Ebay debt with DCA. Do they have to default before court?

BigCraigJohn

Hi. I may of asked about this debt before but things have moved a bit, DCA using court and CCJ in letters.

Quick run through.
I ran up an ebay seller fees debt of £500 which was due in jan. They forwarded to DCA pretty soon after. DCA sent a letter to which I emailed back saying I will pay asap. Ofcourse they would only discus the debt by phone.

2nd letter comes saying they will advise ebay to take me to court.
Now I have been making small payments to ebay direct purely because my balance there is £40 less than the DCA are asking(fees I presume). Ive only sent £50 so far and they are accepting through the website with no complaints and the ebay balance is visibly dropping.

What I really want to know is if before taking legal action would ebay have to send me a default notice as with a credit agreement?

I'm happy chipping away at the debt this way with a view to paying in full hopefully within the next 6 weeks.

Ive emailed ebay and they are useless, they just advise me to pay what I can as it looks better. DCA tell me not to comunicate with Ebay(wonder why £40?)

I'm sure that as I have aknowledged the debt and am making slow progress at paying the balance that ebay will be happy but do the DCA have any power while just acting for ebay to take me to court as i'm sure they will be doing the dirty work if anyone.

Would be appreciated if someone could advise on the situation.

Britwife

Just curious, if you have ebay seller fees, it's because you sold things so that would mean you had been paid by the buyers. If your fees were £500 then you obviously made a lot more than this selling items so why didn't you just leave a balance in your paypal to pay the fees? Seems like you would have made a couple grand in sales.

I don't have any experience with ebay and dca's but I would continue to make payments and contact the dca to come to some arrangement or plead with ebay to take the account back and see if they will agree to a dd to repay the debt each month.

BigCraigJohn

Was for things i'd sold. I was running a business on there but ever rising fees and people spending less put stop to that.
Unfortunately my finances were in a dire mess. Every penny was eaten up before it was earnt and no doubt I was selling larger things to pay credit card bills or something.
I'm on top of things now and would like to avoid court over such a small amount. Just trying to prioritise my debts and keep everyone happy.

Britwife

I still think you should try contacting ebay and see if they will take the account back from the debt collector and continue to make payments. I know you said you tried but keep trying. Try the phone number too.
From what I have seen on here, I don't see them taking you to court for £450. Are you now in a position to make regular payments and keep with them? See if they will set up a payment date for you.

BigCraigJohn

I can easily repay them at an affordable rate but honestly google something along the lines of "contact ebay impossible" and you'll see. All you get is general phone operators who can help you list an item or show you how to add a picture but try asking about your account and they dont have a clue, Paypal are the same. Infact only some people have a phone number for them.
I think I will just carry on trying to pay £20 a week and send an email explaining what i'm doing then print off copies of all emails and payment reciepts. If by some miracle they fancied there chances in court i'd pull out the emails and proof of payment.
The silly thing about the way ebay is set up is that I could probably still pay them online even if the DCA were in the process of taking me to court.

"Mr Bloggs whats your defence?" "I paid it 6 weeks ago"

DarkConvict

DCAs will generally say they will recommend court action to their client, so i assume they need authorisation to pursue legal action although as far as i know they can.

If they go for a CCJ defend it and show what you can afford. Showing your reasonable living allowences you will then be granted a CCJ for the surplus. Earn £900, - £300 rent, - £400 bills/food - £100 nessecary misc expenses, leaves £100 a month to pay them.

BigCraigJohn

I think i'm just gonna have a major stock clear out. Ive got a lot of stock(records) that have been sat here not sold for a long time. I'll ask my brother to list them as a lot(pay the fees straight away ofcourse) these will fetch atleast £300, if this goes straight towards that were down to £150 odd.
Might even be some other stuff I can sell, clothes and stuff.

Dont really need the hassle at the moment tbh