Alliance & Leicester Loan - What's going on!

london2008

Hi
Firstly, sorry this is a long message!

I've been on a DMP with CCCS since March 2008 and i'm slowly clearing my debts. I have two debts with A&L (now Santander), one is an overdraft with I have £76 left to pay off and the other is my loan, which according to my CCCS statement has £880 outstanding.

I called A&L to ask about paying off my overdraft as I should have some overtime at the end of this month with will cover it and I just thought I would ask about my loan, which I was told they didn't know anything about it and to call another number, which I did. I was told they were West Scott (think based in Scotland) and they told me my outstanding amount is £1400! I questioned it saying that even though I didn't have my A&L yearly loan statement to hand it was never that amount, but they just said they had no more information and to speak to CCCS who could speak to Santander.

I called CCCS to be told they couldn't speak to the creditor and gave me the same number for A&L loans that I had already called. So I called A&L again and explained it all to them asking for a statement and the guy told me, that they had written the loan off and asked if I had been contacted my a debt collector for it, to which I haven't. When I asked who had the passed it to he said they don't know that information! I asked for an address to write to and he told me it, but said the letter would be passed to his team and they would still not have anymore information for me!

So, my questions is, has anyone had a similar issue with A&L (or someone else) where by they can't confirm why the loan amount as gone up, can't provide a statement, can't tell me when the debt was cancelled and can't tell me who they have passed it to?

I'm going around in circles as I want to know if I now know them more!

Thanks for any help you can offer!

DarkConvict

If they sold the loan on, they are legally obliged to send you a notice of assignment detailing who to and why the debt has been sold on. Most agreement do not allow charges for debt collection so there is no reason for the jump in loan amount. You find in many cases a debt collector cant even charge interest so it is best to let them goto them.
Debts are sold in batches so it is unlikely a phone operator can tell you the details off hand, but writing in a letter should get you some information as they have time to look it up. If you still get nowhere, send a SAR request to A&L - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=30356311&postcount=22

Under OFT guidelines, they do have to give you details on the debt, including the current balance, although if it has been sold on you will have to ask the new owner - http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf