Debt Recovery rights?

Timbersnake

Hi,

Im new to this and have finally decided to try and correct my Credit Report as much as I can.

I currently have three default notices on my credit expert report. One is for a Barclaycard debt, one is for Capital One and the last is for T-Mobile. The total sum of debt of all defaults is less than £1000.

The Barclaycard and T-mobile debts are satisfied but the Capital One debt is not yet. All the debts were sold to debt recovery agencies and it is their default notices that exist on my report (Lowell Portfolio and HFO).

There are two questions id like to ask? The first is regarding default dates. Searches on this forum suggest this is a common problem. The default dates on all the notices are incorrect and should be earlier (one of them considerably and therefore should not be on my report by now). I have contacted Barclaycard, Capital One and T-Mobile to request the original default dates but they have not responded in over 3 weeks now? Even though they have sold the debt on, as they are the originator of the information, are they not obliged to confirm with me what the original default dates are? I wanted to seek clarification on this before contacting the agencies they sold the debt onto. Once I got this, I would send this clarification to the current debt owners and request they amend the default dates.
As they have not responded to my requests, what should I do?

The second question is in regard to the Barclaycard debt (about £660). This debt was satisfied in November 2006 when Barclaycard reclaimed the money from my first wage that was paid into by Barclay Current Account without my knowledge. They later sent me a letter claiming they had the right to do this under some law or another. First of all, I was under the impression that Barclays bank and Barclaycard operated as two separate independent businesses. Therefore did they have the right to do this? Second point is, Barclaycard had already sold the debt to Lowell Portfolio and therefore I technically did not owe Barclaycard any money at all. Therefore, did they have the right to take the money from my Barclay current account like this if they had already sold the debt on?

Any advice on the above would be much appreciated. I even bought myself a new printer for my laptop yesterday (NOT on credit!!) in preparation for this!

Thanks in advance, Justin

DarkConvict

If the debt was sold on they should have sent you a notice of assignment, telling you who the debt was being sold to.
It may well be that Lowell were only acting on behalf (although they usually uses Mercers which are inhouse to barclays). If the debt was sold on, then no they couldn't take the money as it was no longer their debt to offset, they would have sold the debt for money already so cant claim anything from it. Offsetting - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/setting-off

Default dates should indeed not change, at least the default placed date. What would be useful is a copy of your credit file from before the changes, you maybe able to get this from the credit reference agency holding the default (remember there are 3, so do check them all)
If not, send a SAR to the original creditors, they should be able to give you the default dates/default notices, if they can't its possible they were placed incorrectly to begin with.
Once you can confirm the dates are wrong, follow page 19 onwards - http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/credit_explained_leaflet_2005.pdf

Timbersnake

Hi, thanks for the reply. I will get onto the credit agency to see if they can supply this info.
Ive heard of a SAR but that seems excessive if all I want is the original default dates? Do I have to get a SAR (£10 x 3 + recorded delivery) just for this info?

DarkConvict

A SAR is the only legal power you will have to access the data, it does include all data so yes £10 is what you would need to pay.

Since it does cost money, try getting the credit reference agencies to give you copies of old reports or confirm in writing the original default dates, send that to the DCAs (and ICO if they fail to update)

it may avoid you having to SAR the original creditors.