Night Monkey's diary

[Dottir]

Night Monkey's Third Annual Report

We're now coming up to four years since stopping all payments on five alleged debts so as is now traditional, and again primarily for my benefit, a summary of where each account is in a single post.

MBNA
Last full payment early 2018, defaulted October 2018
Payments to StepChange stopped in March ’20.
Standard letters and texts continue, all ignored.
Current owner - PRA Group UK Portfolios Ltd.
Last update was an internal transfer of ownership.
Current status UE since 'varied T&Cs are unavailable.'

Barclaycard
Last full payment early 2018, and defaulted in August 2018.
Payments to StepChange stopped in March ’20.
Current owner - PRA Group UK Portfolios Ltd.
Current status UE due to failed legal action by PRA.

Santander
Last full payment early 2018, not appearing on credit reports for some reason.
Payments to StepChange stopped in March ’20.
Current owner - Santander
The last contact from drydensfairfax was in February '21. Since then statements and a transfer to ‘Financial Support’, together with a random refund (to the account) of £12.
Current status UE since a CCA was supplied but it’s a random one not specific to me, with no signature.

HSBC credit card
Last full payment early 2018, and defaulted in October 2018.
Payments to StepChange stopped in March ’20.
Account sold to Lowell Portfolio I Ltd in May ’23.
Currently threatening legal action but account remains UE pending production of requested CCA.

HSBC current account
Last full payment early 2018, and defaulted in February 2019.
Payments to StepChange stopped in March ’20.
Account sold to Lowell Portfolio I Ltd in May ’23, periodic ‘chasing’ letters received.
Currently UE pending production of the requested CCA.


All the defaults are now more than five years old, and while they’re showing on a credit report they’re not highlighted in the summary. We are two-thirds of the way through the six-year UE journey. How time still flies, etc.

From reading other diaries I’d expect much the same for a year or so, until SB comes into view on the horizon and the parasites try one last roll of the dice. We’ll see.

Keep on keepin' on...

Surely if they have either failed in court or admitted it is UE they should keep quiet.

gangi þér vel

[Sparkles]

Thanks for the update, it's good to see how others have been getting on. Three years ago I was struggling to pay everything and it would never have occurred to me that debts could be unenforcable. I have a debt with PRA that's unenforceable, they sent me a letter with the usual unenforceable but may change, but rather amusingly they had enclosed a letter marked internal only from BarclayCard to PRA saying that the historic terms were no longer available.

[Night Monkey]

Night Monkey's Fourth Annual Report

We're now coming up to four years since stopping all payments on five alleged debts so as is now traditional, and again primarily for my benefit, a summary of where each account is in a single post.

MBNA
Last full payment early 2018, defaulted October 2018
Payments to StepChange stopped in March ’20.
Standard letters and texts continue, all ignored.
Current owner - PRA Group UK Portfolios Ltd.
Last update was an internal transfer of ownership.
Current status UE since 'varied T&Cs are unavailable.'

Barclaycard
Last full payment early 2018, and defaulted in August 2018.
Payments to StepChange stopped in March ’20.
Current owner - PRA Group UK Portfolios Ltd.
Current status UE due to failed legal action by PRA.

Santander
Last full payment early 2018, not appearing on credit reports for some reason.
Payments to StepChange stopped in March ’20.
Current owner - Santander
The last contact was from drydensfairfax was in February '21. Since then statements and a transfer to ‘Financial Support’, together with a random refund (to the account) of £12.
Current status UE since a CCA was supplied but it’s a random one not specific to me, with no signature.

HSBC credit card
Last full payment early 2018, and defaulted in October 2018.
Payments to StepChange stopped in March ’20.
Account sold to Lowell Portfolio I Ltd in May ’23.
Currently threatening legal action but account remains UE pending production of requested CCA.

HSBC current account
Last full payment early 2018, and defaulted in February 2019.
Payments to StepChange stopped in March ’20.
Account sold to Lowell Portfolio I Ltd in May ’23, periodic ‘chasing’ letters received.
Currently UE pending production of the requested CCA.


