a question about debt collection agencys

wayne99

Hello,

Recently i have had a few calls from a couple of companies (Buchanan Clarke and wells) (Robinson way) and (Mac Hall) all for debts that are over 8 - 10 years old.

all of them have come through my work head office switchboard to my company mobile phone.

all of them claim they have been fed the information from Experian, be it from credit application forms i have done, or because i have signed up to credit expert.

I think all of this is rather naughty really, are Experian really allowed to pass over work phone numbers etc to debt collection agencys ? this is a new thing as far as iam concerned as i have never been contacted via my work before, and the fact all 3 companies said exactly the same thing makes me believe they are not pulling my whistle.

whats your thoughts ?

Wayne

fermi

Do they identify themselves and what they are calling about to any other staff?

If yes, then you need to report them to the OFT etc.....

Info probably came through something like this?

http://www.uk.experian.com/autotraceplus/

Holding a work phone number on those systems is dubious? You might want to check with Experian to see if they hold this? If they do, you could well be within your rights to have them remove it from their records.

wayne99

I work for a massive company so it would be impossible to find out which receptionist answered the call unfortunatly so i have no idea if they identified themselves.

When they got through to me bcw told me who they were, what the call was about, the amount owing and with what creditor before they even asked for my address or anything to prove who i was lol, iam sure that is a breach of the DPA ?

I have been in my current job for 2 years now and in that two years the only way they could of obtained it is from credit applications or experian's credit expert, i simply cannot think of any other way they could of got it.

climbintheladderouttadebt

wayne99 wrote: »

I work for a massive company so it would be impossible to find out which receptionist answered the call unfortunatly so i have no idea if they identified themselves.

When they got through to me bcw told me who they were, what the call was about, the amount owing and with what creditor before they even asked for my address or anything to prove who i was lol, iam sure that is a breach of the DPA ? Hi Wayne, thats defo a breach of DPA! They can be reported for this! There are template letters available to deal with these companies, regarding both them calling your work number and trying to chase a debt which sounds statute barred! Out of curiosity, when you say they are 8-10 years old, is that the last time you acknowledged the debts or paid anything towards them? Are they showing on your credit report?

I have been in my current job for 2 years now and in that two years the only way they could of obtained it is from credit applications or experian's credit expert, i simply cannot think of any other way they could of got it.

Will subsrcibe to this and see if I can be of any help!

wayne99

they are defo statute barred, they have now all been sent the statute barred letters.

In fact the debt BCW are chasing it was with some other company called aktiv capital, they accepted it was statute barred and said no action would be taken etc, they have obviously sold it on to BCW lol.

The concern i had is Experian passing on work details, what if they have passed on the address of my employer ? what is stopping them writing to my employer ?

i hate to imagine the embarrassment that would cause.

climbintheladderouttadebt

Hi Wayne,

I'm sure that if anything was written to your employer they would be breaking the DPA in a massive way! I have never heard of them doing this. Even given the stupidity of the DCAs, I really don't think they'd put themselves on the line like that!

I'd contact Experian asap, as Fermi suggests. Any info on you such as work number/address could/should probably be removed?

Having looked at the Experian website link, it appears Experian should only hold details of your home ie address and landline number. A call or letter to them should get any info removed. Do you have a current copy of your credit report or a recent one to check?

Autotrace Plus
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• Submit searches using a last known address, and/or by using the name and date of birth only
• Search for individuals using main and alias names
• Provide previous and forwarding addresses for the traced person within a full address history
• Indicate the strength of the data with the Residency Score
• Check the traced person against our Mortality File
• Find and return a traced person's home telephone number
• Retrieve, review and manage your previously input trace requests within your case file
• Monitor your traces for up to 1 year and be automatically notified of any matching new data