Help with RuthBridge Ltd

thatchamlad

Good afternoon all, i hope someone can help me regarding RuthBridge Ltd

This morning i received a letter addressed to "the Occupier" at my address. It quoted a number to call and reference number to quote but had no further details.

I called and advised i had received a letter and the guy on the end of the phone asked to speak to my girlfriend. I advised that she was not here at present as she was 200 miles away caring for her mother who is seriously ill. At this point the guy became aggressive and almost threatening.

I advised the gentleman that i may be able to help if he told me what it was regarding and at this point he said " you tell her to contact me now" , i again advised that i would when i knew what it was about and he said "if she wants to know tell her to contact her bank". I had well and truly had enough by this point and told the guy in no uncertain terms i didn't appreciate his attitude.

He then said if i didn't get her to contact him he would contact my landlord and even quoted his name. When i asked why he said he would be sending someone to our house to collect the debt and she would be made bankrupt. When i again asked him why he was getting abusive he told me to stop being a telephone hardman and he would be more than happy to come to my door himself to collect the money.

I ended the call and contacted my girlfriend and asked her to call this bloke but warned her of his nature and attitude. 20 mins later she calls me in tears and tells me how he has said that "she has a habit of running up debt and owing people money", he then tells her the debt is with Welcome finance for a debt taken in 2003 and defaulted in 2005. She asks for proof of this as she believes the dates are wrong for the default etc and he gets abusive saying he will make her bankrupt and he wants payment today. She hung the phone up on him and he called her straight back saying they would get payment and hanging up the phone will solve nothing and to stop messing him about. She hung up again!!

She has since checked and believes the debt is statute barred. It was registered on her credit report but was wiped off completely last year. Surely this would mean 6 years have passed since the default was issued? She is in a terrible state now because of this guys attitude and doesn't know what to do. I have told her to send the CCA request letter etc but am stumped with what to do if someone does turn up at the door in the mean time.

Can anyone advise what my course of action should be?

Thanks in Advance

dan77_2

Sorry to hear someone else has had a similar experience with Ruthbridge LTD. Saying they will make you bankrupt is just one of the lovely things they bark at you when they take over your debts.

I had dealings with this company over a debt of £1000 a few years back, the very first thing they told me in the very first call was that they will make me bankrupt. I refused to have any dealings with them, they were rude, aggressive and nasty I hung up on them every time. My advice is to use the letters on this forum to ask for credit agreements, proof of debt etc. It is highly unlikely they will make her bankrupt, and if they keep harrassing you they are breaking the law. I recorded a few conversations with these clowns.

In the end I reported them to for harrassment and the debt was sold to the equally nasty HFO Services, same thing happened with them so again I ignored them. It finally went to Roxborough who did a F&F settlement of £350 and were actually quite polite. Good luck!

thatchamlad

dan77 wrote: »

Sorry to hear someone else has had a similar experience with Ruthbridge LTD. Saying they will make you bankrupt is just one of the lovely things they bark at you when they take over your debts.

I had dealings with this company over a debt of £1000 a few years back, the very first thing they told me in the very first call was that they will make me bankrupt. I refused to have any dealings with them, they were rude, aggressive and nasty I hung up on them every time. My advice is to use the letters on this forum to ask for credit agreements, proof of debt etc. It is highly unlikely they will make her bankrupt, and if they keep harrassing you they are breaking the law. I recorded a few conversations with these clowns.

In the end I reported them to for harrassment and the debt was sold to the equally nasty HFO Services, same thing happened with them so again I ignored them. It finally went to Roxborough who did a F&F settlement of £350 and were actually quite polite. Good luck!

Glad im not the only one having trouble with this mob. I am more concerned that they are threatening to go to my landlord.

What can my landlord do and can they contact him in the first place?

dan77_2

thatchamlad wrote: »

Glad im not the only one having trouble with this mob. I am more concerned that they are threatening to go to my landlord.

What can my landlord do and can they contact him in the first place?

I am pretty sure they cannot discuss your girlfriends debts with you, let alone your landlord as they would be in breach of the data protection act. When I was being contacted by them I lived with my mum and dad. They told me if I hung up they would call again and tell me dad everything, I told them to go ahead and I have to say they did, however realising they would be in breach of the data protection act all they did was ask my dad if I was resident at the address and could I contact them on an important financial matter. DO NOT get into any more conversations with them on the phone, if they insist on calling you do what I did and just answer everything with "I have no idea what you are talking about" no matter what they said I just said that, either they hung up or I did. When the realise their threats will get them nowhere they will give up, but be warned they will sell the debt on.

I am sure they only deal with debt that are statute barred or near staute barred, mine was 7 months off being statute barred and I did eventually pay the £300 F&F but that was my decision. It is hard but dont worry or lose any sleep over these clowns, they can't and won't do anything. It's a long, long process to make someone bankrupt.

