Please help need advice....

Kandipandi

Ill try to keep it brief... I received a letter on 23rd Oct (dated 14th Oct!!) from Advantis Credit informing me that I am in default of my payment arrangement and must now pay £102.55 within 14 days or legal action will be commenced. I wrote to them on 24th Oct recorded delivery as below:

“With reference to the above account, I have received correspondence indicating that I am in default of the payment arrangement in place.
This concerns me as this account was paid in full and settled on 29th February 2008. Arrangements to bring this account up to date were made and a direct debit was set up, the agreed payments were made each and every month by direct debit and the last payment was made on the 29th February 2008.

I am very concerned at your failure to keep accurate records and I request that you now check your records and ensure that the payments I was making were correctly applied to this account. I request that you update my account with the correct information, and inform me once this is done. Please also ensure that a note is made to the relevant credit reference agencies that this account is settled in full.

Should you require any further information please contact me.”

So then today I receive a letter from Crown Litigation Services informing me that they have been instructed by Advantis Credit to issue proceedings without further recourse. Unless I pay now apparently they will add £117 fees and I must ring them asap to make full payment.
Im mad as hell :mad: with them, they completely ignored my previous letter and I am intending to trawl through last years bank statements and get copies of all the payments. What I need is a good letter to send along the lines of them harassing me for monies I no longer owe. I saw one a while back and I have spent over 2 hours tonight trawling the forums and cant find one. If anyone can point me in the right direction I would be very very grateful. :Dx

Numpty_Monkey

Maybe there is one in here
Standard letters to creditors etc

HTH

Kandipandi

You lovely thing - thanks very much for taking the time to reply that is just what I have spent 2 hours looking for x x x x

Kandipandi

Further to my last post i sent these lovely people a letter the crux of it was:

ACCOUNT IN DISPUTE

Thank you for your letter of 28 October 2008, the contents of which are noted.


I must admit that I am rather bemused as to why this account has been passed to your company (if indeed you are a separate company in your own right), as it is in dispute with Advantis Credit and has been since 25th October 2008.
On 27th October a member of staff from Advantis Credit signed for delivery of my written dispute and I have an electronic proof of delivery showing their signature and the date.

I am disputing the total value of this debt with Advantis Credit due to the fact that the account has been paid in full, payments were made by direct debit and I enclose copies of my bank statements showing these payments including the final payment on 29th February 2008. As such, therefore, I consider this account to be closed and in dispute and no further action shall be made until this matter is resolved.
As per OFT guidelines Section 2.8k "not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt."

Consequentially any legal action you pursue will be averred as both UNLAWFUL and VEXATIOUS.

After taking advice, I am of the opinion that your continued pursuit is in violation of the Administration of Justice Act 1970 section 40, Protection from harassment Act 1997 section 3 as well as breaching a number of the OFT Collection Guidelines.
Furthermore, ignoring and/or disregarding claims that debts have been settled or are disputed and continuing to make unjustified demands for p ayment amounts to physical/psychological harassment.

We await your written confirmation that this matter is now closed. Otherwise we will have no option but to make a complaint to the trading standards department and consider informing the OFT of your actions. I hope that this will not be necessary and an acceptable solution can be accomplished.

I would appreciate your due diligence in this matter.

Yours Faithfully

So now today i receive a letter from them a NOTICE OF INTENT TO ISSUE COURT PROCEEDINGS. They have ignored my previous correspondence and now want £102 plus £107.18 costs! I have paid this debt in full and still the chase me for it without acknowledging any of my letters.
What would me next course of action be? Any advice would be appreciated as im not sure what to do next??
Thanks in advance.

Peekay32

Hi Kandipandi, I'm not as knowledgeable as others on this topic so take what I say with a pinch of salt, BUT, odds are the crap you're receiving is just automated bluff and they haven't got round to allocating your correspondence to your account.

I would personally look forward to receiving a court form, because if you can produce documentary evidence of all you claim, you can definitely defend.

Would anyone know if OP could counterclaim for costs?

pepe2008

Continuing to chase a debt that has been settled is Fraud and I also believe that a section of the Money Laundering Laws cover this . I'll keep looking.

Dont worry about getting a Court form, it will cost them money!!! Your story is correct, so they are in the wrong!

RAS

CC the OFT's Office into the letter?

Kandipandi

Thanks for the advice so far guys. I think you are right I must follow through with my complaint to the OFT and Trading standards. I would pay the money if I owed it but I am not paying it twice!!

Peekay32

Kandipandi, remember that court isn't somewhere the good guys take the bad debtors to punish them - it's civil law.

If you can prove that you have already paid this debt, you have nothing to fear from them taking you to court - so they have absolutely no hold over you.

Kandipandi

Yeah you are right - I think its probably a matter of these things getting into the computer system and they are not very good at looking at individual cases and investigating them, or why else would they be taking me to court when I have provided them with evidence of my payments? Barmy.
It just really annoys me that people (not quite as bolshy as me) might just pay up again to keep them off their backs, my DH said to me last night - its not worth getting worked up about its only £100 just pay them again!!!!! Obviously I said NO.:mad: