Letters from DCA's - Some sample letters you may have received

[Crispybacon]

Hi All

You may know whats its like. You get home after work and waiting there for you on the mat is a letter from a debt collecting agency.

You may experience fear, you may feel threatened, above all you feel harrassed.

This is their intention.

For those of us in debt, and working our way our of debt, this debt is a very personal thing to us. Its something that we have to live with (in some cases) for many years. Because of this its hard to see the bigger picture.........

Which is that to DCA's its not personal - you are just another number to them.

You are just a figure that may or may not add to the collections targets that they have to achieve by the end of the week/month/quarter. They are not interested in your circumstances, wellbeing, health or anything else, other than to get the money that is showed as owing on their computer systems.

The letters that they send you are almost always automatically generated, and even when they are not, the people sending them out almost always have to select from a choice of templates their employers tell them to use.

So that letter you receive, although it feels very personal to you, is not.

So what am I trying to achieve in my rambling?

Over the next couple of weeks what I'm going to do on this thread is post up some of the threats I have received from various creditors and DCA's over the last 12 months so that hopefully anyone else who receives such letters and reads this thread will realise that although initially the letter they have received feels very personal to them they can see that it is a 'stock' letter that goes out to many people.

In fact hopefully people will see that the DCA's seem to use and share templates with each other the very same way that we do.

If anyone has any of their own to share please do!! The more the merrier!

Best

Crispy

[Curlyben]

Re: Letters from DCA's - Some sample letters you may have received

I think I'll have to dig in my vast filing system and join you with this.
Should prove extremely enlightening indeed.

[The Debt Star]

Re: Letters from DCA's - Some sample letters you may have received

Nice one. Good idea Crispy. Can we take the pi55 out of the letters as well?

[Crispybacon]

Allied International Credit - Letter 1

Ah good old AIC bless em. Heres one of my favourites as it was shortly before they passed the debt back to the original creditor!

"By defaulting on your payments you indiciate that you have no real interest in repaying the outstanding balance to our Client. If AIC do not receive a phone call or payment immediately your account may be passed to our Legal Department. Your payment must be submitted to us quoting your AIC reference number to ensure immediate credit to your account.

Please note that our Legal Department will calculate and apply all relevant costs to your account and will consider instigating proceedings against you via your local County/Sheriff Court.

Successful litigation could result in the following action:

1) Attachment/Arrestment of your earnings
2) Freezing any bank accounts
3) A Sheriff Officer/Bailiff seizing assets
4) Inhibition/Charging Order on your property

AIC look forward to receiving your immediate payment or telephone call

Well they were looking forward to that phone call for a very long time as I never made it. Things never went to their Legal Department (note the capital letters) either as the account got handed back to the OC.

I am now being chased by Newmans DCA but their letters will get published at the weekend as theres so many in such little time!

Crispy

[The Debt Star]

Re: Letters from DCA's - Some sample letters you may have received

This thread would work better if we scanned images of the letters onto it? That way we also get used to the appearance, not just the content, of these murky letters? waddya think?

[Curlyben]

Re: Letters from DCA's - Some sample letters you may have received

This thread would work better if we scanned images of the letters onto it? That way we also get used to the appearance, not just the content, of these murky letters? waddya think?

Only if ALL personal information is removed DS..

[Crispybacon]

Allied International Credit - Letter 2

Here they are again........

"We have now been assigned your account for collection please contact Allied International Credit (UK) Limited (AIC) immediately on the phone number below, so that we can discuss the options on your account and agree a payment method.

Unfortunately the payment that you made was not sufficient, your account continues to move towards default status which would be updated with the credit reference agencies.

To ensure that you are making payments that will have a positive effect on your account please contact us on the number below. We will advise you the value of the payment that you are required to make in order to achieve this"

What jesters!!

This letter is daft for the following reasons:

1) I had already been making payments to them for almost 8 months when they sent this out.

2) I had already been defaulted by the OC and had the CC account cancelled so how was anything going to make my credit rating worse or making larger payments going to have a positive effect on my account? DOH!

3) And as for them telling me what I can afford to pay towards this debt?! (After receiving my I/E info at least 4 times at this point)!!

Crispy

[The Debt Star]

Re: Letters from DCA's - Some sample letters you may have received

Naturally. I use paint shop on photobucket before uploading them here.

[Crispybacon]

Allied International Credit - Heres another one

This one is slightly more SERIOUS as there were lots of words typed in CAPS AND BOLD and in RED. Rememeber AIC handed my account back to the OC.....

COURT PROCEEDINGS

"The Legal Department at Allied International Credit (UK) Limited (AIC) have reviewed your account. As you have still failed to contact us or make a payment their intention is to consider commencing legal proceedings against you via your local County/Sheriff Court for full recovery of the outstanding balance.

To prevent this action and to bring your account to a successful conclusion AIC are prepared to make an offer of settlement to you. To take advantage of this you must contact us immediately. This account will be reviewed again by the Legal Department within 5 days of this postmark. If you choose to ignore this letter the appropriate paperwork may be lodged with your County/Sheriff Court.

Please be advised that should any successful legal action take place the relevant solicitors fees/court costs will be added and your credit status could be adversely affected."

I like this letter for a couple of reasons:

1) I didn't receive the letter from AIC until 2 weeks after the postmark. So much for their Legal Department (again note capital letters) reviewing after 5 days.

