Whilst l have nothing constructive to add, l feel it important to support you
and highlight the quality support shown by Huckster and Rocket. They show
how this 'site' can be of great help to others. A credit to Moneysupermarket,
thanks all, and good luck with the outcome. Don't forget to come back with
any updates that may help others.

As for HSBC, !!!!!!!! No wonder they are tied up with Marks and Spencer,
John Lewis etc hiding and snivelling their 'services' by renting brand names.

Hi,

Please try not to worry too much but your key here is to do some research...

Lowell/Red (same company) are scum who bully vulnerable people, in my experience they NEVER, repeat NEVER carry out their threats. They send really nasty letters but thats as far as it goes,

If the debt is over 6 years old it is stature barred and is not enforcable, but look, there are far more educated people than me on this subjuct so you have to dig around a bit.

Firstly find out which situation you are in and get the relevant letter from one of the many templates that are on the web, also try moneysavingexpert.com as there are loads of examples on there,

Most of all please try to stop worrying, my mind was put at rest after doing my research, I hope it does the same for you...

Good luck!

Firstly they can only employ bailiffs if they have a court order, which would involve having to go through a process. This is not something they do quickly.

Secondly you are only required to pay what you can afford to repay. Where you have this type of problem, it is advised that you contact Citizens Advice or National Debtline, who will advise you what you need to do. This could include sending a letter to anyone you owe money to advising them of your situation and making a repayment offer. If you can only afford (say) £10 per month, taking into account your other reasonable living expenses, that is all you need to pay. (If you do follow up a complaint with HSBC as suggested, make a note of this in any letter you send to Lowells. Tell them that you intend to dispute the amount of the debt and have written to HSBC to register a complaint )

Lowell who are acting as the collectors for this debt, don't have any legal powers. They are a company who buy debts to make a profit on them. Once you come to arrangement to make affordable repayments, they should leave you alone, only writing to you periodically to ask whether you can increase payments. You can request that they keep all communications in writing. When Lowell look at your affordable repayments, they may ask for your income and expenditure details. While you do not legally have to provide these details to them, if these details assist Lowell in understanding the low level of repayments, then you might wish to provide the information. Once you come to an arrangement, it is important that you keep up the payments.

You should also look into whether the charges applied on the HSBC account are reasonable or not. You may wish to make a complaint to HSBC, asking them for a full breakdown of charges that were applied to the account, advising that you may ask the FOS to review the matter. If you had a £500 overdraft, is it reasonable that the debt has increased to £1,537 ? Once you receive a reply from HSBC, you might decide to challenge. If you could not resolve your complaint with HSBC within 8 weeks, you could take your complaint to the FOS. In this situation, you might as well follow the complaints process, as you might be able to negotiate a reduction in the debt amount.

Hello,

I am new to this forum and have found it after searching for several hours and reading many things which are just making me more worried and compounding my feeling of being totally useless in working out a plan of action.

Today I received a letter from 'Lowell Portfolio I' Introducing themseleves as the collection agency who bought a HSBC BANK debt on the 16/12/11 and that they will be recovering it. (They have my old sort code and account number) - It also came with a letter from HSBC signed by 'Gary Jones' stating that they have bought the debt and I should stop making payments to HSBC (I haven't been paying HSBC)

The amount is for 1,537 pounds. They state that if they "do not receive my payment shortly the will instruct Lowell Financial Ltd, our recovery specialists, to contact you about paying' (Bailffs???)

I am currently out of work and have no way of paying, living on job seekers allowance is hard enough without having this waying on my shoulders.

I had a student account with HSBC with an overdraft which I admittedly thought I still owed 500 pounds (I haven't used this account since 2008 when I was in India volunteering. I have been back for 8 months looking for work and always planned paying the 500 I thought i owed (Thought as in not 100% sure that it was 500, we moved house before i left for india, thus i don't have any bankstatements)

Please note this was a current account.

My question is, What should I do first? - I have seen forums about phone contracts and people sending letters asking for proof that they took out the contract, but this isn't a phone contract....

Please forgive me if this has been answered before, I haven't seen it and i'm still looking and very worried.

I'm living at home and the only benefit I receive is JSA and I do not want the bailiffs coming round to my poor mums house!!!

Any advise would be GREATLY appreaciated!!!

Thank you in advance.

EDIT:: It may be worth noting that I already have multiple defualts on my account, though they were all settled in 2008 before I left for India. Thus I have bad credit for 7 years. (Bad Student Sydrome) - Though I made up for it volunteering for 3 years....and now need a real job!!