• Welcome to the LegalBeagles Consumer and Legal Forum.
    Please Register to get the most out of the forum. Registration is free and only needs a username and email address.
    REGISTER
    Please do not post your full name, reference numbers or any identifiable details on the forum.

Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

Collapse
Loading...
X
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

    Hi all,

    Just signed up today and said hi in the welcome forums, haven't found a topic that matches our problem closely enough so I'm posting a new request for assistance.

    I've read curlyben's sticky in this forum and it's pretty much stopped us killing ourselves with worry, but I'm not confident enough to follow the advice because of an added complication and I would be very grateful of a teensy bit more.

    My other half's mum passed away in october 2009 leaving no money but a bit of debt. Bless her, she hadn't known what to do about her affairs so we had a bit of trouble identifying who wanted what. The house wasn't hers but we had access for a while and set up a royal mail redirect to our house which is still in effect.

    We wrote to all the other debtors and gave them copies of the death certificate, which names my other half as the next of kin, and they all confirmed that it was all closed but the capital one credit card statement we sent back unopened with 'deceased' written on it - don't ask me why, this was the advice of her father who we foolishly listened to because he is a magistrate.

    A few weeks ago we got a letter from teleogram addressed to her mum - we'll call her A - at our address fishing for info. That's what brought me to your site.

    We got onto the CAB who advised us to write to capital one enclosing the death certificate which we did. We got another fishing letter from teleogram (crossed in the post i expect) then this afternoon a letter from capquest asking for a figure roughly five times the original debt. I'm presuming the letter we sent to capital one has been ignored, or if it hasn't then they've communicated any new info to capquest, hence the demand this morning.

    The letter we got today seems to be the 'Hello' letter from the DCA. It says, among other things,
    "...inform you that your capital one account ... has been referred to capquest..."
    and threatens us with 'doorstep collection agency' and referral to their solicitors HL Legal. We have had no 'goodbye' letter from capital one, or indeed any communication whatsoever since the statement we returned.

    We're clear that we don't owe this debt - my understanding and the advice the CAB gave us at the time is that it died with her mother - so my question is how to proceed: i'd like to send the 'prove it' letter from curlyben's sticky but as their demand was addressed to A and not my other half I don't know whether they're applicable?

    Should we just send capquest the 'prove it' letter or should we write to them and tell them that A has died and the debt is contested? Curlyben's sticky advises at one point to try and get the handling of it returned to capital one. Would we still have to write to capquest to achieve that? Or should we ignore capquest altogether and try to sort it out with capital one? I'm very afraid of contacting them at all (horrified to learn that they might actually photoshop your signature!)

    I realise that we've not helped our cause by not writing to capital one earlier (last time I trust her father with legal matters...) but I naively figured capital one would be able to independently confirm that she'd died - public record and all that - and as they never sent anything else I assumed they'd dropped it. I'm guessing they've not replied to our recent letter because they've sold the debt on - realistically I guess we will have to write to capquest <shudder>.

    Apologies for the long post, I tried to strip out all the details that are common to everyone else's case but as a former tech-support guy I always wanted all the details...

    Many thanks in advance for any help, my other half's not got over the bereavement at all and every time we get something from these extortionists it ruins her day. In any case I'm hugely reassured by the advice in curlyben's sticky and elsewhere on these forums : ) Thanks so much!

  • #2
    Re: Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

    Hi again, would you please check if you have not already done so, if there was any PPI on the credit card. Cap 1 have a habit of just popping it on and if its there you must claim on it.
    If not then as you say there was no money in the pot so to speak (and credit cards are way down the list of priority debts) then they will have to whistle. I would ignore them personally, but I am sure CB will be along soon to give you even better advice on how to deal with this.
    Enaid x

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

      I'll find you a letter to send them - this is harassment.

      If I can't find one, I'll write you one myself.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

        Firstly sorry for your lose and the aggravation you are now receiving.

        To be perfectly honest with you and I know this may sound hard, but you are within your rights, and the law, to completely ignore these letters. Cap1 had 6 months, from Oct 09, to lay any sort of claim to the estate. They are completely out of time.

