Marlin, Cabot and Mortimer Clarke

[Sazzy18]

Hi I am hoping for some advice

I had a credit card with HSBC some time ago which was defaulted in 2010 ( i think) approx £7k
I ignored all chasing and it finally got passed to marlin. I did not engage with Marlin at all until one day they sent me a letter offer settlement at £1500. I immediately paid this and confirmed i had accepted this offer, however i tried to pay over the phone first and they said something about an error so i hung up and paid online. I cannot find any of this paperwork now and even my emails are long gone from then. I think this was 2014.

All was quiet for about 3 years and i thought it had gone away. In the last few months i have been getting letters from Cabot, who i assume have now bought the debt. I have been ignoring these up till now. They have also been calling but i have them blocked.

Last week i received a letter saying that they would be referring me to Mortimer Clarke and last night i had a voice mail from Mortimer Clarke

Clearly this isn't going to go away so am after advice on how to deal with it now. I don't want to end up in court!

Balance is about £5k now. I have £2k i could offer as a full and final or i could set up a payment plan.

However, i do feel they gave me an offer i took before but no longer have any paperwork for it.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[R0b]

Hello

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but the general rule of thumb is to keep all correspondence etc. for a minimum of 6 years, which is the limitation period whereby creditors can pursue you through the courts. More importantly, you should keep records of transactions and payments for that period from when that payment was made otherwise you could land yourself in situations such as this.

Did you physically delete the emails from your account (have you double checked?) or do you no longer have access to it?

Also, do you remember the bank account you used to make that transaction and is it still a live account? If not, when did you close it down? Are you absolutely certain that a payment was made?

Amethyst might be able to confirm, but I think Cabot bought Marlin at some stage? Either way your best bet is to make a subject access request to Marlin/Cabot and see what information is held about you. A SAR should also be sent to your bank for copies of statements and other information they hold to verify that the payment was in fact made.

Failing that, it would seem based on the background you provided, any claim would be statute barred.

I have a couple of template subject access request letters if you click on the link in my signature its under the Data Protection sub-heading.

[Sazzy18]

Thank you for your response

I still use the email account, it just doesn't seem to go back that far, i have contacted the provider to see if they can assist. I had copies on a laptop, which unfortunately no longer works, should have saved them elsewhere.

Bank account still live and i could find the transaction on there

Payment was made December 2014, which i think means its not statue barred unfortunately.

I can send a SAR to Cabot will get that done now.

Does anyone have any idea of what they are likely to settle for? i would like to just get it done and move on really

[Amethyst]

Hmmm definitely the SAR to Marlin. And to HSBC for that matter.

Have you sent a CCA request to Cabot ? I'd do that now too.

I'd then write to MC and say you settled in full and final in Dec 2014 with Marlin ( enclose your bank statement showing the payment ) and inform them you have sent a SAR to Marlin, HSBC and a CCA to Cabot, asking them to put the account on hold while you obtain documentation in order to consider your position with regards the debt.

Then once you have that info and if it doesn't back up your understanding of the f&f settlement, and If you want to negotiate start at 25% and work up to your maximum ( 50% with £2k now and £500 in installments )

[R0b]

In that case, I think you need to take steps to locate that payment transaction around December 2014. If the bank account is still live, then why not pop into the branch and get them to verify that a payment was made for that sum of money. If that is the case, ask for them to print you a copy of that month's statement (sometimes they charge but if you are polite enough they might email or print for free).

Always bear in mind that for civil claims, judgments are made on a balance of probabilities meaning that you do not need 100% proof of all emails and transactions that confirms you settled the claim back in 2014, you just need enough evidence to tip the scales 51% in your favour. If you can show that there was a transaction made to Marlin for that sum of money and Cabot are unable to provide anything to the contrary, it is plausible that a judge may find in your favour.

Difficult to say what they might settle for, maybe Amethyst can comment on that but I would think at least nothing less than 50% of the amount that is allegedly owed - best case scenario you may be able to get this down to 30% in full and final settlement.

I wonder perhaps how Cabot have calculated this amount to be owed and whether they have factored in the £1,500 payment you've made. I think it might be best to not make any remarks about that until your position is clearer and you have the evidence you need, but that shouldn't stop you from finding out how the amount is calculated - hopefully the SAR should shed some light on that.

When you say the laptop no longer works, is it repairable? Also depending on the make and model, it might be possible to take apart the laptop and assuming there is a hard drive which still works, you could remove that and potentially access your documents via another laptop.

Also, for future reference I tend to use the 3-2-1 rule when it comes to important documents which you may want to consider:

3 copies are made
2 different media forms e.g. physical paper, USB memory stick, DVD, cloud storage etc.
1 backup off-site e.g. cloud storage or other media forms held somewhere else at another premises.

That way, you should always have access to the information you need anywhere you are. If using cloud for storage, you should make sure it is encrypted i.e. password-protected with a strong password before uploading it.

[Sazzy18]

thank you both

SAR and CCA request are on way to Cabot.

i will send a SAR to HSBC to today.
Are Marlin still about? I was under the impression they were now owned by Cabot? if not i will send them a SAR as weel

my concern was giving them the opportunity to prove they have the CCA may mean they are less likely to settle

[Amethyst]

Marlin are Cabot now, yes, so the SAR to Cabot should cover it.

[Sazzy18]

I have now recieved a letter from MC and it has given me the option to request so i have ticked and returned and also advised that Cabot have a SAR and CCA request already

They also encolsed a statement that confirmed the payment in December 2014 and the amount they are now chasing does not include that

[Sazzy18]

Just wanted to update
Cabot have today confirmed that i paid a full and final in 2014 and they will be closing the account

[Amethyst]

That's good to hear, seems something got lost in translation between Marlin and Cabot - it's a good job you pointed it out to them.... they've obviously checked their records and agreed they should have closed the debt off.... hopefully that should be the end of it