Hi,
I am new on here and am looking for some advice. I got into quite a lot of debt after my dad died, some years ago. I was subsequently diagnosed as chronically depressed and received treatment for this at a local hospital for more than two years. During this time I also lost my main source of income and my finances fell into disarray. For a long time I felt quite phobic about my finances and did the minimum to keep the wolves at bay but am now feeling stronger and want to try to address things.
I’ve done quite a lot of reading on here and on other sites and think I have a case for pursuing the UE route with a credit card debt of over £10k for which I also believe I have a strong case for mis-sold PPI (however I have never made a PPI claim due to the UE situation). I sent off a SAR in 2013 and the covering letter I received back (along with info) stated:
‘…All statements prior to September 2001 have not been retained by the Bank. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to locate a copy of the signed agreement. We can assure you that before we opened your credit card account we would have required sight of a signed agreement. If you take this matter further, we are confident in our ability to be able to prove this. […] Credit card numbered XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX was opened in… 1999.’
I was served with a default notice 4/5 years ago and have had a payment arrangement in place since around 2009 for a relatively small amount (always paid in cash over the counter) as I work part-time. I am completely up to date with this arrangement. In recent months the OC has started to send me letters claiming I have agreed to a new arrangement of double the usual amount (even though I have not been in touch with them since sending off the SAR request in 2013) and is now claiming I am behind on payments for this fictional and unilateral (non-)agreement. I am in the process of writing a letter to them to the effect that I do not acknowledge this new ‘agreement’ they are claiming I am behind on.
I accrued other debts with the same creditor - a loan (used to pay off credit card debt) which was applied for online in the summer of 2004 and an overdraft (mostly comprised of minimum payments to my credit card when the OC knew I was in financial difficulty). Both of these have since apparently been sold on to third parties. I believe the loan (taken out online in 2004) may also be UE. I have not made a payment to or been in contact with the company/DCA to which the loan debt was seemingly sold since finding out about the sale approx two years ago (although it seems the OC sold the debt well in advance of notifying me so any payments made on the existing arrangement I had with the OC after the sale may have been transferred to the buyer of the debt). I have never asked to see the credit agreement for the loan although the SAR info from the OC included a signed loan agreement that, it is claimed, was subsequently posted to me. I originally applied for, and was accepted for, this loan online, however.
I know the CCA does not apply to the overdraft, however I am not happy about the fact that this debt is mostly for money that was taken from my current account to pay off my credit card when the bank knew I was in financial difficulty. A number of charges were also applied. It is likely, however, I will seek to set up another payment arrangement for this in the near future (I have previously had monthly arrangements with both the OC and a DCA before the debt was sold).
None of the amounts in question are anywhere near being SB due to payments being made. I am about to send off a CCA request to the OC for the credit card but have a few questions I’m hoping the forum can help with:
1) Do you agree it would be wise to also send a letter stating I do not recognise the false repayment ‘agreement’ they say I am behind on as I was not party to it? I do not intend to mention the existing repayment agreement but feel it may help my case if I have evidence this is not a case of me not sticking to an agreement (I have all deposit stubs and statements relating to the existing payment agreement). I believe they will probably claim it was a mistake based on the fact I paid a couple of months in one go on a couple of occasions (usually after missing a payment).
2) If no signed agreement is forthcoming as I expect, how should I proceed with the current payment arrangement I have for the credit card? I am not seeking to avoid paying the debt but have no means to pay it at the moment apart from in monthly amounts. As these amounts are relatively small, however, I’m thinking it might be in the OC’s interest to accept a full and final settlement offer if it turns out to be UE - I would dearly love to sort the situation out once and for all and am hoping the defaults will disappear from my credit file in a year or so.
3) Should I also send off a CCA request for the loan that was sold? This was applied for online (summer 2004).
Any advice would be much appreciated - thanks. (Sorry for such a long first post - wanted to get everything down!)
