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Hello, I’ll try to keep this brief and to the point...
My parents received mail today with 2 letters (one from each of 2 debt collection agencies.) One letter stated that the debt I owed them for £500 had been passed to another agency. The second letter was from the other agency and claimed if I paid up 10 days, I could get away with £80.00. Very kind of them. That’s the first alarm bell. I never heard about this debt before today. The only reference they give is “Santander”. A bank I parted ways with just under 10 years ago! Plus both company letters were in the same envelope. How is that even possible?
It sounds too dodgy, but there could be a shred of evidence that it’s a crossed wire. I left Santander because they wrongly charged me for being 1p (yes, several hundreds of pounds of charges for 1 penny) overdrawn when in fact it was an admin error on their part. Took me 6 months and a threat of ombudsman action to get the charges removed. After this I closed the account and have not heard from them in almost 10 years.
Does this sound like a scam? I’ve not had any of the official debt collection letters. There’s no evidence of the debt being legitimate (which it’s not) and even if it was, don’t bank debts get written off after 6 or 7 years if there’s no contact?
I’m worried about contacting the agencies, firstly because of all the hassle and harassment it will likely involve my parents, who are pensioners (as mentioned before it was sent to their address. I live in another country.) Secondly, because I’m concerned if it’s a scam, that contacting them will alert them that I am real and make them work harder. Who would accept £80.00 to write off £500, without even asking for the full amount first??
what should I do?
any advice would be sincerely gladly received. Thanks, Bob
My parents received mail today with 2 letters (one from each of 2 debt collection agencies.) One letter stated that the debt I owed them for £500 had been passed to another agency. The second letter was from the other agency and claimed if I paid up 10 days, I could get away with £80.00. Very kind of them. That’s the first alarm bell. I never heard about this debt before today. The only reference they give is “Santander”. A bank I parted ways with just under 10 years ago! Plus both company letters were in the same envelope. How is that even possible?
It sounds too dodgy, but there could be a shred of evidence that it’s a crossed wire. I left Santander because they wrongly charged me for being 1p (yes, several hundreds of pounds of charges for 1 penny) overdrawn when in fact it was an admin error on their part. Took me 6 months and a threat of ombudsman action to get the charges removed. After this I closed the account and have not heard from them in almost 10 years.
Does this sound like a scam? I’ve not had any of the official debt collection letters. There’s no evidence of the debt being legitimate (which it’s not) and even if it was, don’t bank debts get written off after 6 or 7 years if there’s no contact?
I’m worried about contacting the agencies, firstly because of all the hassle and harassment it will likely involve my parents, who are pensioners (as mentioned before it was sent to their address. I live in another country.) Secondly, because I’m concerned if it’s a scam, that contacting them will alert them that I am real and make them work harder. Who would accept £80.00 to write off £500, without even asking for the full amount first??
what should I do?
any advice would be sincerely gladly received. Thanks, Bob
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