EquiDebt

[Penfold77]

Good Evening,

A while ago (August) I received the first of my comunication from this company and I came on the forum and followed your advice - sent the various letters and I have never heard from them again.

However I stayed enrolled with the credit expert system just as a precaution, and I have just hd an alert that on the 2nd December (ish) the very same company have done a search on my details.

Can anyone help me and explain why? or what they are trying to do?

Regards,
Penfold

[Penfold77]

Hi sorry to be a pain but can anyone offer advice?

[fermi]

Who knows. They don't seem to know what they are doing half the time.

As long as the search is an "unrecorded" equity (as it should be), then it's irrelevant as no creditors checking your file would see it.

[Lensman]

I had a DCA search my file last year. I think they were after information about my circumstances.

Without this information they cannot place your account on a certain track for processing. Or update that track.

A useful article here about how hard DCAs try to get your information so they can decide how best to treat your account:
http://www.consumerwiki.co.uk/index...._-_Q_%26_A%27s
You might need to read between the lines a bit but it made me realise why they ask the questions they do. All of it in their own interests.

[Penfold77]

It is an unrecorded search, but after no communication for 4 months I thought it was all over and I had nothing to worry about and now this. The debt is well over the 6 years time barred, I was out of the country for 8 so I don't understand why they are even looking in to things after they have received all the letters.
Should I just forget it? and hopefully that will be the end of it? Or should I write them again asking them to stop looking at my credit file?

[Lensman]

I would forget it if they have respected your SB letter. No damage has been done to your credit file (apart from your annoyance).

I am sure you have better things to do with your weekend than get steamed up about this.

[Penfold77]

To be fair I do, but having been away for so long I came back to no credit file and I am just getting one sorted now after 12 months and now this.
If they had of respected by SB why now check my credit file 4 months later?

[Lensman]

As above - this will have no impact on your credit worthiness. You have sound grounds for complaint with the CRAs if it does.

Have a good weekend.

[Penfold77]

Cheers.. Panick over then. I will just wait and see if I ever here from them again and then I suppose as I have already warned them about going to various bodies - I just do that. Correct?

[Penfold77]

Another update... I just got back from a weekend away to a letter from them saying that they had closed there account and passed it back to the company it came from. Who would now investigate whether they TRIED to contact me during the past 6 years. Is this correct? I thought you had to actually have contact within the past 6 years, not just attempt contact, otherwise surely this whole situation would never end. Your thoughts?

[fatbelly]

Originally Posted by Penfold77

Another update... I just got back from a weekend away to a letter from them saying that they had closed there account and passed it back to the company it came from. Who would now investigate whether they TRIED to contact me during the past 6 years. Is this correct? I thought you had to actually have contact within the past 6 years, not just attempt contact, otherwise surely this whole situation would never end. Your thoughts?

It's a nonsense argument, and dealt with by Fermi in post#7 of the SB thread.

[Penfold77]

Thank you.. So it looks like nothing can happen. Due to me been away for 8 years and not having any contact with anyone..

Thank you everyone. I can now rest and enjoy christmas, well until it starts again next year.

[fatbelly]

Strictly speaking, they could start a court claim, and you would have a defence.

But this is likely just to be posturing and harassment on their part, hoping that you don't know the law in this area.

[Penfold77]

How could they start a court claim? the debt is from 2003 and I have never had any contact since that date..
Also if this happened how or what would be the defence?

[fermi]

If they have "tried" to contact you in the 6 years, then under OFT guidelines it might possibly be still OK to ask you politely to pay. But NO MORE THAN THAT.

The debt would still be statute barred though. It would not stop that. So as said, if they were daft enough to try court action it would be a complete defence.

[Penfold77]

So if they politely ask me to pay I can say no.. Also how do they prove they have tried to contact me? I lived in a completely different country for the whole of that period of time.
I do not understand this, if it is statuate barred then I do not have to pay it no matter what? So if that is the case why still chase?

[iolanthe07]

So if that is the case why still chase?

Because the debt still exists (unless you're in Scotland). They are hoping you will pay it off under a moral obligation, since presumably you do owe it. But they cannot pursue it through the courts.

[Penfold77]

I genuinely do not remember the debt at all but it was a long time ago.

So just to clarify, I would not have to pay this if it turned out it was my debt and they asked me to?

If that is the case why don't they simply close the file down?

[RAS]

Hi

The debt still exists but you do not have to pay it because of the length odf time that has elapsed since your last payment.

No court in the land would grant them a case, as long as you defend it.

have you sent a SB letter yet and told them you are not paying?

[Penfold77]

Yes I sent it in August and not head anything until after I got back from the weekend, when they said they had closed their file and passed back to the company it came from. Who would now investigate whether they TRIED to contact me during the past 6 years. Is this correct? I thought you had to actually have contact within the past 6 years, not just attempt contact, otherwise surely this whole situation would never end. But as I said they can't have contacted me as I was out of the country.