Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

[Malakai26]

Hello,

Just want to start by saying what a fabulous site, a credit to you all.

I hope someone can help me, apparently my credit card agreement came to an end with Virgin and it has been sold to Arrow Global and Wescot are the agency claiming payment, tell by first letter this is going to drive me insane.

So far I have ignored the Hello/Goodbye letter because the Goodbye was on Global Stationary and not from Virgin and it felt wrong, plus it came over the Xmas period, I have also ignored all phone calls and today I received the first demand letter!!

I can go into much more detail if someone can point me to the right place to do that.

But in the meantime a big Hello to everyone.

Kind Regards

[Kafka]

Re: Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

Firstly welcome.

Can you provide a timeline of events through the history of the account so we can see where its got to?

Has the account been sold on, or are the DCAs just acting as agents?
has the account been defaulted?
Have charges been added to the account?

The more info you provide the easier it is to help.

[Malakai26]

Re: Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

Hi, Thank you.

I had an accident at work in Jan 2010 and subsequently lost my job in April, I continued to keep up with my payments until it became obvious that I was going to end up defaulting due to receiving no benefits and being unable to acquire a job. I wrote to all my creditors and explained the situation, giving them all an incoming/outgoing sheet and offering a token payment of £1 and that interest was frozen. This was accepted by all my creditors and I have kept them up to date of any changes and increased the token to £5 even though it is a stretch just to show them I am willing to pay and in no way trying to shirk these debts.

On the 21st December I received 2 letters in one envelope, the first was Arrow Global which is a notice of assignment, it say "We write to notify you that MBNA Limited has assigned all of its respective rights, title and interest in respect of the amounts due under the above referenced account (including the right to receive payment of the outstanding balance) to Arrow Global Guernsey Limited" It says that my account will be managed on behalf of Arrow Global by Wescot and i should continue to make regular payments and direct all future correspondence and payments to Wescot then it refers me to the fair proccessing notice on the reverse. The 2nd letter is from MBNA and it states "As your MBNA credit card agreement has been terminated, we've decided to sell your outstanding credit card debt of ****" Then proceeds to say they have transferred ownership, together with rights of collection to Arrow Global and to await contact.

From December I have been getting numerous phone calls which I have ignored, because all my creditors are aware that I require everything in writing and that I won't deal with them over the phone. Today I received another letter with a big bold red header which says important notice of debt collection Wescot. "Wescot Credit Services is a specialist DEBT COLLECTION organisation. We have been instructedby our client to collect the outstanding balance on their behalf, then in capital and bold "To avoid wescot taking further action you must: 1) Pay the debt in full or 2) Contact us on. Please contact us as soon as possible as failure to do so will result in further recovery action"

I am wary of writing any letters in case they trap me into something, from the forum I am gathering that a prove it letter is the next move, but with all this information I'm not sure if this is the correct way for me to move forward!! I am still paying the £5 to MBNA as before because this is the agreement I had with them and I didn't want to default on this. I do have a feeling that the amount I owe has increased and at the moment I am trying to find the last statement from Virgin, which I when I find I will let you know if the amount has increased.

I hope this is enough information if not I will try to provide more if you can let me know what else is needed.

Thanks again

[Kafka]

Re: Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

Did you get a Notice of Assignment from MBNA, or just a letter from AG saying that they now owned it?
DCAs often lie about this and tell you they own an account when they don't.

[brummie]

Re: Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

Hi...well done for ignoring the morons and you are doing the right thing!

Now if you were making a payment of £5 what has changed? Did they write to you requesting a rise? If not, you have the right to dispute the actions on the grounds that they have not informed you of a change in their requests for an amount of payment....you can't be in an agreement and then throw it to the dogs without telling the person paying the bill.....so, in my opinion, you could put it into dispute with the card company until you resolve or re-structure your payment plan.
You can then take pleasure in writing to the gorillas telling them you are in dispute, you do not recognise that you owe them any money, and politely tell them to wind their necks in.
Curlyben has put up loads of good stuff on the subject of DCA'S and lots of template letters to choose from.

[Malakai26]

Re: Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

The only letter I have had from MBNA came in the same envelope as the Arrow one, no heading it just looks like a normal letter!!

[Malakai26]

Re: Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

Nothing changed, No request for a rise just the Hello/Goodbye.

I have been reading all of Curlyben's templates which are brilliant and informative and I was going to send a prove it letter the 2nd one with a £1 postal order, but then I noticed the dates on them 2008 and got worried that they may be out of date with how fast the laws change etc, also I was unsure whether to do the prove it letter or the dispute with Virgin or both.

I ended up tying myself in knots, so thought I should get some advice on here.

[Kafka]

Re: Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

You can check ownership by looking at your credit file. You can get this online from Experian by paying the statutory £2 fee.

[brummie]

Re: Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

you are in the right place.....

Be patient as lots of people come and go on the site at different times of the day. I'm sure somebody will come along with some sound advice on the date issue.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

Nothing changed, No request for a rise just the Hello/Goodbye.

