Letter from Wescot DCA

[Tomyem]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

Wendy/Peter thanks for the quick responses. I'll get that letter(s) in the post in the morning.

Thanks again
-Tom

[CleverClogs]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

Got a letter from Wescot on Thursday (1st one) stating this is a Final Notice. Wescot are working on behalf of their client (Halifax) to recover the money. If I don't contact them by this Thursday 3rd Nov they will take steps to recover entire outstanding debt. They also state they may send a collection officer to my home.

They "may", but they won't and, even if they did, there's precisely bugger all he/she/it could lawfully do. Just don't let 'em in, though.

Please can someone help as I really don't know what to do. I have another credit card with MBNA which is about to go down the same route. Have £7000 owing on this card. When I phoned in March to negotiate a reduced payment they were very unhelpful and actually tried to increase my monthly payments from £120 permonth to £170per month as they had just changed the way they calculate minimum payments.

Did they also state how much blood they hoped to take per month?

[winner12]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

It may not be just blood they are after

[mr.ton]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

Mr Ton, I cannot agree with your attitude. There is a debt to be repaid here. The accepted and sensible way to repay is to complete a CFS or CASHflow statement and agree a sensible and affordable repayment plan. You cannot just go in at £1 per month or whatever without proving extreme financial hardship.

Errrrm excuse me - unless a court orders otherwise, it is up to the individual how much they repay a DCA - if that be £1 per month then that's what the DCA must accept in a like it or lump it sort of way.
A person does not have to prove anything to a DCA one way or the other quite frankly.
Only a court has any legal authority to know what a persons income and expenditure is.
A DCA has no legal powers to money off an individual and can simply be told to get lost.

[labman]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

Errrrm excuse me - unless a court orders otherwise, it is up to the individual how much they repay a DCA - if that be £1 per month then that's what the DCA must accept in a like it or lump it sort of way.
A person does not have to prove anything to a DCA one way or the other quite frankly.
Only a court has any legal authority to know what a persons income and expenditure is.
A DCA has no legal powers to money off an individual and can simply be told to get lost.

I don't dispute that, but if you realistically want DMP's to be taken seriously and have a MUCH MUCH greater chance of being accepted, you are far better taking the more conventional route I outlined. If you take the route you appear to be condoning and end up in court regarding the debt, I assure you you will get a far less sympathetic ear than if you have made a genuine effort to repay what is affordable. No sensible debt adviser would ever advise a client to repay more than they could realistically afford, whatever a DCA or other creditor wants them to pay.

[Guest]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

HI Yes just to echo Labman.
It is all about repaying the debt at a level you can afford, rather that being compelled by the court into repaying the total sum in a forthwith order.

NO one likes dealing with DCAs they are in my opinion the scum of the earth, but they are the creditors approved representatives and as such have the power to accept or decline proposals of payment.

Peter

[mr.ton]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

I don't dispute that, but if you realistically want DMP's to be taken seriously and have a MUCH MUCH greater chance of being accepted, you are far better taking the more conventional route I outlined. If you take the route you appear to be condoning and end up in court regarding the debt, I assure you you will get a far less sympathetic ear than if you have made a genuine effort to repay what is affordable. No sensible debt adviser would ever advise a client to repay more than they could realistically afford, whatever a DCA or other creditor wants them to pay.

People very rarely end up in court anyway - DCA's like to threaten to take people there but don't because it costs them too much and the person has many legal rights/protections etc...
Besides people are not on trial if they go to court so it doesn't matter if they get a sympathetic ear or not - they have basic legal/human rights and it's up to them to take full advantage of those rights.
Why would anyone want to be "taken seriously" on a DMP anyway? are people not capable of working out their own i & e without the need for third party intervention?
What you seem to be overlooking is that £1 per month is what is seen as the "legal minimum" in this country - so in the eyes of the law you are seen to be paying something - that may sound crazy, but hey that's modern Britain for you!
------------------------------- merged -------------------------------

r
NO one likes dealing with DCAs they are in my opinion the scum of the earth, but they are the creditors approved representatives and as such have the power to accept or decline proposals of payment.

The debtor also has the power to pay them nothing at all/or as much or little as they wish and the right not to be harassed afterwards.

[Guest]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

People very rarely end up in court anyway - DCA's like to threaten to take people there but don't because it costs them too much and the person has many legal rights/protections etc...
Besides people are not on trial if they go to court so it doesn't matter if they get a sympathetic ear or not - they have basic legal/human rights and it's up to them to take full advantage of those rights.
Why would anyone want to be "taken seriously" on a DMP anyway? are people not capable of working out their own i & e without the need for third party intervention?
What you seem to be overlooking is that £1 per month is what is seen as the "legal minimum" in this country - so in the eyes of the law you are seen to be paying something - that may sound crazy, but hey that's modern Britain for you!
------------------------------- merged -------------------------------


The debtor also has the power to pay them nothing at all/or as much or little as they wish and the right not to be harassed afterwards.