        Technically it is an offence to open mail that's addressed to another person.

        Don't worry about anything they have already written to you as it mostly Bovine Excrement.
        HL Legal are a solicitor-for-hire that make their money from selling templated debt harassment letters. Also CQ will NOT be "sending someone round" as they have NO legal right to do so. Their threats of impending litigation are yet another meaningless intimidation tactic. They would look incredibly stupid if they filed on a person "no longer available".

        You mention your technical background, well if you use these skills on the DCA letters you will understand just now much cobblers they really are.

        Ps if you would like me to give CQ a rollicking I'll happily do so, in person as they are down the road from me
        Last edited by Curlyben; 13th May 2010, 16:56:PM.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

          Enaid: Payment Protection Insurance? Wow, scams within scams! Thanks, I'll get her to have a look when she gets back. Meanwhile it looks like I've got more reading to do : ) If it turns out we don't have the right paperwork we'd need to send Capital One a request for the Credit Card Agreement to find out?

          Amy: awesome, thank you! And thanks for the reassurance too, my logical self was telling me it was harassment but my emotional self had me convinced we'd dropped the ball.

          All the best,

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

            Psst, Silverbox, look up

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

              Curlyben: aye I've read the ones in your sticky quite a few times now and I can see how the whole thing works - been a bit of an eye-opener this, not least the large-scale tax liabilities that are being avoided. Thanks for the support, I suppose it's a sign of how little faith I currently have in the system that I'm prepared to believe that being dead won't stop them!

              Either way though I feel I need to actively close this whole thing cos my other half's gunna be more and more upset by these letters if they keep coming, and we have to open them cos she's the next of kin on the death certificate - in the absence of a will I understand it's the NoK that has to deal with creditors etc. but I'd love to be told otherwise : )

              Also I noticed the teleogram registered office isn't far from here and so I did wonder whether a personal visit of my own might not sort the matter out in a timely fashion... Please do make my views known to the ones near you in as heavy and blunt a manner as you see fit :whistle:
              ------------------------------- merged -------------------------------
              Yeah I have this really bad habit of getting halfway through a post or an email and getting sidetracked looking stuff up, so I'm always a post or two behind : (

              (Quick, post it now before it happens again...)
              Last edited by silverbox; 13th May 2010, 17:17:PM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

                Try this:-

                I refer to your letters of (date).

                Were it not for the fact that I am aware that these are merely automated letters I might be prompted to take action against your company for harassment immediately.

                (Name) passed away in October 2009. The credit card together with any alleged debt, is solely in her name and I fail to see why you are directing correspondence to this address other than in a cynical attempt to obtain payment from a third party.

                For the avoidance of doubt, s.1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 makes it an offence to send a letter with the intent of causing “distress or anxiety to the recipient” and as a result of your actions I intend to raise a formal complaint about your conduct in this regard with the relevant statutory organisations.

                If you require a copy of the death certificate, then please write to me with your request clearly headed in order that I may distinguish this letter from the automated letters, including your apology for the distress caused.

                Notwithstanding the above however, take notice that if I should receive another automated letter containing threats of doorstep collection visits or referrals to solicitors for recovery of this alleged debt, I will issue harassment proceedings without further notice and shall be naming you personally in my submission to the police.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

                  There's always the short a sweet version.
                  The next letter you get from these pondlife, simple return with DECEASED on it.
                  Make sure it one that doesn't have all of the redirect information on it though.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

                    Amy: that's great, thank you. Should my OH put her name to it do you think? We know not to sign anything but they apparently don't have her name yet and I'm scared of giving it to them, though she did when she wrote to Capital One.

                    Curlyben: so my OH's dad wasn't talking out of his hat then? He's a lot more hardfaced than we are but I think it's beginning to seep in just how little justification these people have - gunna sound like a proper noob now but "isn't that illegal?"!! Lol, when did that ever stop anyone, right?

                    Thanks to all you guys, gunna check about PPI as per enaid's advice and if that doesn't affect things we'll fire off Amy's letter, possibly in my OH's name, then if anything else comes through I might send the prove it letter, by which time they'll hopefully get the message. We can return anything after that with DECEASED on it and I'll just not tell her when they come : )

                    I'll let you know how we get on.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

                      Remember these letters are coming to you via a redirect, so you really shouldn't be answering them.

