Debt Managers Ltd letter received, advice please

AmericanBrit

Hi All,

My OH has received a letter from Debt Manager Ltd today that says:

We are attempting to contact the above named person and our recent investigations have resulted in your details being obtained from a credit reference agency . Your address has been provided by them due to a link with the data we hold, as a possible new address for the person we are wishing to contact

To verify that you are the person we are wishing to contact or if you believe you are not the subject, please contact us urgently on 0844#, so that our records can be updated appropriately.

If we do not receive a response to this letter within 7 days we will assume the link is correct and further communication will be made.

The letter does not state what the debt is or how much and the letter arrived today, 6 days after it was written.

A little background info - My OH and I moved to the US last year and did contact his credit card company to inform them of our new address in the US and that we could not make the minimum payments and would be doing token payments of £10. However, it took us longer to find employment than we anticipated and my OH is still unemployed and we have therefore sunk further into debt both in the US and in the UK and have ceased making any payments to the UK credit card.

My husband is currently visiting his mom and happened to get the letter when it arrived, however, we do not want her to know the mess we are in because we are embarrassed and she recently lost her husband so do not want to add more to her plate.

We have been living out of sight, out of mind but vowed to pay the debts back (US and UK) once OH is employed however now we don't know what to do.

We do not want any more letters coming to his mom's house and are afraid phone calls may start but I'm not sure he should call the company while he is in England because they may not believe we live in the US.

They have provided an email address but we are in no position to offer to pay the debt, if we had the money we would have paid it already. Even if I maxed out my US credit cards to pay the UK one, I wouldn't be able to cover it, especially with the exchange rate. The credit card was at £9000 when we left, not sure what it is now.

Can anyone offer any advice?

Thank you for reading.

nottoolate

fishing letter?

is she likely to open his post?

AmericanBrit

Thank you for your reply. She has opened our post in the past because we did use it as a forwarding address when we moved in order to pay our final utility bills.

She wouldn't open letters if we asked her not to, but I don't want them to find out her phone number and start harrassing her. If we call or email them they will know that we received the letter and we worry that this may open up the floodgates of letters and phone calls to her because they will have established a connection.

nottoolate

at the moment it looks like a fishing letter. no real evidence that they are sure of the address let alone have a phone number.

if they were sure of either then they wouldn't need to be so coy surely?

it's possible letters and a phone calls will follow whatever you do. perhaps if you don't respond then they might respect data protection and not write to an address or phone people when they are not sure they have the right details? hard to say

AmericanBrit

Do others think it's just a fishing trip and that we should do nothing?

king100

I only ever been on one fishing trip before and looks like they are on it!!!

Yup its a fishing trip.

KingElvis

Yep, looks like they are not sure of their facts but for 9k, you can bet your bottom dollar that won't be the last you hear from them.

AmericanBrit

Thank you all for your replies but what do you think our next step should be?

BillTrac

If you DON'T respond they will assume the link is correct? Bit a**e about face I think. So if you have no link you are supposed to put yourself out andf tell them. Therefore opening yourself up to more c**p.

I would ignore and let them waste time and money etc

Do not reply...

KingElvis

Yep I would ignore them but be aware they will go for a CCJ to secure the debt on 9k