Are Lowell's offers trustworthy?

[kaput]

Hi,

Today I received two "Pre-Legal Assessment" letters from Lowell regarding two different debts.

The wording of the letters is:

75% discount offer - if you contact us by XX/04/2017

Register at www.lowell.co.uk or contact us by XX/04/2017 to arrange payment and we will take £XXXX.YY off your outstanding balance.

• This means you will pay £XXXX.YY to clear the account.
• You can pay the discounted balance through affordable instalments

So my questions are: this isn't some kind of dirty trick? And is the wording of the letter equivalent to them accepting the payments in "full and final settlement"?

These debts aren't statute barred - one will be in early 2019, and the other in early 2020.

I'm not scared of Lowell and clearly with a 75% offer on the table they clearly don't fancy their chances of recovering the debt (they've had absolutely no contact from me so far), so I don't think it likely they will take legal action.

However, my bigger worry is that these debts could end up being passed on to an even worse debt collection agency who might take me to court.

With such a big discount on offer and such a long time before they're barred by statute, it seems almost a no-brainer to accept this and pay over several instalments, assuming the offer can be trusted.

What do you Legal Beagles think?

[Debt Camel]

Re: Are Lowell's offers trustworthy?

You can say you will accept the offer provided they confirm in writing that the debt will not be sold to a third party.

[kaput]

Re: Are Lowell's offers trustworthy?

Just to follow up this thread, both debts are now paid off at a 75% discount. Lowell have sent letters and emails confirming the balance is now £0 and the debt is settled. Despite their reputation I found their customer service to be excellent. The person who I spoke to wasn't pushy at all and set up the repayments in two instalments and sent email confirmation of the arrangement right away.

[MIKE770]

Re: Are Lowell's offers trustworthy?

ah! you were offering them money that is the difference, they feel their job satisfaction done, try telling them to prove you owe them anything and they get into a paddy! fact!