Debt Collection Agency Offering a Discount???

[hunkysoldier]

Yesterday i receieved a letter from a firm of solicitors (debt collectors more like) telling me that they are currently mananging a debt i have worth £2500 or so. It was basically a Goldfish credit card i defaulted on about 4 years ago and have not paid a penny on since.

 

However, in this letter (the first from them) it says that if i pay the debt within the next 14 days they will wipe 40% off the amount owed so i only have to give them £1400 odd. Now, its irrelevant anyway as i have no way of getting £1400 in two weeks but i was just curious - has anyone else had this happen to them? has anyone else been offered to have nearly half of their debt wiped off if they agree to pay it back? or is it just a dubious tactic to get me to confirm my address etc to them?

 

Also, in another thread in this 'general' forum (posted by lueeze) someone mentioned something about debts 'being out of date'. can a debt ever become out of date? and if so, how long does that take? considering that a great deal of the above balance has come from illegal charges i am in no rush to pay it back!

 

any advice / replies would be very gratefully received.

[trundlecat]

I'm sure someone who knows all the legal specifics will be along in a while to answer your questions but until then here's the gist from a complete amature:

 

1. The debt collectors will have bought your debt for a fraction of the amount it's worth. Say they bought the debt off Goldfish for £1000, if you send them £1,400 a profit of £400 in 14 days by only having to write 1 letter is pretty good going.

 

2. The limitations act means that after 6 years have passed (& you haven't acknowledged the debt) you can't be taken to court for repayment & the debt collectors can only ask you for the cash back. Of course, dodging debts isn't to be recommended but if you manage to lay low & avoid them for another 2 years (assuming you haven't responded to any contact from them in the past 4) they wont be able to force payment from you.

 

Hope this help,

Trunny

[trundlecat]

Btw - if you really are a soldier whatever you do don't let them know your number or unit as the 1st thing they'll do is write to your CO. You'll then end up treading the boards for bringing disrepute to the corps/reg (usually get busted down 1 for that charge) & your admin officer will make sure you pay the lot back.

[deemacperth]

"Treading the boards"

 

Now there's another man that was obviously a number at some point in his life.

 

 

Soldier, where did the mail get sent to? Your address? Or partners? Or parents?

 

If it's your address, then be careful, because they might send the baliffs, if it's your partners/parents, technically they can return the mail saying "Not at this address" as legally you aren't.

[deemacperth]

Apologies trunny, realised your of the female persuasion. How typically sexist of me.

[trundlecat]

Apologies trunny, realised your of the female persuasion. How typically sexist of me.

 

You're forgiven, won't shoot you this time

[deemacperth]

You're forgiven, won't shoot you this time

 

women can't shoot straight anyway.

[Mr_Matt]

I had this happen to me although the offer was 25% of the debt if I paid within 1 week which I duly did and the account was settled. For me it made sense to pay it but your situation is clearly different.

 

I did have charges prior to the account defaulting. Does anyone know if it would be worth claiming for these charges in light of the hefty discount I received? Is that being too greedy?

 

It may be that you could claim for all the charges you received on the account and then pay them off with these!

[alanfromderby]

 

It may be that you could claim for all the charges you received on the account and then pay them off with these!

 

You can certainly claim unlawful charges back from the original creditor - then negotiate a deal with the DCA. If it works out you can make a nice profit on the deal - and it's perfectly legal!!

[pjdudley69]

Every time the DCA who I deal with me contact me re upping my payments, they always offer me a discount if I can pay within a certain time scale, usually about a week, and its normally a couple of hundred less than my current balance

[Dave Johnson]

Btw - if you really are a soldier whatever you do don't let them know your number or unit as the 1st thing they'll do is write to your CO. You'll then end up treading the boards for bringing disrepute to the corps/reg (usually get busted down 1 for that charge) & your admin officer will make sure you pay the lot back.

I've got the t shirt

Dave

[pedro_uk]

I asked capital one to supply me with all my DPA statements on the 20 march.

They arived but befor i could calc all my loses up, I also got a letter from the debt collection agency (intrum justitia).

 

 

Dear xxxxxxx

 

Client: Capital One Bank

Client ref: xxxxxxxxx

Outstanding Balance £1,097.59.

 

We refer to your recent communication.

 

Please be advised that the amount of £659.00 will be accepted as early settlement for the above account, providing payment of this amount is received on or before the 2nd may 2006 .

