Back to UK and been contacted by Lowells..

[Giuseppe]

Good evening folks, apologies if the topic has been already discussed (if this the case, please combine the theads or redirect me to the relevant one).

I left England in 2010, and pointless to say some debts behind.. Came back in August 2014 and received a letter from Lowells, is now September, claiming I owe £51 to Orange and that they have been instructed to collect the debt, so apparentely my presence has been somehow detected (I guess having applied for a mobile on contract is the answer..)

Now, to cut a long story short: if my memory doesn't fail me, I should have another 2 debts for a total of nearly £1000 "hanging around" and scared to death that a CCJ has been issued in these years and soon my bank accounts and wages will be seized to pay the debts; my situation at the moment is that I live in a rented accomodation (without contract though) and do not own any valuable asset anywhere on this planet so the only source to be bleed dry is, again, my bank account with my wages in it.

First question is: in order to gain some time, and have full use of my money, is there a way to get paid my wages without them being seized by the Court or my creditors (i.e. being paid in a PayPal account or Prepaid Credit Card or whatever..)?

Second question is: I have family abroad and I'm genuinely unable with the current salary to afford to pay back the debt (65% of my wages goes to my family and the rest to pay my accomodation and basic bills) so wondering how to approach the matter if the Court, or worse the bailiffs, will knock at my door looking for £££.

I'm sure the topic has been explained over and over again, but as you can assume "specific situations/problems require specific solutions".

I appreciate all the advices and suggestion you might give me and I hope they will be as well useful for others in need like me.

Cheers!

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Back to UK and been contacted by Lowells..

Welcome to LB

Good evening folks, apologies if the topic has been already discussed (if this the case, please combine the theads or redirect me to the relevant one).

I left England in 2010, and pointless to say some debts behind.. Came back in August 2014 and received a letter from Lowells, is now September, claiming I owe £51 to Orange and that they have been instructed to collect the debt, so apparentely my presence has been somehow detected (I guess having applied for a mobile on contract is the answer..)

Very likely...

Now, to cut a long story short: if my memory doesn't fail me, I should have another 2 debts for a total of nearly £1000 "hanging around" and scared to death that a CCJ has been issued in these years

Before going forward, you need to check if there are, in fact, any CCJs against you and this is the place to search the record: http://www.trustonline.org.uk/ Any judgment obtained in the last 6 years should be there.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Back to UK and been contacted by Lowells..

and soon my bank accounts and wages will be seized to pay the debts; my situation at the moment is that I live in a rented accomodation (without contract though) and do not own any valuable asset anywhere on this planet so the only source to be bleed dry is, again, my bank account with my wages in it.

I don't know which country you've been living in, but in the UK you don't automatically have your bank accounts and wages seized to repay debts. You don't even know whether there's a CCJ against you, the first step is to find that out as above.

If you find there is a CCJ, check when it was issued. That's important because if the creditor doesn't apply to the court to enforce a CCJ in the first 6 years, they cannot enforce it later. So I wouldn't do anyone upon discovery of a CCJ, not until (if) you hear from someone.

You won't have your money automatically seized from your bank. If a creditor is attempting to enforce a CCJ via an attachment of earnings order to deduct money from your wages or a third party order to take money from your bank account, you can always make an monthly installment offer to repay the CCJ. However, we're getting ahead of ourselves, since there may not even be an CCJs in the first place!

First question is: in order to gain some time, and have full use of my money, is there a way to get paid my wages without them being seized by the Court or my creditors (i.e. being paid in a PayPal account or Prepaid Credit Card or whatever..)?

See above, you don't need to do that.

Second question is: I have family abroad and I'm genuinely unable with the current salary to afford to pay back the debt (65% of my wages goes to my family and the rest to pay my accomodation and basic bills) so wondering how to approach the matter if the Court, or worse the bailiffs, will knock at my door looking for £££.

Go check the CCJ records before going further... No point worrying about something that may never happen. In the event there was a CCJ and the creditor was attempting to enforce it, you'd send them an income and expenditure form showing how much you can afford to pay every month. Some people pay just £1 a month and the creditor has to accept it if that's all you can afford. But let's take one step at a time! :thumb:

[nemesis45]

Re: Back to UK and been contacted by Lowells..

Also get a free 30 day trial on Equifax and/or Experian or sign up to free Noddle credit reference agencies this should show you all your debt/accounts under 6 years old and will also show you who now owns those accounts and the status of the debts i.e defaulted or not.
Please remember to cancel free trials by phone and post well before the trial period expires otherwise you will be automatically signed up for a monthly subscription.

[Giuseppe]

Re: Back to UK and been contacted by Lowells..

Ok, thanks both of you guys. I just used NODDLE and came out that a credit card debt of £1600 is in default and other £700 (among other 3 lenders) are in default.

Now, I'd appreciate if someone could explain to me, as you would do to Average Joe:

1) what default in this case means
2) best options I have at the moment towards my lenders conconsidering I cant't afford to repay the debt (basically what to do...).

Thank you!

[Kafka]

Re: Back to UK and been contacted by Lowells..

Ok, thanks both of you guys. I just used NODDLE and came out that a credit card debt of £1600 is in default and other £700 (among other 3 lenders) are in default.

Now, I'd appreciate if someone could explain to me, as you would do to Average Joe:

1) what default in this case means
2) best options I have at the moment towards my lenders conconsidering I cant't afford to repay the debt (basically what to do...).

Thank you!

When an account has been placed into formal default it means that the agreement has been terminated because you have not kept to the agreement. The presence of any default on your credit file will seriously affect your ability to obtain credit and the default will remain for 6 years.

