Lowell Finance - Old 3 Mobile debt

GEEGEE8

Hey everyone,

This is for my sister.

She has had a debt letter from Lowell finance about an old 3Mobile phone contract, the letter is for £200.

She thinks it's from 2004/2005, so I've suggested it may be statute barred. I have looked at her Experian report and her addresses are not linked, so I've had to do that, got to wait 24hrs now to see what shows up. Currently it's all showing as fine, but I know from experience that when the accounts are linked it will show more.

Any idea how I can find out for her when she defaulted on it?

She is a nurse working nights and overtime and is struggling to be able to get to the bottom of it, so I'm trying to help her out.

GeorgeUK

I would suggest sending the letter about the debt being statute barred. If it wasn't, they would need to prove it by providing proof of payments made to the account.

She could alternatively send the 'prove it' letter which requires them to prove that the account is hers. I doubt they would have the airtime agreement after all this time and if they provide evidence of payments - she still hasn't admitted the debt is hers so the statute barred clock would still be ticking down.

never-in-doubt

GEEGEE8 wrote: »

Hey everyone,

This is for my sister.

She has had a debt letter from Lowell finance about an old 3Mobile phone contract, the letter is for £200.

She thinks it's from 2004/2005, so I've suggested it may be statute barred. I have looked at her Experian report and her addresses are not linked, so I've had to do that, got to wait 24hrs now to see what shows up. Currently it's all showing as fine, but I know from experience that when the accounts are linked it will show more.

Any idea how I can find out for her when she defaulted on it?

She is a nurse working nights and overtime and is struggling to be able to get to the bottom of it, so I'm trying to help her out.

As George has mentioned above, the prove it letter looks like this: You know nothing of the Debt / Prove It

But before sending such letter, i'd wait and see if the links that have been created show the true default / last payment date. You're looking for the last payment date to be at least 6 years (5 in scotland) since date of first missed payment for it to be SB'd. So in essence, if last paid in March 2004, it would be statute barred in April 2010.....

So, to summarise start by waiting to see what the credit file shows before doing anything as you do not want to alert the lender if this debt is closing in on SB - some lenders try their luck a couple of months prior to SB clock being met - bear that in mind!!

So post back when you can establish an approximate last payment date..... that's all that we need to help you with this, right now.

GEEGEE8

Okay, thank you guys!

I have got the updated report today, only showing one default and that is for the Lowell Finance. As follows;

name:LOWELL PORTFOLIO I LTD
Account type:Communications
Started:11/01/2005
Default Balance:£284
Current Balance:£266
Defaulted On:01/12/2008
File Updated for the Period to:20/12/2009

GEEGEE8

Bump - any idea if it's enforceable?

Does it go by the start date or the default date?

Thanks for the help so far, and the link to the letter

GeorgeUK

Does the report say when the last payment made was? It will be the month after this that the default should start from (or within 6 months).

GEEGEE8

No, nothing about the last payment, just the details above.. My sister did think it was 2004/2005 when it happened, but the report says the default date is 01/12/2008.

never-in-doubt

GEEGEE8 wrote: »

No, nothing about the last payment, just the details above.. My sister did think it was 2004/2005 when it happened, but the report says the default date is 01/12/2008.

Hiya

as per my last post to you regards to this, you need to establish the approximate last payment date - so ask your sister, if anything check the little colour codes by the account status on the CR file as it will show last payment with a green [0] - the first missed one will show a [1] and so on - if it is over 3 years since the last payment then this info may be missing, in which case you may need to send a SAR to the OC/DCA which will highlight the fact you're there and also provide them your address.....

Basically, your sister needs to think and think hard to get the date she last paid, even ask the bank if they can see from old records (if paid via DD) - but this is paramount to be honest. :cool:

GEEGEE8

Never in Doubt - thanks again for the great advice.

The credit file just has a thing that looks like ---> [8] (in red).. I'm sorry if that sounds silly lol. There are no [0][0][1] etc.. just this one symbol.

I think the best thing is to get her to check when she last paid for certain. I'll ask her if she has statements.

I'm afraid she isn't a very organised person and I doubt she will have it, I wonder if she can go to the bank and they will be able to tell her. Might be worth it before she sends off any letters.

Thanks again

never-in-doubt

GEEGEE8 wrote: »

Never in Doubt - thanks again for the great advice.

The credit file just has a thing that looks like ---> [8] (in red).. I'm sorry if that sounds silly lol. There are no [0][0][1] etc.. just this one symbol.

I think the best thing is to get her to check when she last paid for certain. I'll ask her if she has statements.

I'm afraid she isn't a very organised person and I doubt she will have it, I wonder if she can go to the bank and they will be able to tell her. Might be worth it before she sends off any letters.

Thanks again

Hiya

I'd definitely want to make sure I knew the last payment date before sending anything off - that to me would be imperitive being the debt could be (in best/worse case scenario) 1 or 2 months away from statute barred - sods law, you go and SAR them for you to then realise if you'd waited a month it'd have been SB'd :eek: :eek:

See what you can find out and do not reply to them as yet yea? The last payment date approximately is all we need.....

GEEGEE8

I've text my sister and asked if she has any bank statement (i doubt it), she went to Oz for a year working so I don't think she will have them. I've told her to go into the bank otherwise and ask them.

I sound like her carer don't I?! haha - bless her, if I don't help she will prob just ignore it and I don't want her to ruin her credit rating as she wants to apply for residency for Oz in a year or two and a CCJ wouldn't go down well.

I was made bankrupt 3 years ago, so I only have basic knowlege of statute barred etc..

Thanks Never in Doubt, I'll advise on whatever she comes up with and go from there.