Zinc Collections

hubbards

I am slightly concerned and wonder if I could get some advice. Yesterday I received a letter from Zinc Collections in my maiden name addressed to my mothers house - where I haven;t lived for 16 years! I have also been married now for 7 years and never use my maiden name. The letter claims I owe money to GE Capital and they now know I am in a position to pay this money back. I have been onto Experian today and checked my credit history, against both names and all my address history and the only balances showing as owing are those that I know about! I am now not sure what to do as I don't want to contact them and risk them harrassing me for money I don't owe?

Does anybody have any advice?

Thanks

Tixy

Hi, welcome

Can you recall if you did have any old unpaid debts from 16 or even 7 years ago? (GE Capital used to do a lot of store cards amongst other things).

If you did then it could be one of those debts and it sounds very likely that it would be statute barred, so you would not be required to pay no matter if you did have a debt or not.

The alternative is that it is someone with the same name as you and that they have somehow incorrectly traced this person to your address.

You could ignore it, or you could send a prove it letter, which would tell you which of the 2 options above it is.

RAS

hubbards

This debt will be probably be statute barred, which measn that you are under no obligation to pay it at all; Parliament, the Courts and the OFt allow creditors 6 years (E&W) in which to pursue debt. After that repayment is entirely optional unless there is a CCJ and even then they need court permission to pursue the case. This load of chancer have bought a very old debt and discovered that your current financial situation is good. Having paid a few pence per pound, they think they can sting you for the whole sum.

If you think it is more than 6 years (5 in Scotland) since you paid anything towards this debt, which is likely if it does not show on your credit record, then you need to send them a statute barred letter. Until you do, they are legally entitled to ask you to pay even if they cannot amke you pay.