statute barred +doorstep collectors

starshine40 · 23 September 2010 at 1:50PM

Hi, looking for some advice please.

About five months ago i started to receive letters from a company called Aktiv Kapital saying i owed just over 1612.00 (sorry, pound sign doesn't work!). According to this letter the money was to their client - First National Tricity Finance ltd., I had no recollection of owing this debt. After looking about on this forum i found that this company also owned lombard tricity (something like this??) and it rang a bell. The only thing i can remember is about fifteen or so years ago i got a portable tv for my daughter from a shop in the town i used to live in. It was one of those agreements where you pay it off and then eventually you own it. To be truthful i'm not 100 per cent sure it was paid off as i divorced and moved away a very long time ago.

I was pretty sure it was statute barred so i just ignored all the letters. Then the phone calls started and i followed the advice on here and refused to confirm who i was on the first call and just letting the phone sit idle while i went about my business and then putting the receiver down. A few weeks ago i received a letter offering a 35 per cent discount. Then a week or so later another letter from another company - buchananclarke + wells offering a full and final offer of 322.46.

Yesterday i received another letter from a collections service saying if i don't pay or contact them immediately then this account is being passed to a field rep to arrange a doorstep call to make arrangements to repay this debt.

I have had experience of a doorstep collector once before when an old catalogue debt (for a neighbour!!!) caught up with me. I was completely intimidated and he threathened all sorts of court proceedings so i ended up paying this debt over three payments (which i'm pretty sure was also statute barred) and leaving myself with nothing while i did this.

So, my question is what do i do now? I didn't think to send any letter and who would i even send a letter to? Btw, i'm in northern ireland.

Any advice greatly appreciated.