Mackenzie Hall

anouk1103

Good Morning,

Last week, received a letter from Mackenzie Hall, attempting to contact me regarding a personal matter .. I've Googled and it appears this is a regular occurence.

Long story short, when I was 16, I was abandoned by my family, with nothing. The council rehomed me, gave me a loan for basic needs (which I paid back) and I also took out a Littlewoods Catalogue account. I was 16, didn't know about council tax (What 16 year old does?) I worked 37.5 hours a week and could barely afford to eat. I shouldn't have taken out the Littlewoods account but I truly believed I could afford it and obviously they did too. I never spent more than £250 and I moved house and just didn't pay it. Not becuase I thought I could get away with it, but because keeping a roof over my head and paying a huge Council tax debt of £2200 was more important at the time.

Anyhow, so over 13 years later, it appears that this has reared it's ugly head and Mackenzie Hall are after money - it's the ONLY thing I defaulted on.

I've registered with Equifax and taken my credit report which shows that I'm up to date with all creditors, that Mackenzie Hall did a search on me within the last few weeks and that I have nothing in my 'Gone away' file.

I've moved around quite a bit really, at the time of the debt, I lived in London. At age 17, I moved to Nottinghamshire, at 19, I moved to Cambridgeshire and basically haven't lived at any address for longer than 2 years (I have always privately rented so never really settled roots) I've lived at my current address (still in Cambridgeshire) for 5 months and this is the first time I've been contacted. I looked at my credit file and I saw that Mackenzie Hall had done a search on me in January 2011, another search was done in June 2009 by Natwest when I joined my partners bank account. But nothing else in the last 6 years? I've always added myself onto the Electoral Register whenever I've moved so it's not like I'm trying to hide.

I've obviously read up various forums and most say to send a letter NOT acknowledging the debt and asking for proof of this debt with various acts written over the letter too. If they send me proof (which looks highly unlikely) Must I pay it? Or does the fact that it's over twice the 6 years limitation count in my favour. My life is completely different now, I have 2 part time jobs, and 2 small children and can little afford to have to throw money away like this.

Today, I've received another letter, this time detailing the debt - Littlewoods - as I suspected, for £345.95.

They have given me a deadline of February 4th, noon, to pay otherwise they will not hesitate to take further action.

Now, given that it doesn't show up on my credit report, can I write that 'statute barred' letter to them? Should I email it given the time frame they've given me?

Advice gratefully received. Apologies for the very long post!

Thanks,
Sharmaigne

Tixy

Hi

Wouldn't worry about the deadline too much, personally I wouldn't email them (no point in them knowing your email address).

If you are sure you haven't paid anything towards this for more than 6years and there is no CCJ for it then send the statute barred letter. The debt still exists but you are not obliged to pay it. Once you have said you believe its SB and do not intend to pay then they must stop chasing you for it.

anouk1103

Tixy wrote: »

Wouldn't worry about the deadline too much, personally I wouldn't email them (no point in them knowing your email address).

They can't send anyone to my house, can they? I did hear a tip that they couldn't even consider taking anything from childrens bedrooms, shall I stash my laptop and camera under the kids beds?

Tixy wrote: »

If you are sure you haven't paid anything towards this for more than 6years and there is no CCJ for it then send the statute barred letter. The debt still exists but you are not obliged to pay it. Once you have said you believe its SB and do not intend to pay then they must stop chasing you for it.

Thanks for that, I definitely haven't paid toward it, it doesn't show on my file, and I've never ever had a CCJ. From my understanding, if a creditor can't find you, they'll put that as a defaulted item on the 'gone away' part of the file - is that right? There is definitely nothing on there. My file actually looks pretty impressive, everything up to date or settled.

Thanks!

Tixy

No bailiffs can come unless there is a CCJ - only people who could come in theory would be a doorstop collection agent. These have no powers at all and you can just ask them to leave (and call the police if they don''t).

You probably were given a default for this debt years ago. Once the default hits 6years old the debt and default disappear from your file altogether - which is why you cannot see it now. They cannot issue a new default against you now (each debt can only ever have one default).

PNPSUKNET

Your lucky not to have a cifas for the littlewoods if you took it out when 16

anouk1103

PNPSUKNET wrote: »

Your lucky not to have a cifas for the littlewoods if you took it out when 16

Cifas - that's the fraud thing isn't it? There was definitely nothing showing up on that? Why would my age have put that on?

fatbelly

anouk1103 wrote: »

Cifas - that's the fraud thing isn't it? There was definitely nothing showing up on that? Why would my age have put that on?

Because you're not allowed to get credit till your 18th birthday.

Mind you, Littlewoods were so lax in that era that there was probably never a credit agreement produced or signed.

paddyrg

I had a catalogue at 16 too - I was careful not to send in or sign anything stating my age (I was just so honest I couldn't lie!!) so it must not have been mentioned on my application coupon! Crazy in retrospect. But if they have just found you by accident, a statute barred letter seems the way to go. Or alternatively you could pay the debt - you technically do still owe the money, even if they can't chase you for it. Might be good karma?!

fatbelly

paddyrg wrote: »

I had a catalogue at 16 too - I was careful not to send in or sign anything stating my age (I was just so honest I couldn't lie!!) so it must not have been mentioned on my application coupon! Crazy in retrospect. But if they have just found you by accident, a statute barred letter seems the way to go. Or alternatively you could pay the debt - you technically do still owe the money, even if they can't chase you for it. Might be good karma?!

Yes, those are your two options.

Mind you, to pay MH the full balance when they've acquired the debt for about 3p might be seen to be generous and encouraging of their business.

andy.m_2

offer 10p in the pound.

paddyrg

Be vary wary of offering anything like 10p in the pound, just to make sure you are not admitting liability in the process. As is, you can get away with offering 0p in the pound with the statute barred!