Question ref 1974 Credit Card Agreements?

namethattune

Hello all, im a newbie on here although I have been reading through some of the excellent posts and thank you for the advice.

I have had a look through some threads but I cant seem to find answer one way or the other so here goes............

I am currently on a DMP but as all of CC were taken out well before 2007 I was wondering if I could benefit from the seemingly unenforcable 1974 agreements.

My quesstions are

Can I still try and claim even though I am on a DMP?

How do you go about finding if you did have an unenforcable agreement?

Is their a common list of Credit Card companies who have issued the unenforcable agreements on the site anywhere?

Hope these are not to complicated and is not a repeat post!

Once again thank you for all the good advice.

costapkt

Do not get carried away with pre 2007 agreements all being unenforcable, many are !! The first thing to do is ask for a CCA (Customer Credit Agreement) of each of your creditors. You can still do this even when you are on a DMP .
By asking for a CCA, which is your legal right, it proves the alleged loan exists.When it is supplied to you, then you can check it to see if it is enforcable. This is the tricky part.
There is also the chance that the creditor cannot supply it. This is to your advantage, because without the CCA the loan cannot be proved, and you can stop any repayments on it until one is produced. This means that the loan does not go away and if you wanted to make a Full & Final Settlement on it it might put you in a better bargaining position. But without the CCA it cannot be enforced in court. So it's your call, ignore it, or ask for a reduced settlement figure.
Going back to the other scenario, were a CCA is produced. You have to go through it with a fine toothcomb to pick out any faults with it. This is were you need the right advice. Do not go to any of the firms you see advertising that they can get your debts written off. These might cost you more than actual debt, because they usually ask for money up front without any guarantee of success.When you get any CCAs back post them up with personal details hidden ie. name . address account no. hidden etc.So more experienced people can give advice on them.
To get a CCA you need to send a one pound postal order to each of your creditors. There should be a CCA request letter on here somewere. Might have to go to Letters Templates. Do not sign the letter. Just write your name in capitals, this is because there is this thought that DCAs can lift your signature and do what they want with it. Also by sending a P.O. they have no trace of your bank account. Lastly always send recorded delivery.They have 12 days +2 ( thats for weekends) to supply your CCA if they do not supply it in this timescale you can stop any payments to them until a CCA is supplied. What this means, is that the account is in dispute and you can, if you wish, send them an account in dispute letter.
Basically that's it Good Luck

GeorgeUK

CCA requests are a bit complicated.

If you were to do a basic CCA request (cost £1), there is a good chance that instead of a copy of the actual original document you wil be given a reproduction with data taken from their database. This is because they are not required to provide a signature via the CCA request.

The way around this is to issued a subject access request (SAR - cost £10). This is more expensive so may only suit you if you are going to try to reclaim bank charges. As this falls under the Data Protection Act, they are required to provide you with a copy of the original document - complete with signatures.

If you have kept your copy of the credit agreement, you can check whether all the required terms are there or not. If they don't contain all the prescribed terms in the prescribed format, then the debt will not be enforcable and you can issue the basic CCA request. Even if they send you a reproduction containing all the required data, if they were to try to enforce the debt they would need to do this in court where the original agreement would need to be produced.

Also worth noting though is that even though you may have a copy of the agreement, if they don't have a copy then they can't enforce the debt.

Even though you are on a DMP, you have a legal right to request a CCA or SAR at any time. If you decide that the CCA is unenforcable however you can request that the DMP people stop making payments to that creditor.

Are you with one of the free debt charities or a fee paying company for your DMP?

The only other thing i would say is that the DMP company probably won't get involved in this and you will need to go through the process yourself. There is lots of information and advice available on the board though.

costapkt

Just a quick add on, at any time after the 14 days are up, if a CCA is supplied the DCA (Debt Collecting Agency ) can ask for payments to be restarted . I have been lucky so far with two of mine, I am still waiting 8 months down the line for a CCA of them. So there is hope out there.
If you have got original copies of any Credit Agreements do NOT tell any off your creditors. Wink Wink.