CABOT Financial - CCJ Threat 14 days to reply

[redhat5]

Hi there,

I've been chased by CABOT FINANCIAL for several months now for an AQUA CARD debt. After ignoring the mass of phone calls which they also harassed my mother on a phone I used to call AQUA. They also sent a stack of letter with increasing plea's to contact and arrange some settlement. The latest now gives 14 days and threatens getting a solicitor involved leading to a possible CCJ.

The original debt is around one year old and I have not paid anything back after the credit card company referred the debt to a collector.

My parents are worried about the bailiffs knocking on the door so I need to take some action against CABOT and really not sure where to start.

Can someone could point me in the right direction how to start fighting the collection agency? I haven't sent CCA request so maybe this is the first step?

Many Thanks!

[Amethyst]

Firstly, tell your Parents not to worry, you are a long way from Bailiffs - they can only be instructed if Cabot take you to court, get a judgment and you don't pay it.

Is this last letter you have a ' Letter of Claim' with a reply form ( IE sheets, questions and tick boxes about the debt etc ? )

Yes send a CCA request (CCA Request)and also send aSubject Access Request Letter to Aqua to get the history.

As this is quite a recent debt it is very likely you are going to have to bite the bullet and sort out an installment plan with the debt collection company ( Cabot ) at an affordable amount else it will be going to court.( We are seeing lots of very recent Aqua accounts going to litigation lately ). To this end although you should ask Cabot to evidence their claim against you and show they own the debt, you should start getting your income and expenditure sheets together, with all your debts calculated pro-rata to check what is affordable long term. Alternatively ( and I don't know how much your debt is) you could consider making a full and final settlement offer around the 50% mark if you can do it in one hit. The CCA request should help start negotiations off in any case.

Was there a reason you ceased making payments ( I mean other than it simply being unaffordable ) - was there any dispute on the debt ?

[redhat5]

Hi AMETHYST, thanks for your reply and help. I will try and answer your questions and instruct of the latest:

I have sent the CCA just before xmas and now have a reply from CABOT telling me they don't have the requested documents and will reply to me within 12 days with an update. They also mention a default on my credit file.

To answer your questions, my debt is between 500- 1000 gbp. I stopped making payments due to unemployment and some sickness. There was no dispute. I was close to paying the debt then aqua forwarded the account to the debt collector and my financial situation changed.

Currently I'm making low income so trying to reduce debt where possible while still dealing with it in a responsible manner.

Regarding the 50% offer you mention, I read this still goes on your credit file as a part payment and not cleared as if you had payed in full. Do you think this is much of an issue?

Hope that gives a full picture.

Thank you.

[redhat5]

UPDATE, cabot have replied saying they don't have the CCA docs. This is the second letter saying they can't provide the docs and this one also states they cannot take legal action until do. The rest of the letter reminds me I still have to pay back the debt. I think they used the language 'not legally enforceable' though I expect they will work to provide the documents.

[Amethyst]

Yes that's quite standard, now would be a good time to make a f&f settlement offer if you wanted to, otherwise you could offer to pay by installments.

If you did come to an agreement to pay it off, then the credit reference agencies all treat them differently, but the main thing is that the balance is £0 so there's no debt to disclose in say mortgage applications, and no risk of a court claim landing on the doorstep in the future adding costs to the amount owed. The Default remains on your credit file until the six year point regardless of whether it's paid in full or partial settlement is agreed.

Personally I haven't noticed any difference between a defaulted debt I've paid off in full and a defaulted debt I've come to a lower settlement agreement on. I've been a bit anal about my credit score recently as trying to get a mortgage....so have been paying everything off they've all helped slightly improve the score after a couple months of them being marked as paid, but they're all still there and will be until 6 years from default, just show as a £0 balance/ended on Experian and on Noddle they show as PS or SF with a £0 balance, and my 'score' is still pretty dire... so no I don't think it makes much odds once defaulted if you pay in full or partial settlement. That's just my view though.

[Amethyst]

Have you heard anything further on this?