Well there is very little i can say to that, there is so much missconception i wouldnt know where to start.

However

Fact is that of course people do get taken to court, and if they don't they have to put up with the constant pestering of DCAs.

If you owe the debt and want to repay it then there are means available for you to do so no matter how limited your income.

Courts do have the ability to decide if the debtor has made an honest effort to pay, and decide if the creditor has been resonable or not, this is why creditors are compelled to behave, to suggest otherwise is frankly nonesense.

The consumer credit act is there to protect consumers from being treated unfairly(and so is this forum incidenlty) , it is not there as a method of evading your debts.
Peter

[labman]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

Hear, hear! Well said Peter, I could not have phrased it better myself!

[mr.ton]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

Well there is very little i can say to that, there is so much missconception i wouldnt know where to start.
However
Fact is that of course people do get taken to court, and if they don't they have to put up with the constant pestering of DCAs.
If you owe the debt and want to repay it then there are means available for you to do so no matter how limited your income.
Courts do have the ability to decide if the debtor has made an honest effort to pay, and decide if the creditor has been resonable or not, this is why creditors are compelled to behave, to suggest otherwise is frankly nonesense.
The consumer credit act is there to protect consumers from being treated unfairly(and so is this forum incidenlty) , it is not there as a method of evading your debts.
Peter

No misconceptions whatsoever
You will find that £1 per month is seen in the eyes of the law as the "legal minimum"
I have not said that people should evade their debts - merely that it is up to them what they repay (based on circumstances),not the DCA - it's up to a court to rule on an amount that must be repaid after being presented with all the facts etc..
Anyway let's not get into the moral argument of avoiding debts when we currently have the banks being bailed out with taxpayers money and avoiding repaying what they owe.
DCA's mostly don't go anywhere near a court as it costs them money and is not worth their while to get a token repayment back if anything at all.
The DCA has absolutely no legal power whatsoever to any money off anyone - all they can do is ask...once the person has said no, then they have to leave them alone otherwise it then becomes illegal harassment.
If someone wanted to evade debts/or pay less than they need to then that is very easily done - I & E's can easily be manipulated to show that they pay more on the monthly food shopping than what they actually do (i've never known courts to require receipts for the amount of food someone buys??)

[mr.ton]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

I have been contacted by near enough every DCA since the late 90's Peter - would you like to explain why not one of them has ever taken me anywhere near a court building in that time?

[Guest]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

I have been contacted by near enough every DCA since the late 90's Peter - would you like to explain why not one of them has ever taken me anywhere near a court building in that time?

Probably because they know you have no income or assets and you cannot get blood out of a stone.

However some have homes and family they want to protect, and who do not want to end up either in court or frightened of answering the phone when it rings.

Can you explain why this and a dozen other forums are full of people taken to court.

Sorry not engageing any more in this pointess argument.
Peter

[mr.ton]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

None of the DCA's from over the years have known a single thing about what i do or don't have - they have simply been full of hot air and the vast majority are.
Of course i accept that some may well follow up going to court (would be interesting to read any stats on that?) but from my experience of posting on forums like this over the past few years, most don't for the reasons i've pointed out.

[labman]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

Whether or not a DCA goes to court is irrelevant. Whether or not £1.00 is the legal minimum offer or not is irrelevant. What is relevant is that for people who want to repay their debts as swiftly as possible, get charges and interest frozen and the account defaulted asap to minimise damage to their CRF, a CFS for a managed DMP or CASHflow statement for a self-managed DMP are by far the strongest tools you can have behind you to ensure your repayment proposal gets accepted.

Often a managed DMP can bring huge relief to people who have been scared for years. Remember that not everyone has the knowledge you have, and don't know that unless a debt has been assigned in absolute, DCA's by themselves are pretty much powerless.

For those with your knowledge, if you're still wanting to repay things in an affordable way and as fast as possible, then a CASHflow statement is much more likely to be accepted than a normal I&E statement.

If you then just make an offer without any I&E to back it up, while nobody other than a court can demand you complete one, it does not mean common sense dictates that it's probably in your best interests to complete one voluntarily. An offer without an I&E is unlikely to be accepted. I'm quite sure there are exceptions, but as a rule they would be turned down.

[Guest]

Re: Letter from Wescot DCA

Hi
Yes and it must be remembered that whilst it is true that a DCA cannot enforce an agreement unless it is properly assigned, there is nothing stopping them passing it back to the ctreditor to enforce. This is usually what happens anyway, the creditor lets the DCA have a crack at getting the money and then partially based on the recomendation and report from the DCA they decide if they are going to litigate.

Peter