Apex Credit Management - M & S card

bsquiggle

I today received a letter from Apex regarding a credit card debt I have with M and S. I am trying to do the right thing and have every intention of paying off the debt, but my concern is that as far as i know my account with M & S is not in arrears or anything, as I last spoke to them about 18 months ago and they assured me it wasn't then, and my minimum payment direct debit has been taken every month since then without problems, so I've just been assuming it's all okay. The DD was last taken on 18th April 2010, but letter from Apex dated 30th April 2010. There has been no new spending on the card since 2007. Because of being overseas I have not received any statements (at least I asssume that's why) though a few months ago I did receive a letter when they suspected fraudulent use of my card (it wasn't, but this proves they do have my address overseas) and more recently a brochure updating the terms and conditions. Given all that, and without any contact from M and S I'm not sure how to proceed from here.... the amount on the letter roughly matches what I (and my excel spreadsheet) believe the balance should be now.

Should I contact Apex and try to arrange a payment plan (no lump sum option, I only work part time)? does anyone know how open they are to this, as I can currently only afford to pay about the 2% per month I have been paying M & S, and even then I'll have to adjust other repayments since I presume it will be a fixed amount.?

Should I be contacting M & S themselves to find out why this has happened? Can they even do this?

Ironically, the envelope has a HMRC stamp saying that they had to retrieve excess postage from sender....

MrsTinks

Start by contacting M&S - it's not impossible that Apex have the wrong details or are chasing you for the wrong debt and yours infact is doing just fine and dandy. For now do not respond to Apex - wait until you have spoken to M&S...

bsquiggle

just because I hate when people don't follow up....

phoned M&S, and eventually established that they had made an error back in 2008 which had resulted in my account remaining on the 'gone away' list despite having contacted them and provided contact details. this then led to a default (!! first I knew of this) being registered when a DD was returned. because it was on gone away list no attempt was made to contact me to advise re default. although the DD was recovered and has been maintained the account remained in 'gone away' and was moved to Apex as part of a routine clearout. It also led to my not being charged interest in the intervening time.

However, I spoke to a very helpful person in their Agency team who was able to track through all of this and has re-instated the account (with interest from today, not back charged - a pleasant surprise for me) and will remove the default from my record. Shame about the interest, but grateful I've managed to keep mostly clean record, and I figure the interest is nobody's fault but my own. All in all a result I'm happy with. Amazingly, they are actually re-instating the credit facility, since my current balance is much less than the allowed limit, although I have no intention of using it.

bsquiggle

oh, and of course they will call off the Apex dogs.

shirleyshr

Wish I could get them called of that easy.