Hi,

I am undergoing a similar scenerio, i was contacted by Mackenzie Hall 2 days earlier stating that i owe money to them on behalf of Student Barclaycards. The amount i remember was somewhr around 350 pounds but they have asked me for 593 pounds, i had a telephonic conversation with them and asked for the details which they refused to give.

The blunder i made was that i said i will pay but cant pay the full amount so early, and they said i have till 30th of Oct. Will this thing hold me liable?

I am now planning to send them a letter asking for their agreement with the original creditor and my summary of the money outstanding and how are they charging me this much. My last payment made to barclays was in 2004

The letter they sent stated that my employer will be contacted and a doorstep visit will be made and assets might be seized etc etc.

Is there anythign to be worried about, secondly please guide me whether i should pay them or not as i am noy living in UK any more.

Your guidence is much awaited coz i think u have an understanding of dealing in such circumstances.

Please reply me on XXXXX

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Thanks and regards,

Sidra

I sent the standard letter to lowell/red debt and they sent me my £1 postal order back with a letter that goes like this-

We are in receipt of your request for a copy of the executed credit agreement in accordance with section 77(1) and / or 78(1) of the consumer credit act 1974.

The account agreement to which you seek is not a regulated agreement under the consumer credit act 1974 and the provisions of this act do not apply to this debt.

Our client therefore has no obligation under the provisions of the act to supply the imformation requested by you.

We would therefore request you contact us on the number BLAH BLAH BLAH

This is a debt to 3mobile which 3 have never contacted me about. They won't even give me a date the debt refers to but it's at least 4 years since I had a 3 contract

Are they saying you can demand money from someone without supplying proof of the debt

Jonboy --- If it's not an agreement under the CCA, then simply send a "prove it" letter as below, by recorded delivery and enclose the £1 postal order again, they have to send proof or they cannot legally enforce anything.

.......................................... ..........................................

Dear Sir/Madam

Account/ ref no.

You have contacted me/us regarding the account with the above reference number, which you claim is owed by myself/ourselves.

I/we would point out that I/we have no knowledge of any such debt being owed to (insert company name).

I am/we are familiar with the Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidance which states that it unfair to send demands for payment to an individual when it is uncertain that they are the debtor in question.

I/we would also point out that the OFT say under the Guidance that it is unfair to pursue third parties for payment when they are not liable. In not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt you are using deceptive/and or unfair methods.

Furthermore ignoring and/or disregarding claims that debts have been settled or are disputed and continuing to make unjustified demands for payment amounts to physical/psychological harassment.

I/we would ask that no further contact be made concerning the above account unless you can provide evidence as to my/our liability for the debt in question.

I/we await your written confirmation that this matter is now closed. Otherwise I will have no option but to make a complaint to the trading standards department and consider informing the OFT of your actions.

I/we look forward to your reply.

Yours faithfully (print name)

Hiya,

I've been reading with interest all these posts concerning LP1. I came about it by chance, I was actually looking for their company details on google so I could phone them from abroad as we now live in Australia and the company wrote to us at my sister's address.

It seems LP1 have purchased a debt of £137.41 from Hutchinson 3G in my husband's name that he has no record of owing. We were actually contacted by another debt collection company, Westcot Credit Services, back in May 2007 but when my husband requested evidence of the debt they wrote to say that the account has been returned to their client and that they have closed the debt on their system and no further action will be taken by Westcot. We assumed case closed. Luckily I kept the correspondence.

Anyway, we have since emigrated to Australia and my sister recently received a letter addressed to her from LP1 regarding the outstanding money (I don't have this letter but I am sure it repeats much of what people have written here). Our post is being redirected to her but this letter was addressed directly. She phoned them on our behalf and informed them we were now living in Australia. She gave them our number and we waited for them to call us but of course they didn't. She has since phoned them again and they cheekily said the details she gave them have to be verified before they act upon it. By this they mean the address she gave them for us in Australia has to be checked as a real address and that we are registered here. She questioned that her address surely had to have gone through the same procedure and yet we are not registered as living there but they still sent the letter to her, which means their procedures are rather worrying to say the least. Also, the chap on the phone said the previous debit collector couldn't be bothered to chase it up and they sent it back to 3G and basically said you deal with this as the customer has challenged it and we are not able to help him. Over to 3G again and all they have done is pass it on to LP1. The debit is still outstanding as far they are concerned.

My husband hasn't had a phone with 3G since 2002 and is sure he doesn't owe them money, but to be on the safe side perhaps we should wait for them to contact us officially at our Oz address (to ensure the six years to be up), what do you think? Can they actively pursue court threats and door collection overseas? Or should we just send them the "prove it" letter that people have posted here and get the ball rolling? Obviously post will take longer than the said 12 days plus 2 days postage. I'm not sure if the same rules apply if you don't live in the UK. Should my husband also check his credit file too? He has a mortgage already so I'm not sure what damage it will do if there is something added to it, plus if we decide to stay in Australia it may not affect us at all in the long run.

Any help, answers or similar stories would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Firstly, because your last payment was in 2004 probably means its not statute barred, in which case you are probably liable to pay any outstanding monies. The fact that you made an agreement by telephone doesn't matter though.

