Ridiculous Situation - Harassing First Credit.

neilius_uk

Hello fellow forum members,

I am in need of some advice regarding a debt collection company called First Credit who took over a debt I could not pay back to Abbey National 8 years ago.

To give you some background, the debt was originally around £6,000.00 and the balance left is currently around £2,000.00.

A default was awarded but has now run its course and I have never had a CCJ to date.

Payment arrangements were made after the debt was sold onto First Credit by Abbey. These have been steadily increased to £32.00 per month right now.

Now here comes the problem I am facing....

I have always paid First Credit on time via a direct debit, however a few months back a mistake made by my bank led to a bouncing direct debit. After popping into my local Halifax branch a letter was written to prove that the direct debit failure was not caused by me.

I had to do this because when I called First Credit, they said that I had broken the arrangement and would need to pay the full balance (roughly 2 grand) or face court action. I informed them that this would be ridiculous and I am offering to pay and that court action would only lead to the same outcome. The bottom line is I cannot pay them what I do not have!

What worried my most about this is that they tried to intimidate me, going on about how much they can damage my credit rating (which is now ok) and how I will be forced into paying higher interest rates for years if I do not pay the full outstanding balance. The letter from the bank was the only thing that actually shut them up, payments then resumed.

The next problem came when I was involved in a head on car accident (not my fault - another driver on wrong side of road) which led to whiplash and a loss of transport. As I am paid cash and was in an incapacitated I did not pay my wages (still paid cash) into my bank account and the balance was just insufficient to pay their direct debit. All others debits left my account much to my annoyance and I do have the money to pay First Credit - I just couldn't get it in.

As I was off from work, my manager kindly offered to offer First Credit payment via a company credit card. A fax was sent and he held a telephone conversation with your typical call centre debt chasing clerk. He has come back to me in surprise and disgust at their attitude, they have stated that I will be definitely going to court with them and was advised that no more chances will be given after I was advised previously over the failing bank direct debit. Nick (My manager) also expressed disgust at how they spoke and their attitude in general, they did not want to listen to reason at all.

It has since gone quiet (past month) both on the phone and with no post; I can only assume this is credit crunch related?

I am going to write to them to explain the situation; I was also thinking of attaching proof of the car accident or giving them my doctor’s name...

I do wish to ask other forum members what I should do about this.

My current advice (from work) is to let it run, apparently before a court appearance can be made a mediator gets involved to see it the situation can be resolved amicably and that the threats from first credit are to scare me into somehow finding the full sum.

Obviously a court will side with me as I constantly made offers to pay them a sum each month, this is in writing - what good could a court do?

Anyway sorry for babbling on, can anyone offer advice?

Neil

GeorgeUK

Was there a period of 6 years (5 in Scotland) where you did not make any payments towards the debt or acknowledge the debt in writing?

If this is the case, then the debt may be statute barred. Restarting payments after a debt becomes statute barred does not change its status.

Do not speak to them on the phone - only communicate in writing. If possible, you could make a full and final settlement offer for perhaps 50% (not a partial offer). Just make sure you get confirmation in writing before sending payment.

If this is not an option, you could possibly offer a lower amount or write offering the £32 payment again. There are template letters available if required.

pepe2008

Hi neilius,

George will come up with all sorts of sensible stuff, he usually ( sorry george, always ) does.

Also take a look at the thread 'first credit debt collection' and see just what a bunch of lying, cheating, low down parasites this bunch of vermin are.

Take a look at oft.gov.uk and read the Guidelines on Debt Collection and see just how many of these they have broken....then complain to the OFT, the more people who do this, the more chance we have of getting this lot de-licensed. Complaints are free and anonymous, but we need plenty of them.

Never speak on the phone, insist on written/e-mail only, its your right not to be bullied by a lying commission-driven collection-monkey.
Sorry for the rant, but its healthy for my heart.

Pepe

neilius_uk

Thanks very much, I will def take a look at that link.

I have sent across a letter stating that I will pay the £32 per month I was previously, if I had more money to offer as a settlement then I would and I have also put that I am not happy with how I have been dealt with and spoken to.

Is it right though, that prior to any awarding of a C.C.J, a mediator has to first look at the problem overall?

I have never not wanted to pay them + had the money. It is simply a case of them demanding the full balance + scare tactics.

Neil