Full and final settlement help thread

sibardner

Hi guys, my first ever post..

I got a letter from Arrow Global for a debt I am not aware of for £1600, owed to Shop Direct, I can only assume it is a catalogue, thing is, it says date of original debt September 2005, should I ignore the letter or try to offer a F & F? I live on a really low income, but I could probably borrow a lump sum from family, but it seems incredible that they are still chasing something from 12 years ago and I am not even aware of ever buying anything for £1600, though I think I bought a laptop for about £650, your suggestions would be most welcome, I had considered just returning the letters as addressee unknown, but I would rather sort the matter out.

Hope you can help.

fatbelly

sibardner wrote: »

Hi guys, my first ever post..

I got a letter from Arrow Global for a debt I am not aware of for £1600, owed to Shop Direct, I can only assume it is a catalogue, thing is, it says date of original debt September 2005, should I ignore the letter or try to offer a F & F? I live on a really low income, but I could probably borrow a lump sum from family, but it seems incredible that they are still chasing something from 12 years ago and I am not even aware of ever buying anything for £1600, though I think I bought a laptop for about £650, your suggestions would be most welcome, I had considered just returning the letters as addressee unknown, but I would rather sort the matter out.

Hope you can help.

Why would you offer to pay a debt you're not aware of? It might not be yours. There may not be a signed agreement. Unless you've made a payment to it in the past 6 years, it's probably statute barred.

Send a prove-it and add the following

"I expect you to provide a copy of the original agreement and full statements of account. Please note that this is not a request under s77-79 CCA and therefore there is no fee for this request."

[Deleted User]

sibardner wrote: »

Hi guys, my first ever post..

I got a letter from Arrow Global for a debt I am not aware of for £1600, owed to Shop Direct, I can only assume it is a catalogue, thing is, it says date of original debt September 2005, should I ignore the letter or try to offer a F & F? I live on a really low income, but I could probably borrow a lump sum from family, but it seems incredible that they are still chasing something from 12 years ago and I am not even aware of ever buying anything for £1600, though I think I bought a laptop for about £650, your suggestions would be most welcome, I had considered just returning the letters as addressee unknown, but I would rather sort the matter out.

Hope you can help.

:wave:sibardner and welcome to the thread.

I don't post on here very often as I'm still avidly saving every penny towards a fighting fund to offer F&Fs on my debts. I read the posts on here whenever I can so I've got as much info as I might need when the day comes:j

I can't answer your queries myself but I'm sure that someone like fatbelly will be along to offer his advice soon.


EDIT: I wrote in my post about not communicating with them as the debt might be Statute Barred but have deleted it as fatbelly has beaten me to it by giving you advice which is far better and to the point than what I suggested

Good Luck and please let us know how it all pans out for you:beer:

sourcrates

sibardner wrote: »

Hi guys, my first ever post..

I got a letter from Arrow Global for a debt I am not aware of for £1600, owed to Shop Direct, I can only assume it is a catalogue, thing is, it says date of original debt September 2005, should I ignore the letter or try to offer a F & F? I live on a really low income, but I could probably borrow a lump sum from family, but it seems incredible that they are still chasing something from 12 years ago and I am not even aware of ever buying anything for £1600, though I think I bought a laptop for about £650, your suggestions would be most welcome, I had considered just returning the letters as addressee unknown, but I would rather sort the matter out.

Hope you can help.

Agree with Fatbelly on this.

Why make an offer on a debt you don't recognize ?

Arrow Global are a Hugh company that buy up delinquent credit accounts in very large numbers, no checks are done on these accounts prior to been sold, so they literally don't know what there buying, if they are collectable or not, so never just give in, always ask for advice if your unsure, then challenge them to prove liability.

Follow the advice given, it will most likely be statute barred and if so, we can help you deal with that also.

HairyHandofDartmoor

My OH and I have had some success recently with full and final offers. M&S, Hoist (Barclaycard), two Barclays overdrafts, NCO (Amex), & Wescot (Lloyds) all accepted an offer of 50% of what we owed :T.

I think they were influenced by the fact that we'd been paying token payments of £1 a month for two years and Stepchange said it would take us 92 years to pay off the debts based on our disposable income. As we are both in our fifties we are unlikely to live 92 years .

My OH drew out his pension to enable us to make the offers.

The only creditor that said no was Asset Link, whom my OH has two debts with (Barclaycards). They offered 75% on the smaller debt and 92% on the larger debt. We said we don't have the money (we don't). My OH mentioned he has health issues so Asset Link requested a doctors note as proof. Once we get the doctors note (long wait for that!) we will continue negotiations. We only have 50% to offer them so it's that or token payments again, so kind of hoping they'll say yes .

sibardner

Hi, thank you for your reply, I am pretty sure this is a laptop i ordered in 2004 for about £650, it was faulty and they refused to help fix it, so I didn't bother paying for it, I moved shortly after to my current address and have lived here for 13 years, I know for a fact I have never received any contact about this or any other debt in that time at my current address, but I do think it is the original catalogue debt, you mention something about 6 year (staute barred), I would rather not pay them anything, but I am worried that if I respond to them, once they have my response, then I am locked into communication and acknowledgement of the situation, I still think returning the letters unopened is a better solution, as you say they have no idea what they are chasing or even if I still exist...

Your thoughts please sir.

sourcrates

sibardner wrote: »

I would rather not pay them anything, but I am worried that if I respond to them, once they have my response, then I am locked into communication and acknowledgement of the situation, I still think returning the letters unopened is a better solution, as you say they have no idea what they are chasing or even if I still exist...

Your thoughts please sir.

If a debt is statute barred, then nothing can unbar it.

If you continue to ignore them, they could take you to court and then you would need to deal with it.

Best to just follow Fatbellys advice and send the provit letter.

The letter is specifically worded so as not to acknowledge anything.

They must prove liability, send the letter, include what Fatbelly has said, see what comes back.

sibardner

OK, thank you, that's very helpful, I will do as you both suggest and see what happens.

fatbelly

sourcrates wrote: »

If a debt is statute barred, then nothing can unbar it.

If you continue to ignore them, they could take you to court and then you would need to deal with it.

Best to just follow Fatbellys advice and send the provit letter.

The letter is specifically worded so as not to acknowledge anything.

They must prove liability, send the letter, include what Fatbelly has said, see what comes back.

I've two trains of thought here:

One is that we have often seen 'I think I know what this is', followed by 'oh no it's something different'. Let them tell you what this is.

The second is that if they do start a court claim then it is good to already be collecting evidence to defend it, and to be letting them know that you will not just roll over and pay it.

At this point it seems very unlikely that this is enforceable but, as you say, a prove-it letter acknowledges nothing and with my addition might even give the evidence you need about the last payment.

sibardner

I think you are right, I have just printed off and posted the 'prove it' letter, the thing is, I am not short of funds, if I have to pay something (that is mine), I will, but I know these companies have a habit of adding huge charges that are not necessary and that is why I started the discussion on here, just kinda fishing about for some info, in case it comes down to me knocking them down on the price, I know this hasn't affected my credit rating, I have savings, a mortgage, credit cards, mobile phone contract etc, I just wanted to cover my bum before I commit to communicating with them and the correct way of doing so.

Thank you once again for your help, I will post again if and when I receive something from them,.