DEBT, CCA's & What's Next?

[Poppy07]

I have several debts which have been passed to DCA's. I sent three of them CCA requests by recorded delivery last wednesday - 16.05.07, enclosing a £1 cheque.

Companies I sent to were:

DG Solicitors for an outstanding debt of approx £3k to HSBC

Moorcroft for an outstanding debt of approx £6k to Barclays

NCO for a debt (which I dispute) of approx £600 to Paypal.

Could anyone tell me what happens next. I read on another thread about SAR requests being sent to these companies aswell - why would you do that unless you were reclaiming charges is it?

Have I done all I can for the time being? And do I continue to pay these debts?

Also I have another debt to Barclays for an outstanding overdraft of £1300, they have sold this debt to RMA, who I am currently paying. I have had all my statements for that account back from Barclays and have worked out they owe me approx £1500 with interest. I have gone through the correct steps up until LBA, and am about to submit a claim via MCOL, as Barclays will only offer me £600, and this is to go towards my outstanding overdraft they say. However am I right in thinking that since they have sold this debt to a DCA they have no right to allocate my money to it???

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

xx

[lookinforinfo]

As you sent them on the 16th May, they have until the 7th June to send you

the information. If they do not, then they are in default and cannot pursue you for the debt until they supply you with the executed agreement etc.and from that date

you can cease payment if you want.

After a further month, should they still not have complied with the Act, they have committed an offence.

 

Once that occurs, the debt is unenforceable in a Court of Law until they can

produce the agreement and even then they will require a Court Order to

restart enforcing payment. However, they will have to admit that they have committed an offence and face a fine of up to £2500, so if the debt is

comparatively small, most companies will virtually write off the debt.

 

If you receive the correct paperwork from the DCAs [and many try to bluff at this stage when they can't supply the executed agreement] you can follow

up with an S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) to the original creditor. This as you rightly say, is generally to

ascertain if any unlawful charges have been applied to the debt; how much

they total and then reclaim them to reduce the outstanding debt. If the DCA

has held your debt for some years, it is perfectly possible that they have

applied their own unlawful charges to the debt which is why you may see

it suggested that you S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) the DCA. And some DCAs are more prone than others to add charges.

 

With regards to Barclays, there is still some argument on whether banks

should pay the DCA the unlawful reclaimed charges, or the customer. The

best chance you have is to write on your MCOL that you wish for the refund

to be paid to you by cheque.

[Poppy07]

Wow, thanks! How do you get to be so knowledgeable!!!

Thanks for your help, will post any replies I get on here, so I can show this kind of scenario from start to finish.

If they cannot supply the correct information is that the debt written off?

Also you are saying I can send an SAR to the DCA, just as I have done to the bank?

Just wait for the moment then? I'll get my claim into Barclays in the meantime.

Thanks loads!!

xx

[lookinforinfo]

If they cannot supply the required paperwork, the debt is unenforceable not

written off.

They may decide to eventually write it off, but not necessarily straight away.

 

I would be inclined to hold off on the sar until you see whether they comply

with your CCA request. If they can't, and you decide that you do not want to

contiue payment, then it would be difficult to try and reclaim charges that

the DCA may have applied when you have elected to refuse to recognise

their is a debt.

[Poppy07]

Ok thanks, will do.

I'll wait and see what they come back with, and post it on here!

Cheers

[rory32]

Wow, thanks! How do you get to be so knowledgeable!!!

 

Probably by doing a lot of reading.

 

As lookinformoreinfo says hold off on the SAR. One because you may not have to use it (so you save yourself £10). Two the SAR could be argued as an acknowledgement of debt (if you live in England/Wales) and three if they write off the debt and you claim back charges there is the issue of enrichment to be dealt with.

The writing off of the debt is covered by statute - so the issue of enrichment as a debtor is not relevant. However, you would be claiming back the charges under common law so the issue of enrichment would apply.

[Shally]

I'm less informative than Poppy, so please could you explain what the CCA and SAR is and when and why you active a them.

 

Any information would be much appreciated. Have only been on this site 2 days and you all are helping me enormously in tackling my issues.

 

Shally.

[rory32]

Hi Shally,

A CCA request is a consumer credit agreement request. Basically you are asking the creditor to prove that the debt is yours. A consumer credit agreement is regulated by The Consumer Credit Act (normally the 1974 version of this Act) and as such must include certain information. If the creditor can not supply a copy of the agreement (or have incorrectly put together the agreement) the debt becomes unenforceable. The debt still exists - they just can't lawfully collect on it.

 

A SAR is a request for all information a company holds on you including your transaction history (including charges), their contact with you, default history, manual interventions on your account, etc. This is regulated The Data Protection Act.

Hope that goes someway to answering your questions.

[Shally]

Thanks very much for the info.

 

Maybe I will need to use these along the way. early days for me yet going to wait and see what my creditors do with myd ebts first. Been on a DMP plan for 2 months so things are still trying to be sorted out.

 

Thanks again

Shally

[Poppy07]

Ok received this from Paypal dated the 18th May, though only received it a few days ago!! Anyway, here goes:

 

Paypal, Inc. Acc No.: 123456789

Account Creation Date: Jul.25,2005

Date of Charge-Off: Fe,28, 2007

Charge Off Amount: 758.88

Total Amount Due: -£773.58

Date Placed for collection with NCO Financial: 02/07

The above-captioned account has been referred to NCO Financial Inc. for debt collection efforts.

As you know, when you opened your paypal account, you agreed to be bound by the User Agreement for PayPal Service (the "User Agreement") by clicking "I have read and agreed to the User Agreement..." We are in receipt of your acceptance of the Paypal User Agreement. The amount due, which can be found after "Total Amount Due", is justly due and owing and remains unpaid.

The undersigned is a custodian of the records of this account. The undersigned states that the information contained within this notice is true and correct

1. a transaction details blah blah

2. a transaction details blah blah

3. buyer complaint, this is actually for a watch I sold, and agreed to refund, then when I received it back it was completely smashed!!

PayPay, Inc

By: Jane Lynam (signature printed name

Does anyone know what this means, surely this is not complying with my CCA request, wouldn't I have to sign something. Can someone help me please!!! What should I do next? I really don;t think I owe them this money!

Any advice would really be appreciated

xx

[noomill060]

Your Paypal agreement isnt regulated by the CCA.

 

NCO will start to hassle you for payment if they havent already.

 

What you need to do is start a small claim against the buyer.

[noomill060]

How did you did you send the watch- Recorded Delivery or Special Delivery?

 

Did you pay for insurance?

[Poppy07]

I'm not sure I'll have to check, it was quite a while ago. I think it was by recorded delivery tho.

[Poppy07]

I sent the watch by recorded delivery!! But does that matter, he is not disputing that he received it. He received it and sent it back for a refund, but when I got it back it was broken, and it definitely was not like that when I sent it!!!

[Poppy07]

Received a reply from RMA friday, here goes:

Dear Dir/Madam

Unless suitable repayment terms are agreed immediately, we must return your debt to Barclays Bank Plc. We will recommend that they begin proceedings against you. We may then need to take steps to gather information as to your financial situation. Call us immediately upon opening this letter on 08717506685 to resolve this matter voluntarily.

RMA

I sent my CCA request to RMA on the 4th June, and this is all I have received from them! Absolutely no mention of the CCA request. Are they allowed to do this - just wash their hands of it?

Any ideas anybody on what I should do next?

[noomill060]

Theye dont have your agreement so they know they've no right to hassle you anymore. Thats why theyre sending the account back to Barclaycard to deal with.

[noomill060]

They can recomend what ever they like, if Barclays dont have your agreement they cant do anything.

 

Phone Trading Standards and egt an answer off them. The DCA is oblieged to comply with your s.78 request.

[lookinforinfo]

Try this-

Dear sirs,

I am in receipt of your letter of .....June 2007 and am writing for clarification

of its contents.

On the 4th June I sent you a s.77 request under the Consumer Credit Act

along with the statutory fee of £1. You are thus compelled by Law to supply

me with a copy of my original agreement. Would you please explain why you think you can make any kind of recommendation to Barclays Bank when to date,you have failed to comply with the Consumer Credit Act 1974. In fact,

a recent release by the Office of Fair Trading points out that your response to my CCA request is grounds for questioning your fitness to hold a

Consumer Credit Licence.

Would you please advise me when I can expect the delivery of the required

documents. I am giving you fair notice that failure to supply them, in view of

the contents of this letter I am responding to, will result in a serious complaint

initially to Trading Standards then escalating to the OFT.

I look forward to your reply.

 

Yours etc etc

[Poppy07]

Thanks loads, I'll get that typed up and sent off today hopefully!

Will let you know the response

xx

[remus]

poppy07 "will result in a serious complaint

initially to Trading Standards then escalating to the OFT". there you go tell em what you are doing! hopefully your threat will stop them threatening you:)

the depths we have to go to;)

[Poppy07]

Ok I have typed this up, and also added a paragraph regarding the telephone harrassment I receive from RMA (I sent a letter to them asking them to stop with CCA). I basically said that they have ignored my request to stop phoning me and I am now making a log of the calls and recording them.

What d'ya think?

[dyl4n]

I've been scanning through the forum for a short while now and I've been reading about these CCA's and S.A.R., now I've been in debt for some time to Lloyds TSB and they passed the debt onto BLS some time ago...

 

I was recently made redundant so i took it upon myself to contact BLS and inform them of my situation, they asked me if i could inform them of how much I would be able to pay a month now that I'm unemployed and I agreed that I would try to pay something each month although I was unsure exactly how much I'd be able to afford.

 

After working out my present incoming and outgoings it turns out I'm actually paying out more than I have coming in yet BLS are still hassling me for payment.

 

Based on the information I've given you would it be worth me requesting a CCA to see if my debt contains any unlawfull charges and if so how would I go about it?

 

Any help would be appreciated thanx.

 

Dylan.

[powelll]

I've been scanning through the forum for a short while now and I've been reading about these CCA's and S.A.R., now I've been in debt for some time to Lloyds TSB and they passed the debt onto BLS some time ago...

 

I was recently made redundant so i took it upon myself to contact BLS and inform them of my situation, they asked me if i could inform them of how much I would be able to pay a month now that I'm unemployed and I agreed that I would try to pay something each month although I was unsure exactly how much I'd be able to afford.

 

After working out my present incoming and outgoings it turns out I'm actually paying out more than I have coming in yet BLS are still hassling me for payment.

 

Based on the information I've given you would it be worth me requesting a CCA to see if my debt contains any unlawfull charges and if so how would I go about it?

 

Any help would be appreciated thanx.

 

Dylan.

 

Hiya,

 

Firstly, yes, CCA request a good idea as creditors must comply with this. In practical terms, if you accept that you owe a debt and simply can't pay then you may want to speak to National Debtline on 0808 808 4000 for free confidential independent advice on your overall situation - there may be benefits or tax credits you can claim to increase you income; they can also advise on options open to you in full.

 

Best of luck

[dyl4n]

Ok thanx, I'll try the national debt helpline then and see if there is anything I'm not doing that i could be.

 

If i was to go ahead and request a CCA would I need a particular kind of form or do I simply put my request in writing to the DCA dealing with my debt?

[rory32]

A template for a CCA request is here http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/20758-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html template N.