But I thought it was settled…

neesk

Three years ago, my husband an I found that we could no longer pay our debts - I was on maternity leave with our very small premmie baby, and my husband was unable to work. We struck reduced payment deals with most of our creditors, and when I went back to work we remortgaged and settled with reduced payments on all of our debits.

I thought we were debt free, except for our mortgage.

Yesterday, I received a letter in the post from a debt collection agency. Egg had sold my debit of £300+ to them, and they want payment in full. As far as I was aware, we had cleared this debt - they accepted a reduced settlement.

I don't know what to do, I phoned the company (0870 number) the confirmed that I owe them money :-/ But they also have a record that I haven't paid anything to Egg in 3 years, after months of £1 payments, and then a single payment of £927. I had a good search last night, and I can't find any correspondence from Egg stating that they accepted anything. Surely we had a verbal contract though?

I can't afford £300, we barely make ends meet month-to-month, and yet another black mark on my credit file - which I have been trying desperately to get back to 'good' for 3 years in order to get a better mortgage deal in the future. Any ideas?

KR,
neesk

Broken_hearted

Unless you have it in writing its not agreed, just a trick to get money out of you. Any chance you have a record of the call? Hugs

epsilondraconis

The best thing to do is do ensure all of your correspondences are in writing - don't phone. There are various letter templates on this forum that you can use.

GeorgeUK

Hi neesk. Do you remember if they wrote to you confirming the figures? If it's a case of you cannot find the paperwork, you could send a Subject Access Request (SAR - cost £10) to Egg (don't specify the account number so you are not acknowledging the debt) and they should provide you with a list of all transactions and correspondence from the last 6 years. If a letter was sent with regards to the settlement, it should be included in this.

I would then also reclaim and bank or credit card charges you have had.

When making a settlement, it is advised not to make payment unless you have written confirmation of both the amount and that it is a "full and final" settlement rather than a "partial" settlement. Your credit file will usually be marked as partially settled, but in the letter it is to make sure that no other parties will be chasing you for payment of the outstanding amount.

Can you tell us what the debt was for? Creditcard, loan, overdraft?

stapeley

You need to request a notice of assignment and true signed copy of the CCA from this company . It costs £1 , there are loads of threads that will contain details of the process. You can also do a SAR to EGG this costs £10 . It is a STATUARY ACCESS REQUEST where they have to supply all details ,including payments on the account . Can you look back on bank account for the payment ? You can also ring EGG see what they say , but do not ring or talk to the collection agency again , write only . Most important do not acknowledge any debt to them and do not sign letters.

A footnote to this is , I advised someone yesterday to take great care with settlement offers . I advised that a CCA request was made and a notice of assignment obtained first. BH came back with " To avoid the hassle stapeley is talking about " . This is a prime example of why it is necessary ! Take note please BH.