Hi All, new to this thread and after some advice if possible with Link Financial

[danforest5]

First a little about my situation. I rent a flat, and have no assets (not even a TV) although i am in full time employment

I few years ago i had a number of credit cards, and had issues with work, as a result two of my debts were sold to Link Financial (7k) and IDEM servicing (3K). The interest was frozen due to being in a bad situation, so now both of these companies own the debt. I will focus on Link Financial however for this question.

On my credit file i can see that the debt was defaulted back in 2014, and i've been paying a nominal fee of £25 a month which is taking the amount owed down albeit very slowly. I know this is technically resetting the clock when i pay each month.

Back last year i sent a CCA request for the information and posted a postal order for £1 to cover this, and stated that it not be used as payment on the account, but i never heard anything back from them. I sent the same letter another month and a half later, and again i heard nothing. But when i checked a statement at the end of the year, i can see that they used the 2 x £1's against my outstanding debt, even though i specifically said not to in bold writing.

What are my next steps from here, i cant afford to pay more than the £25 a month, but understand that will take me another 23 years. I don't want to rock the cart in me asking for this again, which in turn will make them start chasing me for the full amount, or worse court threats.
I know these will drop off my credit report in 2 years, but the debt will still be enforceable. My dad said he would help me with a lump sum of £1500, but he can't afford anymore than that, but i know that it's probably too low for them to accept as full and final.

Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.

[jaguarsuk]

First a little about my situation. I rent a flat, and have no assets (not even a TV) although i am in full time employment

I few years ago i had a number of credit cards, and had issues with work, as a result two of my debts were sold to Link Financial (7k) and IDEM servicing (3K). The interest was frozen due to being in a bad situation, so now both of these companies own the debt. I will focus on Link Financial however for this question.

On my credit file i can see that the debt was defaulted back in 2014, and i've been paying a nominal fee of £25 a month which is taking the amount owed down albeit very slowly. I know this is technically resetting the clock when i pay each month.

Back last year i sent a CCA request for the information and posted a postal order for £1 to cover this, and stated that it not be used as payment on the account, but i never heard anything back from them. I sent the same letter another month and a half later, and again i heard nothing. But when i checked a statement at the end of the year, i can see that they used the 2 x £1's against my outstanding debt, even though i specifically said not to in bold writing.

What are my next steps from here, i cant afford to pay more than the £25 a month, but understand that will take me another 23 years. I don't want to rock the cart in me asking for this again, which in turn will make them start chasing me for the full amount, or worse court threats.
I know these will drop off my credit report in 2 years, but the debt will still be enforceable. My dad said he would help me with a lump sum of £1500, but he can't afford anymore than that, but i know that it's probably too low for them to accept as full and final.

Any help or advise would be greatly appreciated.

Send a Subject Access Request Letter to Link Financial as well as the original creditors requesting copies of:

1. All Credit Agreements
2. All Default Notices
3. All Notice of Assignment to or from other creditors
4. All Deeds of Assignment to or from other creditors
5. All other information on you

There's a £10 fee for each, send a cheque or postal order and mark across the front of it "DPA 1998 STATUTORY FEE ONLY."

Whether the debt will be enforceable will be dependant on points 1-4 existing.

[Diana M]

i had a number of credit cards, and had issues with work, as a result two of my debts were sold to Link Financial (7k) and IDEM servicing (3K). The interest was frozen due to being in a bad situation, so now both of these companies own the debt. I will focus on Link Financial however for this question.

. . . Back last year i sent a CCA request for the information and posted a postal order for £1 to cover this, and stated that it not be used as payment on the account, but i never heard anything back from them. I sent the same letter another month and a half later, and again i heard nothing.

From what you say you sent a perfectly valid s 77-79 CCA Request to Link with the £1 statutory fee. What they did with your £1 is neither here nor there. You sent it to them and they clearly received it (evidenced by the fact that they credited it to your account).

Link has not complied with your request within the statutory time-frame so the debt is unenforceable in court until or unless they do comply.

The FCA Guidelines make it perfectly clear that the business must tell you the debt is unenforceable in these circumstances as anything else would be seen as misleading in CONC 13.1.6 >

https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/CONC/13/1.html

Did you keep a copy of your CCA Request and/or Royal Mail Proof of Posting? If you've no record of these two CCA Requests it may make sense to send another one by Recorded Delivery to each (Link and IDEM) so you have the evidence if needed. Sometimes it's best not to repeat the exercise but that will depend on your answer to my question.

I expect the debt which was assigned to IDEM Servicing may have problems for them since they are unlicensed.

Who were the original creditors for each of these two debts? Were they assigned direct to Link and IDEM or could they have been sold to another debt purchaser first (i.e. two assignments in the chain)?

From next month (25th May) the £10 fee for a Subject Access Request is scrapped under the new GDPR so you may wish to wait before sending loads of SARs to various debt purchasers and original creditors since you say your budget is stretched.

Personally I would wait to send a SAR until either Link or IDEM start to send you letters threatening solicitor involvement (typically Kearns). Sending a SAR now might ruffle feathers and it won't capture the latest developments (if you do send a new CCA Request).

