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Dear All,
I only found this website and thread over Christmas after paying back debt via the usual suspects Lowell, Hoist, Cabot/Westcott & Link Financial since getting caught in the 'easy' Credit Card trap of the late 90s & early noughties. I have been managing these debts myself completing affordability tables and making monthly payments since the very start - in the case of Lowell.since back in 07.
However I now find having read many threads that much of this could be UE due to a lack of original CCA paperwork. (Thanks for being here and a font of wisdom!) So I have done the following, with the results listed :- Link I leave until last:
All defaults have now dropped from my Credit Rating which is thankfully back to being good. I sent the National Debtline template letter and £1 p/o or cheque to all concerned by RecDel in early January.
Lowell: Replied within 10 days with their standard 12 day/40day letter - accounts on hold/ wont contact you for payment. etc. I have recently realised they hadnt sent me any statements for one of the accounts they 'manage' since 2018. The two accounts they have were started in the late 90s and defaulted in 2007, so I would be surprised if a CCA is forthcoming. I have been paying a small amount monthly which they havent reviewed since at least 2016 so I plan to stop this and await anything further.
Hoist: - They sent me back my postal order and said would be in contact, after 3 weeks I rang them to be told we haven't got your CCA, and they actually volunteered that I didnt need to pay anything further until they found it. I was expecting this one to be the easiest to find as it was an Aqua card from 07/08 or so. But I will wait until/if they get back to me.
Cabot: - They responded regarding an Egg account within 5 days to say its UE and they havent got anything - but please keep making payments.... I wont be.
Cabot/Wescot:- A very old NWB credit card from the early 90s which was assigned to them in 2017. They have recently written to say its UE as theyve written to NWB but cant find it (yet). Since the CCA is almost 30 years old, I suspect it has long since disappeared into landfill. Their template letter is asking me to contact them to set up a payment plan, as obviously they dont have a template for people that are paying thru Westcot. I will give Cabot until Mid March and write to both them and Wescot to say I am suspending payments until such time they can provide a True Copy etc.
Now. Link Financial.. I never received an acknowledgement letter for my CCA Req although having checked the RecDel records it has been received and signed for. I phoned in late Jan to be told 'oh its probably stuck in the Christmas post bags'..Yeah right... and then the chap said 'We have got your CCA, let me check with my manger if I can send it to you'.. I was put on hold for 20 seconds, then he said yes we will send it to you. This sounded rather fishy so after another week of nothing. I phoned again, to be told by someone a little more honest that, my original letter probably hadnt been put on their systems yet but that they had actually requested my CCA just after my previous call and that I should contact them in 6-8 weeks for an update. They seem to be deliberately backward at providing any written response
Having read that LF seem to be the most awkward/difficult of the various companies to deal with, I thought I should check what the general consensus is on the forum. This is for a Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (remember their brief UK appearance?!) card Isigned up for in the late 90s, which Morgan Stanley assigned to Goldfish sometime prior to 08, and then Barclaycard took it on from that year on. BCard then transferred it to LF in late 2016 and its been with them since.
Surely they will have to provide my original MSDW CCA and not some reconstituted BCard version from 08 (which I understand can be their MO, and of course I never signed up to) I was intending to give them until late March and just write in the same vein as my letter to Cabot. - Its UE, Im suspending payments until they can produce etc etc..
I havent mentioned in my correspndence that its a MSDW account, indeed they only ever refer to Barclaycard. Luckily I still have a hardcopy credit report from 2005 that lists all the Agreement dates etc of the cards that I had at that time, which have long since disappeared from any current Credit Reports, but the account numbers all tie in with the current LF account.
Id be grateful for the forums views/advice on the above. Many Thanks
I only found this website and thread over Christmas after paying back debt via the usual suspects Lowell, Hoist, Cabot/Westcott & Link Financial since getting caught in the 'easy' Credit Card trap of the late 90s & early noughties. I have been managing these debts myself completing affordability tables and making monthly payments since the very start - in the case of Lowell.since back in 07.
However I now find having read many threads that much of this could be UE due to a lack of original CCA paperwork. (Thanks for being here and a font of wisdom!) So I have done the following, with the results listed :- Link I leave until last:
All defaults have now dropped from my Credit Rating which is thankfully back to being good. I sent the National Debtline template letter and £1 p/o or cheque to all concerned by RecDel in early January.
Lowell: Replied within 10 days with their standard 12 day/40day letter - accounts on hold/ wont contact you for payment. etc. I have recently realised they hadnt sent me any statements for one of the accounts they 'manage' since 2018. The two accounts they have were started in the late 90s and defaulted in 2007, so I would be surprised if a CCA is forthcoming. I have been paying a small amount monthly which they havent reviewed since at least 2016 so I plan to stop this and await anything further.
Hoist: - They sent me back my postal order and said would be in contact, after 3 weeks I rang them to be told we haven't got your CCA, and they actually volunteered that I didnt need to pay anything further until they found it. I was expecting this one to be the easiest to find as it was an Aqua card from 07/08 or so. But I will wait until/if they get back to me.
Cabot: - They responded regarding an Egg account within 5 days to say its UE and they havent got anything - but please keep making payments.... I wont be.
Cabot/Wescot:- A very old NWB credit card from the early 90s which was assigned to them in 2017. They have recently written to say its UE as theyve written to NWB but cant find it (yet). Since the CCA is almost 30 years old, I suspect it has long since disappeared into landfill. Their template letter is asking me to contact them to set up a payment plan, as obviously they dont have a template for people that are paying thru Westcot. I will give Cabot until Mid March and write to both them and Wescot to say I am suspending payments until such time they can provide a True Copy etc.
Now. Link Financial.. I never received an acknowledgement letter for my CCA Req although having checked the RecDel records it has been received and signed for. I phoned in late Jan to be told 'oh its probably stuck in the Christmas post bags'..Yeah right... and then the chap said 'We have got your CCA, let me check with my manger if I can send it to you'.. I was put on hold for 20 seconds, then he said yes we will send it to you. This sounded rather fishy so after another week of nothing. I phoned again, to be told by someone a little more honest that, my original letter probably hadnt been put on their systems yet but that they had actually requested my CCA just after my previous call and that I should contact them in 6-8 weeks for an update. They seem to be deliberately backward at providing any written response
Having read that LF seem to be the most awkward/difficult of the various companies to deal with, I thought I should check what the general consensus is on the forum. This is for a Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (remember their brief UK appearance?!) card Isigned up for in the late 90s, which Morgan Stanley assigned to Goldfish sometime prior to 08, and then Barclaycard took it on from that year on. BCard then transferred it to LF in late 2016 and its been with them since.
Surely they will have to provide my original MSDW CCA and not some reconstituted BCard version from 08 (which I understand can be their MO, and of course I never signed up to) I was intending to give them until late March and just write in the same vein as my letter to Cabot. - Its UE, Im suspending payments until they can produce etc etc..
I havent mentioned in my correspndence that its a MSDW account, indeed they only ever refer to Barclaycard. Luckily I still have a hardcopy credit report from 2005 that lists all the Agreement dates etc of the cards that I had at that time, which have long since disappeared from any current Credit Reports, but the account numbers all tie in with the current LF account.
Id be grateful for the forums views/advice on the above. Many Thanks
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