hi all,
my girlfriend of 19 has deb with 3 catalogues up to the sum of about £1800
she got into the debt when moving into a flat, she has since moved out and wants to clear up the debt.
the debt has been passed onto moorcroft debt collection agency.whenever she tries to ring them up and offer them a payment they always ask for the whole lot of more that what shes offering.she is also getting letters saying that they will be taking her to court and every time she receives a letter £12 is added to the balance.
is there a way to freeze the account and no further charges added and then give them so much a month?
she is feeling really pressurized and is asking me to get her a loan so she can get them off her back, she is getting seriously depressed about it all and just isn't listening to anyone
any help is appreciated
brad

http://www.cccs.co.uk/

Get in touch with cccs above, they will go through her income with her and come up with a realistic amount that she can afford to pay them,they will send you a printed letter to forward to all the catalogues she is in debt with saying how much she is able to pay.

Or an even easier way is to send the following and see if Moroncroft have the legal right to collect

Dear Sir/Madam

I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT TO YOUR COMPANY

Ref: [enter your ref here]

I am presently striving to organise my personal information and can find no reference to the alleged debt and/or agreement on you appear to have been assigned to collect.

Therefore, please supply me with a true copy of the original agreement.

You will appreciate that this is my right and your legal obligation under the legislation contained within section 77 (1) and section 78 (1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

I also understand that it is your obligation to provide me with a statement of account and I look forward to receiving that as well.

Since you are a Debt Collection Agency, please also supply a signed true copy of the deed of assignment of the above referenced agreement.

Again, this is you will appreciate a statutory obligation, whether you are the original creditor or not, under section 189 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

Please find enclosed my £1 statutory fee, this fee is not to be offset against any alleged debt.

I look forward to hearing from you within the statutory time limit.

Yours faithfully,

Print name do not sign

Send it recorded first (or special delivery if you can afford it) with a £1 postal order and keep the postage slip so you can prove it was delivered. Remember to send it to the debt collectors not the original creditor

The Consumer Credit Act states that you can request a true copy of your executed agreement at anytime. Now if the debt collector has bought the debt they should have all the paperwork in place. In reality they have nothing. Sending this letter allows them 12 days plus postage (taken as 2 days) to provide you with a copy. They will undoubtedly send you a letter back saying that they will request it from their client and it will take 4-8 weeks. Once past the 12+2 days the alledged debt is in dispute and they cannot ask for payment, pass on to another debt collector, register a default, or take court action until they have sent it. Many lenders do not keep copys of the agreements and those that do often have unenforcable ones.

Do not give into these bullies and NEVER talk to them on the phone.

Google 'CAG Morrcroft' and you see all the fun others have had/are having

so if they havent got any signed documents what happens then?
she wants to pay the, but with them adding charges and what not then it is never going to get cleared up!
she just donts no where to start or who to pay or how much

many thanks
brad

also in regards to charges
each time they send a letter they add £12 to the balance, one of with had totalled up over £100 in charges.
so if it gos back to the original company will i have to pay these added charges?

If you send them the above letter and they don't have an agreement or the agreement they send is not enforcable (google 'CAG is my agreement enforcable sticky') then that means they cannot demand payment and your daughter is not obliged to offer any payment. The debt doesn't go away but no one can legally make her pay it. Obviously without an agreement they are stuffed and your daughter will be in a position to make a low full and final offer to clear the debt. Remember that debt collectors only pay around 10% of the face value of any debt so she can offer this and they are likely to accept; i.e. £1800 of debt settled for £180 !

In order for any debt collector to add any referral fees, letter fees etc, the original agreement must specifically state this, and you've guessed it 99.99% of agreements don't so they are unlawful. If there is no agreement or the agreement doesn't say so then they cannot charge these fees and your daughter is not obliged to pay them.