I am new on here and am looking for some advice. I got into quite a lot of debt after my dad died, some years ago. I was subsequently diagnosed as chronically depressed and received treatment for this at a local hospital for more than two years. During this time I also lost my main source of income and my finances fell into disarray. For a long time I felt quite phobic about my finances and did the minimum to keep the wolves at bay but am now feeling stronger and want to try to address things.
I’ve done quite a lot of reading on here and on other sites and think I have a case for pursuing the UE route with a credit card debt of over £10k for which I also believe I have a strong case for mis-sold PPI (however I have never made a PPI claim due to the UE situation). I sent off a SAR in 2013 and the covering letter I received back (along with info) stated:
‘…All statements prior to September 2001 have not been retained by the Bank. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to locate a copy of the signed agreement. We can assure you that before we opened your credit card account we would have required sight of a signed agreement. If you take this matter further, we are confident in our ability to be able to prove this. […] Credit card numbered XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX was opened in… 1999.’
I was served with a default notice 4/5 years ago and have had a payment arrangement in place since around 2009 for a relatively small amount (always paid in cash over the counter) as I work part-time. I am completely up to date with this arrangement. In recent months the OC has started to send me letters claiming I have agreed to a new arrangement of double the usual amount (even though I have not been in touch with them since sending off the SAR request in 2013) and is now claiming I am behind on payments for this fictional and unilateral (non-)agreement. I am in the process of writing a letter to them to the effect that I do not acknowledge this new ‘agreement’ they are claiming I am behind on.
I accrued other debts with the same creditor - a loan (used to pay off credit card debt) which was applied for online in the summer of 2004 and an overdraft (mostly comprised of minimum payments to my credit card when the OC knew I was in financial difficulty). Both of these have since apparently been sold on to third parties. I believe the loan (taken out online in 2004) may also be UE. I have not made a payment to or been in contact with the company/DCA to which the loan debt was seemingly sold since finding out about the sale approx two years ago (although it seems the OC sold the debt well in advance of notifying me so any payments made on the existing arrangement I had with the OC after the sale may have been transferred to the buyer of the debt). I have never asked to see the credit agreement for the loan although the SAR info from the OC included a signed loan agreement that, it is claimed, was subsequently posted to me. I originally applied for, and was accepted for, this loan online, however.
I know the CCA does not apply to the overdraft, however I am not happy about the fact that this debt is mostly for money that was taken from my current account to pay off my credit card when the bank knew I was in financial difficulty. A number of charges were also applied. It is likely, however, I will seek to set up another payment arrangement for this in the near future (I have previously had monthly arrangements with both the OC and a DCA before the debt was sold).
None of the amounts in question are anywhere near being SB due to payments being made. I am about to send off a CCA request to the OC for the credit card but have a few questions I’m hoping the forum can help with:
1) Do you agree it would be wise to also send a letter stating I do not recognise the false repayment ‘agreement’ they say I am behind on as I was not party to it? I do not intend to mention the existing repayment agreement but feel it may help my case if I have evidence this is not a case of me not sticking to an agreement (I have all deposit stubs and statements relating to the existing payment agreement). I believe they will probably claim it was a mistake based on the fact I paid a couple of months in one go on a couple of occasions (usually after missing a payment).
2) If no signed agreement is forthcoming as I expect, how should I proceed with the current payment arrangement I have for the credit card? I am not seeking to avoid paying the debt but have no means to pay it at the moment apart from in monthly amounts. As these amounts are relatively small, however, I’m thinking it might be in the OC’s interest to accept a full and final settlement offer if it turns out to be UE - I would dearly love to sort the situation out once and for all and am hoping the defaults will disappear from my credit file in a year or so.
3) Should I also send off a CCA request for the loan that was sold? This was applied for online (summer 2004).
Any advice would be much appreciated - thanks. (Sorry for such a long first post - wanted to get everything down!)
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