Capital One/Cougar Financial Services

[TakingControl]

Hello and thanks for allowing me to use this forum, you are all doing a fab job

Here a little background to my query:

Debt is with Capital One for a Credit Card
Account Opened in 2003
Current Balance is £8004
Status: Default since March 2010
Paid up to March via DMP, now paying myself with increased payments

I was in a DMP and as some of my creditors accepted some F&F (my family helped with this), I was able to stop the DMP. I informed Capital One as I needed the account and sort code number to pay them direct and that I would increase my monthly payment which is above what the contractual 3% would be. Capital One said all is fine, provided me with the details and I made my first payment. This was done in writing on my side and confirmed by C1 on the 31st March 2011.

On the 1st April I started getting calls from Cougar Financial Services, I answered the first one but refused to give security details as they refused to tell me who they were acting for. They left me alone for a day or 2 and I received a letter from CFS dated 1st April a few days later informing me that C1 had passed the account to CFS and I should pay up in 7 days or they might take court actions.

I send a CCA request by special delivery on the 5th April 2011 using the National Debt Line template and also advised that I only communicate in writing. After a bombardment of calls and text messages from various numbers, I send the 'Harrassment by Phone' and 'Don Visit' as one letter. So far, this has stopped further calls.

Last Friday I received a very polite letter asking if I need more time to pay and to contact CFS to discuss my proposal. They cashed the £1 postal order for the CCA and reduced the balance with it and no where mentioned my request.

The deadline for the CCA is tomorrow so I am wondering what my next step should be? I do want to pay the debt however want to stop them getting a CCJ or worse, hence the UE as I understand if it is UE they can't enforce the court route and would have to accept my payments? I hope I understood this right?

So what would be the next letter I send please?

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Capital One/Cougar Financial Services

Hiya

Ok first things first - they are in default of your s.78 request and so cannot enforce the debt: most certainly NOT after you've been dealing direct with the OC and came to an agreement.

Look at our templates and send template - cca request reminder (follow up) to cougar. Don't worry about it, you'll be fine. Also you've found us and if you look around the site you'll see we're quite good at fighting these twats!!

[TakingControl]

Re: Capital One/Cougar Financial Services

Thanks Niddy I did have a good look around, all very impressive. I was gobsmacked that C1 passed me to a DCA a day after the new arrangement was confirmed. I shall find the reminder template and send it after the easter bank holidays should nothing arrive by then

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Capital One/Cougar Financial Services

Yea hold fire till Tuesday - later on I'll do you a niddy special so forget sending that template.

Just check back later tonight and your template to send will be found below! However can you confirm to me the date you spoke to crappy1 and how much you've agreed to pay each month? I presume you've set up a standing order to pay? If so when will it start and how much is it for - then I'll sort a reply to crappy1 as well for you.

:niddy

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Capital One/Cougar Financial Services

Final point: if it's ue are you looking to cease paying or do you WANT to pay this debt? Are you defaulted / how's your credit file looking? (ie good or bad)!

[TakingControl]

Re: Capital One/Cougar Financial Services

OK, the account was defaulted on the 10th March 2010 by Capital One. I have 1 more default which is satisfied since November 2010 which was for a BarclayCard Loan.

Capital One have not set me an actual amount as I said I am discontinuing the DMP (I was with a fee charging company, didn't know better at the time) and that I financially recovered and I would like to start paying the contractual amount again (I was paying less than the 3% on my DMP). At the same time I advised them of a change of address. This was send by special delivery to C1. I then received a letter from them saying they could not action this as I have only signed it digital. I rang them as requested to go through security to put this in place. (I have the name of the operator and date noted down). She informed me I need to pay a minimum of £264 a month on the account.

My first payment was £740 (I had a little left over from the F&F money) last month, split in 2 payments (31/03/11 and 04/04/11). I paid via internet banking and I have a standing order in place for £300 a month, starting on the 01/05/11.

I am willing to pay as I am not sure if I am cut out with the worry if a current UE CCA might become Enforcable. I worked out at £300 a month, this debt is paid in 26 months (and that is only if I can't get some extra cash chucked at this).

I hope this is all the info you need? Thank you very much

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Capital One/Cougar Financial Services

Hiya

Forget the cca approach then. I'll explain later.

Okies hold fire I'll sort you a couple of letters later. Paying £300pm will mean NO ccj - at all so don't be worrying ok? Ill be back tonight

Chat later

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Capital One/Cougar Financial Services

Hiya

Ok, you need to send the first letter to Cougar with a copy of the second letter that you'll need to send to Capital One - then sit back and wait, obviously allow the £300 to come out on 1st May.....

Basically, amend the red parts with the correct dates / amounts / name and then send a copy of both, to each other so both know what is going on and what your plan is...

best of luck - keep us updated yea?

Template to send to Cougar:

Dear Sirs,

Account No: XXXXXXXX

I refer to my letter dated XX/XX/XXXX in which I made a formal request under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (CCA1974) s.77-s.79 for a true copy of the regulated agreement referred to in the above account number; however I am saddened to learn that you have actually placed this £1 fee against the disputed balance which immediately puts you at breach of the CCA(1974) as you are not permitted to do this.

Going on from your recent letter, dated XX/XX/XXXX it is obvious that you never digested the content and so I will reiterate what it is I originally requested, in the hope you do it right this time and send me what you're obliged to; bear in mind under s.189 it is your duty, whether you are the original creditor or not. I want a copy of the alleged agreement & terms of this account, it's not really a lot to ask for and considering you cashed my £1 payment, I consider my lawful request to be served and so action is necessary in order for you to come out of default. Yes, as you've so far failed to comply with my statutory request, you have now defaulted in respect of this account which means that this account is in essence currently unenforceable; until such time as you come out of default or it is enforced by a court of law.

