BW Legal - Letter of Claim - Money Shop

[pj55]

Hi All,
around 2011-2012 i had got myself in too deep with debts but later managed to arrange repayments and the majority are now all payed off or stat barred.

One or two debts i never heard anything from since and recently BW legal started sending letters which i ignored as i was hopeful it would soon be stat barred and buried my head and shredded letters


However have recently received a letter of claim regarding a payday loan i took out in September 2012 with the money shop and got me worried im almost debt free and building credit in hope to soon get a mortgage as i now have a family and working my way up at work and ccj could ruin it all

I have tried my best over the last week to work out the best way to deal with this, do i just accept and offer a payment plan or can i request paperwork to delay maybe squirm out of it ?? just a little stuck as there is so many drafts and guides out there that conflict each other so i really don't know the best approach

Bit of background regarding this, in 2012 starting from March i took a payday loan out of £225 each month with the money shop and paid off every payday until this loan i took on the 17th of september 2012 and never paid or contacted since

BW Legal are doing this on behalf of PRAC Financial

I have attached a copy of the letter - if anybody give is able to give any advice at all it would be greatly appreciated


Thanks,
D

[Amethyst]

I know how you feel about the reams of information available out there, knowing who to trust and which way to go is always very difficult. ( If it helps we're pretty sane and sensible on here )

I don't know your exact circumstances of course, but it's not a HUGE sum, and if you are looking towards a mortgage and have got your credit file clear then you might want to consider sorting out an arrangement with PRAC so they don't take it to court - or even make a full and final offer in settlement at a % of the value ( say 60-70% ) if you can manage that.

You could investigate whether you might have an affordability claim against the Money Shop from when you took the loan out ( and you can do that entirely separately to the PRAC proceedings ) - if you got a refund of interest charges from a complaint you could set that off against what you agree to pay PRAC to stop any court action. Affordability stuff on Debt Camel's rather excellent site here - https://debtcamel.co.uk/refunds-payd...ss-money-shop/

Or you could ask them to evidence their claim, a CCA request for the agreement direct to PRAC, and on the reply to BW Legal - where it says 'do you need documents' ask for the agreement, statements, default notice and notice of assignment. See what they come back with ( they have 30 days to respond and SHOULDN'T just go straight to court, but sometimes they do, and then you'd have to argue against the additional court costs due to their failure to respond to your letter of claim response which can be a pain - as well as defend, or admit/offer on the debt ) They WILL have assignment issues but how arguable that is depends how confident you feel arguing it ( after some help and reading lots of course )


So you have options, it depends what is most important - but once they take it to court, you can file a defence, and IF they continue through the process and evidence everything to get a judgment against you, you then have 28 days to pay it off without it affecting your credit file ( but that's only a risk you want to take if you have the full amount available to pay it off in that time ).

It's a shame this is just inside 6 years since you took it out... still at least you know it will fall off your credit file in the next month or so... then it sounds like your file is going to be in a much better position looking towards that mortgage Well done on that xxx

I hope that helps a little bit - have read of some other threads, and look at the pre-action letters section and have a ponder before completing that reply form, and feel free to ask anything you aren't sure of.

[Debt Camel]

Good advice from Amethyst (of course!)

Making an affordability complaint about this debt and all your previous loans from the Money shop is an excellent idea. It is a great pity you didn't do this when you first started getting letters about this debt recently - crossing your fingers and hoping something goes statute barred rarely works at this point.

If you have any similar letters about other debts you are trying to ignore, look at making affordability complaints for them now! Getting an affordability complaint started may (a) get you money back (b) reduce the amount owed and (c) may prevent the creditor starting court action.

Your options now for this Money Shop debt are:

a) make an affordability complaint to TMS and inform PRAC and BW legal you are doing this, so you are disputing the debt and ask them to hold off any court action until this is resolved. Also return the Reply Form saying you are disputing the debt AND ask for copies of CCA agreement.
They may not be prepared to hold off court action because this is so near the statute barred point. If you get a Claim Form from the court you have to defend it, you can't reply on this affordability complaint being settled quickly

b) make an offer to settle the debt - they may accept a partial settlement as Amethyst says. If they refuse, well it isn't a huge amount of money if you have any hope of getting a mortgage in the next few years. If they settle, you can still put in an affordability complaint afterwards.

c) make an offer of repayments and hope to head off court action. Not low token payments, at this point. Once these are accepted you can then put in an affordability complaint.

d) make no offer and hope to defend it. This may work but it's not statute barred and I would be surprised if they can't produce a CCA agreement.