I would suggest that you add a bit on to the letter above saying something like:

"As the above request is my legal right under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, I will not respond to any further correspondance relating to this matter until my request is satisfied. Should I have to send duplicate copies or send reminders to you, or your agents, I will apply a charge of £25 per letter payable within 7 days of receipt. ***Failure to pay these charges promptly may result in the account being passed to a debt collection agency or legal action*** (***delete this bit if you want)"

You are well within your right to charge them for letters if you have to remind them of your request but its up to you. Above all it is good your daughter wants to pay the debt back but she should never pay a debt collector only the original creditor. Did she get any late charges or over account charges before it was passed on? She should claim these back if she did to reduce the balance.

Send the CCA request letter off ASAP and see what happens

Hope this helps

TA

It all sounds so good to be true, but if im part of the 0.1% who have signed an aggreement what would be the steps then?

so i could end up paying 10% of the debt and then it would be settled?? but just like to thank everybody so much for you assistance !

so its really kind of like a loophole they these bas*****ds hope you never find, surely they are all breaking the law in one way or another.

will get it in the post tommorow

hi all, just got 2 letters from moorcroft,
i think its good news, the letter says

"we are continuing to seek to obtain a copy of the consumer credit agreement that you have requested. our systems provide for reviews to be sent out to our client on a regular basis and this we are continuing to do. i will contact you again just as soon as the agreement has been made available to ourselves and confirm that at this stage the account has been placed on hold and we will not seek to enforce the debt until such time as the agreement is obtained.

in the meantime however we believe that it may be of assistance to al parties if we also take this opportunity to ensure that any potential areas of dispute are addressed prior to any possible court action or further investigation .please could you give us an indication of the information you will be providing ,when giving evidence to court or providing information to the relevant statutory authorities in relation to the alleged subject matter of this account.
please could you provide this information by return. we believe that this is a simple request that will assist in ensuring that all possible areas of dispute are identified as quickly as possible and potential costs are kept to a minimum level."

its been about 5 days of the 14 (12+2), am i right in saying that all i have to do is wait the 14 days then i can offer a low and final offer to write off the debt?

also do i have to reply back to the letter?


regards bradley

Hi B,

I don't know about the (12+2).......however, do not respond to the letter with the information they have asked for, they will only use it againist you. If you must respond, just state, thank you for your letter dated x I await further correspondence from you once you have located the information I have requested.

It is not in your best interest to admit any potential areas of dispute! The evidence etc LOL, you would only need to put this stuff down in your defence on the claim form if it went to court, do not be fooled by them.

so i'll send the letter back and just wait?
one o the guys were sayin i can make a low & final offer?
many thanks
brad

Looking at your previous posts, Tartan Army advised you to send a letter off which you did. Moorcroft have written to you to inform you that they have gone back to the creditor to get hold of the original agreement. Until they can prove that they have it you should not offer a full and final settlement as you have effectively admitted your liability.

If they find the agreement then you can do full and final payment.

Just send that letter acknowledging receipt and say you look forward to hearing from them.

C

if they cant find one?? then is she no longer liable to the debt?

many thanks
brad

Send them nothing! No letter, no acknowledgement...nothing.

Until they send you a copy of the agreement, the account is in dispute, they know that, you know that. They are supposed to be the experts and you have made a lawful request....just sit back and relax.

If they start demanding payment again let me know and I'll give you a letter to send.

You need to wait a while before you can suspect no agreement so sit tight. If you are still making any payments then you can lawfully stop them whilst the account is in dispute, its up to you.

Remember no phone calls, no letters until they get in touch with you.

TA

superb, thanks mate
much appreciated

hi again everyone
we have had a reply about two of the catalogues,
out of the two so far we have one agreement. its for a sum of £720 and is signed and dated by my girlfriend.the other one(£900) has no agreement found.
what are the next steps?
am i now able to offer a low full and final offer for the debt with the agreement.
how much should i offer them?
what happens about the debt with no agreement?

thanks for all your help,would have never done it without you alll