Retract permission to report to credit reference agency?

mike1066

I am in an ongoing dispute with Alliance and Leicester, with regard to historic bank charges, and am at a point where I am running out of options, I can either further my complaint to the Ombudsman, or apply to the court, neither of which particuarly appeal, however I also feel they are not likely to chase me as they would have to go to court.My plan therefore it to tell them to go away in nnot so many words, what I am trying to work out however is if I can retract my permission for them to report my running of the account to the credit reference agencies, as this is effectively the only power they have over me at the moment.Any help would be much appriciated.ThanksMike

mike1066

sorry just wanted to add that they are telling me that I have no chance under the UTCCR

dunstonh

I can either further my complaint to the Ombudsman

Which is largely pointless unless you are in financial hardship.

or apply to the court

which hasnt yielded much success since the ruling on bank charges.

what I am trying to work out however is if I can retract my permission for them to report my running of the account to the credit reference agencies, as this is effectively the only power they have over me at the moment

No. They are allowed to do this.

Premier_2

mike1066 wrote: »

...I also feel they are not likely to chase me as they would have to go to court...

Why do you think that? They may not take you directly, but rather flog the debt to a collection agency who may take you.

Either way, you'll end up in court for the alleged debt, unless you come to agreeable solution beforehand.

You could, of course, use their claim as a reason to make a counter claim, but as you say, they've already suggested to you that you have no chance under the UTCCR.

If, of course, you do think you'll have a chance, why not just make the claim now? That might delay any reporting by them to the credit reference agency until the case.

mike1066

basically I have some experiance in dealing with them and I know they will not persue, it is not that much debt and they may well sell it on but the DCA wont pursue it far enougth as it would not be worth the effort to them.Thats the issue, whilst I can argue the case and try and fight, if it is going to court I would rather they were the ones to pay the fee than me.The only thing holding me back is the credit history issue, I wont them to not be able to put a default against me and as far as I can tell they report to the CRA's on the basis of the permission I gave them when I opened the account so what is stopping me from retracting that permission??

mike1066

sorry Dunstonh, I did notice you gave an answer of no but was not sure of the basis of this answer, do they not only have the right if they have my permission?

natweststaffmember

mike1066 wrote: »

sorry Dunstonh, I did notice you gave an answer of no but was not sure of the basis of this answer, do they not only have the right if they have my permission?

Have you written to the bank refusing them the right to report your details to the CRA's? Have they responded?

UTCCR 1999 is still on the table btw but the argument is one you need to fully understand and may not necesarily apply to every single instance in which you were charged.

mike1066

I have not written to them about this as yet, was hoping to get some advice on the legalities have not found anything of use on the general internet, so was hoping for some wisdom from here.

I think I will write to them tommorrow and see what I get in response

Premier_2

mike1066 wrote: »

basically I have some experiance in dealing with them and I know they will not persue, it is not that much debt and they may well sell it on but the DCA wont pursue it far enougth as it would not be worth the effort to them.Thats the issue,...

The small claims court procedure was introduced for the precise reason of making small claims easy & affordable ... and the general principle is that the losing side also eventually picks up the small court costs involved. (although this doesn't always apply today should you make a claim to recover bank charges based on unproven legal arguements)

How much effort is it to make an online claim?

mike1066

whilst I agree that is the idea, they wont apply unless they are garenteed a win and for a small amount it is still not worth it for them, cost of solicitor etc, which cannot be reclaimed if I fight in court which I would all in all they wont do it, and if they do I will fight them and have a chance of winning, but I am not going to pay to take it to court as the chance is not good enougth.

Premier_2

Whilst a bank will usually simply give any of their legal cases direct to their in-house legal team to handle (who may actually simply employ an outside barrister), there really is no need. You don't need any legal training to raise a small claim - that is what the system was set up for and hence why such costs are not generally recoverable.

However, because such cases are sent direct to legal teams, that is why many small claims are simply sold onto debt collection agencies. Small time debt collectors may not employ such expensive legal help.

I'm not sure how you would defend such a claim.
Mr Debt Collector will prove you owe the money and that you haven't paid; that will be very simple.

The only thing I think you could attempt would be to claim the original charges were unlawful ... but that would be against the bank not the debt collector. If you are confident you'd win that why not make the claim now before the debt gets involved in complications of a debt collector and possibly avoid any bad marks on your credit history?

Or of course you could act like an ostrich with regards the debt - you seem to think it will just disappear if you do ... as do many who find themselves in court for money owed :cool: