HSBC GoldCard sold debt to Robinson Way

[Archangel9]

Hi,

 

I got a letter from HSBC on 25/07/07 stating they've sold my debt to Robinson Way and Co on 05/07/07.

 

The debt is for £4056.32 and was my GoldCard. I searched the forums on Debt-Free Wannabe and found this where a poster states that they normally buy the debt for around .01p or .02p in the pound, which works out to around £40.56 or £81.12, now has anybody tried to offer a much lower settlement to one of these company's? Say a few hundred? If so, what was the outcome?

 

I'm a bit hacked off that I have to go through all this again!

 

The letter from HSBC says "You will be contacted by one of their representatives shortly to discuss your account and how to repay..." but it also says at the end 2You can call them on some phone number to make arrangements to pay."

 

Should I wait for them to contact me? How should I go about this?

 

Thanks,

A.

[lemma1968]

Welcome Archangel.

As you can see Robinson Way have been bothering a good many people on here and one them will be onto help you in a minute or two I suspect.

 

Good Luck with it. I shall leave you in their capable hands now.

[gizmo111]

Generally speaking a reduced settlement would be around 65% of the debt.

Have you sent them a CCA request and do you agree with the amount they claim you owe?

Have you claimed back any charges on this account?

[ashmk]

Send them a CCA request to see if they have a legal right to collect.

 

Go here and use template N

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/20758-creditors-dcas-letter-templates.html

 

Do not sign it (I never sign mine at all and there always fine)

 

Send recorded / special delivery along with a £1 postal order (not a cheque for saftey)

 

At the very least it will buy some time to sort things out.

 

do NOT call them, just send that letter and wait for there reply.

 

They have 12 working days to comply from the day its recieved, use the royal mail site to check this. Sometimes they dont sign for the letters so I (and otheres here) put PAYMENT ENCLOSED on the envlope as they normally sign for these.

[Archangel9]

Generally speaking a reduced settlement would be around 65% of the debt.

 

That's unfortunate. Was hoping for less

 

Have you sent them a CCA request and do you agree with the amount they claim you owe?

 

Nope. Just have the letter from HSBC.

 

Have you claimed back any charges on this account?

 

No.

 

A.

[lemma1968]

Then there are two things that you do.

 

First of all send them the CCA request. If they cannot come up with the CCA the debt still exists but is unenforceable until they do. It may mean that you can then negotiate with them a much lesser full and final settlement.

 

Secondly, you can send them an S.A.R - Subject Access Request which costs £10 (via PO recommended). This means they have to send to you full details of all the action on your account incl charges incurred, how and when etc. You can then decide how much you are going to claim back from them.

 

The S.A.R does not affect your CCA request as far as I know.

 

HTH

[Archangel9]

Then there are two things that you do.

 

First of all send them the CCA request. If they cannot come up with the CCA the debt still exists but is unenforceable until they do. It may mean that you can then negotiate with them a much lesser full and final settlement.

 

Secondly, you can send them an S.A.R - Subject Access Request which costs £10 (via PO recommended). This means they have to send to you full details of all the action on your account incl charges incurred, how and when etc. You can then decide how much you are going to claim back from them.

 

The S.A.R does not affect your CCA request as far as I know.

 

HTH

 

Ok, it still remains that they have not contacted me, shouldn't they contact me first?

 

Also, I do have (scattered about the place) all (I think) of the statements from that card.

 

A.

[lemma1968]

Are they going to contact you by phone or letter?

As I said to you on MSE - NEVER speak to them on the phone!

 

I take it you have not heard directly from Robinson Way yet just HSBC?

 

I would wait for them to write to you then get on with doing the above so then you only have to CCA Robinson.

 

You send the S.A.R to HSBC though even if the debt has been sold on.

[Archangel9]

Are they going to contact you by phone or letter?

 

No idea.

 

As I said to you on MSE - NEVER speak to them on the phone!

 

Believe me, I won't!

 

I take it you have not heard directly from Robinson Way yet just HSBC?

 

That's right, just HSBC.

 

I would wait for them to write to you then get on with doing the above so then you only have to CCA Robinson.

