MoorCroft are chasing me for Money owed to Abbey HELP!!!

alwaysachance

I am stupidley £8k over drawn owith Abbey / Stantander. I got into a rut with cash advances against my check card. They diddnt restrict my account and even cancelled cheques were still going through. Now MoorCroft are chasing me HELP!!!

Tixy

Hi

Have Moorcroft sent proof they can collect the debt? a notice of assignment or similar?
If not the first step is to send the prove it letter to them.

How much can you afford to repay each month? once moorcroft have sent proof you need to write to offer Moorcroft a monthly repayment plan. It often helps to include an income & expenditure account to show you are offering all you can reasonably afford and are not spending excessively elsewhere.

EDIT - link to prove it letter http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11570893&postcount=2

alwaysachance

Hi there no they have sent me a letter advising that they have recieved info that i have outstanding balance with Abbey and basically do i think i am liable etc.

DarkConvict

I would go with the prove it letter and take it from there.

If at the end of the day you went £8,000 overdrawn, you will need to come to an arrangement to pay £x per month. Debt charities might be useful to help here - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2077631

alwaysachance

This was the first account I had with cheque gar and I got into a rut with cash til payday and plus all the charges it got to that amount (£8k) I reckon its about £5k without the fees.

I know it was stuipid but the bank just kept letting me order cheque books and go more and more overdrawn with no questions or letters for months. I spoke to someone else and they said that the bank should have never cashed ANY of the cheques which came from books which had been cancelled.

I have heard that just before Abbey changed to Santander there were lots of simular problems with other customers, that if they reported a cheque book lost/stolen, cheques were still going through and being cashed!! This info came from a senior staff member from my local Abbey branch.

I am really unsure which way to handle this matter as Moorcroft are asking if I accept responsability for this debt, but I have been advised that the bank are at fault as well as me, as they should have never let it go this far and the fact they cashed cancelled cheques!!!!

Tixy

I was under the impression you cannot cancel cheques that were guaranteed with a cheque guarantee card.

You are not disputing that you wrote all the cheque out I presume?

If you send the prove it letter your are asking the to prove that you owe the money and that the can collect it. If they can do that I think you have to say that you are responsible for the debt.

Britwife

I realize you're in a predicament but the bottom line is you knew you didn't have the money yet continued to write checks so how can you blame the bank?

Accept responsibiltiy and set up a payment plan for it. I'm saying that in a nice way, it's hard to read tone. Maybe you can talk to the bank about reducing the fees?

alwaysachance

I understand that I am responsible for cheques I have written but surely if somebody had stolen a cheque book and card and used these to write cheques from a book that was reported stolen and cancelled but yet the bank cashed them anyway, how wrong is that. Thats the way the guy said it to me who I have been speaking to from the branch. Its actually against the law to cash cancelled cheques. The books were cancelled before the cheques were even written. Look I'm not saying that I shouldn't pay what I owe, what Im saying is surely the bank should wave the charges in respect of their negligence???? I know what you are saying about them sending me proof of debt but I understand how that works with credit agreements but how does that work with just going overdrawn??

DarkConvict

Overdrafts are services, so have a service agreement, there is no credit agreement to challenge.

Yes, someone could steal your cheque book and guarantee card, which is why it is recommended they are not kept together.
Guaranteed cheques are just that, they will always be paid irrespective of the status of the account because payment is Guaranteed upto the amount written on the card. You cannot cancel this cheques otherwise you could buy items then cancel the cheques and they would be almost non the wiser to getting their money for the cheque you gave them. Sure they can complain to the bank but the bank can't release details under data protection (so the police would have to get them instead).

LilacPixie

OP are you saying that at least some of this debt is due to theft of your book/card??

Tixy

If you cancelled the cheques and then wrote out the cheques and guaranteed them with your card then that is fraud, not the bank being negligent.

If you cancelled the cheques and the cheque guarantee card and informed the bank and police that both had been stolen then you should not be liable for any cheques written after the date you report they had been stolen.

As DC says, you cannot do a CCA request for an overdraft, which is why we have been recommending the prove it letter.