Getting post for someone never lived at address - MBNA Debt?

Calicrates · 29 April 2013 at 11:17AM

Blue_Max wrote: »

I have had such letters in the past.
Phoning these type of 'debt collection agencies' and 'solicitors' is a waste of time. They buy debts about to be written off for a tiny amount and send out automated letters. If someone pays up, most of it is profit for them.

As they were not in my name, I stopped wasting my time and binned subsequent letters. Haven't heard anything now for many years.

This is all correct , DCA's purchase debts for around 10% of the total then send letters in the hope of collecting in full for profit . I too used to receive them for previous tenants of my address and sent them back only to receive more within a few days . Here's what I did , On the envelope i wrote :-

NO CONTRACT – RETURN TO SENDER

I DO NOT RECOGNISE YOU.

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND YOUR INTENT.

IT IS NOT MY WILL OR WISH TO CONTRACT.

I DO NOT HAVE AN INTERNATIONAL TREATY WITH YOU.

NO ASSURED VALUE NO LIABILITY.

RETURN TO SENDER.

after this the letter flow slowed but I still received them occasionally and did the same as above . When they kept sending them (I kept a record of how many I was receiving).
After this I searched the po box number and telephoned them stating the amount of letters , the time I had to commit to returning them and complained about the inconvenience it was causing , I then proceeded to inform them (as they record their calls) that any further mail for this person that I have to reply to will be returned as before but this time in an envelope from myself with a fee for wasting my time , £100 per word + £500 for inconvenience I think I quoted them . Needless to say the letters stopped from this particular company . Here's the kicker , all these DCA's do then is sell/pass on the debt to another DCA and the process starts all over .

The next ones I get I'm actually sending them a bill for my time and see if they pay up , If they don't im guessing pass the debt on to a DCA to collect it for me lol

Personally though I think there should be a way to stop this altogether .

rocksuperstar · 1 December 2013 at 3:01PM

If you are customer of the CHESS TELECOM LTD.

chesstelecom[DOT]com

YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS WILL BE GIVEN TO THE DEBT COLLECTING COMPANY’S !!! like this.

Be aware of the CHESS TELECOM LTD.

DavidP24 · 26 July 2014 at 10:35AM

Got a couple of these today from Arrow Global, they had stopped for a while but as the posts above suggest just send them out over and over.

I think what causes this is that one company does a search for someone at a specific address, that is considered "activity" and equifax etc sends an alert to their clients who have signed up for alerts.

So a debt is sold or assigned by Arrow for 3 months, the assignee does a search that makes the address "active" this triggers an alert to Arrow but because they assigned it for 3 months they do not act. The assignee gets nowhere, the debt goes back to Arrow who now see the address as active and send out further letters.

So it goes on and on and on.

We such return such letters to sender, if they send more we tell them that we are invoicing them a "Handling & Storage" charge if any more are sent, we make a photocopy and then include that with an invoice if they send another. I add interest to the invoice and say they can deduct it if prompt payment is received.

These companies make the rules up as they go along, I used to open the letters and it was hilarious what they wrote, they start off with threats, then they offer a "substantial" discount when really they just want to find you so they can intimidate you.

I have seen it all, letters made to look as if they are from Lawyers and a while back there was one that looked like a summons, but was a fake "preparation" document.

Pyxis · 26 July 2014 at 11:10AM

Another thing you could try is to pop the letters in another envelope, perhaps with a covering note, and post it to them , but without a stamp. They will then have to pay the postage if they want to receive the letter. It just may stop them.

Nasqueron · 26 July 2014 at 7:13PM

DavidP24 wrote: »

Got a couple of these today from Arrow Global, they had stopped for a while but as the posts above suggest just send them out over and over.

I think what causes this is that one company does a search for someone at a specific address, that is considered "activity" and equifax etc sends an alert to their clients who have signed up for alerts.

So a debt is sold or assigned by Arrow for 3 months, the assignee does a search that makes the address "active" this triggers an alert to Arrow but because they assigned it for 3 months they do not act. The assignee gets nowhere, the debt goes back to Arrow who now see the address as active and send out further letters.

So it goes on and on and on.

We such return such letters to sender, if they send more we tell them that we are invoicing them a "Handling & Storage" charge if any more are sent, we make a photocopy and then include that with an invoice if they send another. I add interest to the invoice and say they can deduct it if prompt payment is received.

These companies make the rules up as they go along, I used to open the letters and it was hilarious what they wrote, they start off with threats, then they offer a "substantial" discount when really they just want to find you so they can intimidate you.

I have seen it all, letters made to look as if they are from Lawyers and a while back there was one that looked like a summons, but was a fake "preparation" document.

Had this at university with a tenant in the house from the year before us, we eventually opened a couple of the mail items to find out who was sending them to point them in the right direction (as the guy was a student at the university I suggested they call them as they must have a forwarding address) - started off with bills from the mobile phone company, they went to debt collectors, who added a fee, then the letter from the solicitors demanding payment of the original debt (without debt collector fee) - stopped sending them after we spoke to the agency and told them the guy didn't live there any more.

One plus side of opening the mail, we found £100 in cash in one envelope that had simply been mis-delivered, fortunately the actual intended recipient was only just down the road so we could hand it over - always a lesson to use cheque or transfer though

Pyxis · 26 July 2014 at 7:58PM

Nasqueron wrote: »

One plus side of opening the mail, we found £100 in cash in one envelope that had simply been mis-delivered, fortunately the actual intended recipient was only just down the road so we could hand it over - always a lesson to use cheque or transfer though

Thank you thank you thank you!!! For doing the right thing!

It's wonderful to hear of someone being honest! There's so much petty pilfering and 'finders keepers' attitudes, that it's refreshing to hear there are people who will look out for others!

Mind you, am amazed at anyone sending £100 through the post! I wouldn't even send a fiver these days!

chattychappy · 27 July 2014 at 6:56AM

cajef wrote: »

Sorry but that is wrong it is illegal :-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4307699

Er... and that thread doesn't conclude it's illegal !

Fluke85 · 27 July 2014 at 9:21PM

We've started getting letters like this for the previous owner of our house - we've lived here since end of June 2013 but get mail for them most days still.

Had a couple of letters this week from a debt collection age cy saying bai.iffs would be round to reclaim etc and another one from County Court Business Centre saying previous owner owes thousands to Barclaycard! More worrying, it says the account number was assigned to him in Nov 2013 which is when we'd already been living here 5 months - apologies for sounding stupid but does anyone know if that means the barclaycard account number? If so i believe thats fraud considering he'd sold the property months previously?!

Frustratingly we have no forwarding address, i was told by the estate agent at the time they now lived in Spain....

Any advice?

NX1977 · 6 May 2015 at 7:16PM

Report to the action fraud team.

All our issues with correspondence stopped immediately after we did. I believe they managed to locate our previous owner

jonesMUFCforever · 6 May 2015 at 9:21PM

Why ressurect this old thread?

Getting post for someone never lived at address - MBNA Debt?

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