2) I wrote to them and asked them to put their offer in writing. They refused and asked me to call them.

So as far as I was concerned this was nothing more than an exercise to get me to call them where they could put pressure on or get me to confirm my phone number at 'security' (which they didn't have) so they could then harrass me all hours of the day!

Crispy


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I think I'll have to dig in my vast filing system and join you with this.
Should prove extremely enlightening indeed.

Feel free! I think you may have a few more to add than me!!

Best

Crispy
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Nice one. Good idea Crispy. Can we take the pi55 out of the letters as well?

Oh yes!!!

I think they need to be put in context with the 'mays' and 'mights' and 'coulds'.

Not to mention most DCA's Legal Departments being the desk by the toilet...!

Best

Crispy
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This thread would work better if we scanned images of the letters onto it? That way we also get used to the appearance, not just the content, of these murky letters? waddya think?

Absolutely! Unfortunately I have to use the scanner in the office which is a problem as I'm only there a couple of times a week and then have the nosey office manager watching what I'm doing!!

[Crispybacon]

Re: Letters from DCA's - Some sample letters you may have received

This thread would work better if we scanned images of the letters onto it? That way we also get used to the appearance, not just the content, of these murky letters? waddya think?

I don't know if some sort of repository could be set up? Would the site be ok from a server space aspect? I could see the amount of files taking up a bit of room!

[Curlyben]

Re: Letters from DCA's - Some sample letters you may have received

This thread would work better if we scanned images of the letters onto it? That way we also get used to the appearance, not just the content, of these murky letters? waddya think?

I don't know if some sort of repository could be set up? Would the site be ok from a server space aspect? I could see the amount of files taking up a bit of room!

That's what Photobucket is for

[Crispybacon]

Allied International Credit - And theres more....

This was one of 3 'Final Notices' I received from AIC!! Again notice the big red writing.....

URGENT - FINAL NOTICE

"Allied International Credit (UK) Limited (AIC) are acting on behalf of our client to recover the outstanding balance. Due to your continued failure to contact AIC, despite numerous letters, or the failure to arrive at a satisfactory repayment solution, unless payment of the total amount is made to our office immediately our Client have authorised us to consider issuing proceedings against you.

For avoidance of doubt, the proceedings will involve a claim being issued through your local County Court and, should Judgement be awarded against you, the necessary steps will be taken to secure full payment. This could result in substantial solicitors fees/court costs being added to your account. In the event that proceedings go in our favour and the Bailiff serves a Warrant, the following options are available to us for the recovery of the funds:

Wages - Your employer could receive an Attachment Order that will enable us to secure payment of the above amount from your wages. This would be an Allotment of pay if you were serving in HM Forces

Assets - A Bailiff could be instructed to call at your home to seize assets under a Warrant of Execution

Property - A Charging Order will prohibit the sale of the above property and the ability to remortgage or secure funds

If you wish to prevent these proceedings you must telephone this office immediately to make payment in full."


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That's what Photobucket is for

Ah! I keep forgetting about that! Good ol technology!!!!!
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Thinking about it in addition to DS's suggestion about scanning letters (and taking the p155!) it would also be good if experienced members could point out any areas in the letters where DCA's are on dodgy ground e.g.

If the content is unlawful

If the actions suggested are unlawful or simply cannot happen in law

If the content is in breach of OFT guidelines

That sort of thing.

Apologies but I have rushed out the blocks like a labrador puppy after a tumbling bog roll!!!

I haven't had time to post much recently so making the most of the time!!!!

Best

Crispy

[The Debt Star]

Re: Letters from DCA's - Some sample letters you may have received

I think this thread is a great idea.

Responsibly removing personal data, we need to get the letters scanned on or linked to photobucket.

Crisp, most of us aint gonna type up our old DCA toilet rolls. I also think that debtors need to see and get used to the appearance of the DCA letters. Like you, despite years and years of this *****, I still feel sick to the stomach when I get a threat-o-gram. We're not all street toughs.

Can you load up the above letters on photobucket, edit them there and then post them up. Yes, you've typed them already but it would help get the thread started on this basis if you do.

Ben has said he will dig loads out and I'll do the same. I don't have major historic ones cos I didn't keep them, but I do have more recent ones from CrappyQuest, fredpricksons, Mercilless and CDCS. I'll edit out the personal info and stick up links to them here.

This could be a very handy thread, not only getting debtors 'used' to seeing these trashy letters and their threats, but also, as you suggest, to focus on what may be wrong with the threats themselves (eg breaches of the CCA, OFT Guidance, etc).

[The Debt Star]

Re: Letters from DCA's - Some sample letters you may have received

CDCS "Hello Letter"

This introductory from Barclay's internal toilet block, CDCS. This letter was sent, believe it or not, without any prior default warning, Default Notice or Notice of Assignment.

So just the threat-o-gram with we "will" sue ya ass, not "may."

http://i822.photobucket.com/albums/z...1/08d3bf5c.jpg

[mr.ton]

Re: Letters from DCA's - Some sample letters you may have received

I've lost count of the amount of DCA threatograms ive had over the years.
My very first ones were from Moorcroft & Wescot back around 1997/1998.
Ive had hundreds more since that time and not one has taken me anywhere near a court - speaks for itself really.