Lowell Financial...confused!?

alasia

Hi, about a year ago I started getting letters sent to my parents house (I havent lived there since 2004-ish) from Lowell Financial, saying I owed £118.52. It said the original creditor was abbey ltd.

Now I am confused, as I havent had an account, loan, mortgage or any other type of credit agreement with abbey since I was living in devon aged 18 (around 9 years ago).

I just had a bank account with them which as far as I know never went overdrawn - I dont think I even had an overdraft facility and I literally left my job aged 19, moved from devon to my parents house in staffordshire, and never used that old account again.

£118.52 seems such a specific amouont, and as yet I havent acknowledged any of the letters, made any payments or contacted lowell in anyway.

They are now sending letters to my new address, and they got as far as saying if I didnt pay the full amount within 7 days they would send a bailiff round - then a week later it went back to the letters offering a payment solution...

I cant think what this "credit" was for, the only other thing that sticks in my mind was when I was pregnant and living with a friend, I sent a cheque to mothercare to pay for some baby stuff.
The items arrived 14 days later so I assume the cheque had been cashed successfully, or they wouldnt have sent the goods to me?
The cheque was from my lloyds business account, so could that be the reason for this supposed debt, do you think?

What do I do next regarding this matter and how do I find out what the debt is for? Any advice appreciated.

Also on a slightly different matter...I checked my experian credit report yesterday for the first time ever, and there is one "judgement" on there, no other debts or creditors are listed.

I know I took out a loan with my ex in 2008 and that defaulted, and I have a couple of other small debts too...so why arent they listed on my credit report?
I amnot on the electoral roll and cant get credit so assumed I would have loads of creditors to pay off.
Can my credit report be right and I have no debts? lol...

Tixy

Regarding this first debt - have you responded to the letters at all yet? Its very likely that this is statute barred which would mean you won't need to pay it. But first you need to find out what it was for - so this prove it letter should be your starting point - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11570893&postcount=2

Then do nothing until they respond.
Have a read of this http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=11571227&postcount=3 regarding statute barred debts (including the factsheet it links to) and if they come back and prove what they debt was for then you can read to see if you think it would be SB, in which case send that template letter on there.

Any other issues with them come back for more advice.

Tixy

Regarding your credit report - have you moved since where you lived when you took out the loan with ex? It you are not on the electoral roll then your credit file may not be linked to your old address. If you have recently looked at it and provided your old & new address then it is possible it will now become linked and could mean your file will now be updated with that info and creditors could start chasing you again.

Sadly its unlikely that your file is right in saying you owe nothing.

RAS

alasia wrote: »

Hi, about a year ago I started getting letters sent to my parents house (I havent lived there since 2004-ish) from Lowell Financial, saying I owed £118.52. It said the original creditor was abbey ltd.

Now I am confused, as I havent had an account, loan, mortgage or any other type of credit agreement with abbey since I was living in devon aged 18 (around 9 years ago). i just had a bank account with them which as far as I know never went overdrawn - I dont think I even had an overdraft facility and I literally left my job aged 19, moved from devon to my parents house in staffordshire, and never used that old account again.

Ok, so whatever this money was owed for (and it could be fees due to a bounced DD that you forgot to cancel when you stoppped using the account etc), it is almost certainly statute barred, unless it is the judgement to which you refer further down or you have made a written acknowledgement ot payment in the last 6 years.

alasia wrote: »

They are now sending letters to my new address,

and they got as far as saying if I didnt pay the full amount within 7 days they would send a bailiff round

They never said that - what they said was that if you did not pay in 7 days lost of awful things MAY happen. Not that any of them were realistic possibilities.

- then a week later it went back to the letters offering a payment solution...

becuase you did not bite first time and panic and pay up

alasia wrote: »

Also on a slightly different matter...I checked my experian credit report yesterday for the first time ever, and there is one "judgement" on there, no other debts or creditors are listed....

You need to check all your addresses and to check all three credit reference agencies to get a clear picture.

mr.ton

Lowells are full of the proverbial...they cannot send bailiffs round - only a court can do that & it would be a very last resort after all other avenues had failed.

alasia

Thanks.

Ive put all my previous addresses in, waited for them to update and it still shows no creditors- its annoying as I decided to pay off all my debts by next year, so I want to know who I owe!

I never had any direct debits or anything in that old account, as I was only 18 and good with my money back then :rotfl:

I just had my wages paid in, and drew out only what I had been paid.

I really have no clue what that debt could be for, so I will do that letter template thing a pp suggested.

What are the other credit ref agencies? I only know of equifax and experian?

mr.ton

There is "Call Credit" as well.....they & the 2 you mentioned are the 3 main one's.
Each as useless & as incompetent as each other in my view.;)

dolphin1_2

I'm in a similar situation. I received a letter (out of the blue) from Lowell saying they were collecting a debt - nearly £400 on behalf of barclaycard, upon checking my credit report there was a 'default' on my file saying I hadn't paid for 8 months, I've no idea what this debt is!

I do have 2 barclaycard accounts - 1 is clear & one is up to date with payments.

Yesterday I went to the CAB & they've written to Lowell on my behalf asking for proof of the debt. I'd advise you to do the same.

alasia

Ooh thanks, I didnt think of going to the CAB - thats handy actually as I dont have a printer so if they cabn write a letter for me, it would look much better than just a handwritten one!

Another thing that confuses me is the letter headings...on one letter theyre called lowell financial, on others lowell portfolio?

Its confusing...

RAS

Hi

Are you aware that if you have very old debts, over 6 years old, they will have fallen off your credit record and debt companies cannot force you to pay them?

You do not need to go to CAB, we can provide a letter from here with all the legal words in the right place.

Just ring your local library, most offer computer access and you can print a lette roff there.

alasia

Thanks for all the advice.

Regarding my credit report; I have now updated them with ALL my old addresses from the past 10 years, since I was 16.

Logged in this morning and there is one creditor on there - avon from 8 years ago, and it is marked as satisfactory.

I know I still have the provident loan from 2008 as they are still writing to my mums address...

so how come there are no more debts or creditors on there...Im sort of hoping that the reason I cant get credit is just that Im not on the electoral roll and have had loads of credit applications in the past 6 months - not bad debt after all :rotfl: