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Some years ago I had a dispute with Barclaycard where they were the fourth buyer of a credit card that started with CSMA (opened in 1982) and went through MSDW, and Goldfish - all within about a year and was totally confusing, with me making standing order payments to previous owners, yet getting numerous default charges.
Anyway, Lowell bought this debt a year or so ago, and started writing demanding the debt be paid (which was disputed anyway due to past excessive card charges). Knowing the sort of company Lowell was, I ignored the letters.
Sadly though, they had me by the goollies as when I went to buy a car on a good interest free deal over 5 years, was declined. It turns out when I got a copy of my credit file that Lowell have a loan default registered against me for each month since they bought the debt. It is the only blemish on my record - all other credit shows a payment each month. As an aside, my wife bought the car in her name and got the deal, but I had to assign my cherished plate to her and notify my insurance company of the ownership even though it is practically my car on a day-to-day basis.
As I have now got almost two years of defaults on my record, the next step, obviously, was do do an SAR on them. Being an untrustful fellow, the SAR signature was done over a signature box that had been filled with squiggly lines. They cashed the cheque (written on my wife's sole account, to avoid having my signature!) mid-September and even if this date was used, the 40+2 was up yesterday. The letter stated that the cheque enclosed was only to be used for the SAR costs, and 'if less than £10 the remainder must be refunded. Under no account must the payment or any portion of it be used to credit the account'.
As expected the 40+2 date came and went with no response to the SAR - not even an acknowledgement. However, the day the cheque was cashed I got a letter thanking me of the £10 credit to the account and asking me to set up a payment plan!
SO, I have done them an SAR reminder letter stating:
I based the reminder on the template on the ICO site, but left out the namby-pamby 'I would be grateful' bits (it's far too woolly when dealing with these scumbag companies). They have been given 14 days.
My intention is to then firstly refer the matter to the ICO; and secondly, to issue them a letter before action for the £10 and stating that should I have to issue a court action, I will be adding an administration charge of five hours at Litigant in Person rate of £18ph = £90.
I have mostly in the past chipped in to help others. I didn't think that I'd be on the receiving end of one of these scumbag companies. I suppose I should have gone down the 'prove the debt' route or s78 as soon as I started getting their letters, but I didn't. Looks like I'm going to have some fun with this. I'll update this thread as the matter progresses.
Anyway, Lowell bought this debt a year or so ago, and started writing demanding the debt be paid (which was disputed anyway due to past excessive card charges). Knowing the sort of company Lowell was, I ignored the letters.
Sadly though, they had me by the goollies as when I went to buy a car on a good interest free deal over 5 years, was declined. It turns out when I got a copy of my credit file that Lowell have a loan default registered against me for each month since they bought the debt. It is the only blemish on my record - all other credit shows a payment each month. As an aside, my wife bought the car in her name and got the deal, but I had to assign my cherished plate to her and notify my insurance company of the ownership even though it is practically my car on a day-to-day basis.
As I have now got almost two years of defaults on my record, the next step, obviously, was do do an SAR on them. Being an untrustful fellow, the SAR signature was done over a signature box that had been filled with squiggly lines. They cashed the cheque (written on my wife's sole account, to avoid having my signature!) mid-September and even if this date was used, the 40+2 was up yesterday. The letter stated that the cheque enclosed was only to be used for the SAR costs, and 'if less than £10 the remainder must be refunded. Under no account must the payment or any portion of it be used to credit the account'.
As expected the 40+2 date came and went with no response to the SAR - not even an acknowledgement. However, the day the cheque was cashed I got a letter thanking me of the £10 credit to the account and asking me to set up a payment plan!
SO, I have done them an SAR reminder letter stating:
In addition, despite my SAR letter specifically stating that this sum must not be used to credit the above account, but only be allocated to pay for the SAR, you have used this as a credit to the account. This is evidenced in your letter to me dated 19 September 2012. As you have not allocated this sum to my SAR application, I must presume that you will provide at no charge and therefore you must refund to me the £10 paid. Please do this immediately.
My logic is that as they have allocated the money to the account, rather than the SAR, they are indicating that the SAR will be done for free - and must therefore refund the money. I based the reminder on the template on the ICO site, but left out the namby-pamby 'I would be grateful' bits (it's far too woolly when dealing with these scumbag companies). They have been given 14 days.
My intention is to then firstly refer the matter to the ICO; and secondly, to issue them a letter before action for the £10 and stating that should I have to issue a court action, I will be adding an administration charge of five hours at Litigant in Person rate of £18ph = £90.
I have mostly in the past chipped in to help others. I didn't think that I'd be on the receiving end of one of these scumbag companies. I suppose I should have gone down the 'prove the debt' route or s78 as soon as I started getting their letters, but I didn't. Looks like I'm going to have some fun with this. I'll update this thread as the matter progresses.
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