All the defaults are now more than five years old, and while they’re showing on a credit report they’re not highlighted in the summary. We are two-thirds of the way through the six-year UE journey. How time still flies, etc.

From reading other diaries I’d expect much the same for a year or so, until SB comes into view on the horizon and the parasites try one last roll of the dice. We’ll see.

Keep on keepin' on...

[Night Monkey]

Like myself previously with another account, and other posters, I've received a letter confirming the transfer of an MBNA account from PRA Group (UK) Ltd. to PRA Group UK Portfolios Ltd. Again reiterates that the account is currently classed as unenforceable.

Looks like some PRA housekeeping is happening.

[Sparkles]

Two emails from PRA regarding the Barclaycard and MBNA accounts telling me that "PRA Group (UK) Limited recently transferred your account to PRA Group UK Portfolios Ltd."

Does anyone know if this is PRA just parking them, or them gearing up for further action? I suspect the former since one was the subject of failed court action and the other they have admitted to being UE.

Either way, I will not be following the link to FAQs.

I had an email saying that recently too, they admitted that the account in question was unenforcable some time ago.

[Pat]

Well, I’ve ploughed through the ~2000 pages that HSBC sent me (~1100 of them statements) and can’t find anything that looks like an agreement or Terms & Conditions relating to the credit card, which is what they’re chasing me for now. A few interesting snippets came to light though, one of which was a consolidation loan paid off around 10 years ago that I’d completely forgotten about. In addition to what might be considered ‘valid’ profits I did find summaries of interest and punitive fees charged between 2015 and 2018, when I was having the most trouble. These totalled - wait for it - very nearly £4500. In one year alone I was hit with £800 of unauthorised overdraft charges in addition to the interest. I can’t claim that the overdrafts were authorised but £25 per day when I was clearly struggling does smack of sticking the boot in and does temper any guilt I might be feeling for not managing to keep up the payments.

I also found a list of payments via StepChange which lists the amounts as written off in April 2023, coinciding with the sale to Lowell’s. One of them includes a ~£400 payment ‘Bank Giro Manually Posted’ which definitely didn’t come from me. I initially thought that this might be from Lowell but it’s dated 2021 - does anybody know what this might be?

I've drafted a CCA request, most likely I'll send it on Friday via recorded delivery.

I know historically some banks did not consider an agreement to be personal data although if it has your name and address on it I would disagree but hey ho.

SAR paperwork can be so hard to read. I once had an argument with HBOS when they sent me a statement with a 0 balance. I said- see there is nothing owing and they tried to tell me it was an accounting thing - anyway another 700 I didn't pay them :-)

[Roger]

I also found a list of payments via StepChange which lists the amounts as written off in April 2023, coinciding with the sale to Lowell’s. One of them includes a ~£400 payment ‘Bank Giro Manually Posted’ which definitely didn’t come from me. I initially thought that this might be from Lowell but it’s dated 2021 - does anybody know what this might be?

Possibly HSBC for their failure re accounts?

[Night Monkey]

Well, I’ve ploughed through the ~2000 pages that HSBC sent me (~1100 of them statements) and can’t find anything that looks like an agreement or Terms & Conditions relating to the credit card, which is what they’re chasing me for now. A few interesting snippets came to light though, one of which was a consolidation loan paid off around 10 years ago that I’d completely forgotten about. In addition to what might be considered ‘valid’ profits I did find summaries of interest and punitive fees charged between 2015 and 2018, when I was having the most trouble. These totalled - wait for it - very nearly £4500. In one year alone I was hit with £800 of unauthorised overdraft charges in addition to the interest. I can’t claim that the overdrafts were authorised but £25 per day when I was clearly struggling does smack of sticking the boot in and also tempers any guilt I might be feeling for not managing to keep up the payments.

