Help needed re Lowell Financial & CCA

[maggieboo]

Hi Dave

 

Don't write back because you'll get a letter back stating that they've complied with your request, which they have, also... Please stop ignoring this!

 

I'm not ignoring this at all, it's just that I wasn't sure if I had to wait for the 30 days to pass before I contacted TS?

 

I've already got a file of correspondence together and a covering letter.

 

Now that Lowells are sending out computer generated letters again, I can see that it is time to contact TS, otherwise it will just go on forever!

 

Thanks again Dave

Maggieboo:)

[diskmandave]

Hi Dave

 

 

 

I'm not ignoring this at all, it's just that I wasn't sure if I had to wait for the 30 days to pass before I contacted TS?

 

I've already got a file of correspondence together and a covering letter.

 

Now that Lowells are sending out computer generated letters again, I can see that it is time to contact TS, otherwise it will just go on forever!

 

Thanks again Dave

Maggieboo:)

 

Yes...! TS's next...!

[evelyndarling]

how are you getting on? lowells 30 days are up for me tomorrow and i am going to go copy up everything and send it to TS. is there anything else to do at the end of the 30 days? i cant find where i found all the relevant info before!

[maggieboo]

my 30 days with lowell are up in the middle of june. i recently had a letter from lowells saying that i had not kept to my agreement with them and that i've got to phone them to sort it all out! this is after me sending them the CCA request and them sending me a copy application form. obviously i'm not phoning them, i was thinking about replying to their letter, but i'm not going to.

 

i've got all my correspondence from them and me copied and ready to go to TS. diskmandave very kindly put his letter to TS onto your thread a while ago which i will use a guideline for my complaint.

 

good luck!

[evelyndarling]

ive drafted mine up and its on my thread. im guessing ive got the same letter as you - calling them to sort it out, we just want to help blah blah blah... off to TS tomorrow me thinks!

[maggieboo]

Hi All

 

Just a bit of an update.

 

My 12 + 30 days is up tomorrow after sending off the CCA request to Lowells and receiving the application form back. Everything is now on its way to the TS. (Thanks Dave;) )

 

I did get a letter from Lowells yesterday stating that they were going to get copies of all my Barclaycard statements and send them to me and that when they had sent them to me I would have to pay them in full, or, guess what? they'll pass me onto their legal department:rolleyes:. They also say that they are disappointed that I have failed to keep to my agreement with them! What agreement?!

 

I am sooo glad I found this site , I think I would have gone mad otherwise and I dread to think where all this would have ended up.

 

maggieboo

[Bigmac versus]

Let us know how TS respond to this as im interested in what course of action they take, when i spoke to a senior legal advisor within TS a few months ago i was told they wouldnt take action agains a company for failure to comply with the CCA request although they would contact them if the pursued the debt after non-complaince, as they have complied with the CCA i dont see what can be done, wish you luck.

[maggieboo]

as they have complied with the CCA i dont see what can be done, wish you luck.

 

I didn't think that they had complied with the CCA as they had only sent a very poor copy of an application form.

 

Still, I will let you know the outcome of course.

[Bigmac versus]

The advice ive been given is that as long as it comes with terms and conditions and is signed by both partied then it has been properly executed even though it is an application.

[clutchingatstraws]

These people are in default of their obligations under the CCA 1974.

 

They have provided an illegible copy of an application form, not a true copy of an executed agreement.

 

Keep all correspondence

 

Report them to TS

 

again and again

 

Give no quarter

[maggieboo]

Let us know how TS respond to this as im interested in what course of action they take, when i spoke to a senior legal advisor within TS a few months ago i was told they wouldnt take action agains a company for failure to comply with the CCA request although they would contact them if the pursued the debt after non-complaince, as they have complied with the CCA i dont see what can be done, wish you luck.

 

The advice ive been given is that as long as it comes with terms and conditions and is signed by both partied then it has been properly executed even though it is an application.

 

it's nice to know what i'm up against!

