx

 

 

[ka1974]

Thank you.

 

Should she stop paying now or wait until they can't provide the signed agreement?

 

I don't understand how it's split in two either and tbh neither does she.

 

All she can tell me is that it was her Barclaycard but it was such a long time ago she can't remember the details. 

Edited December 17, 2021 by dx100uk
added A few blank lines only..dx

[dx100uk]

I said stop paying now.

 

on the letters is the 16 digit number the same?

 

Dx

[ka1974]

There's no 16 digit number on either letter. On the recent Barclays one there is a sort code and the last 4 numbers of an account number with **** in front. I don't think she would be able to tell after all these years if those were her details as she hasn't banked with them in donkeys years. 

[dx100uk]

Well thats a bank account not a Barclaycard debt then

 

where is the info coming from they are Barclaycard and the same debt?

 

DX

[ka1974]

Maybe that's why it was "split in two" then? I wonder if one was an overdraft or something. She says the £6961 one is definitely Barclaycard. 

[dx100uk]

So who has the od

and who has the Barclaycard

 

you can't cca an Overdraft debt, so dont bother, just cease payments on both regardless.

 

nothing anyone can do now anyway. Debts are too old.

 

DX

[ka1974]

Sorry being a bit dim tonight what is od? 

The Barclaycard was my aunties which she had in the lates 80's she thinks 1987. She obviously no longer has it or any credit cards. 

 

I've just spoke to her on the phone. She says she never had an overdraft with Barclays just the card. 

[dx100uk]

but did she have a barclays bank account?

 

who has what debt please?

 

but safe to tell her what i said do, just stop payments and stay off that phone, never talk about debt over the phone EVER!!

 

dx

[ka1974]

She did have a Barclays bank account back then yes but moved banks in the early 90's. 

 

The £6951 barclaycard one is now with Link Financial and the most recent letter regarding that amount came from them. 

 

The £1085 was being collected by Central Debt Collection Services until the recent letter from Barclays saying she still owes this amount. 

 

I've told her what you've said there about not ever speaking on the phone. 

[dx100uk]

ok link have the £7k barclaycard debt then, well think of things this way, WHY did barclaycard sell on a +£7K debt for about 10p=£1 to a debt buyer and not take her to court and crush her. something very wrong here, and that will be no signed agreement exists.

 

so send link off a CCA request they have 12+2 working days to comply, they will never get a signed agreement for that era out of barclaycard, as with all historic barclaycard agreements, they don't exist. so stop paying now, ignore everyone, bye bye debt.

 

as for the OD still owned by barclays, now with their Central Debt Collection Services wing, again just stop paying and ignore them. 

 

you could send an sar off to barclays to get ALL the personal data about accounts they ever had with her, but these are historic and they won't have anything much now.

 

dx

 

[ka1974]

That's great advice thank you. I'll do that for her asap. I just wish she had told me sooner so she wasn't so upset over it all. As for Step Change I don't think they're as impartial as they like to make out on the phone but that's a whole other gripe. 

[dx100uk]

well no its not another gripe, it sadly a very systemic problem with the whole debt collection industry in this country.

none of them be them fee paying or free EVER QUESTION the debts people go to with them. always just pay pay pay.

thats because they are all funded in oneway or another by the banks and the totally powerless DCA/debt buyers.

 

DCA's view debtors as suckers, marks and mugs

NO DCA has ANY legal powers whatsoever on ANY debt no matter what it's Type

and they

are NOT and can NEVER  be BAILIFFS. even if a debt has been to court..

If everyone stopped blindly paying DCA's Tomorrow, their industry would collapse overnight...