Thought I was free of debt!

bubblehead08

August 2010 I received a letter from a debt collector called Arrow Global who stated they had an account from Orange mobile from 2005 that I owed £83.84 on. I have absolutely no knowledge of this debt, don't remember having a previous Orange contract ( I have had an Orange contract continuously since about 2006 ) and certainly don't recollect reneging on a contract.

I contacted Arrow who provided me with the mobile number for the account ( don't recognise it ) along with a previous address of mine that I did live in around 2004 / 2005 but they stated they had no further information available and I should contact Orange. I contacted Orange who told me the contract was so old they had sold the debt on and recylced the mobile number and due to this, they had no other information on file. I spoke with Arrow again and this time they said they would request further information and not to worry until I heared furrther from them.

A couple of months later I started to receive threatening letters from Fredrickson International regarding this alleged debt. I wrote to them expressing my ignorance of this matter and asked for various things from them including a copy of a signed contract. I thought the matter had gone away but I have just received further correspondance from them asking for payment and including a 'Statement Of Account' with my name and previous address on it along with invoice and direct debit payment dates and amounts running from Feb 2004 to Jan 2005.

I know this isn't a massive amount of money but I genuinely have no recollection of this matter and I'm loath to pay someone 80 quid without any real proof just because 'they say so.'
Also, why has it taken them so long to get in touch with me? I've lived in my current address since 2006 and never made any effort to conceal where I live!!!
And one last thing, at the bottom of the SOA it has two credtit entries labelled as 'Direct Legal DCA Pa' and these are both made four months after the last invoice date and seven months after the last direct debit date - has anyone any idea of what they mean?

Thanks for reading and appologies for going on for so long!!

maskerade

Sounds like identity theft to me. Could you contact the police?

Hannah_10

Ok first things first, they have bamboozled you by telephone, read the golden rule and then come back and read my next reply.

katsu

You say DD payment dates etc are mentioned - can you check with the bank to see if you paid those amounts to Orange on those dates?

Jesthar

I don't suppose you have access to bank statements going back that far? You should be able to get them from your bank if you need to, although there may possibly be a fee involved - worth a check, though!

This sounds like a 'fishing expedition' to me. So far all they have sent you is an account statement with you name and address on the top - that means nothing, as I could knock one of those up myself in ten minutes flat!

So, they still haven't proven that it is your debt is yours - and they are getting pushy because the debt either already is or is borderline Statute Barred (and therefore uneforceable forever), so they are trying to get someone - anyone - to pay up without asking any questions...

~Jes

Numpty_Monkey

bubblehead08 wrote: »

August 2010 I received a letter from a debt collector called Arrow Global who stated they had an account from Orange mobile from 2005 that I owed £83.84 on. I have absolutely no knowledge of this debt, don't remember having a previous Orange contract ( I have had an Orange contract continuously since about 2006 ) and certainly don't recollect reneging on a contract.

I contacted Arrow who provided me with the mobile number for the account ( don't recognise it ) along with a previous address of mine that I did live in around 2004 / 2005 but they stated they had no further information available and I should contact Orange. I contacted Orange who told me the contract was so old they had sold the debt on and recylced the mobile number and due to this, they had no other information on file. I spoke with Arrow again and this time they said they would request further information and not to worry until I heared furrther from them.

A couple of months later I started to receive threatening letters from Fredrickson International regarding this alleged debt. I wrote to them expressing my ignorance of this matter and asked for various things from them including a copy of a signed contract. I thought the matter had gone away but I have just received further correspondance from them asking for payment and including a 'Statement Of Account' with my name and previous address on it along with invoice and direct debit payment dates and amounts running from Feb 2004 to Jan 2005.

I know this isn't a massive amount of money but I genuinely have no recollection of this matter and I'm loath to pay someone 80 quid without any real proof just because 'they say so.'
Also, why has it taken them so long to get in touch with me? I've lived in my current address since 2006 and never made any effort to conceal where I live!!!
And one last thing, at the bottom of the SOA it has two credtit entries labelled as 'Direct Legal DCA Pa' and these are both made four months after the last invoice date and seven months after the last direct debit date - has anyone any idea of what they mean?

Thanks for reading and appologies for going on for so long!!

Sounds like a fishing trip (someone similar name to yours)
and as it is "Statued Barred" if the dates on the statement are correctthere just sending stuff to anyone:mad:
hoping someone will pay up

To me you have 3 options
1 Ignore it
2 Send Statute Barred letter
3 Send Prove it letter

I'd go for option 2
have a read of fermi's post
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2606811

Hannah_10

Any debt tht has gone longer than 6 years in England & Wales or 5 years in Scotland without any payment being recieved is statute barred (SB). This means that the creditor (which includes any debt collection agency, or DCA for short) can not contact you if you tell them not to, they can not take you to court, add an attatchment to earnings or any of that nonsense and the debt can't even appear on yoru credit file. In effect it does not really exist (although on a technicality it does, in any way that counts it doesn't).

This debt is either SB or close to. You say the suppoosed statement they sent you was covering the period to Jan 2005 and the last payment on the account was made in the name of "Direct Legal DCA Pa" 4 months after this. That gives a date of May 2005. If you are English this debt will become SB in May 2011 (two months from now), if you are Scottish it already is SB. So SB is one way in which you are likely to not be liable for it. Two months sounds like a long time to hold out when you've just received a DCA threat-o-gram (nasty letter) but it it's honestly nothing. They haven't got the correct paperwork, by the time a couple of letters have gone to and fro about this it will time out.

As to if they will take you to court- it would cost them many, many times more than £80 to do this. They may have bought that debt for as little as 64p so they can afford to send you some scary letters, a 2nd class stamp is 32p, even less if you have a franking machine (they all do). They can afford to send you lots of threatograms, maybe even phone you up, but they really aren't going to take you to court. They will SAY they will, they are notorious at lying and subtle manipulation, they really badly want you to freak out. Their lying on the phone is even more spectacular, which is why I linked you the golden rule.

Coming on to what the credits labelled as "Direct Legal DCA Pa" mean, as you may now have sussed out it means that the debt has been in the hands of a DCA called Direct Legal who have managed to get two payments on it. Well, they say they have, it's far from unheard of for a DCA to lie about this to keep a debt from going SB. Be especially suspicious if they were small amounts. By doing this they lose £5 but keep open the chance of the remaining £80- it's a good con.

Send the "Prove it" letter by registered post and whatever you do don't sign it except with a curly computer generated font. Don't be in a rush, give it a good 10-14 days since you recieved your last letter from them before you post yours and send it second class at that. Dragging this out is in your interests. It is because the reverse is also true (haste is in thier interests) that you are getting threat-o-grams.

katsu

Hannah10 - I belive they can still contact you to ask for payment, you are just not obliged to make payment, if the debt is yours but SB.

Hannah_10

I understood that they can, but only until you send them a stop harrassing me letter and that if they keep pestering after that they're breaking the rules?

katsu

Hopefully someone like Fermi or RAS will spot this and confirm - I am sure I have read their advice before saying the DCA can contact you as the debt is still owed, it is just not enforceable. Hope you don't mind me querying that bit.

Hannah_10

No, you're dead right to query it.