My son received a communication from Lowell Portfolio 1, it was a little obscure and so he rang them - he discovered it was regarding a Barclaycard which he had taken out in 1994 for £500 (and had paid off) and they said he now owed in excess of £1800.00. When he denied this and said he had paid they offered to lower it to £800. The address it referred to was one he had lived at for a month - and he has subsequently moved at least 8 or 9 times since. Do you know anything about this company? I believe statute is 6 years. Thanks.

Yes, Statute, 6 years, exactly right!

Kick back and relax!

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Just food for thought!

Ok i get the statute is 6 years, but need dont fully understand it, is that the host company ie barclays in this case or does it get re-set when the so called "outstanding debt" is purchased by lowell portfolio

Hi Pnx696. If a debt becomes statute barred, i.e. you have not acknoledged the debt in any way (by letter or payment) within the last 6 years, it is no longer legally recoverable. Lowell Portfolio bulk buy these debts for pennies, in the hope a certain percentage will pay up. The debt remains statute barred, and if you send them a letter disputing the debt, and advising if it ever existed its now statute barred, the Office of Fair Trading considers it "unfair practice" for them to further pursue the debt. Legally, the debt remains open, but is not enforceable.

I'm so glad I did a search on Lowell Portfolio, as I too received a commnication asking me to confirm an old address. I know for a fact I have no outstanding debts, so I will simply throw the letter away.

Thanks to all for posting on this issue, calming the nerves of others :)

Hi MissMarianna. They may continue to send you letters, or even try to telephone you. NEVER speak to them on the phone. If the letters continue, write them a short note saying in no way do you acknowledge the debt, and if it ever existed it is now statute barred (as long as its been over 6 years).Best to post it Recorded delivery. This should be enough :-)

Thank you!

I know for a fact I have no outstanding debts, especially not with Barclaycard, so they can just keep it coming. I will take your advise should the emails persist.

:)

hello ham nd eggs what do you do if you have got these letters and you get sucked in and start paying money to them the only debt i remember is from 2001 so do i stop the money or what?

Hi foxxy1. Well, I would certainly write to them, explaining that you cannot remember the debt, and that you would like to see a copy of the original credit agreement and how they have arrived at the figure they claim you owe. Until then, cease payments. I got a letter from them a couple of weeks ago, in which they apologised and confirmed my case was closed. Barclaycard had given my details in error, I owed nothing. I knew this was the case, and stood my ground. Makes you wonder how many people just pay up to these people. Good luck. :-)

I cancelled the payments as you said and wrote them a letter saying that i had no record of the debt and that unless they were going to prove who the debt was origanlly with i was stopping payment, this morning i received another letter saying - We have been imformed by your bank that your agreed direct debit has been declined due to insuffcient funds ( i cancelled it) we therefore require you contact us on the telephone number below and make a payment by debit or credit card immediately. it is imperative that you honour the agreement you entered ( have not signed any agreement) , in order to clear the outstanding balance. this will also help repair your credit file ( my credit was fine untill i started paying anything to them). then is says FAILURE TO BRING YOUR REPAYMENT PLAN UP TO DATE WILL RESULT IN THIS ARRANGEMENT BEING CANCELLED AND THE FULL BALANCE OF £2227.34 BEING REPAYABLE. what do you think i should do about this have you got a letter i could use. thanks.

Hi foxxy. Did you get a response from Lowells advising you how they came to that figure, or did they send you a copy of the original Credit agreement ? if they have not, i would send a letter quite clearly stating you want to see the CCA -they have a time limit to provide you with it. I think the cost is £1 (enclose a £1 postal order). They cannot just contact you out of the blue saying you owe them money without being able to advise how they came to that amount. You are perfectly entitled to see proof of the alleged debt. I would also tell them you are contacting your local Trading Standards office and the Office of Fair Trading as you feel a polite request for information has been met with intimidation and threats. My local TS were brilliant. Definately worth writing yours a letter. Hope this helps :-)

hello, well i sent a letter asking for a copy of the credit agreement and for a while i did not recieve anything apart from threatening letters and constant phone calls (which i did not answer) untill i recieved a letter from a company called Hamptons Legal (which is part of lowell) saying that the debt has been passed over to them and that if i didn't phone them to arrange payment blah blah blah...............I have always told my partner about the letters and phone calls and it got to the point that he emailed them saying that i would be willing to pay the debt but only if they produced a copy of the credit agreement he emailed this to lowell also stating that if they did not stop the phone calls i was going to have them done for harrasment he also emailed Hampton Legal a similar email. Anyway i recieved a letter off lowell this morning (23/06/08) saying.......... we refer to your request for a copy of the original credit agreement in respect of the consumer credit act1974.

After liaising with our client in an effort to obtain this document we have been advised that it is no longer available. Under the circumstances, we have closed our files in relation to this account which has now been returned to our client. We can comfirm that no further contact will be made by us regarding this account.

We trust that the above clarifies matters for you.

I think that sounds like its over don't you?

MissMarianna:

I'm so glad I did a search on Lowell Portfolio, as I too received a commnication asking me to confirm an old address. I know for a fact I have no outstanding debts, so I will simply throw the letter away.

Thanks to all for posting on this issue, calming the nerves of others :)

It may be better to file the letter away should you need to refer to it later if contacted by them again (e.g. if you subsequently have cause to take action against them).

hi everyone

im new to this site, i was simply looking for further details on this company and came across this discussion.

I must say i find it very interesting that so many people share similar problems with this company.

i hope someone can help me, my problem is as below

i received a letter from lowell portfolio today to say that a debt from t mobile was sold to them on 15/09/06, i find it strange they have taken this long to write to me.

However i rang them and straight away disputed the debt and asked for proof, they informed me they would send it out but it would take 6-8 weeks so already after reading this it seems they will breach the timescale to provide proof. they inform me that the last payment on the account was on 22nd october 2002 so as you can work out its very close to being statute barred.

my main questions are as follows

1 - do i write now requesting a copy of the consumer credit agreement or wait till after the 6 years is up which will be on 22nd october 2008

2 - can i still claim statute barred as they have contacted me before the date, even though its by just less than a month.

3 - what is the best way of dealing with the situation.

any advice will be much appreciated.

thanks