Please be advised if payment is receved later than the above date, the settlement willbe void, the payment received will be deducted from your outstanding balance and we will continue to purse for the payment in full.

 

We look forward to receiving you payment.

 

Yours sincereley

---sig-----

[trundlecat]

women can't shoot straight anyway.

 

But don't forget I'm now a mother so I'm a crack shot with a corn flakes box at a 3ft moving target:D

[fallen404]

Dee, you trying to get a vasectomy on the cheap or something? I know quite a few girls who can aim pretty damned accurately, with a variety of weapons.

 

Anyhow, I know that a lot of parking fines are halved if you pay up within 14 days. Never had anything of mine put across to a debt collection agency though.

[Guy]

There are several companies out there who can ensure that your debt is cleared for about 25% of teh total - most charge a fee though. If you have a windfall (say get your charges refunded by the original card / loan etc) then you could negotiate yourself and should get somewhere close to 25% if you can front it out. Some will go even lower if they have held the debt for a long time and youve been paying something.

[oblong21]

I have a goldfish card, its currently with a dca, the balance is around 4500 and they are offering me around 3700 full final settlement, no more. Now i have just received statments for card and they owe me 800 in charges.

 

Unsure myself whether to pursue them for the 800, which they will enivitably knock off the balance and then see if they will give me a similiar 15-20% discount or just sweat it out until they get sick of the 20 month i am offering and give a better offer of F & F. Anyone any experience of this?

 

Out of interest does anybody know how long if i were not to pay it would take to end up with a solicitor? They keep threatening me their ' pre legal ' team and also the latest letter is from the ' home collections ' team, ooooh!

[norvernrob]

Dee, you trying to get a vasectomy on the cheap or something? I know quite a few girls who can aim pretty damned accurately, with a variety of weapons.

 

Anyhow, I know that a lot of parking fines are halved if you pay up within 14 days. Never had anything of mine put across to a debt collection agency though.

 

Or are parking fines doubled if you don't pay within 14 days? Nice way to get people to pay up straight away though!

[seylectric]

It's correct that parking fines are halved if you pay within 14 days, but there is a catch - appeal the fine and lose (trust me, you won't get a reply within 14 days) you have to pay the full amount because you will be over the 14-day "offer" period.

 

There are a lot of people fighting this and other unfair aspects of parking fines, but it's well documented elsewhre on the board.

 

As for debt collection agencies, I too have had discount offers.

 

I generally refuse to deal with debt collection agencies; I simply tell them that I will not discuss my account with a third party under any circumstances.

 

They will try to intimidate you and tell you that you MUST discuss the matter with them or they will pass it to solicitors, take you to court, rape your wife and kill your babies or whatever, but stick with that line and they can't do a thing. You don't owe the DCA anything, so they can't do anything, simple as. There isn't a law in the land that says you even have to respond to them at all.

 

Their intimidatory tactics are illegal anyway.

 

As for DCA's that have bought the debt from your original creditor, it depends on whether or not you agreed with the default (including the amount) in the first place. I had a dispute with Barclaycard and I did not agree with the amount they said I owed. Several letters went back and forth and Barclaycard eventually decided that "we had reached an impasse" and they would no longer respond to my letters.

 

Apart from the unfair default on my credit reference file that was the end of it until 12 months later, when Cabot financial Services wrote to me asking for payment. I told them "I didn't deal with third parties" then they told me I owed the debt to them, they had bought it from Barclaycard. Tough! As far as I am concerned Barclaycard should not have sold them an account that was in dispute.

 

I'm now planning to get the whole debt wiped out and the credit reference filed cleaned up, Barclaycard have sold it on (so I owe them nothing) and Cabot are entitled to nothing because the debt should not have been sold to them in the first place in my opinion.

[oblong21]

Ha, i like your approach and would love to play with such style, however - Should you continue to refuse to deal with the DCA then surely the matter will end up in court and in which case will the judge not look unfavourably at any reluctance to do so (communicate with a 3rd party) unless the law supports you?

 

In which case, upon which law will you be relying on and do you have any case studies to support it?

 

In addtion, my account has been passed to a dca, am i to take it it is now in a state of default - cant rely on what the idiots on the end of their phoneline say - and if so i may as well ' sweat it out ' as it cant actually get any worse until it gets to court?

[fallen404]

Or are parking fines doubled if you don't pay within 14 days? Nice way to get people to pay up straight away though!