By law they have to provide you with a copy of the credit agreement and a statement of any monies previously paid - if you send £1 to cover the cost of this. Until they can send you this evidence, the account should be put on hold. Once they have provided a copy of the agreement (if they can!) and can prove its not statute barred, etc. then you will probably be liable. But the chances are they can't even provide you with a copy of the agreement which means that are in breach of the Office of Fair Trading and CSA guidelines.

Personally, the best thing to do is ring the National Debt Helpline, they've been brilliant and will give you all types of independent advice.

I've had one recently where I've been in correspondence about whether a debt is statute barred, been going on for about a year now. I asked originally for a copy of the credit agreement and statement, etc. of when the last payment was made, ie. for them to prove the debt is "not" statute barred, but they can't prove it - I ended up complaining to them (copying in the Office of Fair Trading, the Credit Services Association, etc), as two companies were contacting me about one debt - which is illegal. Anyway, they reckon they've referred it back to their client - so in other words they didn't have a leg to stand on and as far as I'm concerned its finished. Until they can write to me with evidence that the debt is not statute barred I'm not paying a penny.

Good luck - but honestly, phone the National Debt Helpline, they will give you all sorts of really helpful advice.

Hi there,

I am under the impression you are quite knowledgeable about Lowell Financial...

Back in the days, i had defaulted on my barclaycard, hence, resulting into a default on my credit report/s. About two years ago!, this default came off my report. This year, 2008, Lowell is chasing me stating that they have purchased the debt from Barclays and therefore, I must pay them! I have so far, received 4 letters, the latter being 'YOUR ACCOUNT IS NOW WITH THE PRE-LITIGATION DEPARTMENT'

I have not contacted them at all, ever since they started sending me letters!

Can you advise? or point me in the right direction please?

Thanks in advance

Regards

ABB455

conmankiller:

Jonboy --- If it's not an agreement under the CCA, then simply send a "prove it" letter as below, by recorded delivery and enclose the £1 postal order again, they have to send proof or they cannot legally enforce anything.

.......................................... ..........................................

Dear Sir/Madam

Account/ ref no.

You have contacted me/us regarding the account with the above reference number, which you claim is owed by myself/ourselves.

I/we would point out that I/we have no knowledge of any such debt being owed to (insert company name).

I am/we are familiar with the Office of Fair Trading Debt Collection Guidance which states that it unfair to send demands for payment to an individual when it is uncertain that they are the debtor in question.

I/we would also point out that the OFT say under the Guidance that it is unfair to pursue third parties for payment when they are not liable. In not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt you are using deceptive/and or unfair methods.

Furthermore ignoring and/or disregarding claims that debts have been settled or are disputed and continuing to make unjustified demands for payment amounts to physical/psychological harassment.

I/we would ask that no further contact be made concerning the above account unless you can provide evidence as to my/our liability for the debt in question.

I/we await your written confirmation that this matter is now closed. Otherwise I will have no option but to make a complaint to the trading standards department and consider informing the OFT of your actions.

I/we look forward to your reply.

Yours faithfully (print name)

I followed your advice and sent the above letter but they have sent me my postal order back with the same letter as before, any further advice?

If you send the above letter; i.e. the prove it letter, then you don't need to send the £1 (I guess conmankiller was having a bad day!) These lowlifes rarely read what you send them so they will have opened your letter seen the £1 and just sent the standard response.

Send the letter again without the £1. A good way to get them to read something is to write 'payment enclosed' on the outside of the envelope!!!

Just keep plugging away and don't give
TA

Sorry jonboy -- TA is correct I did overlook that fact, of course the prove it letter does not require the £1 ....simply re-send without payment as TA states.

The problem I have with these scummy "lowellife's" is every time I see another of their intended victims having to entertain these B******S, I see Red (excuse the pun) and feel so infuriated, that I often rattle a post out quicker than otherwise, to try help the victim. !

TA -- I like the tip about payment enclosed, curiosity killed the Cat ....eeeehhh. !

Too many threads, not enough time eh conmankiller ;-)

Yupp -- That's about it, TA. !

Hi Guys,

I had a debt of 800 odd which I paid back to Lowell Portfolio, as at the time I did not do my research and assumed I would have to pay it all back. The guys on the phone said once I pay my debt off they would remove my default off my credit report. However have not done so and it has been over 6 months.

Can Lowell remove my default? or is there no way it can be taken off? I am happy to pay Lowell another 800 if they can do so.

Would be greatful for feedback

Thanks

Mabzinho -- You need to write to the creditor who placed the default, asking their written permission and agreement for the defaults early removal, if it has legally been placed this is the only route.

Once you hopefully get that written agreement, you need to send copies to the relevant credit reference agencies who will remove the default.

Hi thanks for that...

I called up the original creditors, who were Cetelem. They have said that they are no longer based in the UK and thus do not and can not provide assistance to remove the default or write to the credit agencies.

Lowell, whom I have paid the debt to, say the company who placed me in default were Cetelem, and thus they can not request remove. However Cetelem say only Lowell can, as they took over the debt.

Write to Cetelem asking them to simply forward You a letter stating that they are in agreement to this action, also duplicate the letter to Lowell. You never know. !

Play them against each other, when you get a reply from Cetelem stating Lowell are responsible....send that onto Lowell ....or vice versa.