Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

[Captain Haddock]

Briefly, bank loan that was CCAd in 2009 and found to be correctly set out so repaid arrears and continued to pay reduced monthly sum agreed with bank. The bank regularly requested financial statements but these have ceased over the last year or so. Today, a note of total assignment has arrived from the bank with the 'Hello' letter from the DCA and a request that I now start paying them. Whilst I am prepared to continue to do so, I am wondering why the bank sold this loan on, given that it agreed to the restructured payments.

Incidentally, the DCA is a known cowboy gang and whilst their 'Hello' letter seems polite there is the threat of full balance due if one payment is missed.

I'm curious as to why the bank did this when an agreement was in place. This was a fixed-sum loan and I guess there are arrears on the actual agreement (given the reduced payments), but I've not received a default notice with regard to these.

Any advice?

[miliitant]

Re: Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

TOTAL ASSIGNMENT, THATS INTERESTING IN THAT THEY DID NOT STATE ABSOLUTE ASSIGNMENT

now if the arrears have been paid off, the account is not in default
you have been paying off contractually agreed reduced payments

if no default notice and termination notice then the bank has sold the account to a DCA live, WHICH THEY ARE ENTITLED TO DO

BUT

the DCA cannot demand full payment, if you miss any repayments the dca has to give you notice of default sums and warn you through a default notice served under 87(1) of the cca that the debt will be registered as a default with the credit agencies if not brought up to date within 14 days (ARREARS)

i can see the DCA collection muppetts getting confused between a defaulted and sold account and a live credit account

[Guest]

Re: Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

Hmm

Interesting, usually when creditors transfer an account, they do so to another organisation that can offer the same service, ie bank to bank.
If a debt is sold to a dca that is only licensed to collect debt, the account is usually terminated before the account is assigned.
It is of course possible for the bank to terminate the account under a contractual provision rather than by default.(section 76 or 98)

D

[miliitant]

Re: Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

THATS MY UNDERSTANDING OF IT BUT THE NEW CREDITOR (DCA) would have to honour all previous terms and conditions as well as any arrangements as the account holder has not breached the agreement

i have only come across this once before and the dca ended up sending the account back to the creditor

it was barclaycard, but as the DCA did not offer a credit card facility, the assignment was unlawful being it was sold as a live account, and not as a defaulted and terminated account

[teaboy2]

Re: Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

Militant - The DCA would not beable to issue a default notice, unless they honoured the part of the agreement as the bank would have done. But my understanding is that DCA's are not licensed to act as creditors/lenders. Also you are right the assignment to the DCA without a termination notice or default notice, depending on how the bank terminated the agreement, would make the assignment unlawful if it was still a live account as the OP's sounds to have been.

I suspect though that the OP probably did receive a default notice back when they first went into arrears, as the default would have been for the originally agreed repayment amounts on the CCA, that were in arrears at the time the OP and the Bank agreed a reduced repayment schedule. One way to find out would be for the OP to check his credit file, to see if their is a default for that loan on his credit file and the date the default was put on there. The other way would be to do a SAR which will get the bank to diclose copies of all documents and letters they had sent to the OP related to this account including copies of the Default notice.

Though as pointed out, it is strange how the DCA referred to it as TOTAL Assignment and not Absolute Assignment, which leads me to suspect they have not bought the account and it is still owned by the Bank, who have simply employed the DCA to act on their behalf.

Therefore i would personnally continue to pay the bank directly, and simply write to the DCA, stating that as you have no business or contract with them and as you have kept to your contractually agreed reduced repayment plan with the bank, then you will carry on paying the bank directly. Pointing out that any further demands for payment with out proof that they are entitled to said payments, would be deemed as a breach of the protection from harassment act 1997 and false representation under section 2 of the fraud act 2006 as they are demanding money whilst representing themselves as owners of the account without proof that they are entitled to such money.

[miliitant]

Re: Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

But my understanding is that DCA's are not licensed to act as creditors/lenders

i thought that the consumer credit licence, depending on what section gave them that right

well thats something different i have learned today :tinysmile_grin_t:

[Guest]

Re: Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

THATS MY UNDERSTANDING OF IT BUT THE NEW CREDITOR (DCA) would have to honour all previous terms and conditions as well as any arrangements as the account holder has not breached the agreement

i have only come across this once before and the dca ended up sending the account back to the creditor

it was barclaycard, but as the DCA did not offer a credit card facility, the assignment was unlawful being it was sold as a live account, and not as a defaulted and terminated account

Yes this is why the account must be terminated before it is sold.