                      You could send an adjusted letter to CQ saying that A has passed away in October and her estate has already been settled, as per protocol. You had already made Cap1 aware of this fact well before the debt was passed to them, so any threats are absolutely meaningless, unless they can hire a medium.

                      Also you can't make a PPI or charges claim on a card that isn't registered in your name, as this is the case. Sorry about that.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

                        Originally posted by silverbox View Post
                        Amy: that's great, thank you. Should my OH put her name to it do you think? We know not to sign anything but they apparently don't have her name yet and I'm scared of giving it to them, though she did when she wrote to Capital One.
                        You're welcome.

                        It doesn't matter if they have her name or not, there is nothing they can do.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

                          Curlyben: capquest are writing to us directly, we haven't had a single thing through the redirect from capital one or anyone else since we returned the first one. I reckon they found my address recently because my OH went on the electoral roll at mine a few months ago (she had been living with her mum while she was ill and afterwards to empty the house). Now I figured that they definitely have the death certificate because that's the only way they can link A to my OH, unless they've got access to royal mail's redirection list, which I doubt.

                          I suspect I'm going to have to bite the bullet and write to Capquest telling them she's died and that Cap1 knew about it already, then wait for the next letter which we'll reply to with Amy's one from above, followed by a prove it, which will hopefully be enough, though I'm tempted to come out fighting and send Amy's one right off the bat, so that they know I know they know.

                          Going out to pick her up now so will see what she thinks. Thanks again.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

                            Try this.

                            Dear Pondscum,
                            Thanks you for your letter of xx/xx/xx the contents of which are noted.
                            Were it not for the fact that I am aware that these are merely automated letters I might be prompted to take action against your company for harassment immediately.

                            As I have previously informed Capital One, Mrs A passed away on xx October 2009 and her estate has now been settled. As you are clearly not aware any outstanding creditors have a period of SIX months to lodge a claim against the deceased's estate. As this limit has now expired any outstanding debts are considered cancelled and void.

                            Your communications have caused my wife, the late Mrs A's daughter, a certain amount of distress and anxiety, especially the threats of home visits and court action.
                            For the avoidance of doubt, s.1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 makes it an offence to send a letter with the intent of causing “distress or anxiety to the recipient” and as a result of your actions I intend to raise a formal complaint about your conduct in this regard with the relevant statutory organisations.

                            With reference to your comments about someone visiting me at my home to collect payments, please be advised that I will only communicate with you in writing. Should it be your intention to arrange a “doorstep call” anyway, please be advised that under OFT rules, you can only visit me at my home if you make an appointment and I have no wish to make an appointment with you. Any such visit will cause a report to be filed with my local Police with reference to the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 section 3 and Administration of Justice Act 1970 section 40.

                            I trust I have made my position clear in this matter and expect a response confirming closure of this account within 14 days from the date of this letter.

                            I would appreciate your due diligence in this matter.

                            I await your rapid response.

                            Yours Faithfully
                            Hows that sound ?

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Capital one credit card debt owed by deceased relative, capquest DCA

                              Curlyben: that sounds great, thank you so much. I think I've been assuming that they'd ignore anything we sent but the as long as the general gist is "we're onto you, save the effort", spiced up with some explicit references to the laws they're breaking/bending, I guess they'll take the hint.

                              My missus is greatly relieved to know that this really is a scam, so once again thanks to the LB forum and all who've helped, it's been very reassuring indeed.

                              Comment

                              View our Terms and Conditions

                              LegalBeagles Group uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience and to create a secure and effective website. By using this website, you are consenting to such use.To find out more and learn how to manage cookies please read our Cookie and Privacy Policy.

                              If you would like to opt in, or out, of receiving news and marketing from LegalBeagles Group Ltd you can amend your settings at any time here.


                              If you would like to cancel your registration please Contact Us. We will delete your user details on request, however, any previously posted user content will remain on the site with your username removed and 'Guest' inserted.
                              Working...
                              X