BPF 10k 'loan' mis-sold?

[teryb84]

Hello all, thanks for reading.

I'm getting letters at the moment from CAPQUEST who have bought a debt from Barclays Partner Finance. In 2008 I was taken by the idea of doing a Computeach course, I applied online and a salesman came calling. I was in a low paid job at the time and he promised me the world, I was suckered in. During the application he never mentioned I was signing up for a loan, I was told that Barclays were sponsoring students to do courses and didn't realize (stupidly) that I'd signed up for this loan. There was no way I would have done as I had no realistic means of repaying it. I decided after a few weeks that I didn't want to do the course so I attempted to cancel it. I was told at the time that I couldn't as I was outside of the 14 day 'cool off' period. I told them that I had no intention of doing the course and that I didn't wish to be sent any material. Never spoke to them again.

Fast forward 1 or 2 years and BPF start taking payment from my account. Rang them to find out what was happening and they explained the situation. I told them that I had no idea I was liable for this money and that I hadn't undertaken the course, therefore to seek the money from computeach. I cancelled the DD and shortly afterwards moved house.

Fast forward to a few months ago, I registered for experian and saw the default on my account, Aug 2010 I think, and not long after I started getting letters from CAPQUEST. Now I'm only 12 months away from it being statute barred so naturally they're going to throw all they can at it to get a resolution.

I emailed Computeach to find out how much an SAR would cost (wasn't aware it was £10) and they stated the only info they had on file was a start and end date for the course, my name and address. No correspondence, no records of me being there, nothing. I rang BPF earlier tonight to speak about the debt (I'm wary about doing it in writing as I don't want to acknowledge the debt) and explained the situation to the lovely woman who said it sounds like I was mis-sold it and sympathized a great deal before telling me it was nothing to do with them any more and to contact CAPQUEST. I rang CAPQUEST shortly afterwards and explained to them that I had no idea that I was entering into a credit agreement and that I hadn't received any services from Computeach. They chap I spoke to has put the account on hold for 14 days and told me he will send a signed copy of my credit agreement, but I don't remember ever having signed one. He said the debt was quite old and that I must have spoken to others about it so I must know that it was a loan. I stated that prior to their contact a few months before I had no contact from anyone regarding it, which is true.

Any advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated, I think I should start by sending SARs to Computeach, BPF and CAPQUEST to see what they have. Should I also do a CCA request and, if so, would it be to BPF, CAPQUEST, or both? If they were to take this to CC, what sort of chance would I have with the circumstances described? I feel I would have a reasonable defense on the grounds of me not knowing that I was entering an agreement, and a failure from BPF to do proper affordability checks, or the fact that no service was rendered.

Alternatively, which would be more in line with my luck, I'm screwed. I run a house on my own and have very limited disposable income.

Thanks in advance.

Tery. (I haven't missed an 'R', my dad can't spell so he did...)

[FlamingParrot]

Re: BPF 10k 'loan' mis-sold?

Hello all, thanks for reading.

I'm getting letters at the moment from CAPQUEST who have bought a debt from Barclays Partner Finance. In 2008 I was taken by the idea of doing a Computeach course, I applied online and a salesman came calling. I was in a low paid job at the time and he promised me the world, I was suckered in. During the application he never mentioned I was signing up for a loan, I was told that Barclays were sponsoring students to do courses and didn't realize (stupidly) that I'd signed up for this loan. There was no way I would have done as I had no realistic means of repaying it. I decided after a few weeks that I didn't want to dothe course so I attempted to cancel it. I was told at the time that I couldn't as I was outside of the 14 day 'cool off' period. I told them that I had no intention of doing the course and that I didn't wish to be sent any material. Never spoke to them again.

Did you sign anything at that point? I take it you didn't do the course or get any course materials delivered, is that correct?

Fast forward 1 or 2 years and BPF start taking payment from my account. Rang them to find out what was happening and they explained the situation. I told them that I had no idea I was liable for this money and that I hadn't undertaken the course, therefore to seek the money from computeach. I cancelled the DD and shortly afterwards moved house.

So you are saying they didn't take any money from you at all until a year or to later? Did you sign a DD form at any point? Or were Barclays just offsetting from your current account?

Fast forward to a few months ago, I registered for experian and saw the default on my account, Aug 2010 I think, and not long after I started getting letters from CAPQUEST. Now I'm only 12 months away from it being statute barred so naturally they're going to throw all they can at it to get a resolution.

