80% off your debt offer

[Roddaz77]

Good afternoon beagles I need a little bit of advice please

I had a Barclays credit card that my long term partner used on a regular basis with a nice £3.5k limit, it was paid off and then used, and paid off and my credit was decent

I took the card out in late 2013, by New Years day we had separated, stupidly I didnt check my wallet for my cards and by April when I had moved into my friends house I went to buy some things and could not find it. I reported it lost. I got the new card and when I went to use it I was refused credit....

Called Barclays who told me it was 'maxed out' and needed payment.... after a whole panic I realised she had used it..

After a barrage of calls and pleading with her I was told to ... well you can imagine her potty mouth

so... I buried my head, thought I wouldn't pay, as barclays offered me no assistance, why would they...

Anyway long build of of letters offering me assistance to pay etc it defaulted in Nov 2014

I've ignored up to now everything they sent me including offers to reduce it ....

I thought hey, it will statue barred in Nov this year but after reading all the comments I am now worried it will end up in court and I'll have to pay nearly £4k and a CCJ on file
(I'm with a new partner and two kids now)

They have now sent me a letter for 80% off and write off £3I

The amount is about 850 to pay, at a struggle I can get this together but need a bit of advice please. It runs out at the end of July

1: is this the begging letter before court
2: can I hold ougo for Nov and statue barred seen as I've avoided court for 5.5years
3: can I pay this in instalments
4: can I negotiate with them to pay say 500
5: would this then open myself up to them for contact as they have not been able get hold of ms as address is my dads
6: are they court happy? Do they take everyone to court
7: due to covid would this statue barred date be pushed back?

Any help is massive, I've never dealt with debt companiesbefore.

Thanks

[MIKE770]

See what send next. Begging letter trying it on

[Roddaz77]

Hi Mike, thanks for the speedy reply

What if the next letter is court proceedings, I wont then be able to request a settlementwould I? Then I'd be liable to pay for the full £3k
which I couldn't afford..

I know if I pay this now, my credit wouldn't be improved much, but I dont want a CCJ for this woman's spending spree

[MIKE770]

Letter before before action procedure even before a court.dtaryrf offering discounts they are trying it on. Have you sent CCA request with a pond p.o recorded delivery ?? Celestine

[MIKE770]

Asked them to pop in for you

[MIKE770]

Near statute barred sets flurry of begging letters. See what others suggest

[MIKE770]

Do not admit anything at this stage or SB goes

[Celestine]

Good advice from Mike
Can you recall when the account was purchased by Intrum?
You can send off a CCA letter but as the account was opened in 2013, you have a low prospect of the agreement not being found, although I'm only assuming 2013 because you said 'took the card out in late 2013 but we'd separated by New Years'. But your earlier comments suggested you'd had the card longer?
On your questions:

1: is this the begging letter before court - No, they will send a formal pre-action letter before a court claim.
2: can I hold ougo for Nov and statue barred seen as I've avoided court for 5.5years Yes, you can wait right up till you receive the pre-action letter, but then you'd be facing payment of the whole debt and court fees.
3: can I pay this in instalments. Possibly but you'd need to discuss directly with XXX. Mostly payment plans are used for paying off the larger balance.
4: can I negotiate with them to pay say 500 You can try but 80% reduction is a very good offer already. Most F&F settlements are around 50%.
5: would this then open myself up to them for contact as they have not been able get hold of ms as address is my dads How did they get your dads address? How long have they been writing to you there?
6: are they court happy? Do they take everyone to court No, they are less litigious than some debt companies like Lowell but they do use the courts as a last resort.
7: due to covid would this statue barred date be pushed back? Covid won't push back the Limitation date BUT with no debt purchase claims being entered into the courts since March, you may benefit from that backlog. I strongly suspect your sizeable discount offer is made in hope of getting cases settled without involving court.

[Roddaz77]

Celestine Thank you for your reply.

I have looked on my credit karma report and I cant see any more info on dates bought etc. I think it was opened in September 2013

I know that I have had a few of these letters sent to my dads as I have asked him to open them and when he told me in*trum I told him bin them stupidly, some were 35% off, 50% off. None had been the pre court letters or even mention taking me to court..

The info I know is that the date it becomes SB (as per Credit Karma) is towards the end of Nov this year (this will be the 6 years since they put it as a default) However I have not made a payment on the account from memory since Dec/13 Jan 14, how does that effect the SB?

I don't really want to wake them up as such, to send them a CCA yet, I know without a CCA it makes it lees likely they would win in court.

If this was your situation, bearing in mind as you say no cases have been entered since March, gives 4 month of backlogged claims going in before me and my date of SB is November (4 months from now). what would you do?

1:Would you CCA, but risk the chance of the 80% offer not being given again , as they have given me to the end of the month to agree
2: Play the nervous waiting game to see what they send next, could be pre court action letter, or 40% off letter?
3: Ring them and be cheeky with a 85% / 90% off offer, and be full on with I know no claims have been entered sine March and you would not be able to get access to a CCA due to time etc

Also in my defense here, Does the SB start from when your last payment was, or when the SB was introduced? I know its still on my credit file, just wondering if it had already become SB due to the payments etc.

Thanks in advance once again

[Celestine]

If your last payment was January 2014 and the default wasn't entered until November 2014, then there is an argument that this debt is already time barred. That alone could provide you with something very strong to defend the case should it be time barred. I'm tagging pt2537 for his opinion on where this credit card account would sit on the Limitations Act timescales and whether the BMW v Hart case is relevant here.

[Roddaz77]

Thanks Celestine I will await pt2537 response

If it is time barred going off last payment then it will 100% be at this time as my last payment was early 2014

If it goes off default date then its Nov 2020

Just trying to get all options in before I decide if I leave it to November and either hope it's time barred if the try court / or hopefully they dont get a court date die to the backlog

Or

Go in with an offer that's 10% of the overall debt and tell them my offe is final

Thanks again so far for the help

[pt2537]

Key date for limitation is the date of expiry of the s87 default notice not the date the default is placed on your credit file.

I.assume this is a credit card? If not then what is it?

[Roddaz77]

pt2537
Hi, yes it's a credit card.

Is the default notice expiry the 14 days after the default going on? So would this take me into december before it would be time barred?

What do you think the likely good if them getting a court date would be before November

And what do you rate my chances if I spoke to them offering 500 instead if the 800

Thanks

[Celestine]

pt2537
Hi, yes it's a credit card.

Is the default notice expiry the 14 days after the default going on? So would this take me into december before it would be time barred?

Thanks

No pt2537 means the default notice you would have been sent by the credit card provider when you first stopped paying. It may have been a few weeks afterwards. It is totally separate from the default placed on your credit file.

[Roddaz77]

Celestine

Ah rght, so that could have been say Feb 2014 when I stopped paying them in Jan 2014 and this could now be SB due to that, and they are offering me this way of 80% off as to try and claw back some money from me, thinking that I would not know?

So my next question would be, how do I exactly find out when I stopped paying, and when this default notice could have started... without 'waking' the debt

If this is the case and that it is already SB and not able to take me to court would be a fantastic result