Is this a Court threat?

[Mark80]

Hi,

I am new here with a lot of problems and this is my first post.

I have a lot of debts and in this moment I need help for one case. I have a loan to Avant Credit and they sold the debt to Asset Collections. I made complaints to most of my payday loans, loans and credit cards including the one to Avant Credit. The complaint is still at Financial Ombudsman. Means time I have received an email from Asset Collections where I replied to put my account on hold until the complaint is solved by Financial Ombudsman.:

Payment Plan Offer Customer Reference: xxx Outstanding Balance: £xxxx

Hi Xxxxx xxxx We refer to the fixed sum credit from Avant Credit, regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 – the loan agreement and any related guarantee being the Assigned Documents and the outstanding balance of £xxxx from Avant Credit (Assignor) to (Debtor). We have been trying to contact you regarding your Avant Credit account. We would like to offer you the opportunity to make repayment by 36 monthly instalments of £xxx. If you cannot afford this, please call 0330 808 1580 and one of our friendly account managers will be able to help you find a more suitable payment plan. Alternatively, you can use the button below to complete an online Income and Expenditure to assess your disposable income and offer to make a payment that is affordable for you to maintain. Payments can be made weekly, fortnightly, 4 weekly or monthly to suit your needs.

Income & Expenditure

Kind Regards, The Collections Team A few days ago I received o letter from the which I will attach to you. Is this a court threat? Because I really don't know what to do in this situation. I send them an email saying again I am disputing the account with Avant Credit and to put my account in hold. Is there any chance that my debt to go back to Avant credit and deal with them? You can ignore the attachment from Royal Mail, I don't know how to remove it. Many thanks Mark

[seduraed]

Re: Is this a Court threat?

No that's not a court claim. It's a demand from a debt collector. Theye will need to send a letter before action and then you will get an official letter from the county court service in Northampton.

[Mark80]

Re: Is this a Court threat?

Thanks for reply.

So I am safe for the moment. How should I deal with them?

[warwick65]

Re: Is this a Court threat?

Hi

Was there a leaflet in with the letter about defaults etc

No need to post an answer but there should have been and if not - well what you would do IF you had read the letter is contact them and say there wasn't one.

Now moving on

I assume at some point you had a payday loan or similar - it seems they are getting their ducks in a row ready to issue a claim but yes you should get a Letter before action before they start a claim

If you do that is when you send a cca request and maybe ask for other info

Do you know anything about this debt?

[Mark80]

Re: Is this a Court threat?

Thank you for help Warwick.

There wasn't an letter except that I attached.

I think they bought the debt from Avant Credit. But now I am disputing this and I am waiting that my case to be assigned to an adjudicator at FOS. And that I replied to them in the end. But I am new to this and I really don't know how to handle the situation. What should I do next regarding their letter?

Should I be worried about if they decide to go to court? I have no property, no mortgage, no car or any assets. Just almost £30k debts and a monthly income.

[warwick65]

Re: Is this a Court threat?

Hi

It is really difficult to know what to say for the best as everyone’s circumstances are different
You have a decent amount of debt but not as much as many (including me) and I know how it can consume your life and really get to you- it doesn’t have to.

Some will no doubt recommend bankruptcy - an option I considered and rejected but I have the ‘advantage’ of not working full time for a few years due to illness and now I am a student so really don’t have a lot of cash.

I do think a lot will depend on the type of debt you have and when it was taken out etc.

Also , and I truly believe this, managing your own debt is akin to playing a game of brinkmanship - debt collectors tend to go for the lowest hanging fruit I.e those that are easiest to collect so don’t let the buggers grind you down

Sorry if I have rambled on, its past my bed time

[OliverJames]

Re: Is this a Court threat?

Hi Mark80,
[MENTION=98117]warwick65[/MENTION] is 100% more qualified than me with all things of this nature, but as a heads up...an official court claim will look like this - https://www.bankruptcyadvice-online....Claim-Form.jpg

Whatever happens, if you receive something like this, do not ignore it. A default judgement will be made without you present if you decide not to defend the claim. If you get one, let the folks here know and they will be able to give you advice about what to do next.