The default should drop of in a years' time, however, for the purpose of SBd I'm not sure this is really the date when the clock starts to run. To reset the clock, payments have to be made by yourself or by someone acting with your authority, not by the creditors themselves, hence the question regarding the DD authority. If you agreed to a DD, then obviously you made the payments yourself, however, if the bank used the right of set off to take money from your account I should think that doesn't count as resetting the clock!

Any advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated, I think I should start by sending SARs to Computeach, BPF and CAPQUEST to see what they have. Should I also do a CCA request and, if so, would it be to BPF, CAPQUEST, or both?

Capquest would have bought the account along with hundreds of others and the only data they would have would be from the time they bought the account. I'd say the SAR should go to Barclays, which should also show how payments were taken out from your account, i.e. whether they showed as DDs, standing orders or something else. A SAR is a request for ALL data held about you, not about a specific account, so they should provide you with data for your current account as well as the alleged loan account. Of course it helps if you provide them with account numbers, if you know them, then put both references. A SAR letter I've use a few times is here: http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/...765#post382765 :thumb:

The CCA request should go to Capquest. They'll have to go back to Barclays to try and obtain the documents but that's their problem, not yours, and it's likely to take some time. :clock: Barclays are notoriously bad at retrieving agreements even when there was one to start with.

If they were to take this to CC, what sort of chance would I have with the circumstances described? I feel I would have a reasonable defense on the grounds of me not knowing that I was entering an agreement, and a failure from BPF to do proper affordability checks, or the fact that no service was rendered.

You'd certainly have good grounds on the basis of mistake or misrepresentation of the terms of the contract you were entering into without knowing as well as the fact that you did not do the course so there was no service provided. Have you got anything in writing where you said you wished to cancel the course?

Alternatively, which would be more in line with my luck, I'm screwed. I run a house on my own and have very limited disposable income.

I shouldn't think so, £10k for a service you never received :scared: makes all those BPS claims where people were expected to pay even when they decided against using the service, pale into insignificance!

Tery. (I haven't missed an 'R', my dad can't spell so he did...)

:lol:

[teryb84]

Re: BPF 10k 'loan' mis-sold?

Hello FlamingParrot amd thatnks for your response. I'll try to work through your questions as best I can, I don't know how to quote multiple things or make them bold because I'm useless...

Whilst the salesman was at our house I signed allsorts and didn't read any of then, I was a naive idiot. I seem to remember he passed me things and just said 'I need a signature here' and I obliged. I didn't do any of the course and I don't remember getting anything delivered but I'm not 100% certain about the delivery as I moved. That's why I was wondering about the SAR to Computeach as that would show me if they have any record of delivered materials on file which would be handy to konw for sure if this goes to CC.

Just had a look and the default is 02/03/2010 (less than 8 months to get through!). I believe this could be the actual default date, I think the loan was a deferred payment one so however many months (or a year) passed then I think I made 2 or 3 payments and cancelled. This info will be clarified by the SAR to BPF I assume. A quick question Re. the SAR, BPF only have my previous address on file so should I include that address at the end of the letter and my current one at the beginning, clearly marked as such? Also, I only had this loan account with them, is it worth calling them to get the account number for it or should I let them do the leg work off just my previous address and DOB? Thanks.

I had email conversations with Computeach support regarding cancelling the course, these are now long gone though. I suppose that if I did do an SAR to them, I would get copies if they have any.

Thanks again for your input, I genuinely appreciate it. It's nice to have a brief spell where it doesn't feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders.

Tery

[nemesis45]

Re: BPF 10k 'loan' mis-sold?

Hello FlamingParrot amd thatnks for your response. I'll try to work through your questions as best I can, I don't know how to quote multiple things or make them bold because I'm useless...

Whilst the salesman was at our house I signed allsorts and didn't read any of then, I was a naive idiot. I seem to remember he passed me things and just said 'I need a signature here' and I obliged. I didn't do any of the course and I don't remember getting anything delivered but I'm not 100% certain about the delivery as I moved. That's why I was wondering about the SAR to Computeach as that would show me if they have any record of delivered materials on file which would be handy to konw for sure if this goes to CC.