DarkConvict

First of, lodge any official complaint with OFT for the actions of this company - http://www.oft.gov.uk/advice_and_resources/resource_base/legal/cca/debt-collection

They are not allowed to act in this way as it amounts to nothing short of physical harassment and verbal abuse. They should act in a calm and polite manner, and if you are not the person they are looking for either state they will ring back or ask her to get in touch.

Just so you know they have broken OFT guidelines and DPA. By telling you details to the point of saying she is in debt is in breach of DPA. You maybe in some cases be able to sue for disclosing details to third parties, no offence but unless she gives them permission you are a 3rd party. The landlord is also a 3rd party so threatening to talk to him is also illegal, unless the landlord is owed the money but in which case you shouldn't know anyway.

Here are the OFT guidelines and the ones i think they broke
http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf

2 UNFAIR BUSINESS PRACTICES
Communication
2.1 It is unfair to communicate, in whatever form, with consumers in an unclear,
inaccurate or misleading manner.
2.2 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:
c. those contacting debtors not making clear who they are, who
they work for, what their role is, what the purpose of the
contact is (depends on what they told her, as they shouldnt tell you anything)
h. asking or instructing debtors to make contact on premium rate
telephone numbers (depends on what number they asked to call on)

Physical/psychological harassment
2.5 Putting pressure on debtors or third parties is considered to be oppressive.
2.6 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:
b. pressurising debtors to sell property, to raise funds by further
borrowing or to extend their borrowing
f. pressurising debtors to pay in full, in unreasonably large instalments,
or to increase payments when they are unable to do so
g. making threatening statements or gestures or taking actions which
suggest harm to debtors
i. disclosing or threatening to disclose debt details to third parties unless
legally entitled to do so
j. acting in a way likely to be publicly embarrassing to the debtor either
deliberately or through lack of care, for example, by not putting
correspondence in a sealed envelope and putting it through a letterbox,
thereby running the risk that it could be read by third parties.

Deceptive and/or unfair methods
2.7 Dealings with debtors are not to be deceitful and/or unfair.
2.8 Examples of unfair practices are as follows:
a. sending demands for payment to an individual when it is uncertain that
they are the debtor in question, for example, threatening debt recovery
action to 'the occupier' or sending a payment demand to all people sharing
the same name/date of birth as a debtor in the hope that contact with the
correct debtor will be made.
b. disclosing debt details to an individual when it is uncertain that they are
the debtor in question, for example, disclosing details to 'the occupier' of
an address.
g. failing to refer on to the creditor reasonable offers to pay by instalments
h. not passing on payments received within a reasonable time resulting in
delays that adversely affect a debtor's financial position.
j. requiring an individual to supply information to prove they are not the
debtor in question, for example, driving licences, passports, full name,
date of birth, signatures
k. not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or
disputed debt.

Stay off the phone and deal in writing only. Send these letters - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11571485&postcount=4 (include the removal of telephone number section under DPA)

Your GF Verbally saying the phone about the debt is not an admission. First send the prove it letter http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11570893&postcount=2

RAS

Hi

They are already in deep breach of both the data protection Act and the OFT Guidelines on Debt Collection. Read this http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=25_liability_for_debts_and_the_limitation_act

You need to do two things:

1. Technically if a debt is statute bared, the debt colector has the right to ask you to pay, UNTIL you tell them that it is SB and you are not going to pay. As soon as you that they have to stop pursuing the debt.

Letter coming up.

2. They cannot speak to your landlord, nor can they make GF bankrupt. They are just bullies. make a formal complaint to their head office and report them to the OFT if you do not get a grovelling apology.

RAS

Am assuming you are in England or Wales not Scotland?

If so, send this letter to them registered post this weekend if possible.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=26870341&postcount=16

In the mean-time, if anyone from Ruthless rings, refuse to answer any security questions. You could demand their name, tell them you are recoding the call and will be reporting them to the OFT.

Got to go.

fermi

Can't add a lot more, apart from to say that there is zero chance of making someone bankrupt on a statute barred debt.

Would cost them a small fortune as well if they were daft enough to try.

DarkConvict

If it defaulted in 2005, then its possible it is not statute barred. Its 5 years in soctland, 6 in England.

When did she last write to someone about this debt, or make a payment towards it?

dan77_2

Just to say that you say the loan was taken out in 2003 but didnt default until 2005. Does that mean your girlfriend was making payments until 2005, if so this debt is not statute barred and wont be until next year. Check this out before going down the statute barred route, remember to be statute barred it has to be 6 years from the last payment or acknowledgment not from when the agreement was taken out.

fermi

The OP sated that the GF believed the default date was incorrect.

How incorrect is another matter?

As said, the default date doesn't matter really. It's when the last payment/acknowledgement was made that does.

It's all in the link posted by RAS that the OP will hopefully read.