AllTheHelp's UE Diary...

[Joanna Connolly Solicitors]

It was assigned in April of this year to Hoist Portfolio; previously with Idem.

Thank you for the advice - I shall look into sending the Subject Access Request to Step Change after the 25th of this month. Is there any specific wording I need to use?

That makes an even longer assignment chain if the M & S Personal Reserve account was assigned to Idem before Hoist. All these facts are important.

Let's see what your SAR to StepChnage throws up.

There's a tempate SAR here (post # 3) only the £10 fee is no longer necessary after 25th May so remove that reference from your Request > https://www.all-about-debt.co.uk/for...mplate-letters

Di

[Joanna Connolly Solicitors]

what would you recommend on the old egg account? I was intending to notify them that the debt is unenforceable and that I would not be making any further payments but that I am wiling to make a F&F of xxx?

I've already said that it may be unwise to write to any of your debt owners until you're clear on your legal position. Every letter you write has the potential to end up in front of a Judge (although let's hope that never happens) so careless wording could be seen as an admission of the debt or in the very least let slip some information which the debt purchaser doesn't know.

In my firm's experience the 'end of the chain' doesn't always know that the Barclaycard they purchased started life as Egg (or Goldfish, Marbles, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter etc). Don't give them any clues.

This is one of those cases where patience is a virtue at the research stage.

You need to establish who actually owns each debt which is not necessarily the business who is writing to you, such as a Debt Collection Agency.

Once you know where you stand (legally speaking) you can make an informed decision on whether to make a F & F or not pay them a penny.

Di

[The Tech Clerk]

unenforceable I would stop paying them, until/IF they ever supply an enforceable account = just my thought - you could end up being cash cowed until clear when without proper paper work they may not be entitled to

[nightwatch]

Posted to update. Still not received a response to my CCA and am contemplating stopping payments and offering low F&F.

Hi AlltheHelp,

Can I ask why, If the debts are UE, are you still paying them.
You say you are asking to reduce payments as you cannot afford what you were paying, If a Debt is UE most of us don't pay them. I haven't paid any of mine for 6 years now.
Yes they still ask for payment but they can't make you pay and they can't get a jugement in court (unless you keep contacting them, thus admitting the debt)
SOOO why not stop paying (no need to tell them) put what you would be paying out to one side, then, if any then send a VALID CCA, you could make a F&F with the money you have saved.
they will write asking why you have stopped payment, just post on here and we can help with a reply if needed as you have to be careful not to admit the debt,
while you are paying they won't accept a low f&f so why pay a debt that they can't enforce.
Just a thought

NW

p.s, if you stop writing to them you save money from the postage aswell

[Still Waving]

Seems good advice to me.

[Warwick65]

I'm sure you would want to be aware
If you stop paying the UE debts, and I personally would, they will ramp up the pressure with calls, texts and letters. One simple letter saying you will only communicate in writing should stop that.

I went through the process over 6 years ago now with about 30 accounts so it did keep me busy. Some just backed off and only one actually went to court- and lost thanks to Di and Jo.

Even one of over 10k has not written in about 18 months now.

I have seen off AG, Lowell, Cabot, who were the most reasonable, Hillsden and more who no longer exist.

I will admit I've not read thru your thread but if you want to end the cycle of debt you need to stop paying.

[AllTheHelp]

Thank you all for your very helpful advice. I know that the sensible course of action is to stop paying the UE debts - guess I'm just a bit of a coward! I have reduced greatly the amount I am paying - and have stopped paying one debt which the company stated was UE (haven't heard a word since). I have managed to clear two debts with low F&F's since reducing my monthly payments so I do feel I am making inroads into the debt. Indeed it was originally over £130k and is now under £70k. I will sleep on all the excellent advice and decide the best way forward for me. It may be that I initially stop one or two rather than risk all of them inundating me with calls etc. I was prepared to stop one immediately but the advice on here is not to advise them why I am not paying and I feel that I would prefer to say its because they have not responded to my CCA request - rather than just appear to stop paying for no reason.... It's a mindfield! In any event thank you all so much for taking the time to advice and comment :-)

[Roger]

The CCA template letter is very clearly written and worth studying
"..
If this information is not provided within 12 working days the debt becomes unenforceable. This means a creditor cannot:
1. make the debtor pay the debt before they're supposed to
2. get a court judgment against the debtor
.."
"..
I do, expect the main actions to be dealt with, as matter of course, and look forward to hearing from you within the prescribed time-scales quoted however, in the meantime, I require that you clarify your position on this point as failure to do so, even by omission or lack of a response, will be regarded as an attempt to deliberately misrepresent or conceal the legal position regarding this matter to which an appropriate complaint will be made to the Financial Conduct Authority.
.."

This S.77/78 (plus £1) is your legal right under the 1974 Act.
You/We are the Consumers and this 1974 Act is for our benefit and protection. Unenforcible is the penalty placed by Parliament for Lenders/Creditors for failures under this Act.

I would urge you to reconsider your position here with respect to a sensible course of action because nothing is achieved by weakness.

It seems to me that you have in effect paid away £60k already probably/possibly with Unenforcible Debts and the reason simply because of the paper threats of Template letters!

