County Court Claim for Santander store/credit card initiated by debt collector

[financialfactz]

Hi,

I am new to this forum and after reading some posts I realised that this could be the perfect place where I could seek help. I have just received a letter from Northampton County Court and I am really worried as in to what my next steps will be.

I signed up for ASDA store card in 2007 offered by GE Money. This was recently taken over by Santander.

Over the last three years I was on a debt management program as I was finding it difficult to keep up with the payments. My debt on that particular store card was £900 and I was paying around £20 towards it through Debt management every month.

By december 2011, my debt management company stopped paying my creditors and I lost 3 months payments I had made to the debt management company. They had made a total payment of £362 to Santander on my behalf for the store card.

Current situation:

As of today, my debt still stands at over £706 due to charges and interests. Santander have employed Drydensfairfax solicitors to collect the debt in March 2012 and I kept receiving letters from them to pay the balance in full.

I wrote a letter to Drydensfairfax 3 days ago stating that I am unemployed and planning to leave the country to seek jobs abroad soon. I offered them £200 as a full and final settlement of my debts.

Today, I received a letter from County Court (Northampton) stating that the claimant is claiming £706 + court fee £55 + £70 solicitors cost = £831

I am really worried about my situation and I would very much appreciate if people with similar experience could suggest what my next steps should be.



Are these arguments vaild?

Throughout the time I have had the credit card, my surname was spelled wrong on statments and my card too. It was the last letter they had put a 'H' instead of 'M'. Does that give me a fair ground to say Santander did not follow the right procedures in my credit card agreement? My mistake appears on the County Court letter too.

In 2008, my card provider phoned me and persuaded me to buy PPI £7 a month subscription which I cancelled after 4 months. Would that count in my favour?

Does it make any difference that I had paid £362 through debt management agency to Santander and my balance still hasnt reduced significantly?



Is it worth for me to write another letter to Drydensfairfax solicitors and offer them more money i.e. £400 as full and final settlement and they might cancel the County Court claim?

I have only 14 days to respond to the court and would really prefer not to have a judgement against me. Also, I have not got a job at the moment and do not have enough money to pay all the court fees.

Can citizens advice bureau help me in this matter much? I heard that it is very hard to get an appointment with a specialist.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks


p.s. sorry if my post was too long, thank you for your patience.

[teaboy2]

Re: County Court Claim for Santander store/credit card initiated by debt collector

Was it a store card changed to credit card and did you sign a new agreement when they changed it to a credit card? If not then they will lose in court because it is an offence to send a credit card to customers that did not request it, therefore if they unilaterally changed your store card to a credit card without you requesting it or signing a new agreement, then they committed and offense and the debt will be unenforcable.

Have a read of this article - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...edit-card.html

[Guest]

Re: County Court Claim for Santander store/credit card initiated by debt collector

Hi,

I am new to this forum and after reading some posts I realised that this could be the perfect place where I could seek help. I have just received a letter from Northampton County Court and I am really worried as in to what my next steps will be.

I signed up for ASDA store card in 2007 offered by GE Money. This was recently taken over by Santander.

Over the last three years I was on a debt management program as I was finding it difficult to keep up with the payments. My debt on that particular store card was £900 and I was paying around £20 towards it through Debt management every month.

By december 2011, my debt management company stopped paying my creditors and I lost 3 months payments I had made to the debt management company. They had made a total payment of £362 to Santander on my behalf for the store card.

Current situation:

As of today, my debt still stands at over £706 due to charges and interests. Santander have employed Drydensfairfax solicitors to collect the debt in March 2012 and I kept receiving letters from them to pay the balance in full.

I wrote a letter to Drydensfairfax 3 days ago stating that I am unemployed and planning to leave the country to seek jobs abroad soon. I offered them £200 as a full and final settlement of my debts.

Today, I received a letter from County Court (Northampton) stating that the claimant is claiming £706 + court fee £55 + £70 solicitors cost = £831

I am really worried about my situation and I would very much appreciate if people with similar experience could suggest what my next steps should be.



Are these arguments vaild?

