Unenforceable Credit Agreements

Rich66

Hi, as with many I guess, finances are getting tight, and for the first time in ages we have been stung with charges two months running !!
Anyway my point, I found a site that claims the following: Read below from a copy and paste from the site (wasn't sure if a link is allowed). Wondered if such loopholes really exist, I would have thought the advice on what to do would have been found on here somewhere. Any Opinions please.

Use your savings to clear them? What savings!!If you have a Credit Agreement where the original contract was issued before the 6th of April 2007 then many of these contracts have been found to be flawed or unenforceable.
For example one of these flaws put in simple terms: One of the basic rules the Consumer Credit Act states, is that every credit agreement must have certain information within the body of the document. These terms must be on the same sheet as the signature of the client, if they don’t they are unenforceable. We are advised that approximately 75% of agreements are application forms and do not have the prescribed terms, therefore rendering them unenforceable. In other words, they cannot make you repay another penny. Furthermore by using our experts in Consumer Credit Law [remember all the bank charges that have been reclaimed recently] we can get the debt wiped out for you

Our team will contact your credit provider requesting the release of all the relevant documentation under the terms of the Data Protection Act.
Once the documentation has been received, your claim will be pursued on your behalf.
We will, where possible:
• Claim back interest charges
• Claim back repayments made
• Cancel the card and clear any outstanding balance on the card
The process of credit card reduction can take approximately three to four months.
Once your debt has been written off then the credit account is closed with no adverse information on the credit reference agencies.
You will have saved many thousands of pounds and be credit card debt free.

Tigert

At best it's misleading. I very much doubt they can get debts written off. Everything that they can do, you can do yourself or with the assistance of debt charities or free services from Payplan and the like..

Ask yourself , "What's in it for them". They will be charging you for this service.

A few points - What they say about credit agreements is true. You do have a right to get a copy of your credit agreement. If they cannot provide it, then the debt does become unenforceable. It does not get written off. It purely means that you can't be persued through the courts. you still owe the money, they just have to rely on you to repay as they have no legal recourse.

This is where they become a bit misleading. In my opinion they are very unlikely to be able to claim back interest charges, repayments made or clear any outstanding balance. If you could then eeveryone would do it and the financial services industry would be in ruins.

91xx

There are a lot of companies now claiming they can write-off credit cards. There must be something to this otherwise these companies would not exist. Surely it would be classed as fraud if they claimed they could offer and service and then they were incapable of actually carrying out that service.

ditchd

Apologies (from a newbie) if this has already been covered but I cant find any reference to it.

I have a couple of credit cards and have held them for some time. I have seen adverts for companies who will on my behalf check out a loophole in contracts of cards taken out before a certain date, wipe the balance and leave me better off!

Is this correct? If so I presume it can be a DIY job? if thats the case are there any templates/guidance knocking about?

Thanks in advance.

thriftymomma

Search the forums for CCA requests. That should find you the info you need x

ditchd

Thanks but now I'm even more confused . I'm not in difficulty with them or anything owed, I keep up regular appropriate payments, all very manageable.

I just fancied the idea of a complete wipe out of all monies owed. Partly of course because its better in my pocket than theirs but also my principles are if youre going to do something do it properly so if they've misold or made a profit on the back of a debt I neednt strictly have their time is up and I'll have back what I can from them.

Can anyone explain the way it works in simple terms ?

Thanks

Frugaldom

In simple terms, if you are spending their money and paying them back at a rate that you agreed, you aren't missing payments, you aren't incurring any other surcharges and you aren't suffering undue financial hardship as a result of YOUR spending of THEIR money, as agreed, then why would anyone want to wipe your debts? Can you explain in simple terms, as you've lost me.

latecomer

I think the simple answer is because they can (possibly).

Frugaldom

Wouldn't they have to stop making the payments and risk such a 'write off' showing up on their credit history? Apologies for sounding stupid, but what I thought the OP meant was run up the card limit and then not pay the debt, have it wiped out instead. I may be wrong. If, like you are saying, anyone can just wipe out cc debt because of a legal loophole, does this mean there are 'stoozers' out there actually keeping all the cash? :eek:

NickX

nykmedia wrote: »

Wouldn't they have to stop making the payments and risk such a 'write off' showing up on their credit history? Apologies for sounding stupid, but what I thought the OP meant was run up the card limit and then not pay the debt, have it wiped out instead. I may be wrong. If, like you are saying, anyone can just wipe out cc debt because of a legal loophole, does this mean there are 'stoozers' out there actually keeping all the cash? :eek:

This "loophole" that means you can write your credit card debt off (pre April 2007) is coming up daily at present, and yes it is a legal technicality which alledgedly results in the debt becoming unenforceable, hence is written off.

In theory it should not affect your Credit History because the error was on the part of the Card Company, but I have doubts and concerns over that.

Also, despite posts coming up consistently asking about this, I have not read a single post from someone who has completed the process successfully.

So "Stoozers keeping all the cash" is most unlikely. Stoozing is profitable but not THAT profitable.

ditchd

So any idea what the loophole is?

All I keep hearing is "if you have pre whatever debt it can be written off"

I agree with you Nick, despite hearing about the theory I have never witnessed the practical.