Two companies claiming the same debt

orchid2010

Can anyone help?

My oh & I have been paying off our debts since 2006 making small token payments to our 24 creditors. We were unable to get a DMP with Payplan and I have been dealing with all of our creditors myself.

At the beginning of the month my oh got a letter from Fredrickson International saying they had taken over the debt and we needed to set up an arrangement with them (we have been paying CBS Transcom). We have done this and received a letter to start making payments from 1st March. The next day we got a letter from another company Newman Debt Collection Agency to say his agreement with them has expired and we need to discuss a new arrangement this is for the same debt.

Obviously I do not want to pay the wrong company, any ideas on what to do?

By coincidence the next day I got a letter from another creditor saying they had recalled their account from Fredrickson.

Byatt

Bumping for replies...

samboette

Bumping too!

This has/is happening to my brother in law, he paid a token payment to frederickson because he thought the debt had been bought by them, however, transcom have since taken the usual payment by standing order and frederickson have also taken the same amount as transcom by debit card without my brother in laws permission.

Jinx

If you have not had a letter from Frederick saying we have passed you on, I would stop paying the other one and resume paying them. In an ideal world LOL you should get a letter saying we xxx are no longer dealing with your debt and then you get one from the new creditor yyy saying we have taken on your debt from xxx, please pay us!

You could go back to the original creditor and ask who now holds the debt, they may or may not now.

This happened to me with First Direct. They sold my credit card debt, but the DCA said it wasnt for that account it was for a different account!!!!!!!!! Horrified, I contacted First Direct and they confirmed it was for my credit card, that they had defaulted me and sold the account to the DCA. I was still paying First Direct and they also confirmed that the recent payments had been passed on to the DCA. Follow a very stroppy letter to the DCA for being misleading etc etc...

samboette

I couldn't tell you if a letter has been received! Sadly his financial affairs are in a shambles due to not wanting to grow up and get a steady job but to instead travel around the world using various credit cards & loans. He's now back in the UK, without a job and claiming benefit and things are starting to catch up with him! Sadly we can't, well more like my OH won't help him as bailed him out with his nationwide credit card whilst he was away on more than one occasion so just it wouldn't effect his bank account with nationwide!

GeorgeUK

It is a breach of the OFT debt collection guidelines for more than one organisation to be chasing the same debt. If you have not received a notice of assignment, then you should not change who you are making payments to - unless you receive a letter from the creditor or whoever you are currently making the payments to stating this.

Make a complaint to whoever owns the debt and ask for clarification. It is best to just continue to make payments to whoever you know was last entitled to request payment and keep a note of when payments were made, how much and who to. When making the complaint i would request a statement of account so that you can cofirm the amount outstanding and no payments have been lost.

samboette

GeorgeUK wrote: »

It is a breach of the OFT debt collection guidelines for more than one organisation to be chasing the same debt. If you have not received a notice of assignment, then you should not change who you are making payments to - unless you receive a letter from the creditor or whoever you are currently making the payments to stating this.

Make a complaint to whoever owns the debt and ask for clarification. It is best to just continue to make payments to whoever you know was last entitled to request payment and keep a note of when payments were made, how much and who to. When making the complaint i would request a statement of account so that you can cofirm the amount outstanding and no payments have been lost.

Thank you for this, will give him a call to advise him what to do!

orchid2010

Have finally heard from both DCA's. They have both sent me letters saying they are refering the account back to their client.

Would you recommend that I continue paying CBS Transcom or pay no one until I hear from the creditor?

GeorgeUK

If they are both referring the aco!!!! back to the client, then don't pay them - if they are one of the ones referring it back. Otherwise continue with the agreed payments.

If you aren't continuing with payments, i would put the money aside until you are contacted to make payment again incase you can save enough for a reduced F&F settlement offer.

timbstoke

Personally, the first thing I'd do in this situation is stop paying either of them. Then send everyone involved - the original creditor and all DCA's - the same letter. That letter would list the address of everyone else involved, and would tell them to sort it out between themselves and come back to me when they've decided who they want me to pay. I'd tell them that until they reached an agreement on who was collecting, my payments would be going to the original creditor only, and they can sort out which one they want to pay.

orchid2010

Just an update finally received a letter from Fredrickson International containing a notice saying that Arrow Global who is their client has been assigned the debt. Just wrote back and told them the account was still in dispute.

Yesterday got home and there is a letter from Bryan Carter Solicitors threatening court action (it is still within the 6 years from the default date) as we were doing nothing about the debt. We have still been paying the original DCA and you can see that reflected in the amount they say we owe.

I am fed up with this (sorry having a bad day) and would just ignore it apart from the fact it is still within the 6 years limit.

Any ideas please?