If solicitors are instructed then under Pre Action Protocol they must send you a formal 'Letter Before Claim' giving you 30 days to inform them of any dispute on the account before they should issue any claim. At that point you may be in a position to remind them that they have not complied with your s77-79 CCA Request(s).

I would establish whether these debts are enforceable before making any Full & Final offer to settle. Always negotiate from a position of strength. Once/if they know that you know that the debt is unenforceable they may be open to offers.

From your post it appears that this Link debt is unenforceable for failure to comply with s 77-79 CCA Request from last year.

Di

[jaguarsuk]

Personally I would wait to send a SAR until either Link or IDEM start to send you letters threatening solicitor involvement (typically Kearns).

If you are still keeping up the repayments then it's unlikely they will instruct a solicitor as you are following the agreed payment plan. From your earlier post (below) it appears you are.

On my credit file i can see that the debt was defaulted back in 2014, and i've been paying a nominal fee of £25 a month which is taking the amount owed down albeit very slowly. I know this is technically resetting the clock when i pay each month.

The problem with waiting on a solicitor being instructed is that might never happen and you might repay an unenforceable debt.

As long as you are keeping up the repayment plan I personally don't see what harm it does to request the documents, they are accepting payment based on income and expenditure you have given them so know if they go to court they could only expect to recover the same amount each month. Yes, they'd add costs of the claim, but they'd have to spend that money first for no actual gain.It's not to say they wouldn't as of course they can do as they please and common sense isn't always applied, but it's unlikely in my opinion.

When GDPR comes in on 25th May the time to respond to a Subject Access to Information Request will reduce to one calendar month, so perhaps send the letters on 1st June and then you'll know on the 1st of July if you have had nothing that the time has expired. Plus as Diana rightly points out the fee for the requests ceases to exist.

Obviously you need to weigh up the pros vs the cons and decide your own course of action.

[Diana M]

If you are still keeping up the repayments then it's unlikely they will instruct a solicitor as you are following the agreed payment plan.

In my personal experience making payments towards a debt doesn't prevent a claim from being issued. I was paying Santander an agreed monthly amount when they issued a claim against me in 2012 (the judgment is in this BBC link) > http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17670803

The OP's Link debt is £7k so there may well come a time when they decide to 'go legal'.

Even though the OP says they have no assets they also say that they are in full-time employment so a commercial decision could be taken to seek enforcement by way of an Attachment of Earnings if a CCJ were to be obtained.

However at present Link appear to have not complied with a formal s 77-79 CCA Request so unless things change any claim ought to be unsuccessful if the Defendant seeks legal representation at Trial.

Di

[jaguarsuk]

However at present Link appear to have not complied with a formal s 77-79 CCA Request so unless things change any claim ought to be unsuccessful if the Defendant seeks legal representation at Trial.

Di

Equally with the licensing issue with IDEM you'd well advised danforest5 to seek legal representation if that reared it's head in the form of a claim.

[danforest5]

thanks for all your help Jaguar and Diana with what you've suggested.

Diana, in answer to your question, yes i have a copy of the recorded delivery receipt and tracking information from Royal Mail, but typically this is still showing as still being progressed, so has no signature. arrgghhh!! So looks like this will carry now weight should i need it for proof.

The original debts were credit cards by MBNA and Halifax and were sold direct to IDEM and LINK

Jaguar, i don't hear anything from them anymore more apart from the odd statement that comes through the post once every 6 months or so. So they are not causing me much stress anymore, but they are hanging over me like a black cloud and are stopping me from even try to move forward in life.

Would it be a case of they'd just be happy with me to continuing to pay £25 for the next 20 years or so?

Ok, so if i wait until the forms are free to request in the next month or so, then send these off reqesting the information, should i also send proof of posting, and copies of my original CCA request, stating that they need to acknowledge this letter?

Thanks again both.

[warwick65]

As Diana M has said, paying in instalments, particularly when they are relatively low is absolutely no guarantee they will not try to enforce via the courts at some point.

Let me tell you what i did a little over 6 years ago now

I sent all my creditors a CCA request and when they either failed to reply or sent something that didn't comply with the regulations i stopped paying. Now I will admit that for the first 6 months or so there were lots of letters and lots of phone calls which I responded to with telephone harassment template letters. I also told each and every one that they had failed to comply with my CCA request ( But I didn't tell them why they had failed to comply) If I am honest, one definitely did comply and one may have done , I am still not convinced)

Anyway over the next 6 years the letters got fewer and fewer apart from one who issued a claim however with the assistance of the firm Diana M represents we defeated them - this was the only firm who had supplied, at the time, a compliant CCA request.

In my personal opinion, a SAR to Link etc at the moment is probably a waste of money - they might not have the agreement or the default notice or whatever but they could always potentially get them later from the original creditors. Additionally as Di has said, from May the fee will no longer be needed saving you lots of money of you need to do it later.

I wish there was an easy set way of dealing with debt

When were the accounts opened originally, can you remember?