Hi all,

I'm being (in my view) harrassed by a company called Lowell Financial / Red.

They contacted me in December 2006 regarding a debt that was not mine and had been incurred by someone with the same name at a totally different address. I thought I'd resolved this but last week received a letter saying that they were coming after me for this debt. This was followed up yesterday by a letter from Red - dated the 20th, arrived on the 25th (so over the Easter break) and stating that unless I replied BY the 25th, they'd take court action.

Can anyone advise how I should deal with these clowns?

Many thanks,

BH

Ask them to provide proof that you owe this debt by producing the contract that has your signature. also ask for proof of any correspondance, payments, or anything that could link you to this debt. Tell them you are more than happy for this to go to court as you have nothing to hide.

Pay nothing!

Do not admit or suggest in any way that this could be your debt!

I knew I saw this somewhere!

Have a look at this other posting and see if it helps you.

Re: Red Debt / Lowell Advice Please

Hi

I have had the same problem with Lowell, i.e. they have demanded payment for a debt owed by someone sharing my name, whom they claim to have traced to my address!

When I got the first letter I sent it back with a 'not known at this address' note.

However, I recently received another, threatening me with Red Debt (which is another of Lowell's trading names). So I emailed the Credit Services Association (of which Lowell's is a member) to register a complaint about Lowell's conduct. The email address is claire AT csa-uk.com. I copied the email to Andrew Bartle (Andrew.Bartle AT lowellgroup.co.uk) , and I had an apology from him first thing the next morning! Strange, eh? The CSA sent me a complaint form which I have completed and mailed back to them. Although Lowell say they've removed my name from their records, I don't trust them, and I certainly don't think they should be allowed to get away with hounding innocent people!

You could always print off copied Emails and send them too!. Recorded? Of course!

Keep yourself a folder and date every call (time, Name who what where and when!), Every lettter, Every Email ...everything!

Information is power!

badhorsey:

Hi all,

I'm being (in my view) harrassed by a company called Lowell Financial / Red.

They contacted me in December 2006 regarding a debt that was not mine and had been incurred by someone with the same name at a totally different address. I thought I'd resolved this but last week received a letter saying that they were coming after me for this debt. This was followed up yesterday by a letter from Red - dated the 20th, arrived on the 25th (so over the Easter break) and stating that unless I replied BY the 25th, they'd take court action.

Can anyone advise how I should deal with these clowns?

Many thanks,

BH

If your allegations are true, then this may well be a breach of certain guidelines laid down by the Office of Fair Trading by which debt collection agencies must abide (http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf):

In particular, this deems the following to be unfair practices:

2.4(f) "pursuing third parties for payment when they are not liable"

2.8(a) "sending demands for payment to an individual when it is uncertain that they are the debtor in question, for example, threatening debt recovery action to 'the occupier' or sending a payment demand to all people sharing the same name/date of birth as a debtor in the hope that contact with the correct debtor will be made."

2.8(i) "failing to investigate and/or provide details as appropriate, when a debt is queried or disputed, possibly resulting in debtors being wrongly pursued"

2.8(k) "not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt."

If you believe that any of the guidelines in the document to have been broken, then a complaint form which may be used to contact the Office of Fair Trading is available here, http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/DebtCollectionComplaintForm.DOC

Ultimately, the Office of Fair Trading has the power to revoke an organisation's Consumer Credit Licence, should they deem that organisation to have acted outside of the law or seriously breached the OFT's guidelines - which, in the case of a debt collection agency, would mean that they would no longer be allowed to pursue debts, effectively forcing them to cease trading.