Possible court action.

[Nottingham2013]

Hi,

I have 2 credit card debts with Lowells, one for £1100 and one for over £2,000. The smaller one is statute barred but the larger one isn't for another few months. Fredricksons have recently started pushing me for the smaller one, they are threatening court action. What seems to have provoked them into this is that last year I opened a Barclaycard initial credit card and Lowells sent me a letter saying after looking at how I am managing credit elsewhere I should be able to pay them, before this it had been quiet for a long time.

I am hoping you guys can help me, I don't want to tell them the smaller one is statute barred incase they look at the other one that isn't. Is there anyway I can stall them for few months until the larger one becomes statute barred also?

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Possible court action.

Hi and welcome to LB

Have Freds mentioned the other card at all? If not, they may not even have been assigned that one for collection, otherwise why bother you with a small debt when they could bother you with both a big and a small debt? :noidea:

There is no harm in telling them the account they are chasing is SBd, the SB letter does have to quote an account number, so just quote the account of the SBd card and leave out any mention of the other one.

If you later hear from Freds, Lowell, or anyone else, about the other one, then post up here and we'll guide you. :thumb:

It's always good to keep the communication open, especially where Lowell are concerned.

^^^I am intrigued as to why you headed your threat "Possible court action". Have you received any threats of legal action?

[Nottingham2013]

Re: Possible court action.

Hi FP,

There's no mention of the other card. I received a letter at the end of November from Lowell's saying if I don't agree a repayment plan in 7 days they will pass it to Fredrickson and if I don't agree a plan with them they will pass it to a solicitors, then if I still don't pay the solicitors will make an application for a CCJ.

A few weeks later I received a letter from Fredrickson saying they have been assigned the debt and then I received the latest letter which says they are considering court action and list the costs ect.

After looking around on this forum aren't Fredrickson and Lowells the same company? If I tell Freds it's barred they are surely going to tell Lowells who may then take another look at my other account?

[Nottingham2013]

Re: Possible court action.

Sorry I missed the bottom of the post. Yeh the last letter had 'Letter before action' written on it in bold and went on to say how they are going to pass it to a solicitor.

Is this substantial or just the usual nonsense DCA's throw out?

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Possible court action.

Hi FP,

There's no mention of the other card. I received a letter at the end of November from Lowell's saying if I don't agree a repayment plan in 7 days they will pass it to Fredrickson and if I don't agree a plan with them they will pass it to a solicitors, then if I still don't pay the solicitors will make an application for a CCJ.

A few weeks later I received a letter from Fredrickson saying they have been assigned the debt and then I received the latest letter which says they are considering court action and list the costs ect.

After looking around on this forum aren't Fredrickson and Lowells the same company? If I tell Freds it's barred they are surely going to tell Lowells who may then take another look at my other account?

If you don't tell them it's SBd they may well issue a claim. A claim can still be issued for SBd debt and neither Freds nor Lowell are likely to know that this account is SBd, debts are bought/assigned in bulk with very little information about them.

If a claim is issued, you could defend using SBd which is an absolute defence, but why let it get to that stage when you can just warn them now. They may not make the connection with the other card, you never know, however, if they do, there are ways you can stall them, such as by sending a CCA request. I wouldn't do that just yet though, not unless they do contact you. :thumb:

Sorry I missed the bottom of the post. Yeh the last letter had 'Letter before action' written on it in bold and went on to say how they are going to pass it to a solicitor.

Is this substantial or just the usual nonsense DCA's throw out?

Sounds like in this case, it was the usual nonsense, however, it can be hard to tell, since genuine letters before action are most often NOT headed as such, and many that obviously aren't, use that heading just to scare people into paying.

Normally if the letter is written by solicitors (as opposed to the DCA), it should be regarded as a proper LBA. In this case all this is a bit academic, since they clearly didn't take any action, but it's never a good idea to ignore letters before action.

[Nottingham2013]

Re: Possible court action.

