Lowell Portfolio 1

[NK1]

Hello I am new to this forum and looking for urgent help. I had signed up for a mobile network provider in 2007 and in 2012 i cancelled my contract over the telephone as I had to leave the country for my treatment as I was terminally ill. I thought of continuing the contract and hence kept my direct debit still going- however, due to dispute with the charges for receiving messages on wats app etc which was double the amount of actual contract I call the network provider and disputed the charges and being informed otherwise by their customer service advisor before leaving the country. Although, I had been a very loyal customer for 5 years and never missed a single payment they didn't seem to bother much initially. However, after a few phone calls they agreed to close the contract in november 2012 (this was done over the telephone). As was not in the right state of mind due to all the medication and chemo therapy I didn't think if getting a written confirmation. After that I received a couple of letters from a DCA called Moorfcraft. So I called them and explained the situation and they agreed with everything and apologized and said they would close the account on their system too. Now after 2 years I have returned to the UK and last week I received a letter fromLowell saying they have bought my account from T-mobile on a dodgy T-mobile letter head (printed on a printer at Lowell office). And it the letter from Lowell mentions I owe them XXX amount for the cancellation of contract and xxx amount for airtime. I called them to dispute this and told them what had happened. They immediately accepted to cancel the xxx debt for airtime. However, they said I would need to pay for early termination of contract. I asked them to then send me all the documents/agreements they have from t-mobile for the same- however, they just sent a second letter just splitting down the 2 cost's. As far as I remember I was on a rolling contract at this point of time of my contract and hence t-mobile didn't bother asking for a termination fee. I am currently 5 months pregnant and these horrible letters from lowell are really stressing me out. Please can someone suggest what should I do? Reading a few different websites I have gathered that Lowell are chancer's and can be fraud too. I decided to write to them regarding CCA request. However I have been informed that it doesn't work for mobile contracts. Any suggestions on what can I ask them for instead to prove this? Can I ask them for SAR using below letter template? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Sir or Madam Subject access request Re: Account number xxxxx Please supply the information about me I am entitled to under the Data Protection Act 1998 relating to: • My personnel file • Copies of all statements (between) held in account number). If you need any more information from me, or a fee, please let me know as soon as possible. It may be helpful for you to know that a request for information under the Data Protection Act 1998 should be responded to within 40 days. If you do not normally deal with these requests, please pass this letter to your Data Protection Officer. If you need advice on dealing with this request, the Information Commissioner’s Office can assist you and can be contacted on 0303 123 1113 Yours faithfully ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thanks in advance.

[mark andrew]

Re: Lowell Portfolio 1

Hi nk1,
Mobile contract do not come under the cca they are service agreement you can request a dsar (data subject access request. I will give you the email to the ceo send him a emailing telling him all the issue you have been having and see how you get on

James.cornell@lowellgroup.co.uk

And see how that goes be nice when writing to him you never know

[NK1]

Re: Lowell Portfolio 1

Thanks very much Mark Andrew. I shall do that

[NK1]

Re: Lowell Portfolio 1

Dear Mark Andrew,

Just wanted to Thank you. I did e-mail the CEO as suggested by yourself and they have resolved the matter within 3 working days.

Once again, Thanks very much for your help.

[mark andrew]

Re: Lowell Portfolio 1

Hi nk1,

I happy for you sometimes writing to boss helps they dont like being hassled. Legal beagles is a great site to use keep in touch the site is very addictive.

[Amethyst]

Re: Lowell Portfolio 1

How has it been resolved NK ?

[NK1]

Re: Lowell Portfolio 1

Yup ..it indeed is very addictive. Will do

Amethyst- they have closed my account.

[Amethyst]

Re: Lowell Portfolio 1

That is good news and congratulations too, I hope all goes well for you. xx

[NK1]

Re: Lowell Portfolio 1

Thanks very much Amethyst

[LDAW]

Re: Lowell Portfolio 1

Hi

sorry if this is not the way to do this, I am new to posting on forums but I have a problem with same company which sounds similar.

My husband had a store credit card with Debenhams, which was cancelled in August 2013 due to lack of use. He only found out about this when he tried to use it in store and was told was cancelled. He called Debenhams and they confirmed was closed and no debt owed on the card.

Then in about August this year we received a letter from Lowells Portfolio demanding payment of a debt of £96. My husband has just changed careers and I am 7.5 months pregnant so we don't have the money anyway and this is causing a lot of stress with threats of court action etc, but primarily we are concerned that we don't believe there is any debt owed.

We sent a letter asking for proof of the debt, including the original agreement and notice of assignment from Debenhams. We have since received back a typed 'statement' from December 2012 showing a charge on the card. But this is not on letterhead and quite frankly could have been typed by anyone. They also sent screen printouts showing that a late payment charge was applied to the account on 15 January, with £24 then being paid off on 22 January, but then subsequent late payment charges being applied from February to September 2013 which amount to the alleged debt of £96. The two issues with this are 1) the screen printouts have no name, a different account number and refer at the top to GE Money, a totally new company which has never been referenced before in any correspondence and 2) if these statements do even relate to this account we were never contacted by Debenhams to request payment for any late payment charges or any final alleged debt before this apparently 'sold' to Lowells.

The main issue though seems to me that the 'proof' they have sent is completely unsatisfactory. I would therefore be really grateful for any advice as to what we do in these circumstances.

Many thanks

Laura

[nemesis45]

Re: Lowell Portfolio 1

Hi, Lowell has a raft of old "store card debts with much the problems.Best way forward is a CCA request to Lowell to get a copy of the agreement, and a Subject Access Request under the Data Protection Act 1998 to get all the data held on your husband and the account this goes to GE Money there is a statutory fee of £10 for this and GE have 40 days to comply.
GE Money provided the card and the finance on behalf of Debenhams, and will have applied these penalty charges and interest.
Also check credit reference files Noddle is free, Equifax and Experian have 30 day free trials. Lowell may well have reported the acquisition of the alleged debt.
This debt is all charges and will never see court action.

Alternatively you can write to GE and start a Formal Complaint in regard to the penalty charges, they are unfair because you were not given any opportunity to rectify the problem.
I can help with draft letter if needed.
nem.

[LDAW]

Re: Lowell Portfolio 1

Thanks so very much for the really quick response.

The 'statements' (which really look like they were typed by anyone and surely can't be sufficient evidence of anything!) - were sent by Lowells following an earlier CCA request, in which we specifically also requested the agreement and notice of assignment etc. So given that they have already failed to comply once is there a next stage which we can take with Lovells, i.e. Complaint or referring it to Ombudsman or someone? I think I read somewhere that failure to comply with the CCA request makes the debt unenforceable but not sure how accurate that is?

Is it worth holding off on writing to GE for now? (Though help with any draft letter would be very much appreciated and thanks for the offer!) as I'm wondering if we should just try and dispute with Lovells given that I'm not sure a debt even exists! (Presumably they could have just got print outs for another GE account and tried to say they relate to this? Account number on the screen print outs isn't even the same as the one for my husband's Debenhams account!)