AMEX threats to make me bankrupt

Tyra_2

I recently received a letter from amex. They haven't heard from me in many years and now they have caught up with me they are threatening to make me bankrupt for £2000 debt. I am on income support and incapacity so cannot pay, can they really do this to me?

philnicandamy

AMEX along with tax are the rare few that can indeed declare someone bankrupt...when you say many years how many roughly?

you need to get some professional advice NOW from any of the free helplines in my sig below

Tyra_2

Approx 6 and a half years ago since I was in contact with them. I have never replied to their letters or acknowledged them. Bad I know.

skylight

Theoretically the debt is statute barred after no contact of 6 years, but its proving it thats the difficult bit with the exact dates - 5 years and 364 days is too short!

A phil said, you should gather all your info together and call those numbers in his signature ASAP. Amex are one of the few who will make you bankrupty as company policy - they do mean it.

In BR though, almost ALL your debts are included, so if you are on IS is IB then would it be a bad thing for you?

fiveyearplan

Tyra wrote: »

Approx 6 and a half years ago since I was in contact with them. I have never replied to their letters or acknowledged them. Bad I know.

I'd say its quite fortunate you haven't acknowledged anything from Amex in that time.

Tyra_2

To Be honest, when I ran into financial problems around the time I was pregnant I did contact amex. This was approx 6 and a half years ago. The person on the other side of the line was, in a word, vile. He began by threatening me immediately with bankrupcy, and he scared me adequately enough never to approach or contact them again. So the letter arrived last week and immediately put the fear of God into me. I though maybe if they never had an acknowledgment from me they would go away, but I suppose they are like the Mounties, in that they always get their man!

philnicandamy

As skylight said in theory any debt over 6yrs is statute barred BUT its proving dates that can be the difficult part....it dont suprise me really AMEX are not one of the nicest people (i'm being too kind...ok they are a bunch of !!!!!!!s!) they will declare you bankrupt in a blink without argument so you ideally need to speak to someone tomorrow first thing

fiveyearplan

I'm glad they turned me down for a credit card then!

When you get some advice can you come back and let us know what they say?

fiveyearplan

Tyra, I was just thinking you could CCA them. If the debt is that old chances are the agreement wouldn't stand up in court anyway. See what CAB say first in case it makes it worse communicating with them.

deedee_3

Amex did the same to me before I declared myself bankrupt. I phoned National Debtline and they advised me to send their statute barred letter. They came back to me saying I was morally obliged to pay it as I had run up the debt, which I am not denying. So I wrote them a letter on NDL advice asking for the CCA, guess what?:D Oh! dear! they couldn't provide one . So told them to BOGOFF!!

fiveyearplan

They will try to get you with that 'morally obliged' cr*p.