Advice regarding Cabot/Aqua

[User Name]

I had a credit card account with New Day/Aqua which went into default earlier this year. While attempting to negotiate a token payment agreement with Aqua they sold the account to Cabot (although took almost 4 month for them to let me know they sold the account which was slightly annoying as I spent that time trying to negotiate a payment agreement with Aqua). I don't know when exactly the account went into default as I haven't got a default notice ad no default ever appeared on credit reports with any of the credit reference agencies. The Aqua account on all 3 credit reference agencies disappeared at the beginning of April and has never reappeared. I worked it out that when a default should have been placed the account was sold to Cabot - in the past it's always taken 3 to 4 year for one of my debts to be sold from original creditor to DCA, this account was sold in a matter of days.

In July when I found out that the account had been sold to Cabot I sent an email to Cabot to let them know of my situation and that I would like to offer a monthly token payment, despite receiving a confirmation that my email had been received nobody ever got back to me. I started making the token payment and emailed them with offers of token payment and an income and expenditure another twice over the next 3 weeks. I also received confirmation emails that these emails were received but nobody ever got back to me. Although, when I received a text message from them, I then sent Cabot an email advising that I would only communicate in writing or by email, they quickly got back to me that time. I get the impression that they selectively choose which emails to reply to which gives me a very poor impression of their customer service.

In August I suddenly realised that the MasterCard card number they were collecting for is not the same as the card number I had with Aqua so I sent them another email to make them aware of this situation, I also sent a copy of the email to their CEO. Five days later somebody quickly got back to me to let me know they were investigating and that they had logged this as a complaint. They also advised me that their maximum period of time to resolve a complaint was 8 weeks although they would resolve this issue much sooner.

I didn't hear anything more until the 26th September when i received a letter (dated 10th September) to let me know they were still looking into my concerns and that they would let me know if their investigation will take longer than the full eight weeks they have to resolve my complaint - as of today it's been 8 weeks and 1 day since my complaint was made.

Last Monday I made a SAR request, I didn't put any account numbers but did request all information regarding myself or any account which they have that is linked to me. I received a letter this morning that they have received my SAR and that they will now begin to compile the data they hold on me. The letter advised that it could take up to 30 days to compile the information.

The letter stated they have these accounts for me:

New Day - Aqua Mastercard ending xxxx - xxx.xx

Sky Communications Account xxxxxxxxxxxx - 0.00

I've never had a Mastercard which ended with that number and the balance is different from the account I did have. I've never had an account with Sky, I've been using Freeview since 2007 as I don't watch much TV, prior to 2007 it was just terrestrial TV.

Should I let Cabot know that I don't recognise the accounts listed in the letter or just wait until I receive the SAR and check what information is there?

Should I contact Sky to find out why Cabot have a Sky account for me when I've never had an account with Sky? maybe send a SAR to Sky too?

I've also sent a SAR to New Day/Aqua but have yet to hear back from them.

I don't dispute the fact that I have a debt with an Aqua Mastercard but I'm 100% sure the debt that Cabot are chasing is not mine (different card number and different balance).

Any advice on this situation would be appreciated

[Amethyst]

You have done the right thing by sending the SAR - I'd also send one to Aqua(new day) and to Sky. That should get you all information you need to take your complaint forward to the ombudsman if Cabot don't sort it out xxx

[User Name]

Okay, I sent a SAR to Cabot, Aqua and Sky.

Sky advised they couldn't comply with the SAR as there was no information linked to me at my current or any previous address which is what I expected as I've never had an account with them.

Both Cabot and Aqua/New Day have complied with the SAR requests. It would appear that the card number Cabot are claiming the debt for isn't actually the card number, it's actually an account number.

The account number has never appeared on any correspondence received from Aqua but there is a note of it on some of the paperwork received in the SAR from Aqua. There is also a note of the card number on some of the paperwork received from the SAR from Cabot although on the one occasion when I tried to call Cabot (a few days before sending the SAR request) I gave customer service the Aqua card number and they couldn't find an account for me.

I don't know why Cabot didn't just use the card number on their correspondence rather than an account number from Aqua that the original creditor has never mentioned on any piece of correspondence. When Cabot constantly refer to this account number as the card number it causes a lot of confusion.

I sent an email to Aqua/New Day CEO to query this issue and also asked them to confirm the outstanding balance of the account at the time the debt was sold to Cabot. They advised they couldn't discuss the account numbers due to security considerations but that the account number Cabot had was correct. However, the balance they gave me was not the balance at the time the account was sold, it was actually the balance of what was owed to Cabot after several token payments had been made which makes me think they had to contact Cabot for the information.

Something else I noticed in both the SAR from Cabot and Aqua was that there was no default notice. There was never any default registered on any of the credit reference agencies. When the marker on the credit reports should have updated to default the account disappeared from all 3 agencies which I did find strange at the time, no marker was ever put back on by either Aqua or Cabot. There is a letter from Aqua which is titled Default Notice, but it was sent 10 days before the account was terminated and only appears to cover what I think is arrears on the account which is made up mostly of charges and interest (at the time Aqua sold the account to Cabot, 22% of the total balance was made up of charges and interest from Aqua).

It would appear the debt was sold to Cabot only a few days after the account should have been updated as a default, I've never known a debt to be sold to a DCA that fast.