help & advice please on lowell

tofwig

sorry if this is in the wrong thread but here goes.

i have been chesed by lowell financial. they buy debts and collect them.

it is regards to a 3G phone i had years ago. they said i owed £65 from 3 years ago. i told them i did not and my credit file with experian even showed it as satisfied in 2005 when the contract ended. i even sent a copy of this in twice.

they then changed the 3g entry on my credit report to DEFAULTED!

they wrote again asking for money, i told them they had bought a debt that didnt exsist, and i would charge £25 per letter i send back to them in defending this. i recieved a reply saying i didnt have to write any more and it would be looked into. days later i get a letter offering me a discount if i settle.. again i send a letter........ any way i send 4 in total.

they have now told me they are going to write the debt off. dont know what they are going to do with my credit report.

am i right in thinking i can charge them for the letters i have sent in and or take them to county court for the £100 balance i advised them i would charge and for them to correct my creit report to how it were before they messed about with it.

any legal view on this would be fantastic

BEWARE OF LOWELL!!!!!

BYALPHAINDIA

Yup, There one of these 'Self Made Men' companies who seem to enjoy sending people their letters, And causing distress throught.

I went on their website once:

'Lowell Finance prides itself on it's proffesional collection of outstanding debts blah blah blah'.....

A Bunch Of !!!!!!.:rolleyes:

Those city slicky types who think their 'BIG' because they have a new office in LEEDS.:rolleyes:
Tear Their Letters Up.:T

Butlers1982

am i right in thinking i can charge them for the letters i have sent in and or take them to county court for the £100 balance i advised them i would charge and for them to correct my creit report to how it were before they messed about with it.

Yeh take them to court- sue them for millions, OR you could just move on and try and get a life

Ms-Pacman

there is a template letter you can send them to remove the incorrect information from your credit report if it isstill showing as defaot not satisfied as it was previously. Lowell probably have not done this yet and will only do when you show you know your consumer rights.

I'll find out the template letter and PM it to you lateer when I get home as not o my home computer. (unless someone beats me to it and posts it on here, lol)

boomyanka

Hi, I hope someone here can help me, I have already found a lot of useful information in these forums and am in a similar position to the person above.

If I first explain my situation, I purchased 2 PAYG 3 Mobile phones in 2003 at Carphone Warehouse. After a short period of time, I discovered that 3 had put me onto a high user 12 monthly contract tariff instead. It took me a short amount of time to resolve this problem and unfortunately I did not report them to Ofcom at the time. Anyway, like many people I have now received the MacKenzie Hall letters asking for the £18.50 that they claim that I owe them.

I have since checked my Credit Record using Experian and have found that there is a default on there from a company called Lowells, from whom I have never had any communication. A quick internet search sees that Mac-Hall are acting on behalf of Lowell. However these letters from Mac-Hall have all arrived after the default has been placed on my credit record.

OK, so here are some facts as far as I am concerned,

1. 3 should not be able to produce any signed credit agreement for any of the payments that they claim should be made from the mobile phone as they put me on an incorrect tariff at the time.
2. 3 have not made any contact with me about the alleged debt over the previous 5 years.
3. Mac-Hall/Lowell are as far as I am aware not allowed to put a default onto my credit file without previously contacting me about resolving thedebt (is this correct??)
4. I have the bank statements from the period of time that the mobile phone contract was taken out showing all required payments at the time.

So the course of action I have taken so far is,

1. I sent recorded delivery to Mackenzie-Hall a "prove-it" type letter. I am confident that no agreement exists between m and 3, as you dont forget the hassle that I went through to argue this with both Carphone Warehouse and 3 at the time (should have reported it to Offcom at the time, but you live and learn!!)

MacKenzie-Hall have since responded to this letter offering me reduced terms, whilst they look into this matter, however they have not put a date definition onto this looking into procedure, they just refer to it taking some time.

2. Yesterday I contacted Ofcom, who were very helpful, and sounded like they had heard this a lot recently. They recommended that I send a letter to 3, and gave me some information to put into the letter. It is essentially a formal complaint, requesting prof of the debt, or for three to contact Lowell and request that the default be removed. If not the matter wil be moved further down Ofcom complaint procedure and onto Otelo (ombudsman). I have requested a formal reply in 14 days from this letter.

3. I have also contacted Experian to request that a notice of dispute be added to my account at the position that Lowells default appears.

My strongest concern is the removal of the default, and the ability to keep this default off my credit file in the future.

OK, so here are my questions,

1. I have never heard from Lowell, not a single comunication,and the letters from Mac-Hall all appeared after the initial default was placed on my credit file. Is this allowed? If not, what is the best course of action for removing this default, should I contact the information commissioner? Should I contact Lowell (by letter of course), or Mackenzie-Hall. They have managed to confuse me a little bit regarding who my concerns should be addressed to (something that I feel is a tactic on their behalf). Is there a general financial authority that I should communicate with.

2. Having already had communication with Mac-Hall and now having this open dated "we will look into letter", is there now something that I can fire back to them, to firstly make them define a time period, and secondly if they fail to produce documentation (which they will, as I remember very clearly what I did or didnt sign at the time), can I request they remove the default (and are Mac-Hall in fact who I should be asking, or the mystery Lowell??). If so, how do I go about requesting this removal?

3. Any other suggestions for how to take this forward as I would like to resolve this with the minimum of fuss??

I appreciate any help or comments, and appreciate that this was a long winded explanation, only I wanted to get the facts down as clearly as I could. I also appreciate that some people will be astonished to not pay for just £18.50 (or £5.55 with the reduced letter) but I dont in anyway acknowledge that I owe anything to any of these companies, and secondly the placement of the default on my record prior to any communication has somewhat forced my, ANGRY, hand.

Many thanks in anticipation,

Ian