Westham1 UE diary

[Westham1]

RBS (Mint)

Credit Card
Commenced Oct 2006
Approx balance £8k
Date last paid Sept 2012

Status Default
Owner Cabot

I was introduced to a company called Highbridge in 2012.In September of that year I contracted with them to take over assignment of 2 credit cards (Virgin and Mint), and they were to be the owners of the debts leaving me debt-free..The cost was 25% of my debts which were charged to the cards, so in effect it wouldn't cost me anything -I'm yet to find out!
At the beginning of last year, I received a letter from Highbridge saying they were being dissolved, so all of their clients were now on their own.
The Virgin card is now with PRA. I am currently waiting for a claim to be issued by their solicitors (in another thread), but it seems PRA themselves are now issuing claims - maybe the solicitors have abandoned them and mine has been forgotten, fingers crossed.
With the Mint card, I have had correspondence from Triton, and Greens Solicitors in 2013, then AIC in 2014, but I passed these on to Highbridge and heard no more.Last year in April I started getting letters from DLC which I ignored, then in June 2015 they threatened to return the account to RBS unless they heard from me, so it's been quiet until now. Today, I received a letter from RBS saying "We hereby give notice that we have sold your MINT card to Cabot Financial(UK) Limited".Does this count as a notice of assignment?
Cabot Financial (Europe) will be administering the account.There is also a welcome letter from Cabot in the same envelope, so I guess Cabot wrote both letters.
In April 2013 I received a reply from RBS to the letter I sent (written by Highbridge in Sept 2012), refuting all the points I raised. They also mentioned that my account was formally terminated in Feb 2013, but I don't recall being sent a default notice or a termination letter.On my Noddle account there is a default date in March 2013.
Anyway I guess I will be getting hassle from Cabot now - I was hoping RBS would hang on to this account for another 3 years.
Westham1


13/6/2016 Letter from Cabot "we're looking forward to working with you. If we don't hear from you we will attempt to contact you by phone or in writing in the next 14 days".

4/7/2016 Letter from Cabot saying the balance is waiting to be paid. If we don't hear from you in the next couple of weeks we will continue to contact you.

20/7/2016 Letter from Cabot saying they have been trying to contact me.

22/7/2016 Letter from Cabot. If we do not hear from you we will continue to contact you.

22/8/2016 Letter from Cabot. We own your account and are prepared to reduce the balance in order to help you become free of this debt.

22/9/2016 Letter from Cabot. Despite repeated efforts, we have been unable to gain your commitment to repay your debt.

29/9/2016 Statement of account from Cabot covering 22nd March 2016 to 21st September 2016

22/10/2016 Letter from Cabot. Please contact us.

21/11/2016 Letter from Cabot. Unique offer -pay £100 and we'll triple it.

2/2/2017 Letter from Cabot giving me options on how to start re-paying.

1/3/2017 Letter from Cabot with an I&E form

31/3/2017 Letter from Cabot offering £50 discount

4/5/2017 Letter from Cabot

1/6/2017 Letter from Cabot

June2017

Threat of court proceedings from 1st Credit

Originally a Egg account opened in 2005 which was transferred to Barclaycard in 2011 or 2012
Defaulted December 2014
Transferred to 1st Credit in Feb 2015

I sent a cca request to Barclaycard and received a page showing that the Egg account was opened in 2005 and that it was an internet application.
There was nothing other than my personal details.
The account was transeferred to 1st Credit in 2015. and I received a noa from them to this effect.
I responded to 1st Credit asking for proof of debt etc.(before Roger introduced me to this great site) and they wrote back saying that my letter was one from the internet which people used to try and get out of their responsibility of paying.
They said that I couldn't have a copy of the Deed of Assignment as it was confidential and that any more similar letters from me would be filed and ignored.
I didn't reply and heard no more until last month (May 2017). when they sent a copy of that letter, and also a cca which they said proved that this satisfied my request in the letter I had previously sent.

30/6/17 Letter from Cabot

6/7/17 SAR sent to Barclaycard recorded delivery

29/7/17 Letter from Cabot

28/8/17 Letter from Cabot saying debt still needs to be paid

19/10/17 Letter from Cabot saying debt needs to be paid

18/11/17 Letter from Cabot offering 25% discount

21/12/17 Letter from Cabot threatening door-step visit from Resolvecall

10/1/18 Letter from Resolvecall

18/1/18 Visit from Resolvecall

5/4/18 Cabot update my Noddle report with "gone away"

[Gerry Jemitus]

Re: Westham1 UE diary

Highbridge was a similar operation to Credit Card Killer (Basil Rankine, who ended up in jail if I remember correctly). While it's permissible for the lender to assign a debt, the same does not apply to the borrower, except with the express permission of the lender - so that's not going to happen.

[BuzzyBee]

Re: Westham1 UE diary

Highbridge was a similar operation to Credit Card Killer (Basil Rankine, who ended up in jail if I remember correctly). While it's permissible for the lender to assign a debt, the same does not apply to the borrower, except with the express permission of the lender - so that's not going to happen.

Basil and Amanda Rankine started out in the same way as the CMCs of the time, taking accounts to court to be declared unenforceable. They had a program on Panorama called Can't Pay Wont Pay where they described their approach in some detail. Panorama wouldn't be give air space to scammers. Back then, they were acting legitimately based on their own experiences. A year or so later, they were banned from using the courts for the purpose of bringing UE claims against creditors, then along came Carey, the case that put paid to the whole idea of challenging agreements in court.

