Losing hope with Egg

fishies

This is my first post so please be gentle with me.:o

I fell ill about 4 years ago and became unable to work - my partner was also forced togive up his job to care for me. Debts started to build up so about 18 months later when I started to improve my partner started his own business based at home so he could still be close.Unfortunately this failed and due to this we became more in debt.We ended up about £30k in debt.

I had a savings policy pay out and have managed to sort out the MBNA debt with a settlement figure at 25% plus Paypal Credit card are happy to accept £1 per month. My main problem is with Egg/Moorcroft who are not interested in a settlement figure or lower payments ( I have been paying them £1 per month)
I sent this letter to them last week

I have written to EGG many times in the past and have yet to receive anything other than standard letters by return. Some of my other creditors have now dealt with my debts and settlement figures have been accepted by them.

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I now consider my account with Egg to be in dispute for the following two reasons.

1. Credit Agreement

I have been provided with a copy of a “Credit Agreement regulated by the Consumer Credit Act 1974” as requested
This agreement is improperly executed under section 61(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and the associated regulations. According to the Consumer Credit (Agreements) Regulations 1983 (Schedule 1), this agreement should have been given the heading “Credit Card Agreement”. In fact it has been incorrectly headed “Credit Agreement”.

Additionally, no “Credit Limit” has been stated – this is a prescribed term set out in the Consumer Credit (Agreements) Regulations 1983, as required by section 61(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

As the agreement has been improperly executed, it is only enforceable by an order of the court, by virtue of section 65. However, since it does not explicitly state the term “credit limit” (rather, it mentions only an "Approved Limit”), as required by Schedule 6 of the Consumer Credit (Agreements) Regulations 1983, the court would be prevented from granting such an order by virtue of section 127(3).


Future conduct

I trust you will now be in a position to reduce the balance on this account to zero and to remove any default that has been registered by yourselves with any credit reference agency, as required by the Data Protection Act 1984.

Furthermore, please be aware that from this point onwards I will respond only to written contact. You are now under notice that I will not discuss personal or confidential matters over the phone under any circumstances whatsoever.

I trust you are aware of the limitations placed upon you now that the account has been formally disputed. I particularly draw your attention to the legal requirement that a creditor is not permitted to take any action against an account whilst it remains in dispute.

The lack of a valid and enforceable credit agreement is a very clear dispute and therefore the following applies:
• You must not demand any payment on this account, nor am I obliged to offer any payment to you.
• You must not add any further interest or charges to this account.
• You must not pass this account to any third party.
• You must not issue a default notice on this account.
• You must not register any information in respect of this account with any of the credit reference agencies. To register information with the credit reference agencies, or to issue a default notice, would also be in breach of Section 13.6 of The Banking Code which stipulates that you can only register such information if the amount owed is not in dispute. I note that you are a subscriber to this Code.

Any further actions taken by Egg to collect the alleged debt whilst it is under dispute will be vigorously defended. I am also aware of the law regarding harassment of creditors under these circumstances and will use UK law to defend myself.

Moorcroft have responded with a very short letter stating
"your dispute is invalid and the balance on this account remains outstanding.
Please make immediate contact with our office to discuss a repayment proposal you can afford and maintain to avoid any further action being taken"

I am really at a loss of what to do next. I do totally accept I have a debt with them and am able to offer them a short settlement or token payments but they dont seem to want to acknowledge my letters.

Does anyone have any advise with dealing with these people as it is just making me more and more ill and nervous panicking every time the letter box rattles.

MyLastFiver

Please make immediate contact with our office to discuss a repayment proposal you can afford

That is what I would do. If you have already done this without success, then I would write a polite but direct complaint letter and escalate it as necessary according to Egg's complaints procedure (this will be on their website). Are they still charging interest? If so, then point out that there is no point in you servicing a debt that you have no hope of repaying, due to their charges. If they have stopped interest, then just keep on paying what you can afford. They can't have what you haven't got.

As for the credit agreement dispute, I'm no legal expert but you didn't really expect them to write off your balance just because of this technicality, did you? If you want to continue to assert the fact that the credit agreement is invalid and unenforcable, then you will have to be prepared for this to be ruled on by a court. So I would take some good legal advice before proceeding down this path.

GeorgeUK

There are plenty of posts here that deal with CCA requests. Sorry i can't post more right now, but definately browse some of the posts and also have a look at the consumeractiongroup forum too. Plenty of posts and templates on both boards.

fishies

MyLastFiver wrote: »

As for the credit agreement dispute, I'm no legal expert but you didn't really expect them to write off your balance just because of this technicality, did you? If you want to continue to assert the fact that the credit agreement is invalid and unenforcable, then you will have to be prepared for this to be ruled on by a court. So I would take some good legal advice before proceeding down this path.

No I did not think in a million years they would write it off, in fact I think it would be wrong if they did however I thought it might help in persuading them to stop adding interest, accept reduced payments or accept a full and final settlement.

fishies

MyLastFiver wrote: »

Please make immediate contact with our office to discuss a repayment proposal you can afford

That is what I would do. If you have already done this without success, then I would write a polite but direct complaint letter and escalate it as necessary according to Egg's complaints procedure (this will be on their website). Are they still charging interest? If so, then point out that there is no point in you servicing a debt that you have no hope of repaying, due to their charges. If they have stopped interest, then just keep on paying what you can afford. They can't have what you haven't got.

I have been writing to them every 2-3 weeks since 2nd January 2009 but they have not been willing to help. I have sent in budget planners and a settlement offer but they refuse to help. I went down the CCA request and query route as I had run out of options.
Guess I just need to keep at it but I am getting scared as I am getting further and further in debt with them.

MyLastFiver

fishies wrote: »

I have been writing to them every 2-3 weeks since 2nd January 2009 but they have not been willing to help. I have sent in budget planners and a settlement offer but they refuse to help. I went down the CCA request and query route as I had run out of options.
Guess I just need to keep at it but I am getting scared as I am getting further and further in debt with them.

As I say, if you're getting nowhere with the chimps in Collections then escalate your complaint. It does work. I had to do this with HSBC and by the 3rd escalation they agreed to stop interest and stop bloody ringing me