 

Ok, will do.

 

You send the S.A.R to HSBC though even if the debt has been sold on.

 

Ah, gotcha.

 

I'll try n dig out those statements as well, I started sorting all this stuff out a while back, but have gone off track slightly. Want to get everything sorted and filed in their own folders, so I can find stuff easily.

 

A.

[Eddownrobway07]

Hi Luke,

 

take a look at any of the "vs Robinson Way" threads, much can be learnt about this company and how it opporates.

 

When mine was passed from Sharkleycard I wrote to Rob Way Co (RWC) requesting all interest and charges account be frozen. This at least will stop it getting any larger.

 

If you are skint and cannot afford thier payment sca... sorry plan, send them an honest budget showing your income and outgoings and what you CAN afford however small, THEY MUST ACCEPT IT - provided you can back it up. once you have done this you can look into the CCA issue and reclaiming all the charges the bank had added to the original account - this will also buy you time.

 

When writing to them you might find sending a copy of your letter to the Financial Ombudsman and Office of Fair Trading useful,this usually helps them to respond to your requests.

 

AT ALL COSTS - NEVER EVER EVER TELEPHONE OR ACCEPT CALLS FROM THIS COMPANY - DO EVERYTHING IN WRITING - SEND ALL LETTERS RECORDED DELIVERY - KEEP EVERYTHING THEY SEND YOU - TAKE CONTROL

[Eddownrobway07]

Luke,

 

this company are skint,once they have verified they are legally entitled to collect on this debt (CCA): obviously from your budget you cannot afford a lump sum to clear the debt, however - if you had someone who could lend you around £800-900 you could make an offer, this would probably be accepted as full and final settlement - get it in writing though!

 

good luck

 

not clear on anything just post a question - many people around to reply

[ScarletPimpernel]

Yours and mine must have been in the same batch. Did your letter from 'HSBC' come in a stripey envelope, and with a Salford postmark? Was it unsigned, with 'HSBC' in some script font instead of a proper signature?

 

If so, it's actually come from Robinson Way.

 

In my case, I had just made a claim to the charges on the account, so have now demanded the refund from RW, just to irritate them. In the covering letter, I allude to the odd signature and envelope, and ask them to confirm that they sent it, else I'll be reporting it to Insp Knacker as an attempt to obtain money by deception.

[Eddownrobway07]

similar here, am also after RWC for Barclaycard bank charges, sent them this yesterday as am sick of them:

 

1) Offer In Full and Final Settlement

 

In response to your letter of ** July 2007 I sent a written offer of £150 to settle the account in full and final settlement. I subsequently received your letter of 31 July 2007 inviting me to make an offer in full and final settlement of the account. I then phoned your office and learnt that you had declined my offer of £150, but was told that you would accept £400; I asked you put that in writing, which you did in your letter of August 2007. Unfortunately this letter makes it clear that you do not regard this sum as full and final settlement and this was confirmed in our telephone conversation of August 2007.

 

I am unable to make any such payment to you until I have your written assurance that this would be full and final settlement of the account.

 

2) Communication

 

Your letter of July 2007 is misguided in suggesting that I have failed to reply to your letters. A look at my file will show that there is a regular and prompt response. I can assure you that I shall always respond to your letters.

 

However since the conclusions of our phone calls do not correspond to what you subsequently put in writing, I see no purpose in communication by telephone. The fact that you use an exorbitant 0870 telephone number also discourages me from calling you. For these reasons, I trust that all future communications will be by letter.

 

 

 

3) Local Representative

 

I note from your correspondence that your local Representative has called at my home on several occasions. This is entirely unnecessary since you are well aware of my position from my letters and our telephone conversations. As there is no conceivable role (other than intimidation) which your local representative can fulfil by calling at my home, I would regard any further such visit as harassment and I will not hesitate to seek a County Court Order to prevent this.

 

Please send me the name, address and local phone number of your local Representative. I can then contact him to arrange a mutually convenient meeting place if you give me advanced notification of any aspects which you wish me to discuss with him.