Having had their little wings clipped, they decided to get into the statutory demand set aside business which did rather well in view of the number of SDs issued by creditors who had no intention of petitioning the debtors' bankruptcy at the time. So far, all their businesses were legit, the trouble began when they decided to start "buying" debts from debtors. I recall them charging a £400 fee plus 10% of the outstanding value on the card, yet the debt could not be legally assigned by the debtor to them, that's where the fraudulent deception kicked in. Basil was jailed in 2012.

Somehow the word "Highbridge" is linking to an online shop that sells audio books on the posts above.

[Roger]

Re: Westham1 UE diary

I notice that nobody has suggested that you send a s.77-79 to Cabot. I would have thought this was what you probably need to do at this point. Using AAD template..
Perhaps somebody would confirm this.
All the Best Roger.

[BuzzyBee]

Re: Westham1 UE diary

Today, I received a letter from RBS saying "We hereby give notice that we have sold your MINT card to Cabot Financial(UK) Limited".Does this count as a notice of assignment?
Cabot Financial (Europe) will be administering the account.There is also a welcome letter from Cabot in the same envelope, so I guess Cabot wrote both letters.
In April 2013 I received a reply from RBS to the letter I sent (written by Highbridge in Sept 2012), refuting all the points I raised. They also mentioned that my account was formally terminated in Feb 2013, but I don't recall being sent a default notice or a termination letter.On my Noddle account there is a default date in March 2013.
Anyway I guess I will be getting hassle from Cabot now - I was hoping RBS would hang on to this account for another 3 years.

Yes, those would be the assignment papers and you will be hearing quite a bit from Cabot now, however, all is not lost...

I notice that nobody has suggested that you send a s.77-79 to Cabot. I would have thought this was what you probably need to do at this point. Using AAD template..
Perhaps somebody would confirm this.

Yes, that would be the next step, however, I would wait for Cabot to start writing letters asking for repayment. I went through a similar experience earlier this year, Cabot buying an old Egg card. I ignored the letters of assignment and the first few missives which were surprisingly friendly: "we are here to help, etc." as opposed to the usual threats of hell and damnation. The letters got more and more frequent so I sent a CCA request back in January, which was acknowledged by Cabot saying they'd send the documents as soon as they'd got hold of them. There's been nothing but total silence ever since. It's a matter of buying time, mine's already statute barred.

[Westham1]

Re: Westham1 UE diary

I notice that nobody has suggested that you send a s.77-79 to Cabot. I would have thought this was what you probably need to do at this point. Using AAD template..
Perhaps somebody would confirm this.
All the Best Roger.

Hi Roger,
I only posted it to introduce this debt to the forum.
I will wait until Cabot start to demand payment before I reply to them.

[Westham1]

Re: Westham1 UE diary

Yes, those would be the assignment papers and you will be hearing quite a bit from Cabot now, however, all is not lost...

Yes, that would be the next step, however, I would wait for Cabot to start writing letters asking for repayment. I went through a similar experience earlier this year, Cabot buying an old Egg card. I ignored the letters of assignment and the first few missives which were surprisingly friendly: "we are here to help, etc." as opposed to the usual threats of hell and damnation. The letters got more and more frequent so I sent a CCA request back in January, which was acknowledged by Cabot saying they'd send the documents as soon as they'd got hold of them. There's been nothing but total silence ever since. It's a matter of buying time, mine's already statute barred.

Hi Buzzybee,
I think I will do the same as you and wait to see how urgent the letters become before sending off a CCA request.

[Spud]

Re: Westham1 UE diary

And when you do get to the stage where a reply is needed....... A s78 CCA request may not be the best move ( Not yet read back on the account so please excuse me - But if they are already in default etc)

Post up as you get letters and see what is advised as the account develops......

Sometimes another letter may be more appropriate than asking again for another CCA......

[Roger]

Re: Westham1 UE diary

Hi Roger,
I only posted it to introduce this debt to the forum.
I will wait until Cabot start to demand payment before I reply to them.

Hi Westham
I to am on a steep learning curve and it is making more and more sense as my journey progresses.
Good Luck!

[BuzzyBee]

Re: Westham1 UE diary

And when you do get to the stage where a reply is needed....... A s78 CCA request may not be the best move ( Not yet read back on the account so please excuse me - But if they are already in default etc)

Post up as you get letters and see what is advised as the account develops......

Sometimes another letter may be more appropriate than asking again for another CCA......

The CCA request has kept Cabot away for the whole of this year. They tend to be rather bad at obtaining documents from the original creditor. I had never sent a CCA request for this account so I couldn't say it was in dispute with the original creditor.

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Westham1 UE diary

So have you ever sent a CCA for this account? Yes or no?

[Westham1]

Re: Westham1 UE diary

So have you ever sent a CCA for this account? Yes or no?

No I haven't.
What is my best response at this stage?
I don't recall having received a default notice or a termination of account letter.

[Westham1]

Re: Westham1 UE diary

No I haven't.
What is my best response at this stage?
I don't recall having received a default notice or a termination of account letter.

I only sent one letter to Mint/RBS in September 2012 and received a reply in April 2013.

[Never-In-Doubt]

Re: Westham1 UE diary

Ok, for now don't do anything. Await the typical dca threats upon which you then send a CCA.

That's how I'd be playing it if it was me

[Spud]

Re: Westham1 UE diary

Totally agree..... wait for a few introduction letters first then see if they ramp it up a gear as Niddy has said before thinking of sending a CCA as they usually send you a few "lovey dovey" letters we you don't reply straight away......Buys you another couple of months.....

The aim of the game is to while away the time as much as possible