eCollect AG in the UK

[thingywingy]

Had a letter come through from them claiming I have to transfer £260 to them by 08.09.25 for an unpaid 1 month subscription. I emailed them to cancel it in June and again later but they kept trying to take money. I later cancelled the card (I lost it). Unfortunately I no longer can access that email so have no proof. Will they take me to court if I don't pay/are they allowed to?

[thingywingy]

Should also say that I payed all the attempts before I emailed to cancel.

[PallasAthena]

eCollect AG is a debt collector in Switzerland that we come across on here trying to collect debts for Geman companies. I have not come across eCollect having a UK business (as you have put in the thread title). There is no eCollect business registered at Companies House.

Please can you upload onto here a copy of the letter you have received. Cover up your name, address and any reference numbers and barcodes which could identify you before uploading.

[thingywingy]

Sorry, I didn’t mean are they a UK business I just meant about them collecting debts in the UK

[PallasAthena]

Can you post up what you have received please.

[thingywingy]

The picture should be attached to my previous message.

[PallasAthena]

So this is for a subscription alleged to be due to a dating site called C-Date which is the trading name of a company called Interdate SA in Luxembourg. Neither name are listed in UK Companies House so appear to have no business operation based in the UK, and neither does eCollect AG who are writing from Berlin.

I see that C-Date has a terrible reputation on Trustpilot with 97% of reviews giving it the bottom score of 1. Problems with cancelling subscriptions are frequently mentioned. The internet is awash with complaints about C-Date's business practices.

Firstly, ignore eCollect's "deadline" of September 8th. It's just a date they plucked out of the air to try to put pressure on you. eCollect are merely debt collectors and have no legal powers to do anything. They can send you threatening letters but they can't enforce anything they say in them.

Debt collectors' letters are like scammers' letters: they create artificial deadlines to try and pressure people pay up. They threaten that various dire consequences will fall on you if you don't pay but they won't. All the "enforcement measures" they go on about could only happen IF they actually took you to court AND they won AND the judge ordered you to pay AND you ignored the judgement.

eCollect cannot take you to court in the UK because as a debt collector they do not 'own' the debt. Only Interdate could take you to court. I would be very surprised if they did although you could never say it was impossible.

Online advice forums are full of complaints like yours and the advice is almost invariably to ignore them because it is very unlikely Interdate will ever take a claim to the small claims court in England. A lawyer on another site gave this advice which is the advice I also give to you: ignore them.

"It is actually a type of scam as the site makes it either impossible, or very difficult, to cancel the membership and you are then forced into the contract and if you cancel, you are accused of breaching it. They then go ahead with making various threats and even engaging solicitors to make formal demands for payment, with a warning that they will sue you if you fail to pay.

In reality, it is very unlikely that anything will follow from this. They are hoping that you will be scared into meeting their demands and making payment as requested, however if you refused to do so, the only way for them to force you to pay is by going to court and winning. However, they are based abroad and following Brexit, it has become rather complex and expensive to be making claims from the EU against UK parties. Not only that, but by going to court they are exposing their questionable consumer practices in public and the courts are highly unlikely to be sympathetic with their pleas as it would become clear that they had manipulated you into the contract.

My advice is to ignore the threats and demands and do so on the assumption that it is very unlikely this will go any further legally."

Come back here if you receive further letters. Based on what we generally see from from debt collectors you'll probably receive a couple more letters from them or a German law firm they use as their "contracted legal partner" called Themys & Dyke before they stop writing.

The only letters you must not ignore are a formal "Pre Action Protocol Letter of Claim" [aka PAPLOC] or anything from a court.

[thingywingy]

Thank you! Alright then, I'll just ignore them unless they're actual court letters.

[thingywingy]

PallasAthena I've just got this in my email.

[thingywingy]

Looking at reviews it seems to be the exact same thing as Themys and Dyke though.

[PallasAthena]

Correct, just a load of quasi-legal BS. You can safely ignore it.

[thingywingy]

Looking at reviews it seems to be the exact same thing as Themys and Dyke though.

[PallasAthena]

Just a different lawyer.

[thingywingy]

PallasAthena Ive just received another one. Came from a different email this time though. Astras Veritas.

[PallasAthena]

Just a chaser. My advice is same as before, ignore it. It's irrelevant what email address it was sent from.