 

Nope. I think they may be doubled after 30 days. I know they're halved for payment within a fortnight, because I went to pay one, handed over the money, and the bird behind the counter asked me where the other half of the money was. I pointed out to her that I'd only incurred the charge that weekend. But that's Kingston Borough Council for you.

 

Mind you, even with the discount, I think it was about £30. I incurred a parking fine a year or two later up in Yorkshire, and the total fine was £20. I'd hate to ever get a parking fine in central London

[deemacperth]

Fallen,

 

check here:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=5232

 

[andrew1]

There's a thread similar going on here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=3987&page=4 regarding DCA's and discounts. I had an offer of 40% and it is quite common if the DCA has paid up to 12% of the debt from the card firm anything above that is a profit for them and a negotiating tool for you.

[seylectric]

Nope. I think they may be doubled after 30 days. I know they're halved for payment within a fortnight, because I went to pay one, handed over the money, and the bird behind the counter asked me where the other half of the money was. I pointed out to her that I'd only incurred the charge that weekend. But that's Kingston Borough Council for you.

 

Mind you, even with the discount, I think it was about £30. I incurred a parking fine a year or two later up in Yorkshire, and the total fine was £20. I'd hate to ever get a parking fine in central London

 

 

It may differ around the country, but in Blackpool a parking fine is £60, reduced to £30 if paid within 14 days. At some point it goes to £90, can't remember whenther or not this is after 30 days or after they send it to the magistrates court, not sure because most of the stuff I get goes straight in the bin.

 

Incidentally there are people challenging the differing levels of parking fines and penalties around the country, quite right too.

[seylectric]

Ha, i like your approach and would love to play with such style, however - Should you continue to refuse to deal with the DCA then surely the matter will end up in court and in which case will the judge not look unfavourably at any reluctance to do so (communicate with a 3rd party) unless the law supports you?

 

In which case, upon which law will you be relying on and do you have any case studies to support it?

 

In addtion, my account has been passed to a dca, am i to take it it is now in a state of default - cant rely on what the idiots on the end of their phoneline say - and if so i may as well ' sweat it out ' as it cant actually get any worse until it gets to court?

 

Long post, sorry but it's all relevant.

 

If you are in dispute with the company you can tell them that any court action will be met with a counterclaim, and you will be asking for damages for illegal harrasment and possibly defamation of character for the incorrect entry on your credit reference file. The DCA CANNOT take you to court, you don't owe them anything! It will only end up in court if the creditor - the company you allegedly owe the money to - decides to take that route.

 

The judge can't look unfavourably upon anything, he is simply there to decide whether or not you do owe the money. Whether or not you chose to co-operate with the DCA is irrelevant. The DCA can only recommend court action to their clients if they fail to collect the debt, but they have little interest in doing so because they won't get their commission, which is basically all the DCA is interested in. That's why they keep chasing and harrassing you but rarely recommend that the company take you to court.

 

However in 99%+ of cases the company will not take you to court because they are frightened of losing, much like the banks in the bank charges claims cases.

 

Note: An agency may have a legal department that acts as agents for the company in court, but they have to be authorised by the company to do so. This will cost the company more than they are likely to be able to reclaim in costs, so if the amount is relatively small (a few hunderd pounds) they have little to gain financially from taking you to court, it's simply cheaper for them to write it off.

 

If they take you to court you will get an opportunity to defend the court action before judgement is made in the form of a letter from the court on which you will be invited to file an admission, defence or counterclaim (there is a fee for a counterclaim). If it reaches this stage and you accept the debt simply pay it before returning the court forms then state on the court form that the debt is settled. That way you will not have to pay any additional court fees/costs. Either way you do not need to go to court but it's better if you do if you are defendding the claim.

 

Send a cheque with a letter stating that payment is offered on the understanding that the default will be removed from your credit reference file, and if they do not agree to this then state that your cheque must not be cashed (it will be, everytime).

 

Pay only the outstanding debt, not any additional fees claimed, they are unlikely to take you to court simply for additional unpaid charges and if the debt has been paid by this point they will probably lose anyway because the debt was paid before it got to court.

 

Any charges must be listed on the court claim form seperately, so if the debt + the charges is all bundled into one on the court form seek advice from the C.A.B. because their claim is then incorrect and probably void.

 

Just a note about default: If your account is officialy in default the company (not the DCA) MUST send you a "Notice of Default". If they haven't, it isn't regardless of what the DCA try to convince you.

[andrew1]

Last paragraph above I take it you mean " It isn't legal " regardless of what the DCA tries to convince you?