The proper response to DCA's ignoring this letter is to cease payments without explaination and Silence.

[MisterK]

ATH, if you want this to work best for you then you need to heed the advice of the contributors to this forum who are giving you on the one hand the benefit of their aggregate years of experience - and valuable legal knowledge on the other. They are also very caring and supportive. In my opinion you should not be engaging DCA's etc in correspondence nearly as much as you seem to be doing but you should instead adopt "radio silence" and respond only to those letters that really do require a response - from your position and from your position only. The forum exists to help you identify those moments if and when they occur. You are in danger of working against your own interests every time you communicate with your adversary.

It matters little what they think of you.

[nightwatch]

Morning ATH,
you have done well with what you have paid back, BUT, most of what you have paid is some of the intrest off the debts,
Our debts ammounted to much the same figure yours did,we had 23 companys demanding our blood,
I know the feeling of "I used it I have to pay it back" but I would of been in my 80s to make the final payment, indeed one company mentioned that because of the small amount I was paying and my age,I should consider making a bigger payment to clear it in 5 years, so they wanted me to pay £140 a month,I found this site spent the £140 on a True call phone blocker and stoped all payments,
20 of my debts are now SB but the companys that bought them still like to keep in touch, bless,
2 are in limbo land
1 is lost in the clouds
That is £90k I have not had to pay back, the original lender writes the debt of for insurance purposes, then sells them on to DCAs who buy them for pennies in the pound, If they had offered me this type of discount at the begining of my problems I might have taken them up on it.
As it was I was treated as if I had stolen the money from them, then the DCAs start piling on the pressure. I used to feel sick when I heard the postman whistling up the garden path, not anymore.
every time I got a letter I would post on here and every time there was someone who replied and made the problem easier,

so while you are considering your next move just remember
the DCAs have bought your debt for a lot less than you owe so you are making them a BIG profit if you pay it all off.
If you continure to be polite and write saying why you are not going to pay, they will say you have admitted to the debt and try harder to get you to pay,
If you speak to them on the phone, unless you can record the call, they can say you admitted the debt and get you to agree to a repayment plan.

Best wishes NW

[Joanna Connolly Solicitors]

I know that the sensible course of action is to stop paying the UE debts - guess I'm just a bit of a coward! I have reduced greatly the amount I am paying - and have stopped paying one debt which the company stated was UE (haven't heard a word since). I have managed to clear two debts with low F&F's since reducing my monthly payments so I do feel I am making inroads into the debt. Indeed it was originally over £130k and is now under £70k. I will sleep on all the excellent advice and decide the best way forward for me. It may be that I initially stop one or two rather than risk all of them inundating me with calls etc. I was prepared to stop one immediately but . . .

Hello

It's been a year since you last posted on your Diary, and almost two years since you sent your s 78/78 CCA Requests - so how are things progressing?

Di

[AllTheHelp]

Hello

It's been a year since you last posted on your Diary, and almost two years since you sent your s 78/78 CCA Requests - so how are things progressing?

Di

Hi Di,

Thanks for responding to my thread again. Yes, it's been a while since I sent my s 78/78 CCA requests. I haven't been quite as brave as I intended to be with regards to ignoring all the debts that I believe are UE. I have been successfully ignoring one for 2 years now, another for about 7-8 months after they wrote and told me it was UE. I have recently stopped paying a third as they have totally ignored my CCA request since 2017 so I wrote and told them until they respond i am not making further payments. They have ignored me completely other than to make demands for payment. I am very confident that they could not produce any paperwork though as its an old egg account.

With my other debts I am making very minimal payments whilst trying to save for F&F's and have successfully negotiated a few of those with very good discounts. I'm relatively content with how things are progressing and feel much more in control of things now that I am managing my own DMP. It's also far more affordable than it was to me previously which is good.

Maybe as I continue on this path I will get more confident with regards to the UE accounts but I still feel i have made huge progress over the last two years. Something I never would have done without this site!

Kind regards :-)

[nightwatch]

thank you for replying.

we hate to think that people just use us for some quick advice and then don't let us know what has happened, not that I am saying you did.

I am sure we are all glad that the advice given has helped you regain control of things,

please pop in from time to time to let us know how you are doing. or if we can be of any further help.

Best wishes NW.

[AllTheHelp]

Thank you - I will do. I would hate you to think that! I have continued to lurk but I guess if I'm honest where I've been less stressed with the situation the less need I've felt to post so my apologies for that. I will try to make the effort to update each debt to let you know where I've got to... I'm also conscious that I'm not totally sticking with the UE advice in that most of my debts I am continuing to make minimal payments on (rather than just stop paying) in the hope that I can offer F&F's at some point in the future (in fact I was offered one very recently which I've accepted ).

Apologies again and I will try not to appear AWOL for months on end - time just seems to fly!

Many thanks!

[nightwatch]

didn't mean to imply anything, just that we are some time left in limbo, not knowing if we have helped or not,

Plus we all give our help and time freely ( coz we have all been there, done that, wore the tshirt, wrote the book, now doing the world tour. + selling the film rights) so it's nice to hear back off people every now and again, just so we don't start thinking about giving up.