Can they do this?!?!

lisyloo

They said this would be fine (unfortunately, this was all done over the phone!)

WHY?
You have already been advised not to deal over the phone by several people.
If you ask for advice then don't ignore it.
I use recorded delivery (which costs an additional 75p).
You get an orange receipt from the post office and you can check on-line that the item was delivered.
If you got to court and showed the receipts, whilst the post is not perfect, I accept a judge would believe you had taken the right steps to make sure the companies were contacted.

It seems to me is the debt for when you failed to tell the company you no longer needed the car.
If you couldnt get through on the phone, why didn't you write to them (recorded)??
Now I don't know whether they can charge you for a car you ddin't have because you had not informed them.
They might have cacnelled it after some months and the debt may relate to that intervening period.
Now they have sold the debt on to a collcetion agency and they couldn't care less as they have sold the debt on.
It's quite possible that the debt recovery agency have added charges but you do have a right to see the breakdown.

1) Wite a letter now to the agency demanding that they give you a breakdown for the charges.
2) Go to the postoffice and send it by recorded delivery.
3) Keep the orange receipt. it's good that you keep things but you might need to show this one to a judge. If they take you to court and have not told you what the debt is for and you have "proof" you asked for it, then it will pout you in a good posistion.

Once you have the breakdown then come back for advice as some charghes are legal. For example it's perfectly legal for them to charge you and money owing on the insurance (you have probably underpaid when you take into account the short term rates), and it's legal to charge an admin fee for you to cancel (up to about £50 as a guideline) as it's costs the company money to change a contract that you agreed to for a year. So chances are that you DID owe some money anyway.

Quentin

Reply to this letter stating what you have already done (ie asked for (but not received) a detailed invoice to explain the amount they say you owe), and say until you receive this you cannot do anything as you do dispute the amount they say you owe.

Do everything in writing (don't phone) and keep copies of all correspondence.

If you do eventually agree that you do owe the money, then offer a payment plan (as that may stop them proceeding with court action, which could be followed by a bailiff should they win the court action and you do not pay any sum ordered by the court).

Any court action that you are involved with (and lose) will inevitably mean the debt increasing as the loser in a county court case also has to pay the costs of the case.

MeandtheLilUn

OK,

Firstly, anything that was done over the phone was done BEFORE I came on here asking for advice. Since then EVERYTHING has been done in writing. The only thing that I haven't done is sent everything via recorded delivery. I have since sent another letter, (not recorded delivery) but I do have dated copies of everything.

I am now going to have to send another bunch of letters out, and I will do it recorded delivery.

They knew I didn't have the car anymore as I told them this when I first contacted them and asked to cancel. The first person I spoke to asked me this, and then said 'OK, I'll put you through to cancellations' which is when I got put on hold for over an hour. I then tried after that and still got passed around and put on hold, hence why I cancelled the DD through my bank. I continued to try calling them, and still had no answer, and then I started getting the usual missed payment letters etc etc, so when I rang in response to those letters I went round in circles again, and now it has come to this because no-one from any of the (now) THREE companies are not responding, other than to tell me that I 'owe them money'

I am slowly going insane and have had enough. At this rate, if I don't get a response from this next letter, I'm just gonna ignore it til they take me to court!!

Apologies if I seem a bit bad tempered, I have just really had enough with this company over a vehicle that doesn't even exist anymore, other than on a scrap heap!!

nikki&asha

Just an idea but is there any way you can find/get a new copy of the phone bill that shows the time you spent on the phone to the insurance company - if you got rid of the car then you will know what month? Or has it been to long? This could be additional proof that you tried to inform them/get through to cancellations at the time. I assume it will be on itemised as these companys are not usually the cheapest or free to ring and have 08 type numbers.

I would get this and highlight the calls then send it with your complaint to the insurance company and perhaps they can look up the calls.

hth

Nikki

MeandtheLilUn

Hi Nikki,

I could probably look through my online billing and see if there's anything on there, but I didn't always call from home due to their office hours, so proving all the calls could be a bit difficult.

I should have a few though, especially the first one, I know it was in November last year, so it should be a bit easier to track down.

Thanks for this!

FH_Brit

Me - I've used this example before and hopefully it will explain where you are,

You buy a tin of Baked Beans for 60p and you agree to pay over a year at 5p per month. However you ate the beans the first day so you don't pay anymore, well you don't have the beans anymore, but you never agreed to by one twelth of the beans each month you agreed to pay the full amount over 12 months. The moment you walked away with coverage (the beans) you owed the full amount.

MeandtheLilUn

FH...

Thanks for the analogy... you're basically saying that even though I no longer own the car I still owe them one whole years premium? I don't see how that could possibly be fair or reasonable.

And I've still had no response from any of the letters.. but I've also not heard anything alse about debt collectors/bailliffs turning up on my doorstep either!

I'm half considering going back to using public transport, but I know it would be a nightmare!

Thanks