HFO Services HELP please.

scott_ey

Hi
This is my 1st time posting in a forum so hopefully this is in the correct place.

I am writing to ask if anyone can help me with a HFO service letter i received on Friday.

I have read across several posts on here and other sites and am getting confused about what actually to do regarding this, sorry for being dumb.

The letter states that my account has been sold onto HFO finance and I am required to pay the £4200 owing within 7 days.

The letter also states that my account will undergo a pre-litigation review next week (meaning this week) and that is extremely important to call them to resolve this.

I know that the amount is from an old credit card of mine, that at the time in around 2005 I could not afford to pay due to personal reasons (which i informed Barclaycard about), i then refused to pay due to excessive charges applied to the account and unreasonable payment demands, at this time the balance of the account would have been around 2,500.

Is the £4200 actually owed to HFO and how can i find out what balance was transferred from Barclays to HFO, plus can they actually enforce this in the next 7 days.

I have not made any contact with them yet.
Any help or someone who can point me to the correct area of the site would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Hannah_10

Do not call them. Read The Golden Rule for more about that.

They are not going to do anything that fast, there is no incentive for them too. Taking you to court is costly, hard work and generally nowhere near as simple as scaring the !!!! out of you. "Pre-Litigation Review" translates as Chloe the new girl who makes very nice tea will be allowed to read the 2 page letter we sent you. Honestly, it really means nothing, They use big language because they know that you don't know that. Breathe mate, you have more than 7 days, we can help.

Lets do this a question at a time, starting from do you accept you owe this debt?

If you don't then what leads you to doubt?

If you do then when did you run it up, when did you last pay anything to it, if you've had a repayment agreement any time what where you paying and when was this?

scott_ey

Hi Hannah

Thanks for helping.

Yes i do admit i owe a debt to Barclaycard, from back in around 2005. I had a few personal issues around that time and ended up not being able to make payment on roughly the 2,500 i had on the card at the time (informing Barclaycard of the situation at the time did nothing), so after several months i started to try and pay back the amount, but the amount that Barclays had added to the account plus the amount they were demanding for me to pay off at the time was excessive, so i couldn’t/refused to pay and haven’t done since.

I have been looking around old bank statements today trying to find out the exact date of last payment on the account, but am currently having no luck; i think it was around this time in 2005.

Hannah_10

Haha, the amount of scare involved is often proportional to the despairation of the DCA (debt collection agency). It looks like your luck may be in.

If a debt has gone 6 years without payment then it's SB (statute barred) as long as you live in England or Wales and what that basically means is they can't do anything worrying to you if you don't pay it back. In Scotland it's 5 years and the rules are even stricter.

When a debt is SB they can't:
Write to you about it once you have said not to.
Take you to court.
Allow it to appear on your credit file.
Visit or call you.

A SB debt is effectively written off, although it technically exists still it's a pay it if you feel like it situation.

They want you to call them right-bloody-now because they know it's nearing SB (or over that even maybe) and they are desperate. Do nothing quickly. Send the prove-it letter but leave it till 10 days after your letter from HFO arrived at least, 14 would be better. If you can drag this out a bit you may not have to pay it at all.

scott_ey

Ahhh right, thanks for the link to the letter.

I’m no good with dates and i think the reason i can’t find any payment history for Barclaycard on my past bank statement is that i paid it in by cash, so can’t be totally sure when the last date of payment was, for some reason I’m thinking it maybe several more months before its 6 years

If it was the case that the debt wouldn’t be SB anytime soon would they let me know or is there another process to go through.

Hannah_10

They wont let you know about anything which is not in thier own interests. Sometimes DCA's play friendly, but ultimately they are businesses opperating in an unpleasant sector and all they care about is thier profits. The staff at your local hospital probably have you interests at heart, the DCA don't.

The thing is once you dispute the debt then they can't really take you to court until they have answered all reasonable requests because if they do and you defend it'll be thrown out and they'll end up with costs. The prove it letter is a query to you and I but technically it's a dispute, you are saying I dispute that I owe this, show me the proof, which you have every right to do.

Taking 10 to 14 days to reply to a letter is reasonable, you can leave it that long and in this situation where a debt is somewhere near the SB limit I suggest it's best to. Dragging out a debt for 4-5 months isn't actually that hard if the DCA don't supply the right stuff and they so often don't, so it's thier own fault.

Send the prove it letter after 10-14 days and wait and see what they come back with. Let us know.

If it turns out that it's genuinely nowhere near turning SB then your best bet might be to make a seriously reduced F&F (a settlement offer), perhaps for 20% for the value, in exchange for it being cleared. In fact you could just go straight in with this approach if you prefered.

I wouldn't though, I'd wait a few days and see what they've got. There's a good chance they wont have the right paperwork still after this time.

scott_ey

Brilliant Hannah, thanks ever so much for you help, I will post up the outcome once the letter has been sent.

Thanks again

FTW

Agree with Hannah. Remember NOT to sign any correspondence you send, and send it recorded delivery at the very least (so's you have proof they received it).

Jesthar

Just a quick note - if/when you DO write to them, make sure you send it recorded delivery (so they can't deny receiving it) and DO NOT sign your name, just print it in capitals or type it (so they can't use your signature to indulge in a little light document forgery...)

Hannah is exactly right, though - sounds like this is either already SB or very close, so they are desparate to scare you into paying something ASAP...

~Jes

whispywillow

Don't worry - Im also in the middle of a dispute with HFO Services and their vile people! I have a seperate thread about them if you wanna search it, there is some other good advice in that! xx

scott_ey

Just to fill in what’s happened since last Friday when i received the 1st letter, i received another letter on Friday, only 5 working days later.

This time the letter outlines that they have tried to contact me SEVERAL times recently and assuring they want to help me.

It goes onto say ‘you have made payments in the past and it is unlikely that you will be able to make a credible defence to legal action’

It then goes onto a section about a CCJ, highlighting in bold COUNTY COURT BAILIFFS WILL VISIT MY ADDRESS and seize my assets.

Attached to the letter are 8 pages of costs that i will incur if the matter is taken to court.

Firstly with this, they state that they have tried to contact me several times recently, the 1st contact made in roughly 5 years was made last Friday and only 5 working days later they are saying that counts as several. Mmmmm.....

Then claiming i wouldn’t be able to make a credible defence, I will be the judge of that.

Threatening me with a CCJ and Bailiffs, presuming they are just trying to scare me into calling them.

And the attached court costs, another scare tactic I’m presuming.

I haven’t sent the Prove it letter yet as it’s only been 5 working days since 1st contact. I shouldn’t be worrying about this letter should I? I just looks like its scare tactics, but it’s never good to receive one of these threatening letters.

Thanks