The debts still exist though, and at some point you can expect to be chased for the outstanding amount. The owner may chase you sooner or later, but often the debts are written off and sold on to debt collection agencies for a pittance. Ultimately, if you don't respond to demands for repayment then you are likely to get legal action started by DCAs. You may be able to fight them off depending on what paperwork they have and how old they are, as old accounts generally have shakier documentation.

There is a possibility that no-one will chase you and if the debts pass the 6-year Limitation period without you paying or acknowledging them, then they becone statute barred and can no longer be chased successfully. More likely though, a DCA will file a claim before the 6 years expires.

[Giuseppe]

Re: Back to UK and been contacted by Lowells..

Thanks Kafka!
Considering that you mentioned it in your post, I'd appreciate if someone could tell me which documents they MUST provide in order to make their claims "valid" (either in front of a Court or to me in the first place).

When I asked Lowell about a copy of the signed agreement they replied "Unfortunately, because the balance requested for payment is a service agreement and not a credit agreement as defined by the Consumer Credit Act 1974 are client cannot provide this documentation. I can request some statements for you if that would be beneficial? ".

Are they obliged by law to give evidence of these debts (with the original copy of the contract or agreement for example) in order to legally claim them?

Cheers.

[Kafka]

Re: Back to UK and been contacted by Lowells..

A challenge to the enforceability of an agreement can be done under the Consumer Credit Act if the claimant doesn't provide requested documentation or if the copy agreement supplied isn't legible, is incomplete, or doesn't contain certain 'prescribed terms' within the signed agreement. That only applies to regulated loans, so isn't applicable to bank overdrafts or mobile contracts, which are service agreements, not credit agreements. You can demand sight of a service agreement if you want to check the details, but you cannot challenge it under the CCA like credit agreements.

[nemesis45]

Re: Back to UK and been contacted by Lowells..

A challenge to the enforceability of an agreement can be done under the Consumer Credit Act if the claimant doesn't provide requested documentation or if the copy agreement supplied isn't legible, is incomplete, or doesn't contain certain 'prescribed terms' within the signed agreement. That only applies to regulated loans, so isn't applicable to bank overdrafts or mobile contracts, which are service agreements, not credit agreements. You can demand sight of a service agreement if you want to check the details, but you cannot challenge it under the CCA like credit agreements.

There is one other approach for obtaining " personal data" that is a Subject Access Request (SAR) made under the provisions of the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998 this requires the Original creditor/ service provider to produce all the data relating to you that it hold on its files.

The is £10 statutory fee to pay and the service provider has 40 days to comply.
Address to the Data Controller at the providers head office.

[Kafka]

Re: Back to UK and been contacted by Lowells..

The SAR is very useful and in my experience it is always £10 well spent. The problem is often with the 40-day period mentioned, because if a claim has been filed then you may well have to file your defence before the SAR arrives. You can preempt this by sending SAR to every firm where you think there may be an outstanding debt, so that you are forearmed with what the original creditors hold on file, because that's all that a DCA can access, other than constructing documents themselves. Because the SAR goes to the OC - regardless of who the present owner is - it doesn't raise queries with a DCA either, and people use SARs for many reasons, not just dealing with debts.

I should add that there is one other way that you can demand disclosure of certain documents and that is a CPR request, which falls under the court's Civil Procedure Rules. Basically once a claim is filed - or directly threatened - you can apply to the issuing solicitors for copies of documents that are mentioned in the particulars of claim, which are often the credit agreement, the default notice and the notice of assignment. Because they have to respond within 14 days you have more chance of getting these before your defence is due in, and if they fail to comply - as with the CCA request - that can all be used in your defence. While the CPR request gives you a useful but limited amount of disclosure it is helpful, but as already said, it's really the CCA request that allows you to challenge an agreement in some cases.

In the case of Orange the amount is only £51, so you have to decide whether its easier to pay that or if you feel its worth fighting if it is only charges that you dispute. You do still have time to send SAR to clarify that. For the other accounts I'd also recommend send SAR to the original creditors in each case so that you can prepare for any later dealings with DCAs. They will often file a claim against you almost 6 years after your last payment/contact in order to stop the debt becoming statute barred under the Limitations Act.

[Giuseppe]

Re: Back to UK and been contacted by Lowells..

Thanks everyone for your help, really appreciated. I might consider to ask for advice to PayPlan: any good..?

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Back to UK and been contacted by Lowells..

Thanks everyone for your help, really appreciated. I might consider to ask for advice to PayPlan: any good..?

Why would you need to go to PayPlan when you have already received a lot of good advice from fellow beagles above?

As the name indicates, PAYPlan set up repayment plans. That may be useful for some people who have a lot of creditors and owe larger amounts and may wish to get someone else to negotiate with creditors and manage repayments. Looking at what you've posted above, I doubt it would be of any benefit to you at this stage. If you haven't paid anything since 2010, your debts are just over a year away from becoming statute barred, provided there is no payment or WRITTEN ACKNOWLEDGMENT of the debt before the 6 years are up. If you contact PayPlan they'll want to contact your creditors on your behalf to set up a repayment plan and that would be acknowledging the debt. :scared: You would be losing all these years you haven't paid!

A SAR or a CCA request does not constitute acknowledgment of the debt, it's your lawful right to request that information, however, any repayment offer would be acknowledgment. I also have cards I've not paid since Jan 2010 and personally the last thing I would be doing at this stage would be contacting Payplan! :nono:

[nemesis45]

Re: Back to UK and been contacted by Lowells..

Totally agree with above, approaching and DMC ay this stage would be a big mistake get a SAR done asap, not all creditors are slow to respond especially if you have account number and dates of the account.