S.R.J. Debt Recoveries

Domjen

Hello all

I received a letter from S.R.J Debt Recoveries. It was headed "Trace Confirmation" and stated that apparently they "have failed to receive a response to previous correspondence and have therefore made tracing enquiries for confirmation of (my) current place of residence". They then ask that I contact them immediately.

I was extremely baffled by this letter because as far as I am aware I do not owe any money to any company.

When I rang, I got as far as to quote the reference number given before an automated voice suddenly came on the phone stating that "the caller has..." I forgot the word used - I was too shocked because then the automated voice was replaced by a busy dialling tone.

I then hung up.

I'm extremely rattled by this and do not wish to ring again as I am now really scared. I do not owe money to any company. I have checked and double checked my up-to-date Experian credit profile and there is nothing to indicate that I owe money to anyone - which I don't anyway.

Is it best to just ignore this letter? I looked up SRJ Debt Recoveries on the web and they seem to be a legitimate company but their letter and the strange phone call seems to indicate otherwise!

Any ideas as to what I ought to do next?

Thanks so much for all your help

Jen

Tixy

Hi Jen

Don't phone them again. Don;t ever phone people like this.

My advice would be to ignore the letter. Is your name & address exactly correct? They could be just scattergun letter writing to people with a similar name to an actual debtor.

The alternative is you could send a 'prove it' letter (see below) but if they really want you they will write again with details of the supposed debt. - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11570893&postcount=2

Domjen

Fantastic!!

Thanks so much for that link. I shall save it just in case this company sends me another letter.

I now wish I never rang them.

Thanks again.

Jen
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PNPSUKNET

they used to send my old house this type of letters for the prev occupier, prob was it was in the name of the occupier. ignore it

Domjen

Hi

The letter was in my name. But again I re-iterate that I do not have debts owing to anyone that's why I am still extremely paranoid. If I do get another letter, I'll be back here asking for more advice!

It's amazing how one letter has made me feel quite ill. I know I've nothing to hide and yet this has really rattled me and I spent all last night and early morning rifling through all my papers and financial statements.

Why do these people do these horrible things?

Jen
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fermi

If there is a genuine debt then they will write to you with proper details and a demand for payment.

Anything else is just "fishing" and should be ignored.

Plama

Hi, I've also just received such a letter. It was quite a shock. It's reassuring to see that there are others out there with the same question. I will follow the course of action that has been recommended. Fingers crossed, that really was only fishing.. Thanks

Deep_In_Debt

As others have said, do nothing and just sit tight. They probably have a debt that they can't trace the owner so they are sending letters to people with the same or similar names in the hope that someone rings up that they can bully into paying regardless of whether you owe the money or not. Just think how much money they make if they bully everyone into paying for the same debt?

Chances are you will hear nothing further. If you do, then post back on here.

Plama

Thanks, will do. One thing that is making me think that the letter wasn't completely random is the fact that I have quite a unique name. Having said that, I'll just sit tight and see if / what they come back with.

Deep_In_Debt

Plama, yes, just sit tight. Do not phone them. The onus is on them to prove that you owe the debt not on you to prove that you don't.

Plama

Hi everyone, I'm back for some sage advice (and I apologise for the length of my message to come, but just wanted to give you as complete a picture as I could).

After SRJ's trace confirmation letter on 10th of Sept, which I ignored as suggested, on 29th of Sept I received another letter, titled Notice of Issue of Litigation Proceedings. The content is as follows:

Balance: £125.31
Client: AOL Broadband

You have failed to arrange and/or maintain a payment plan on this debt and it is now our client's intention to issue litigation proceeding to recover the overdue sums through your local court.

If we take this step, solicitor's costs, court fees and interest will be added to your account.

Once a claim is issued and a court judgement obtained, failure to pay could result in one of the following enforcement actions:
- execution of warrant
- attachment of earnings
- charging order
- bankruptcy

Even at this late stage, we are able to help you arrange an affordable payment plan to fit in with your expenditure budget, but you must contact us immediately.

I did have AOL Broadband from 2005-2007. Once I moved flats, I changed to BT. I didn't get round to cancelling the AOL contract immediately (v. silly of me!) but eventually I sent them an email, cancelling, though I have to admit I'm hazy on the details.

After receiving this SRJ letter I called up AOL and found out that I did have an outstanding amount of £105.31, which was 'written off' by them. The person said that since I had previously tried to cancel my account, and since I hadn't been using AOL internet, they would send off a request to have this amount written off and my account would be cleared - they then confirmed the above to me in an email. I asked them to also speak to their accounts department to inform SRJ that there was no longer any debt outstanding.

On 7th of October I unfortunately received a new letter from SRJ.

Referral for litigation

Our client, AOL Broadband, has made every effort to try and help you to resolve the outstanding debt, however they have now passed the account to us for recovery. We now have only 7 days to agree an affordable payment plan on your account.

If by then we have not heard from you, your account will be referred for consideration for a County Court claim to be issued at:

my address

To avoid this action you must contact us within in the next 7 days.

What would you suggest I do about this? I guess, even though I didn't actually use my AOL account after moving flats and I cancelled (!), this is something I have to pay because I don't really have any documentation to prove it. I'd be happy to pay this, as long as it's to AOL and not to these bullies. Now that AOL has said that they're happy writing this off, it would seem that I don't have to pay this amount at all. What I am worried about is that SRJ actually bought this debt off AOL, so it's no longer AOL that I owe money too.

I would really appreciate some advice / step by step explanation of how to deal with this. Many thanks!!