However, I do not want to play games and it is, and has always been, my desire to repay this debt and so I refer you to the attached letter that I have today sent to the original creditor, Capital One, which will prove to you that we did in fact have an agreement set in place so the fact they even involved you, is puzzling to say the least. I also made 2 recent payments, one for £XXX on 31st March 2011 and another for £XXX 4 days later, on 4th April 2011.

As a result of the above, I expect you to write back and confirm that the account has been passed back to Capital One and that no further communication will be sent; however I do expect you to comply with my lawful s.78 request as a matter of urgency, or at least authorise Capital One to send me the required information being I have already paid for this service, with the statutory fee that you added to the debt. Failure to comply with this simple request will result in my contacting the Financial Ombudsman regards to your abuse of powers and theft; by using the statutory fee toward a disputed debt.

Attached with this letter is a copy of my letter to Capital One, for your perusal. In the meantime, I await your prompt response in regards to the points raised above notwithstanding compliance of your statutory duties in line with s.78 & s.189 of the Consumer Credit Act.

Yours faithfully



Sign normally

Template to send Capital One:

Dear Sirs,

Account No: XXXXXXXX

I refer to recent communication, and in particular my telephone call to your office on XX/XX/XXXX when I spoke to your adviser ENTER ADVISERS NAME; to which we agreed a suitable repayment plan for this debt.

I was slightly shocked to notice that you'd sold this account to a third party (Cougar Financial Services), considering we had came to a suitable arrangement coupled by the fact I have made two substantial payments towards this debt (one for £XXX on 31st March 2011 and another for £XXX 4 days later, on 4th April 2011). It is also my intention to adhere to our agreement in which I will pay £300 per month into the account, this will commence on 1st May 2011.

In light of the above, I ask that you advise Cougar to lay off me and allow us to continue to work towards clearing this account balance - if they start to get clever then I shall not hesitate in cessation of payments whilst I consider my options, none-more-so than the legal standing of the account; i.e. unenforceability.

I strongly suggest that you confirm our agreement as valid; the first payment of £300 will already be credited to the account by the time you receive this letter - even more proof that there was never any need to involve a third party, who for reference, I will not communicate with. I have attached with this letter a copy of my response to them, which clearly outlines my position and legal standing.

I look forward to your response confirming all is ok, and you're still happy with our agreement of £300 per month.

Yours faithfully



Sign normally

[5corpio]

Re: Capital One/Cougar Financial Services

Hello, Taking control,

Good luck with it all, looks good.......
(Just a quick a note - when sending both letters, 'send them Recorded Delivery' as you then have proof 'When you check on the royalmail site' that they both have been receieved by the DCA & OC, if anything bounces back to you laters')

[TakingControl]

Re: Capital One/Cougar Financial Services

Thanks Niddy I assume when you say sign normally you mean sign digital? Wouldn't want those chaps to have a copy of my signature right?

5corpio - Thanks. Anything I send is always recorded or special delivery, worth the money to be able to have proof :niddy

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Capital One/Cougar Financial Services

Thanks Niddy I assume when you say sign normally you mean sign digital? Wouldn't want those chaps to have a copy of my signature right?

Nope, I mean sign in your normal handwriting - as you're not pursuing ue - they can have your siggy can't they?

Just sign it normally..... like you would a cheque.

[TakingControl]

Re: Capital One/Cougar Financial Services

Thanks Niddy

[TakingControl]

Re: Capital One/Cougar Financial Services

Hello Its been absolute ages so thought I update after your fantastic help.

Not unsuprising after sending the letter from this topic, CFS tried one last time to get me to speak to them and I ignored their letter.

I have been paying C1 every month and will hopefully be able to increase payments next June when I paid one of my creditors in full then which should decrease the time paying this back by 10 months.

Thanks to everyones help and advise, I am only 18 months away of being debt free. Far better than the £45K debt I had in January 2010.

Thank you

[TakingControl]

Re: Capital One/Cougar Financial Services

Little update:

I received last week a letter from P2C about a pending door stop visit as I failed to make contact with CFS dispite me paying each month £300 and not having had a reply to the letters or CCA request.

So I resend the above template letters again as there is not much more to be said or done and received today from C1 a letter that they can't action anything without a copy of my signature. I never signed either letter as I don't trust any of them. I must admit I was suprised never to have got a reply from C1 anyway but having checked my files, I forgot to send their letter as recorded, only CFS's was done that way.

Anyway, they now ask for me to either write to them again providing a example of my signature or ring them so they can asnwer my query why CFS is still involved.

What would my next step be please?

Thank you

[TakingControl]

Re: Capital One/Cougar Financial Services - Help please

Hello After C1's letter from yesterday, I received a letter from CFS today which states -

They confirm its correct that the £1 fee for the CCA request from April2011 has been deducted on the balance and that my CCA request has never been actioned.

Now the fun part (typed out)
Please accept our sincere appology for any inconvinience that may have been caused to you through our actions and I can confirm that the individual concerned has been spoken to and that further measures have been put in place to ensure that this does not occur again. Please be advised that I have placed the account on hold for a period of 30 days whilst we raise your request with our client in relation to your CCA.

Lastly I can confirm that I have raised a dispute with our client in relation to the payment plan you have in place with them. It is evident that you are making payments of £300 towards the account and these payments are made directly to our client.

And then some driffle if I got questions I can contact this complaints officer direct.

I know by placing this on hold, they can't go off an try to obtain a CCJ against me which is but I am at a loss what the statement about the dispute with their client means.

Anyone got any thoughts and what my next step is? Surely ignore C1 letter now and wait back and see?

Thank you