Santander debt sold to Cabot Financial

[Optimist00]

I got into serious financial difficulty in 2022 and defaulted on a Santander credit card. I wrote to Santander at the time explaining my financial situation including an income and expenditure form. Santander acknowledged my letter. I didn't hear anything again until last month with a letter from Santander explaining that they had sold the debt. Then another letter this month from Santander advising that they had sold the debt on to Cabot Financial with a letter from Cabot enclosed.

The credit card was opened in 2018 so fairly recently so I assume the CCA would be easy to obtain.
Should I engage with Cabot Financial? I was always advised to engage with debt collecting agencies. Or should I wait until I receive a pre action letter or actual court action and respond appropriately? I'm comfortable fielding / dealing with legal situations. What is the consensus. I'm appreciative of any advice. Thanks,

[echat11]

What you can do is send Santander a SAR, they have 30 days to respond.

https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...ccess-request/

Then you should lodge a formal complaint, you sent a letter with I & E, but they didn't respond beyond the acknowledgement, follow the procedure on their website.

What I would also do, is raise a dispute with Cabot, your dispute is that you contacted Santander but they failed to respond to your letter with I & E in a meaningful way, instead selling your account to Cabot.

[Optimist00]

Thanks for the response. As per my post Santander did acknowledge receipt of my letter with the I and E.

What is the consensus on engaging with companies like Cabot? Engage with them or ride it out until court action and hope to get the case dismissed on a technicality or settle at a late stage? Risky strategy perhaps.

For transparency I have several defaulted credit card debts. Some but not all have been moved to debt collection companies either sold or for administration. I have been engaging with other debt collector creditors providing updates on my financial situation etc.

There seems to be a differing of opinion on here whether to engage with them or not? Or to only engage when you have to? I suppose the age of the original credit agreement may play a part in this strategy.

Any views welcomed

[echat11]

Thanks for the response. As per my post Santander did acknowledge receipt of my letter with the I and E.

What is the consensus on engaging with companies like Cabot? Engage with them or ride it out until court action and hope to get the case dismissed on a technicality or settle at a late stage? Risky strategy perhaps.

For transparency I have several defaulted credit card debts. Some but not all have been moved to debt collection companies either sold or for administration. I have been engaging with other debt collector creditors providing updates on my financial situation etc.

There seems to be a differing of opinion on here whether to engage with them or not? Or to only engage when you have to? I suppose the age of the original credit agreement may play a part in this strategy.

Any views welcomed

I think it's better to 'engage', if you ignore, then say the matter reaches Court, the Creditor will say, we sent this, we sent that etc. We tried to help the 'Defendant' find a solution. The Defendant just ignored the letters, the Judge has a 'negative' outlook on the Defendants conduct. The Defendant is on the 'back foot' because of their 'conduct'.