Does the DCA owe me money?

stevie121

This is my first post here and I would welcome any help as I'm a bit confused about what to do.

2 years ago I had a mobile phone account and things got really nasty but eventually the phone company agreed that they had made mistakes and offered me compensation in writing which I accepted but they never sent it to me. I do still have the letter offering the compensation, and a copy of my acceptance. Because it was such a small amount I was not really bothered about it... I was happy that they had finally agreed I was right and that they actually owed me money all along, not the other way around.

2 years on and I have had a letter from a DCA claiming that they now own the account and that I owe 477GBP to them, as they are the new owners of the account.

I have written to them three times, (after each of their demands for payment) asking them to provide a full breakdown of the debt so I can fully understand why the feel that I owe them money but each letter I have sent has been ignored, they simply keep demanding payment without explaining the amount in question. My last letter to them also stated I wished to complain and asked for their complaint procedures, this was also ignored.

As the DCA now own the account, do they now owe me the money?

If they continue to ignore me, should I complain directly to the financial Ombudsman, even though I have not been able to follow their complaints procedure as they wont tell me what it is?

Thanks in advance.

Steve

pepe2008

Photocopy the letter and send them that. request that they should refer back to the Original Creditor. Give them 14 days to reply and tell them that if you havn't recieved a reply by then you will consider the matter closed.....its not the 'official way' of doing things I'm sure, but it throws it back at them. Send it 'signed for'.

poorandindenial

This is how DCAs are meant to behave:

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf

stevie121

Thanks guys for your replies... Im just confused as they say they now "own" the account.. maybe I just dont understand how DCA's work but to me, if they say they own the account, they are now responsible for it and not the original creditor??

I know that even if they do owe me the money I don't stand a chance of recovering it from them.

poorandindenial

They 'own' the account but they actally own the debt, if there is no debt then they need to send it back to the original creditor.

There may have been a logistical c0ck up at the original company, sometimes you can get them to recall it if they have screwed up and sent it on when they shouldn't have done.

stevie121

"They 'own' the account but they actally own the debt, if there is no debt then they need to send it back to the original creditor."

Yeah, I guess that makes sense now, a bit like them buying faulty goods

Now I guess it remains to be seen what the original creditor will do with my account... they obviously will have this same problem every time they try and sell it in the future.