is email classed as written acknowledgement - satute barred

j101

Hi, hope you can help

My wife previously had an Egg card. We believe the last payment made to Egg was in 2002. They messed up the address details when she moved and sent correspondance to her previous address (which we never received).

We got a letter from Lowell in August 07 demanding £1000. We contested this - having heard nothing for a few years. The debt was passed back to Egg who (in writing) explained that they had made an administrative mistake and her address had been changed twice on their system on the same day (to the new address then back again). Although they accepted they had made a mistake - the debt was still payable.

Heard nothing untill now, red debt collection services sent a demanding letter, usual format received March 09. My question is this: our contact with Lowell & Egg was all done via email or using Egg's online messaging system. Does this count as written acknowledgement of the debt? Does statute barred count if we have replied via email?

Hope you can help

If more details would help my wife has all the paperwork / emails sent & received throughought this period.

Thanks in advance
j101

RAS

First things first

Red is Lowell by another name.

davey001

In my recent research in relation to a settlement reached with a creditor via email i understood that email was legal binding and just as acceptable as the written format. All depends on what you said exactly.

If you want to try your luck then you can (for your own purposes) ignore the email communication (unless the DCA brings it up) and send any further communication in writing stating this account your belief this account is statue barred and see what the response is. Then you know how they will pay this.

j101

Many thanks for the advice.

What do you think is my next best move:
To state that I believe the account is statute barred?
Or send the standard letter asking for a true copy of my credit agreement enclosing the £1 fee?

To give a bit more info. . .
When this debt 're-appeared' last time I disputed it, said that I would NOT deal with Lowell and was eventually passed back to Egg. I explained that I knew my rights and wanted to see copies of any correspondance. From our point of view there may have been a small outstanding amount on the Egg card back in 02 / 03 when we moved, since then Egg had our address wrong (even though my wife informed them - and got acknowledgement) And so they sent all correspondance to the wrong address, never emailed or telephoned. There was deffinately not £1000 outstanding. I think they have
added interest / charges since that time, then sold the debt to Lowell. When we did get passed back to Egg they accepted the dispute, after a good few weeks they seemed to have difficulty retreiving documents relating to my wifes card. They eventually wrote back stating that they had made a mistake but because of the credit agreement my Wife had signed the debt was still valid - That was in 2007, haven't heard anything since, we (perhaps wrongly) assumed that they had written it off.

Any suggestions as to next move would be greatly appreciated
j101

fatbelly

j101 wrote: »

What do you think is my next best move:
To state that I believe the account is statute barred?

Yes!

If they prove it isn't, you still have other options.