D

[teaboy2]

Re: Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

Usually the license states under categories what they are permitted to do.

For example see below license details for Capquest:

Licence Number:0475757
Licence Status:Current

Current Applicant / Licensee:

Business Name	Company Registration Number
Capquest Debt Recovery Limited	03772278

Categories:

Consumer credit

Credit brokerage

Debt administration

Debt collecting

Provision of credit information services, including credit repair, on a commercial basis

Right To Canvass Off Trade Premises:No


Trading Name(s) (Current):

Callquest

Capquest

Care Debt Recovery

CDR

Consumer Communications

Consumer Contact Centre

F.T. & C.

F.T.C.

Financial Trace And Collections

Tracequest

Issued Date: 30-Oct-1999
Date Maintenance Payment Due: 06-Jan-2015


Legal Formation:

Body Corporate (incorporated inside UK)

Current Individuals that run the organisation:

Name	Position
Joseph Arthur Dlutowski
Kathryn Ann Cox
Mark Andrew Brunault
Michael Daniels
Paul McQuilkin
Thomas James Musgrave

Historic Individuals that run the organisation:

Name	Position
Joseph Arthur Dlutowski	OFFICER
Keith Ainsworth	OFFICER
Kevin Joseph Jackson	OFFICER
Laurence Anthony Bowes	OFFICER
Mark Andrew Brunault	OFFICER
Michael Christopher Daniels	OFFICER
Paul McQuilkin	OFFICER
Thomas James Musgrave

Nature of Business:

Accountants

Other

Current Address(es):

Address Type	Address
Correspondence	Fleet 27, Rye Close, Fleet, Hants, GU51 2QQ
Principal Place Of Business	Fleet, 27, Rye Close, FLEET, Hampshire, GU51 2QQ, United Kingdom
Registered Office	Fleet, 27, Rye Close, FLEET, Hampshire, GU51 2QQ, United Kingdom

Historic Address(es):

Address Type	Address
Principal Place Of Business	Centaur House, Ancells Business Park, Ancells Road, Fleet, Hants, GU51 2UJ
Principal Place Of Business	Centaur House, Ancells, Business Park, Ancells Road, Fleet, Hants, GU51 2UJ
Principal Place Of Business	Fleet 27, Rye Close, Fleet, Hants, GU51 2QQ
Registered Office	9, Clarendon Place, Leamington SPA, Warwickshire, CV32 5QP
Registered Office	Lovell House 271, High Street, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 1LQ

So in this instance in the above example capquest are allowed to offer consumer credit. But i doubt all DCA's are entitled to do that.

[Guest]

Re: Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

As an additional thought it may be that the loan was an overdraft, if so then it would have been terminated using section 76 and without a default notice anyway.

There is no reason why the OP should not continue to pay the DCa in either case, as long as no other charges are being added to the account and he is getting regular statement showing his payments are being debited from the account.

D

[miliitant]

Re: Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

dont want to go off topic davy
but

are certain sections of an overdraft not covered by the cca 1974 so a DN is needed to terminate

again, might be wrong but unsure

[teaboy2]

Re: Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

Though the OP did say it was a Bank loan, so can't see it being an overdraft, unless they gave him a loan to pay the overdraft off.

[Guest]

Re: Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

dont want to go off topic davy
but

are certain sections of an overdraft not covered by the cca 1974 so a DN is needed to terminate

again, might be wrong but unsure

Not usually, the nature of overdrafts is that they have no strict repayment terms. They are therefore usually terminated by a term in the agreement or the terms and conditions of the account. They are "called in" rather than terminated.
A section 76 notice is all that is required.

An overdraft is a form of bank loan i think.

D

[Captain Haddock]

Re: Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

Sorry, folks, I haven't been specific in how the bank sold the debt. I used the word 'total' myself, because what the bank's letter stated is that it '...has assigned all its rights, title and interest....'. That is what I meant when I used the word 'total' and I apologise for any confusion that has arisen.

I began to keep a full record of corrspondence with all my debtors around that time and the folder shows no default letter. That's not to say it wasn't captured and put on file.

[Captain Haddock]

Re: Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

BTW, the DCA is Cabot!!

[Guest]

Re: Loan bought by DCA whilst making reduced payments

YUK!!!!