[prematurejack]

Hi Maggieboo and all reading this,

 

I'm new here but have been reading this thread (and some others) however as I have just become the lucky recipient of a letter and several phone calls (none of which have managed to reach me) I'm about to start this whole process up for myself. Nice!

 

Would you just bullet point a summary for me so I know exactly where to start, I'd really appreciate the help because I'm a bit confused with so many people being at different stages and I don't want to jump into it at the wrong place and screw it all up.

 

Incidentally my alledged debt goes back more than six years but Lowells having just bought the debt have have applied a default against me which shows a default date of July 2003??? I don't get it.

 

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[maggieboo]

Hi prematurejack

 

you need to start your own thread otherwise it could all get a bit confusing, then you will find that you will get so much help and advice.

 

you need to send lowells a CCA request together with a £1 cheque or postal order to cover the cost of this, make sure they don't offset it against the debt. they will then have to provide you with a signed credit agreement, it should be clear and legible, be signed by both relevant parties and have details of APR and repayments, (anyone feel free to correct me here). they have to provide this within 12 working days of receipt of the cca request, so make sure you send it by recorded delivery and keep copies of everything. if they don't send it within 12 days then you can withhold payment, and if nothing is received after a further 30 days they have committed a criminal offence. Never phone them, always state in your letters that you will not talk to them on the phone.

 

but as i said above, the best thing you can do is start your own thread.

 

i hope this helps, and anyone please feel free to correct me on anything!

 

Good luck with it all.

 

maggieboo

[Bigmac versus]

Maggieboo your soon becoming an expert in this field.

As Maggieboo says start a thread o your own and if in any doubt then YELL before you send anything.

[prematurejack]

Thanks guys and sorry for intruding, I did intend to start my own thread but it seemed to me that your situation was so close to mine that you would know what I need do straight away and I wasn't sure if I could justify my own thread when all the facts were here!?

 

I will start my own thread shortly. Thanks once again for the advice.

 

P.

[maggieboo]

An update.

 

I sent off my complaint to my local TS with copies of all correspondence between myself and Lowells and I received a reply from the TS today.

 

They have asked me to phone them to discuss my issue with Lowells as it is such a complex case, and also to ask my permission to pass my details onto the TS where lowells are based if necessary.

 

I've always replied politely to lowells letters and so i did have quite a pile of stuff to send to TS. hopefully it will all be in my favour because reading back through everything there are my polite replies and requests to lowells, and their letters constantly threatening legal action and ignoring my polite requests.

 

I can't phone them until Tuesday because i've got to stay at work late monday, so I phoned the TS officer that sent me the letter and left a message on their answerphone thanking them for their quick response and to inform them that i will be phoning tuesday.

 

so, i will let you know tuesday how my phone call went.

 

[Bigmac versus]

Good luck

[SteveMcvixon]

Hi,On checking my experian credit report,I saw that I had a default from Lowell Portfollio 1 ltd, after advice from this site,I wrote to them in early may asking for a copy of the original CCA and proof that I owe the debt.

They wrote back to me 10 days later saying that they are requesting a copy from the original lender and will do their best to provide it in the prescibed time!. A month and a half later,well outside the prescibed time,I received a letter saying that following your recent request to be provided with a copy of the original credit agreement in respect of the consumer credit act. After liaising with our client in an effort to obtain this document we have been advised that it is no longer available. Under the circumstances we have closed our files in relation to this account which has now been returned to our client. we can confirm that no further contact will be made by us regarding this account. we trust this clarifies matters for you.

I then called experian to ask them to remove the entry on my credit report,who then contacted lowell and they were told that they have no intention of removing the entry and they would only remove it if the debt was paid,they say that although they have no cca they believe the debt is valid,they also told experian that I admitted the debt, which I never have.Experian have told me to contact the information commissioner,which i am now doing.

 

Does anyone else have any ideas where I should go to now.

