Hi, I dont know if this has been covered before, but....

chaosuk83

Ok, heres the story...
A couple of years ago I had employment issues and signed up with a company called the financial helpline to make repayment arrangements etc. with outstanding bills (yes, I have paid back most of what was outstanding)

One of the things that the FH did was to agree a settlement figure with Choice catalogue on an account in my wifes name. So all good on that one, bill paid, one debt less.

Then after a year, Choice started sending bills out to us stating we owed them money, we sent back the FH settlement details and thought nothing more about it.

They sent the account to debt collectors - so we posted the proof of settlement to them, and so on.
This went on until about 8 months ago on the 4th different debt collection agency I think it was who when they received the proof from us, phoned up and apologised and said they would see if they could get this all sorted.

We heard nothing since, until today when we received a new demand from ANOTHER debt collection agency - out comes the old proof letter to be photocopied and sent off AGAIN!


Anyway, my question is - what can we do about Choice, do we have a legal standing? is there someone we can turn to for help in getting them to back off, after all - having agreed a settlement figure and so on am I not right in thinking they should stick by it?


many thanks for the help

pania

the problem that you have here is that partial settlements do leave the debtor open to being persued for the remainder of the debt at any time and it sounds asthough that COULD be what is happening here. although it is rare for it to happen. Have you speken to Choice directly? I'd fire off an extremely strong complaint letter to their chief executive. seek advice from the office of fair trading or trading standards and CAB exactly where you stand here but hopefully someone wiht more specialist knowledge will pop by shortly.
Welcome to the boards by the way! x

chaosuk83

thanks for your quick reply

pania

no problem at all chaos hope you get it sorted. x

dancingfairy

Did you get it in writing that it was a full and final settlement? Could the financial helpline have told you (or implied) it was a full and final settlement but Choice thought it was a partial settlement? I think you need to get in touch with Choice to be honest and get a copy of your records from them - I am sure they have to give you a copy of your records for a nominal charge.
Best of Luck sorting it out.
df