 

4) Bank Charges

 

You are fully aware of my dispute regarding the £300 of bank charges added to my account by Barclaycard. The legality of these charges is now being considered in the High Court. Until this point reaches a final ruling, I suggest that we place this amount of £300 “on-hold”.

 

5) Capital Repayment

 

Since you have reneged on our agreement to settle this debt once and for all, I propose to recommence making monthly payments to you. Due to recent increases in rent I am able to pay £10 per month.

 

6) Please confirm the following:

 

1) That you will not accept £400 in full and final settlement.

2) You will not send any local Representative(s) to visit me at home.

3) You will put the £300 of bank charges on hold.

4) You will accept £10 per month as capital repayment as per our previous agreement.

 

 

Yours Sincerely,

 

c.c. Customer Relations, Barclays Bank PLC, 1 Churchill Place, FREEPOST

RTLA-CSUE-TCHC, London E14 5HP

c.c. Financial Ombudsman Service, South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SR

c.c. Office of Fair Trading, Fleetbank House, 2-6 Salisbury Square, London EC4Y 8JX

 

i'm looking forward to the reply, i wonder if someone is actually gonna sit down and type out a letter in response to my points?

any bets .....

 

 

footy is about to start - night all

[ScarletPimpernel]

 

4) Bank Charges

 

You are fully aware of my dispute regarding the £300 of bank charges added to my account by Barclaycard. The legality of these charges is now being considered in the High Court. Until this point reaches a final ruling, I suggest that we place this amount of £300 “on-hold”.

 

 

 

The FSA case is against the banks, and the agreement to allow cases to be put on hold does not apply to credit card companies - or, of course, unsavoury parasites like RW.

[Archangel9]

Yours and mine must have been in the same batch. Did your letter from 'HSBC' come in a stripey envelope, and with a Salford postmark? Was it unsigned, with 'HSBC' in some script font instead of a proper signature?

 

If so, it's actually come from Robinson Way.

 

Can't remember the envelope as I binned that almost stright away, but it does ring a bell. After looking at the letter again, yeah there is a script HSBC as a signature!

 

If that came from then instead of HSBC, can't we do them for False Representation under the Fraud act of 2006?

 

I've just received another letter - in a blue stripey envelope, 2nd class. Something about "disruption to postal services" and an extra payslip so I can still pay! Not even an attempt to pay in chunks!

 

In my case, I had just made a claim to the charges on the account, so have now demanded the refund from RW, just to irritate them. In the covering letter, I allude to the odd signature and envelope, and ask them to confirm that they sent it, else I'll be reporting it to Insp Knacker as an attempt to obtain money by deception.

 

 

Yeah, the law changed recently, deception is no longer a crime, it all falls under the Fraud act now and it's "false representation." Can't remember the full wording, but I'll look when I'm at work tonight!

 

A.

[Archangel9]

Well, I (finally) got my scanner to work. So, here are the letters, notice the amount and the dodgy signature on the first one (HSBC) and the amount is different on the second letter.

 

A.

[ScarletPimpernel]

Well, Archangel's pretend HSBC letter is the same as mine. I'm just writing to HSBC to ask whether they sent the letter or not. If they confirm that they have sold the debt (which I don't doubt), I shall be complaining to the ICO because well after the debt was sold they continued to process data - I know because they sent it as part of my SAR!

[Archangel9]

Hi,

 

My friend put me up when everything originally went tits up with all these debts, lack of work, etc.

 

Basically, I'm now a lodger at his house and now Robinson Way & Co are purporting to have bought 1 of my debts from HSBC. From what I've heard elsewhere they're a bunch of [edit] who'll try anything. Basically, I just need to know, if they attempt (or actually gain) entry to my mates house, can this be considered burglary?

 

A.

[Archangel9]

Well, Archangel's pretend HSBC letter is the same as mine. I'm just writing to HSBC to ask whether they sent the letter or not. If they confirm that they have sold the debt (which I don't doubt),

 

I have also decided to send a copy of this fake letter to HSBC (possibly trading standards and the ombudsman) asking if they did indeed send it.

