Taking the moral lowground?

Jamer

Hi there,

Hopefully somebody can help me here...

I'd like to think that after years of living in debt, student life, and a particularly irresponsible streak many years ago, that I'd paid off my debts and conditioned myself and my other half to saving and spending carefully rather than resorting to lots of debt.

It's with some surprise then that I've just received a letter from a company called "The Winged Messenger", part of a perfectly legit company called Global Debt Recovery. Yikes!!

I called them, as requested, and they confirmed all my info. Apparently I owe £541, which originally formed an overdraft at Lloyds TSB. Presumably, at some point, these guys bought the debt of the bank.

I've been told to expect a letter from GDR in the coming days discussing how to resolve this - there has been no mention as yet of additional fees/interest etc, but I'm sure there will be.

Now, I'm pretty sure that I owe this money, although I can't really remember because it dates back to 1996 when I was a high-spending, zero-earning second year student. So do I pay GDR whatever they ask for or do I send them a letter and tell them to stick it.

I've worked hard to restore a reasonable credit score so I don't want to go and wreck it all now.

Any ideas?

Cheers, James

aliasojo

Jamer wrote:

Now, I'm pretty sure that I owe this money.....

Think that might answer your question Jamer.

Sorry, I think you should bite the bullet and pay it. No point in having trouble from ghosts in the past now that you're getting sorted out.

Jen_Jen_5

1996 this debt is 11 years old,

a creditor has to take action to recover a debt (take you to court) within 6 years of the last contact in writing by you or your last payment.

if they havent done this then dont pay the debt, its not a question of moral high or low ground, the law is there to protect you and it says they have 6 years to recover the debt, you have moved on from this and they had lots of time to get their money from you.

do not write to them and if they issue in court defend the cliam saying its been over six years.

MORPH3US

I would double check if it is 6 years or not first before you take #3's advice.

If it is over 6 years then feel free to take her advice, although I assume the bank would have tried to reclaim this debt themselves first, didn't you get any letters off them about it?!?!

If it turns out that you do have to pay it back to the debt recovery agency then it might be worth telling them that you can't afford to pay it all back in one go but DO want to pay it back. Then offer to either pay it back in stupidly small installments or tell them you might be able to raise £400 if they will accept that as a settlement figure!

Don't take that as gospel, i have no real legal knowledge, but must be worth a try.

At the end of the day, the debt recovery agency will have purchased the debt from the bank for a lot less than the actual figure. As long as they make a profit then they'll seriously consider a reduced figure to get their hands on the cash tomorrow rather than wait a year or two!

Robert_Sterling_3

You borrowed some money so pay it back,

Jamer

Hi guys,

I think these responses are brilliant! - not least because I've considered all of them...

Shall I? Shan't I. Half of me is saying, oh for crying out loud, just pay it and get rid of them, and the other half is saying, hang on, these people are clearly trying it on, because legally they're way off the mark.

Most of my surprise came from the fact that they have never found me in all this time. The bloke I spoke to said these things can go dormant for years before they resurface. When I was a student I lived in three different places in three years, and because I was never on the electoral roll I guess I was quite hard to track. Since then I've lived in another four houses.

But that's not the weird thing. This letter has been sent to my parents' house!!! And they've been there all the time - in fact, I probably opened the account using that address. To be honest, I can't really remember.

Jamer

aliasojo

If the debt was not paid and court action was taken against Jamer (even if unsuccessful), would this have an effect on his CR in some way?

Regardless of the legalities, I suppose it also comes down to how you feel about owing. I know everyone has different viewpoints about whether they should honour their debts or not. Just depends on how important or otherwise this is for you I guess. Personally I would pay it. I would also not want to run the risk of ruining my reference file for the sake of five hundred quid.

It does seem odd that this is the first that Jamer will have heard of the debt. If there have been letters in the past, does the 6 year rule run from date of last contact rather than date of default?

Quasar

I have heard of scams whereby people purporting to be legit companies send bills in the hope of getting payment.

They target either people with a history of debt, especially if a confused one so chances are good the "debtor" will assume he/she owes the money.

Or they target companies by sending invoices for small amounts so they easily slip through the net and get paid.

This is just a thought of course. In your case, James, it may well all be legit. I just pointed out the above so that you don't leap before you look.

Good luck.
Q

file_wizzard

aliasojo wrote:

If the debt was not paid and court action was taken against Jamer (even if unsuccessful), would this have an effect on his CR in some way?

No legal case to answer, limitation act 1980

aliasojo wrote:

It does seem odd that this is the first that Jamer will have heard of the debt. If there have been letters in the past, does the 6 year rule run from date of last contact rather than date of default?

date of last contact is irrelevant, they could of wrote him 10 times a week for the last 10 years, the limitation runs form the date of default until such time as the debt is acknowledged, if the debt is not acknowledge or proved in court within a period of six years then it is statute barred and is legally unenforceable

however, the moral dilemma is something all together different !

Jamer

Hey Robert, I'm not angling for sometone to tell me it's OK not to pay this money back. I'd love to ring up Lloyds TSB and tell them I'm sending a cheque back for a sum that I'd completely forgotten about.

I just feel awkward about going through some faux soul-cleansing exercise of paying this money to someone who never leant it to me in the first place, just so I can say 'well, alls well that ends well, at least I've paid it.' On top of the fact that they're blatantly bending the law to secure some kind of payment.

That said, I'll probably pay it anyway - because, like many people I suspect, I get very scared at the prospect of being threatened about money/credit/debt/court etc, even when they've got no right to do so.

file_wizzard

Jamer wrote:

That said, I'll probably pay it anyway - because, like many people I suspect, I get very scared at the prospect of being threatened about money/credit/debt/court etc, even when they've got no right to do so.

I think in this case the happy medium may be to repay a sum which is proportional to the true cost to GDR

The original debt would of been written off up to 7 years ago, and Lloyds TSB would of claimed for it through their own insurance / contingency

GDR would of brought a 10 year old debt for maybe 10p / 20p in the pound

If you really feel the need to do some soul cleansing, with out feeling that GDR have taken you for a ride offer them say 30% of their claim and see what they say.

As stated you are under no legal obligation to do so, just perhaps a moral one


My personal opinion would be to let sleeping dogs lye, as although the debt is technically & legally statute barred, by acknowledging it now you are liable to stir up a hornets nest