Throughout the time I have had the credit card, my surname was spelled wrong on statments and my card too. It was the last letter they had put a 'H' instead of 'M'. Does that give me a fair ground to say Santander did not follow the right procedures in my credit card agreement? My mistake appears on the County Court letter too.

No it will make no difference to either the proceedings or the enforcebility of the agreement.

In 2008, my card provider phoned me and persuaded me to buy PPI £7 a month subscription which I cancelled after 4 months. Would that count in my favour?

You would be due a refund of the payments made plus contractual interest up until the date they charged you it.

Does it make any difference that I had paid £362 through debt management agency to Santander and my balance still hasnt reduced significantly?



Is it worth for me to write another letter to Drydensfairfax solicitors and offer them more money i.e. £400 as full and final settlement and they might cancel the County Court claim?

I have only 14 days to respond to the court and would really prefer not to have a judgement against me. Also, I have not got a job at the moment and do not have enough money to pay all the court fees.

Can citizens advice bureau help me in this matter much? I heard that it is very hard to get an appointment with a specialist.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks


p.s. sorry if my post was too long, thank you for your patience.

Have you ever had sight of your agreement.

Peter

[financialfactz]

Re: County Court Claim for Santander store/credit card initiated by debt collector

Thanks to everyone for your sincere replies, it was a MasterCard when I first receive it, I am not sure if named it wrong in my post.
I have not asked them for a CCA. Is it too late now to ask? Shall I just ask the debt collectors?

Also, I have been thinking to sign up with payplan.com they mentioned on their website they can deal with debtors with no monthly charge and eventually negotiate a full and final settlement..

Any thoughts on that would be very much appreciated.

[bluebottle]

Re: County Court Claim for Santander store/credit card initiated by debt collector

One thing I would do with the CC claim is to have the solicitors' fees struck out. The amount involved falls within the Small Claims Track and legal fees cannot be claimed. Drydens Fairfax know this. I would also start asking searching questions about the agreement, etc.. DCAs and solicitors don't expect that to happen - surprise them. Be someone who is not afraid to challenge parasites like Drydens Fairfax and GE Money and, certainly, not afraid to challenge a bank like Santander.

[financialfactz]

Re: County Court Claim for Santander store/credit card initiated by debt collector

I spoke to the Drydensfairfax people and offered to settle the account outside the court, they have agreed not to charge any court fees or solicitors cost and also taken of £100 off the original claim amount. I asked them to put everything in writing and email me. Please can you have a look and see if it is safe to pay now?

Here is the email they have sent:

"We can confirm that upon receipt of £625.00, which is to be paid in full and final settlement of the account, we will not be pursuing the Claim through the courts and we will not be entering a County Court Judgment.

We can also confirm that once this amount is received and cleared we will close your account and return it to Santander, you will also receive a letter from us confirming that the account has been paid in full.

We can also confirm that we have not registered anything against your credit file."


Do I have to notify the County Court by myself that the dispute has been settled?

Any more areas they need to cover first before I pay?

Many thanks

[teaboy2]

Re: County Court Claim for Santander store/credit card initiated by debt collector

To be on the safe side, i would send a copy of the email to the courts informing the court the account has now been settled and court action should cease. Ultimately its upto them to withdraw their claim, but by sending the court a copy of the email, it goes a little way in covering your back incase they do not withdraw. Put it this way a judge will not take to kindly to them if they fail to withdraw only for the judge to see that it has already been settled, and would likely award a wasted cost order against the claiment.

[bluebottle]

Re: County Court Claim for Santander store/credit card initiated by debt collector

The letter Drydens Fairfax are referring to is a Letter of Satisfaction, which, in layman's terms means that you have settled the other side's claim and they are not pursuing it any further. Whilst they should inform the court of this, I would follow Teaboy's advice and forward a hard copy of the email from Drydens Fairfax to the court and a certified copy of the Letter of Satisfaction you receive. However, should Drydens Fairfax fail to inform the court, as Teaboy says, they and their client are likely to have a Wasted Costs Order made against them by the court.