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I am writing this to offer some possible advice to all those who find themselves in a position I was placed in earlier this year.
The brief background is that I had a credit card with TSB and fell into financial difficulty after losing my job. I looked into every debt I had to try and reduce payments and discovered I had been charged a higher rate of interest by TSB. I was not 100% sure about this as the interest payments noted on my statements were difficult to understand (sometimes three charges being made per month) so I phoned the bank to ask for an explanation and clarification, and told them of my concern. To cut a very long story short - many months went by during which I heard nothing. Until ...... I started to get letters from Restons Solicitors, Capquest and finally Arrow Global claiming I owed them £2,500.
I was sure I didn't owe this money as I had been overpaying interest for 2 years and had given TSB every opportunity to explain, so the only response I gave to Restons et al was "see you in court"
Sure enough I was issued a summons via The County Court Business Center and attended the hearing in person to defend myself. I told the judge the full story - but the decisive piece of evidence was actually provided by Arrow Global. They had submitted a copy of the original credit card agreement signed by myself - but on close inspection the interest rate agreed to at the time had been redacted out - so it couldn't be read.
The judge agreed with me that this was unreasonable, as my defence was the amount of interest I had been charged. He ordered that Arrow Global be given 6 weeks to get an unredacted copy of the agreement from TSB. This they failed to do (surprise, surprise) and so the case was struck out.
So. In summary - if Arrow Global claim you owed money to a bank, check the copy of the agreement you signed (this has to be provided by Arrow Global as part of their evidence) and make sure nothing has been crossed out or is unreadable. It shocked me that a bank could forward a disputed debt to a collection agency without telling them the full story, provided them with redacted paperwork AND that Arrow Global still pursued the case.
I hope this my help others in the future
Mike
The brief background is that I had a credit card with TSB and fell into financial difficulty after losing my job. I looked into every debt I had to try and reduce payments and discovered I had been charged a higher rate of interest by TSB. I was not 100% sure about this as the interest payments noted on my statements were difficult to understand (sometimes three charges being made per month) so I phoned the bank to ask for an explanation and clarification, and told them of my concern. To cut a very long story short - many months went by during which I heard nothing. Until ...... I started to get letters from Restons Solicitors, Capquest and finally Arrow Global claiming I owed them £2,500.
I was sure I didn't owe this money as I had been overpaying interest for 2 years and had given TSB every opportunity to explain, so the only response I gave to Restons et al was "see you in court"
Sure enough I was issued a summons via The County Court Business Center and attended the hearing in person to defend myself. I told the judge the full story - but the decisive piece of evidence was actually provided by Arrow Global. They had submitted a copy of the original credit card agreement signed by myself - but on close inspection the interest rate agreed to at the time had been redacted out - so it couldn't be read.
The judge agreed with me that this was unreasonable, as my defence was the amount of interest I had been charged. He ordered that Arrow Global be given 6 weeks to get an unredacted copy of the agreement from TSB. This they failed to do (surprise, surprise) and so the case was struck out.
So. In summary - if Arrow Global claim you owed money to a bank, check the copy of the agreement you signed (this has to be provided by Arrow Global as part of their evidence) and make sure nothing has been crossed out or is unreadable. It shocked me that a bank could forward a disputed debt to a collection agency without telling them the full story, provided them with redacted paperwork AND that Arrow Global still pursued the case.
I hope this my help others in the future
Mike