I have been reading all of Curlyben's templates which are brilliant and informative and I was going to send a prove it letter the 2nd one with a £1 postal order, but then I noticed the dates on them 2008 and got worried that they may be out of date with how fast the laws change etc, also I was unsure whether to do the prove it letter or the dispute with Virgin or both.

I ended up tying myself in knots, so thought I should get some advice on here.

If you haven't done so you should send a s.78 CCA request. Send it recorded delivery with £1 PO to cover the statutory fee. They have 14 days to respond. Sign digitally using a computer font not your real signature to be on the safe side.

The DCA will have to request the agreement from MBNA. Depending on the age and history of your account, they may or may not be able to obtain it. I have an old MBNA card that was originally an A&L card and no agreement exists so you may be in luck.

It is important to send this as soon as possible to cover yourself against potential legal action by Arrow, who have been buying MBNA debts in bulk and, in many cases, have issued a claim!

When did you take out the card and what's the outstanding balance?

AccountReference


I hereby formally request a copy of my Consumer Credit Agreement, pursuant to s.77-79 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (CCA1974).


I require you to provide me with a true copy, or reconstituted copy of the credit agreement relating to any account you deem to be mine, together with any other documentation the Act requires you to provide. I expect you to comply fully and properly with this request, within the statutory time limit (12 + 2 days).


If it is your view that you are not the creditor, s.175 of the CCA1974 applies in the case of a simple assignment, and places a duty upon you to pass this request to the creditor. In the case of an absolute assignment, you are a creditor as defined by s.189. If you contend that you purchased the rights but not the duties of any agreement, you are reminded that s.189 of the Act is clear that an assignment is of both rights and duties. Your attention is drawn to ss.5(2), 3(b), 6 and 7 of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPUTR).


I also remind you of your duties, in line with recent OFT Guidance (issued Oct 2010) surrounding Unenforceability, I presume you're aware that the OFT has stipulated that 'sections 77-79 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 outline the information creditors must provide to debtors under fixed-term, running account & Hire Agreements'. This simply means that under these sections a debtor can pay £1 to get:


a copy of their agreement
copies of some of the other documents mentioned in their agreement
a statement of account

If this information is not provided within 12 working days the debt becomes unenforceable. This means a creditor cannot:

make the debtor pay the debt before they're supposed to
get a court judgment against the debtor

So, in line with the OFT Guidance, and the Consumer Credit Act, please find attached my £1 payment, which is the statutory fee - note that these funds are not to be used for any other purpose. If you are unable to comply fully and properly with this request, you should confirm this in writing at the earliest opportunity, and certainly within the statutory time limit for compliance, and return the fee and then remove the incorrect entry from your systems.


I do, expect the main actions to be dealt with, as matter of course, and look forward to hearing from you within the prescribed time-scales quoted however, in the meantime, I require that you clarify your position on this point as failure to do so, even by omission or lack of a response, will be regarded as an attempt to deliberately misrepresent or conceal the legal position regarding this matter to which an appropriate complaint will be made to the OFT.


Yours faithfully,

[Malakai26]

Re: Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

Hi, the oldest statement I have is 2006 but I am sure that I had this particular credit card longer possibly 2002 but not sure. I know that over the years I have cleared it numerous times to 0.

The amount I owe at the moment is £1,746.67 which is strange because I owed this amount 2 years ago and I have been paying token payments with no interest so I was expecting it to have gone down if only slightly!

Thank you for the above template, I will send it tomorrow registered post.

[labman]

Re: Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

Good advice so far. Make sure you take it seriously. See below:

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...ht=#post311639

[Malakai26]

Re: Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

I can't see the post, probably due to being a new member or doing something wrong, but thank you for trying.

I always take them seriously, and to be honest once these debts are cleared it's a never again for me, I have never defaulted always paid my debts even when I probably shouldn't have, but the way these people treat you when you fall on hard times is just not worth it.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

I can't see the post, probably due to being a new member or doing something wrong, but thank you for trying.

The reason you can't access it is because the post is in the VIP area, which can be joined by making a small donation.

I always take them seriously, and to be honest once these debts are cleared it's a never again for me, I have never defaulted always paid my debts even when I probably shouldn't have, but the way these people treat you when you fall on hard times is just not worth it.

Indeed, especially where MBNA is concerned! I had my card since the early 90s, always paid by DD, never one late or missed payment in over 15 years, then in 2009 MBNA increased the interest to a whooping 36%!!! :scared:As there was also PPI, the balance was INCREASING :rant::rant::rant: every month even without using the card (it was maxxed out). I then started getting overlimit charges as well. I stopped paying 3 years ago, sent a CCA request and MBNA replied they couldn't find it! It's never been sold or even passed on to a DCA other then their in-house puppets DCRI.:grin:

[labman]

Re: Hello, been reading loads but still unsure.

What an appalling situation. No wonder you got into a mess with it. There really ought to be protection against this sort of thing. At least you know if it went to court, there would be a good chance of many of those charges being refunded. Some would see this as debt avoidance, but in those circumstances, what do you do? I guess the only other alternative at the start of the problem would have been a DMP. Whether they would have accepted one with interest and charges frozen is another matter.