 

But can/should we send a letter to RWC basically stating that they have committed Fraud by false representation by sending a letter purporting to be HSBC in an attempt to obtain money by deception from ourselves?

 

I shall be complaining to the Information Commissioners Office because well after the debt was sold they continued to process data - I know because they sent it as part of my S.A.R - (Subject Access Request)!

 

I'm not really sure what you mean here.

 

A.

[ScarletPimpernel]

Here's my letter to HSBC:

 

 

Account no. xxxxxxx

 

I enclose a copy of a letter, which purports to be from you. I am concerned, however, that the letter may be an attempt to defraud me by way of misrepresentation. The reasons for my suspicions are:

 

1. The paper is different to other HSBC correspondence I have received

2. The letter arrived in an envelope which bore no relation to HSBC’s

3. All previous correspondence I have from HSBC has had at least a facsimile signature of an individual; this letter has just a clumsy ‘HSBC’ in a different font

4. The letter was sent to my previous address; HSBC has my current address on file

5. My research reveals Robinson Way to be a firm of debt collectors whose address appears to be that on the envelope. However, whilst Robinson Way’s reputation in respect of adherence to regulations appears somewhat dubious, I feel sure that they would not seek to misrepresent themselves, not least since this would be at best a clear breach of the Office of Fair Trading guidance on debt collection, and a worst a criminal act

6. I made a Subject Access Request to HSBC in April, but it was only complied with fully last week. The last data was from your department, and I have a written statement to the effect that all data was disclosed. However the data did not include the subject letter

 

This last leads me to another conundrum; if you have indeed sold the alleged debt and my “existing relationship with HSBC in respect of the account has now ceased”, please let me have a full explanation as to why, after the debt was apparently sold, HSBC continued to process my data in relation to this account. I will require your confirmation that you have now ceased to process any such data, failing which I will make a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner.

 

Please confirm whether or not this letter was sent by HSBC. If it was not, it is my intention to report the matter to the police and other relevnt authorities. Secondly, if this alleged debt was indeed sold, please confirm whether the assignment was equitable or absolute.

 

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

 

I mention the data processing because I received recently the (very overdue) results of a SAR to HSBC. Their debt collection office sent only a list of file contents (but that's still data), and subsequently confirmed that's all they had. However, if they sold the debt on 05 July, why did they still have my data at the end of July when they supplied it to their Data Compliance branch?

[NitrousOxide]

Hi

Mind if I edit that letter for myself? That's very useful.

[Eddownrobway07]

The FSA case is against the banks, and the agreement to allow cases to be put on hold does not apply to credit card companies - or, of course, unsavoury parasites like RW.

 

 

thanks,

 

does this mean I can claim the Card charges back right away?

 

hope so!

 

thx again

[ScarletPimpernel]

Hi

Mind if I edit that letter for myself? That's very useful.

 

 

Please do. Feel free to click my scales.

 

 

 

Eddownrobway07 wrote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScarletPimpernel

The FSA case is against the banks, and the agreement to allow cases to be put on hold does not apply to credit card companies - or, of course, unsavoury parasites like RW.

 

 

thanks,

 

does this mean I can claim the Card charges back right away?

 

hope so!

 

 

That's my understanding, though as always I am ready to be corrected.

[PriorityOne]

Robinson Way are debt collectors and not bailiffs. You are thinking of bailiffs. Debt collectors have no powers of entry whatsoever.... but they do like to bully, intimidate and sometimes lie over the 'phone in order to get you to believe that they have powers not far removed from those of God Almighty himself !

 

Have Robbers Way made contact with you at your friend's address ?

[Eddownrobway07]

Robinson Way are debt collectors and not bailiffs. You are thinking of bailiffs. Debt collectors have no powers of entry whatsoever.... but they do like to bully, intimidate and sometimes lie over the 'phone in order to get you to believe that they have powers not far removed from those of God Almighty himself !

 

Have Robbers Way made contact with you at your friend's address ?

 

 

Hi Luke,

 

Was in same boat 2 yrs ago, was shi**ing myself they would take all my mates stuff!

 

Agree with the above, only a Judge in court can autherise Bailiffs to enter.

 

DownEm