Moorcroft - vodafone - discrepancy in balance owed

s1h

A bit late in the day to be starting a thread I know but I only just discovered this. Bare with me a bit long winded.

I defaulted on a vodafone account in July 2009. A number of reasons which have resulted in 17k of unsecured debt.

I have checked the balance on creditexpert today and at the time of default was £1147,

Moorcroft are now dealing with it, they sent me a letter offering payment terms of £34.66 per month which I agreed to. Ill probably pay a bit more when I can afford it but that is what I can pay just now.

I made a payment last month and today therefore by my reckoning the balance owing should be £1077.68.

I decided to set up a spreadsheet to keep track of all payments to creditors / DCA. So have been digging through paperwork and found the letter from Moorcroft offering the above installments.

Only problem is this states that the balance outstanding is £1247? £100 more than on the credit file and im pretty positive that i've always thought it was about £1100 quid.

Now it could be just a typing error , ill phone them or maybe write to them tomorrow to discuss but knowing what these people are like I'm suspicious.

Has anyone else had this with moorcroft? Surely they cant justify adding £100 on to the balance. Any advice will me much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Hannah_10

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2589923

Read THAT.

Moorcroft are lying b*st*rds.

s1h

Seems im not alone then, ill ring them tomorrow and see what they say.

I read in your thread, people saying dont give them a penny, but i want to get it paid off.

Vodafone wont take the money from me they say i have to contact moorcroft and arrange it with them so it seems this is my only option. Im not interested in going to court, fighting it , trying to get out of paying it just want to pay it off.

Hannah_10

I know what you mean, but do remember they will lie about what it is. They're saying my £140 came from Orange after all, it did not!

The thing is what they've done to you for £100 and me for £140 is illegal. They aren't allowed to do this. Mind you a lot of what they do is illegal. So they're not gonna come right out and say "oh yeah, we piled it on to make even more profit than we already do out of the clients, coz we're like that".

I suggest you do what I did, call the mobile network and play like you don't know it went to a DCA and say you wanna arrange pay it off (to the mobile co). They will say, no you can't, call Moorcroft. To which you say "thanks ever so much for being so helpful, while we're on the phone can you just remind me what the final balance is?"

Moorcroft are going to lie to you- this is what they do. Vodaphone however will tell you what you really owe, then it's down to you to put letters in the post to Moorcroft for an explaination to start with (don't let on you spoke to Vodaphone though). This will be registered as a dispute then and they can't take any action on a disputed account.

That gives you a bit of time to get the £100 taken off safely (as in- they can't do anything horrible to you in that period, like write bad things on your file or bother you... Although they will probably say they're gonna, because that's what they do- professional liars in the hope you'll be too naive to realise.)

s1h

Ok people need some help please with this one. After speaking to moorcroft today I have encountered a couple of problems.

Firstly with regards to the balance they are saying the extra £100 is a charge that was put on the account by vodafone before it was passed to them. They say this is an administration charge from vodafone for it being passed to Moorcroft. To be honest I don't believe a word of it but this may be irrelevant anyway as Ill now explain.

After they sent me the letter at the end of june offering payment arrangements of £34.66 per month I made a payment, I made another last night.

They told me on the phone today that as of the 1st of July the account has gone back to vodafone, obviously now im a bit worried about the £69 that I have paid. They weren't very helpful said they didn't have any contact numbers etc for vodafone and that I need to contact them.

I think its probably best for me to just deal with this in writing now, so can anyone advise me firstly where to write to vodafone ?

What steps i should now take, template or sample letters would be of help as im not very good with letters.

What are peoples experiences with vodafone in cases like this? Are they likely to accept payment arrangements. The account defaulted sometime last year.

Thanks again in advance.

Hannah_10

Don't assume that because Moorcroft weren't any help Vodaphone will be rubbish too. I would say start with calling Vodaphone (look up any number on thier website if needs be- they will soon tell you who to speak to.) Be thankful Moorcroft backed out because they are a serious liability, but don't assume that because they were toads to you that Voda will be too. I would hazard a guess that if you give Voda a ring you'll find the account is standing at the right amounts. If not then I can draft you a letter if you like, but I have a feeling you wont need it, this is why...

The Moorcroft magic fee on your file amounted to 9% of the original debt. The fee on mine amounts to 35%. I expect they use set fees which they just lump on. with your debt being a bit older than mine then perhaps it was £100 then and has since risen a bit to £140.

But you and I are being inconvenient- we're asking the right questions. When you're breaking the law left right and centre the last thing you need is inconvenient question-askers. The less of those there are the better! Looking at it again in light of the inconvenience factor then you're really not worth persuing for an 8% bonus, might as well wash thier hands of you before you do something really irritating like call in the OFT. I on the other hand am worth a whopping 35%, so they have redoubled thier efforts to bother me, they even got hold of my phone number since I last wrote and tried their luck that way, since it's ex-dir then I've no idea how that happened!

Anyway, I could be talking pure nonsense and all this might be a total co-incidence. Could be that Moorcrofts dirty dealings are all a totally separate matter to the handling of our cases and that they just thought it'd be nice to let you talk to Voda instead... It could also be that Elvis is alive and well and working as a plumber in Chippenham... I'll let you decide what you reckon.

EDIT: Not sure it cam across clearly but if the debt is passed back by a DCA to the original creditor then any charge the DCA added illegally will not appear on the original creditors file.