[maggieboo]

Just come off the phone from TS

 

The lady that I spoke to basically said that if I owed the money then it had to be paid. I pointed out that the money was owed to Barclaycard but that my complaint was about Lowells threatening and bullying behaviour, the constant court threats and ignoring my letters and also that they did not comply with the CCA. I pointed out that if a stranger knocked on my door every week demanding money from me, I would not hand it over, so why were Lowells allowed to write and demand money without proving that the money is owed to them?

 

I said that I found their letters extremely intimidating and frightening, so she suggested that I phone them and explain all this to them. My response was no way am I phoning, because if they can bully with a letter, then I don't want to find out how they would speak to me.

 

She felt that they had complied with the CCA request with the poor copy of the application form. I pointed out that they had to provide me with an exact executed agreement, not an application form, and it had to be within the timescale. She thought that because it was a credit card and therefore continuous credit there wouldn't be an agreement as such.

 

She has asked me to forward her authorisation to enable her to contact Lowells and Barclaycard direct so that she can confirm with them that I should be paying money to Lowells.

 

She also said that she could not do anything about their behaviour and treatment of my case but she could send me debt management info which might be helpful and have some useful addresses.

 

I don't want her to contact Barclaycard or Lowells, she seems to missing the point of my complaint, should I write back to her clarifying that I am complaining about Lowells treatment and failure to fulfill the CCA request and that that is all I wish her to investigate. Or should I just bundle everything up and send it off to TS where Lowells are?

 

(I know it is highly unlikely that Lowells will take me to court, but believe me, the way my luck runs sometimes, they are bound to do that:rolleyes: ).

 

Any suggestions anyone?

[maggieboo]

any suggestions anyone?

[evelyndarling]

i fear that if you just send the info to leeds TS they will do what they did to me and say "we aint dealing with it, send it to your own TS" its very strange that yours and others TS's have acted in this way yet ive been lucky in that mine agree that the CCA was not properly executed. im going to just scan your post and see what if you posted what it was they sent you as an agreement...

 

...okay. i cant see whats on it, is there any way of getting a clearer look? can you email it to me in BIG form so i can pull it up in photoshop? if i can help and it doesn't constitute, then maybe you can use a little of my letter from TS to your TS as conflicting evidence, as we are in much the same boat. it seems as though only Dmdave and i have had positive responses so far, but daves was already in dispute when it was sold, whereas mine wasn't, as i SAR cap one and CCA'd lowells at the same time. my TS have basically said that the form they sent is not applicable but also that it could end up in court, which im happy to do if theres a chance i can bring lowells down to thier knees. let me know if i can help anymore - i know im not an expert but im learning, an in the same leaky boat!

[maggieboo]

i fear that if you just send the info to leeds TS they will do what they did to me and say "we aint dealing with it, send it to your own TS"

 

That's what I was thinking, but then there's no harm in trying, and if leeds TS get enough complaints about lowells, maybe they will have to do something?

 

The TS in my area hadn't heard of Lowells, so that's why I thought of trying leeds and explaining that I have tried my local one but am trying them also as the company is in their area?

 

I don't know really but it's worth a try.

[Bigmac versus]

Hi Maggieboo TS wont take any action unless there are many many calls about the same company and the same complaint or they fail to comply with the cca request and only then if they still pursue you for the alleged debt. The fact the application form was sent means it does comply with the request but wouldnt be acceptable in a court room.

When i spoke to TS on this matter i was told that the terms and conditions would be required along with the application as the application in itself is not enough but there are other TS who like you say feel that it is enough. CCA is a minefield and there is so much on it and this is why there is so much cionfusion and conflicting views on it.

[Josie8]

subscribing

[clutchingatstraws]

TS is only a step to prove you have taken all reasonable avenues to reach an agreement on a disputed debt.

 

They will have to put the application form provided as the CCA into their court action as strict proof that you owe the debt.

 

Which I believe it does not.

 

Don't worry, move on,keep everything.

 

Cas