If you don't tell them it's SBd they may well issue a claim. A claim can still be issued for SBd debt and neither Freds nor Lowell are likely to know that this account is SBd, debts are bought/assigned in bulk with very little information about them.

If a claim is issued, you could defend using SBd which is an absolute defence, but why let it get to that stage when you can just warn them now. They may not make the connection with the other card, you never know, however, if they do, there are ways you can stall them, such as by sending a CCA request. I wouldn't do that just yet though, not unless they do contact you. :thumb:

Sounds like in this case, it was the usual nonsense, however, it can be hard to tell, since genuine letters before action are most often NOT headed as such, and many that obviously aren't, use that heading just to scare people into paying.

Normally if the letter is written by solicitors (as opposed to the DCA), it should be regarded as a proper LBA. In this case all this is a bit academic, since they clearly didn't take any action, but it's never a good idea to ignore letters before action.

Will they issue me with a statutory demand when they are being serious? I think it could be a good idea to wait until as late as possible then ask for a CCA for this one, cause as much delay as possible. I suppose the question is if I just ignore everything and they do issue court proceedings how much hassle will this cause me?

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Possible court action.

Will they issue me with a statutory demand when they are being serious?

They could do (Lowell love them :wub:, but Cel would be standing by to squash them as she always does.

I think it could be a good idea to wait until as late as possible then ask for a CCA for this one, cause as much delay as possible.

I agree, don't contact them about that other account unless they contact you first.

I suppose the question is if I just ignore everything and they do issue court proceedings how much hassle will this cause me?

A lot of hassle!

Prevention is always better than cure! :thumb:

[Nottingham2013]

Re: Possible court action.

Your emoticons are taking the edge off the stress of this haha.

Will I know when they are about to issue proceedings? Another thing about this account was I wrote to the original creditor a couple of months ago (It was already statute barred) to request they remove the default from my file but they said they wasn't able to find my account using my name or address. It makes me think they would have trouble producing a CCA?

[QCKate]

Re: Possible court action.

Dont complicate matters!!!! Just follow the excellent advice being given by Flaming Parrot.

QCK

[Nottingham2013]

Re: Possible court action.

I just want to cause them as much delay as possible using the account that is barred, if I can keep their attention on that one for a few months I'll be home and dry.

Looking around on here it looks like the next step will be for Freds to pass the account to BC solicitors, once that happens are proceedings imminent or can I mess them around for a while?

[Nottingham2013]

Re: Possible court action.

In hindsight I should have called this thread 'Stalling tactics' haha.

[wales01man]

Re: Possible court action.

My advice right or wrong is to ignore everything except court action its a merry go round of stupid threatening letters from a succession of DCAs I am positive if they were 100% sure of winning a CCJ and getting full payment that's where they would go ASAP.

The other way is for a debtor to pay in full or sort out a payment plan not my way cos I aint got it to pay but everyone has a choice,

[Nottingham2013]

Re: Possible court action.

I was thinking if I respond now it could encourage them as I have never contacted them, of course I don't want the hassle of dealing with the courts so I would respond to prevent that.

If it does get to BC solicitors do they usually go for a CCJ or are they just as likely to send nonsense threats and never act on it?

[charharp]

Re: Possible court action.

I've received letters from Fred's promising court action, seems to me they do it just to try and smoke you out of your hole. Stay silent as long as possible and then hit them with a CCA request if they try to go a step further.. If you still need further delays after that it may be a good idea to start negotiating a repayment plan, as the debt is barred it can not become unbarred so you will give them hope and waste their time. Even if you make a payment it is still barred, so giving them £5 a month until the other is barred could be money well spent. Try everything with them if you have to, just lost your job, bereavement, going travelling and will discuss it when you get back. Have no morals when dealing with that scum.

[Nottingham2013]

Re: Possible court action.

How long is it likely to take for Freds to pass it on to BC? I've just been looking at another thread on here and it took 5 months from Freds having it to BC going for a CCJ so I should have some time.