Need some pointers

Bilbo2010

I got myself into serious debt and I became depressed, suffered ill health and went through an emotional roller-coaster. I have for the most part over a number of years and through much pain managed to get on top of everything, or so I thought.

But an old debt has reared it's head. The debt is for an RBS credit card and totals £4971.35. Now I thought the debt was over six years old. So I sent the creditors 1st Credit a letter to state it's statute barred. They sent me a response stating they would contact their client. I got a letter from RBS stating the debt had been transferred to 1st Credit.

After a few more letters 1st Credit came back and said it isn't statute barred due to a single payment being made within the six years. I don't have a recollection of this and all I have is their statement to say a payment was made.

I ignored the last letter, getting back into old habits is amazingly easy. I didn't hear anything from them until today when I received another letter offering a discount if I settle the debt within the next so many days.

At the moment I am unemployed on Job Seekers allowance, living with family. I have no assets and I basically rebuilding my life.

What course of action should I take with regards to this debt?

Any help/advicew much appreciated, sorry if this is in the wrong forum and stuff only just joined. Wish I had found this site years ago

clang_uk

Gosh this is a hard one! Sorry I'm going to be of no help here. Can you check your bank records to see if you have made this payment. If you have no recollection, and it's gone un detected for so long they may be trying their luck. Banks hate doing it but they can search all your transactions.

If they are telling the truth, you should contact a debt charity who will be able to advise you better, or sit tight and hopefully someone will help soon. I didn't want to read and run!

What ever you do don't call the DCA they can be brutal, if you decide to negotiate an offer, make sure you do it in writing (never sign a letter to them) and ensure you send it registered post.

Good luck with this and keep us posted!

bargainbetty

I would do it the other way around, and ask them for evidence of when the payment was made, and who by. They have to prove that you acknowledged it, not you prove that you didn't.

Write to them asking for the date and amount of the payment, and details of how the payment was made. Then you can check with your bank more easily. Don't believe everything a DCA tells you, they have been known to tell porkies..... who'd have thunk it?

gonzo127

as above you need to find out if you actually paid anything off this debt, if not then it will still be statute barred as if it was any payment made from anyone, all the banks would have to do it pay 1 pence of the debt when it got to 5 year and 364 days from the last acknowledgement which would then reset the clock for another 6 years

Bilbo2010

Thanks for the responses.

I will ask them to supply evidence. If they can't then I should be able to safely assume the debt is statute barred.

Now if I have made a payment where do I stand? What sort of legal action can they take? What are my options?

The reason I ask this, is because when I was going through a tough time and I got depressed things kind of became a blur. My record keeping was next to non existent (a couple of big black bin liners full of unopened correspondence). I made payments on things with no plan or sense of order. It took me a very long time to even get the remotest bit straight.

Now as far as I know this is the only debt I still have outstanding. As mentioned I am in the process of rebuilding my life, this year is really the first year without any major concerns for a long time (well until this came through the post).

In a way I am sort of half inclined to say bring it on and do you worst. So I can get over this hurdle and move on.