I got one recently, and the first instinct is to panic, but if you understand what it means and how to deal with it you don't feel so isolated!

Keep your head up and crack on!

[Mark80]

Re: Is this a Court threat?

[MENTION=98117]warwick65[/MENTION] and [MENTION=61850]OliverJames[/MENTION] thank you both for help. For the moment I am safe but I read this amazing forum just to be prepared in case of anything.

[warwick65]

Re: Is this a Court threat?

Hi Mark

I got your PM and am glad all is ok at the moment

You have various options , the most serious is bankruptcy but I would certainly not recommend that at the moment.

I have no idea what your financial circumstances are

Another option would be a self administered debt management plan - National debt Line could help you set that up

Another option is to send CCA requests for any loans/credit cards to the people who own the debt at the moment although my personal belief is that it is better to wait until a) the debt has been sold and b) they have started to hassle you about it

If you do get a claim then you could get some free initial advice from a lawyer to see what your prospects are

Let me know if I can do more
[MENTION=87380]Diana M[/MENTION] I'm sure you could have some good suggestions

[warwick65]

Re: Is this a Court threat?

Hi again, if it helps give you confidence this is my thread from my recent claim

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...rm-from-Lowell

[Mark80]

Re: Is this a Court threat?

Thank you so much [MENTION=98117]warwick65[/MENTION]

In this moment my situation is ok, but I am confused and don't know where to start.

[warwick65]

Re: Is this a Court threat?

Bit late at the mo, I will give a decent answer in the morning. Try not to stress.

[warwick65]

Re: Is this a Court threat?

Morning Mark

I thought I would give a bit of background so you know the perspective I am coming from

In 2008 or so I entered a debt management plan and paid a regular sum that was split across all my creditors pro rata. The benefit for me of that was I had something like 20 creditors and they were phoning and writing to me , a day did not go by without a phonemail or 3 and a handful of letters or so it seemed. The DMP provider sorted all that for me and arranged payments.

Then in 2011 I lost my job and we went down to £1 a month to each creditor - again sorted by my DMP provider- for me it was well worth it as it took a lot of pressure off me.

In 2012 I was looking at bankruptcy things were that bad but I was persuaded to look at each of the accounts and send a CCA request which I did. Now by this time, most of the debts had been sold on and most were opened from before April 2007 - this is relevant if they take you to court

Some wrote back to me saying they could not get a copy of the agreement and I haven't heard from them since, others were a bit more difficult and sent back agreements that looked on the surface to be enforceable but to be honest I didn't have any money to pay them so didn't.

To date I have had one court claim against me which we won thanks to [MENTION=7765]Joanna C[/MENTION] and [MENTION=87380]Diana M[/MENTION] who were amazingly supportive and I will not have a bad word said against either of them. I must add others were also very supportive and you will see them on my thread

As I have said, what you should do is up to you, stopping paying is not an 'easy' option and you will spend a lot of time sending letters telling them to only communicate in writing etc although I am told the industry has to some extent cleaned up its act these days.

If you have debts that have been sold on I would send CCA requests to the new owners to see what they have in the way of documents

I have kept every letter sent and received and have a filing cabinet full - I also scan them and keep them in google drive - when I received my claim I was able to easily share the contents of the drive with the solicitor so they could look at anything they needed.

Hope that is of some help to you

[Mark80]

Re: Is this a Court threat?

Very helpful [MENTION=98117]warwick65[/MENTION]. This is exactly what I need in this moment.

Thank you so much for sharing your experience

[warwick65]

Re: Is this a Court threat?

Hi Mark

Just so you know, a CCA is request is a request to provide documents regarding your agreement an can be very useful to know if the company who have the account actually have the agreement. Here is a link to a template CCA Request Letter

A S77 request is for a loan and a S78 request is for things like a credit card or catalogue account and I am told for more modern overdrafts ( since 2012 I think)

As to if you should send one now I can not say, I would tend no to send one where the account is still owned by the original creditor ( even if it is being chased by a DCA) and when it has been sold I would probably wait until they start to get heavy or at least rumble about court.