CapQuest Help

princesstia

Hi all!

I have recieved 2 letters from CapQuest now regarding a debt of £1302 purchased from Shop Direct Finance. They have stated that they will seek an Order of Court and state that bailiffs will be coming to my home on or around 1/02/11. I am currently unemployed so cannot afford to pay this back in full and could barely afford to pay them anything. I am so worried and depressed about this debt, can I declare myself bankrupt??

I have read numerous posts about how aggressive and rude the staff at CapQuest can be so I am scared to phone them as I am no good at standing my ground.

Any help or advice would mean alot to me, thanks

fermi

Don't let these idiots scare you.

Have you already had a CCJ for this? If not, have any court forms come through?

If they don't already have a CCJ in place, then their threats are more or less meaningless. They can't guarentee to be able to do "anything".

When did you first take out the shopdirect account?

fermi

Also, what is the actual wording of the letter?

Do they actually say that bailiffs WILL call? WILL be requested. WILL be used?

Or is it some vague statement like "we will seek to use bailiffs" or "we may instruct bailiffs" etc....

princesstia

I haven't had any court forms, the last letter was 26th of Jan and states "we not with regret that you have chosen not to deal with this matter despite our previous communication endeavouring to assist you" .... it also says "Your account will be passed to our solicitors who may commence legal action on or around 01 Feb 11"

This is only the 2nd letter I have had from them. I opened the account in 2008, although I did have an account which I paid off in full in 2004, which may be the same one, just re-opened.

princesstia

RE: the bailiffs the letter states "In the event we do obtain a Warrant of Execution, a Court Enforcement Office (Bailiff) will be assigned to attend your address and carry out the Warrant" "The Bailiff will take an inventory and levy goods."

fermi

Well MAY commence legal action is not the same as WILL.

I could send you a letter telling you that you and the rest of us MAY be wiped out by invading aliens next week. And it MAY happen, unlikely as that it is.

However, if I said WILL, then I would be making a promise that I probably can't back up.

So debt collectors always use MAY, so they can threaten all sorts of things that they MAY (and most likely won't) do.

To add to that, if they did get a CCJ, then they can't guarantee to be able to use bailiffs. They can only be used if you fail to pay whatever instalments the judge orders. If you can only afford token ones, then often the court sets the required payments at a token amount.

So again, a lot of waffling threats that it's most like that they will never be able to carry out.

fermi

princesstia wrote: »

RE: the bailiffs the letter states "In the event we do obtain a Warrant of Execution, a Court Enforcement Office (Bailiff) will be assigned to attend your address and carry out the Warrant" "The Bailiff will take an inventory and levy goods."

What they don't say is that...

a) They are unlikely to ever get to the position where they can request one.
b) The bailiff can easily be stopped by applying to the court for the warrant to be suspended.

Again, it is worded to mislead you regarding what is likely to happen.

princesstia

So do you think if I phoned them and explained my situation then they might be able to offer a reasonable payment plan? I'm worried that they are unreasonable and will demand the full amount or payments I can't afford.

fermi

It's rarely a good idea to phone these people.

The job of the people who man the phones is to lie, bully, and generally be nasty in order to extract the biggest payment from you as quickly as possible. They honest don't care whether you can really afford it or not.

Usually the best thing to do is to send a written offer of what you can GENUINELY afford, including if you can a budget sheet to show that it is all you can pay. You then keep making that payment regardless of whether they choose to agree to it or not.

That way, in the unlikely event that it did go to court, you have the proof and paper trail showing that you have acted reasonably and paid what you could afford.

fermi

Another thing that may be of some use is to ask for a copy of the account agreement.

See: http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/page.php?page=getting_a_copy_of_your_credit_agreement_and_account_details

If the agreement is that same one from 2004, and they can't provide one or see an original, then it can sometimes (but not always) block or discourage them from taking legal action. Which obviously in turn could make them 'play nicer' and be more likely to accept offers.

clareabella666

please dont let these idiots scare you, they sent me a statuary demand with the intention of making me bankrupt. I never got the SD set aside and they havn't gone through with it, infact they have just passed it onto someone else who send me the odd letter now and again saying they are coming to my house( funnily enough they havnt come round either :rotfl:.