Just had a look and the default is 02/03/2010 (less than 8 months to get through!). I believe this could be the actual default date, I think the loan was a deferred payment one so however many months (or a year) passed then I think I made 2 or 3 payments and cancelled. This info will be clarified by the SAR to BPF I assume. A quick question Re. the SAR, BPF only have my previous address on file so should I include that address at the end of the letter and my current one at the beginning, clearly marked as such? Also, I only had this loan account with them, is it worth calling them to get the account number for it or should I let them do the leg work off just my previous address and DOB? Thanks.

I had email conversations with Computeach support regarding cancelling the course, these are now long gone though. I suppose that if I did do an SAR to them, I would get copies if they have any.

Thanks again for your input, I genuinely appreciate it. It's nice to have a brief spell where it doesn't feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders.

Tery

Good morning Tery.

With your SAR give the address as it was when you signed up and any changes of address after that.
Also make sure the SAR is signed BPF will either return it or ignore it.
nem

[teryb84]

Re: BPF 10k 'loan' mis-sold?

Thanks Nemesis, I've put it together with both addresses clearly stating the change and also not to send correspondence to the old address, I've left a space to sign it but I think I'm going to sign it with a minutely altered signature, a difference only I would notice, just in case.

Thanks.

Tery

[nemesis45]

Re: BPF 10k 'loan' mis-sold?

Thanks Nemesis, I've put it together with both addresses clearly stating the change and also not to send correspondence to the old address, I've left a space to sign it but I think I'm going to sign it with a minutely altered signature, a difference only I would notice, just in case.

Thanks.

Tery

Hi Tery,

I don't think there is even a slight possibility of a signature being " lifted" by BPF, the salesman may have been decidedly dodgy but BPF have no reason to pull any tricks the debt has been sold so sending you your personal data is not a problem.

nem

[teryb84]

Re: BPF 10k 'loan' mis-sold?

Good to know, thanks.

[wales01man]

Re: BPF 10k 'loan' mis-sold?

What happened to the !)K was it paid to anyone?

[teryb84]

Re: BPF 10k 'loan' mis-sold?

I'm sorry Wales01man, I don't understand?

[nemesis45]

Re: BPF 10k 'loan' mis-sold?

I'm sorry Wales01man, I don't understand?

I think Wales means was the money paid to Computeach.

nem

[teryb84]

Re: BPF 10k 'loan' mis-sold?

Thanks. I have no idea, they've most likely used it to fund some more salesmen...

[nemesis45]

Re: BPF 10k 'loan' mis-sold?

Thanks. I have no idea, they've most likely used it to fund some more salesmen...

Those guys I think were paid on a commission basis which is why they were so pushy in their sales approach.

nem

[FlamingParrot]

Re: BPF 10k 'loan' mis-sold?

Hello FlamingParrot amd thatnks for your response. I'll try to work through your questions as best I can, I don't know how to quote multiple things or make them bold because I'm useless...

That's fine, multiple quotes and highlighting are just my personal posting style and not a forum requirement. :grin:

I have done a lot of work preparing instructional materials which is where the idea of bite-sized chunks of text comes from.

Whilst the salesman was at our house I signed allsorts and didn't read any of then, I was a naive idiot. I seem to remember he passed me things and just said 'I need a signature here' and I obliged. I didn't do any of the course and I don't remember getting anything delivered but I'm not 100% certain about the delivery as I moved. That's why I was wondering about the SAR to Computeach as that would show me if they have any record of delivered materials on file which would be handy to konw for sure if this goes to CC.

For the sake of £10 you may want to send them a SAR although it would have to be a more generic one, the one I linked to above is tailored to banks where you want to get a bit more than just statements by asking them to delve into their records.

Even if they did send out the materials, if it was a course as opposed to a book club, you would have been expected to interact with them, have tutorials, submit assignments, etc. if you had been following a course.

Just had a look and the default is 02/03/2010 (less than 8 months to get through!). I believe this could be the actual default date, I think the loan was a deferred payment one so however many months (or a year) passed then I think I made 2 or 3 payments and cancelled. This info will be clarified by the SAR to BPF I assume.

Was your bank account used to make the payments with Barclays? If so, the SAR to Barclays should also show the payments and how they were made (i.e. DD or set off). :thumb:

A quick question Re. the SAR, BPF only have my previous address on file so should I include that address at the end of the letter and my current one at the beginning, clearly marked as such? Also, I only had this loan account with them, is it worth calling them to get the account number for it or should I let them do the leg work off just my previous address and DOB? Thanks.

The more info you provide the better, if nothing else it should save time and arguments.