I also found a list of payments via StepChange which lists the amounts as written off in April 2023, coinciding with the sale to Lowell’s. One of them includes a ~£400 payment ‘Bank Giro Manually Posted’ which definitely didn’t come from me. I initially thought that this might be from Lowell but it’s dated 2021 - does anybody know what this might be?

I've drafted a CCA request, most likely I'll send it on Friday via recorded delivery.

[Night Monkey]

There should be something in the bundle which indicates approximately when the account was taken out, eg copy statements.

In the 'Customer Data Utility Report' there is a credit card account opening date of September 2002, followed by several closure/openings related to lost & stolen cards & the like.

[Night Monkey]

Thanks Pat. Despite my previous experience with PRA I'm minded to send a CCA request to Lowell's, I'm sure I can find a template or earlier request somewhere. This will hopefully head them off at the pass but I'll leave it for a couple of days just to be sure in my own mind I'm not rushing into anything.

[Pat]

If a letter of claim were to arrive for a debt that you really wanted to keep out of court then as well as asking for the above documents sending a CCA request may be in order. Sadly of course now, they can reconstitute an accurate version of a DN but they would need to show records that say when and how it was sent which the OC may or mayn't provide to them.

[Still Waving]

There should be something in the bundle which indicates approximately when the account was taken out, eg copy statements.

[Night Monkey]

Consequently, you have never had a proper response to your request?

Correct, I received nothing as a result of my initial request for a copy of the CCA.

I would be inclined to get a Subject Access Request off to HSBC right away, to find out if the compliant documentation could be available to Lowell/Overdales.

I sent off a GDPR request after the accounts were sold to Lowell, and apparently I received the results via secure email. Bizarrely I somehow missed this when the results arrived but found it this evening while looking for the original request. I therefore have yet to update the diary and am in the process of going through it properly.

Initial perusal indicates that I have a default notice but I can find no trace of a CCA. I do vaguely remember discussing a credit card application over the phone and the memory of the workplace I did that from indicates that it would have been around 2005; I have no recollection of signing anything but they may have subsequently sent a completed form.

I'm currently minded to wait for Lowell's next move while I take copious notes of what's in the GDPR files, and put Colin's number on speed dial.

[Kenny91]

Thanks Kenny91 , that's a great help. Can I ask how you responded - did you fill in their forms (if they sent any), or just flood them with a request for documentation?

Yes, the LoC pack had 2-3 pages of basic questions that I filled in and sent back to them recorded delivery within 7-10 days.

The LoC had plenty of red ink and said if no response in 30 days, a claim would be issued. If you get a LoC, you'll notice it for sure.

Also, the associated Overdales cover letter had a second page that starts with the "Background to the Debt", basically all the dates and balances etc from when it was opened.

In my returned reply (and thanks to Roger who had listed on an old thread what to request), I asked for: Copy of the credit agreement including T&Cs; Statement; Notice of Assignment and DN - it was only the failure of the latter that derailed their attempts.

It took them about two months to respond with everything but the DN, then a further two months for Overdales to confirm the DN was unavailable and then a couple more weeks for Lowell to lick their wounds on their dud purchase before saying: "We understand you may need some time before discussing your account because of your circumstances."

Not heard a peep from them since, though they are emailing every couple of weeks on another account which I half expected to feature a LoC over Xmas as seems they take pleasure in messing up people's festivities.

For the record, I never SAR'd the original creditor.

Cheers,

K91

[Still Waving]

From your diary -

"29.9.19 Finally sent CCA request, using one of the returned postal orders :-)
11.10.19 Received a hand-addressed letter today, presumably from HSBC, containing my letter requesting a CCA and the postal order. No covering letter, no compliments slip, nothing else at all."

Just to check , was the request sent to HSBC, was this PO made out to HSBC, and was it still in date at the time?
Consequently, you have never had a proper response to your request?

I would be inclined to get a Subject Access Request off to HSBC right away, to find out if the compliant documentation could be available to Lowell/Overdales.