Red debt collection services-letters received today!

murtle1981

Hi folks.
I received 2 letters from Red Debt Collection Services today. They are collecting debt on behalf of Three Mobile (£95)but I havent had a Three Mobile account of any kind since 2005! So as you can imagine, I was really shocked when these letters came!
I rang Red Debt Collection services straight away. The guy i spoke to was very helpful and had a copy of my credit file in front of him. He informed me that it was showing on my credit file that I paid £278 on this debt on 13th May 2005 (which I can remember being an early settlement amount).
The only problem was that I couldnt really remember who I paid. The debt had been passed onto a debt collection agency and I am almost certain it was Moorcroft Debt Recovery. The guy at Red put my account on hold for 30 days until I can find out whats going on and told me to contact Moorcroft to see if its still on their systems. So I did.
The lady at Moorcroft searched for it using my name and Three Mobile ref number but couldnt find it. She asked for the address i was at when i first got in debt with Three so i gave her my parents address. She still couldnt find it.
I tried to give her the address I was at when i actually paid it off but she wouldnt take it. She said that any debts that have been paid off are archived and cannot be accessed without the Moorcroft ref number. I havent got the ref number...it was almost 6 bloody years ago!!!
I rang Red back and explained what had happened during my telephone call with Moorcroft and he asked if there were any other debt collection agencies that I was paying around the same time-and yes there was-Wescot Credit Services.....
I rang Wescot who were a lot more helpful than Moorcroft. They searched using 2 of my addresses, Three Mobile ref no, name etc but found nothing!
So ive got 30 days in which to send proof to RED to show that this debt was paid off . I know for a FACT that I paid it off as I used my compensation money to pay it! Although RED have got my credit file, they cant tell me who I was paying it to etc and I dont know where to start! Do I ring Moorcroft and make them search for it again using the correct address this time?
Red said they didnt have this debt passed on to them till 2008 from three mobile.
Any help would greatly appreciated. Thanks

RAS

Sorry, but please stop.

Red have to prove you owe the money, that is the law. It is not your responsibility to prove you do not owe it.

Send a "prove it" letter.

murtle1981

Thank you. Red have been quite helpful and have said they will investigate it at their end too. They reckon that because I settled the debt early at an agreed amount, Three are now probably after grabbing back the bit they "let me off with" so to speak.
Ive been advised to write to Moorcroft and Red and Three and threaten them with the FSO (or is it the FOS??) Anyway, whatever it is, would it be wise to do that?
And what do you mean by prove it letter? What do I put in it?

RAS

murtle1981 wrote: »

Thank you. Red have been quite helpful and have said they will investigate it at their end too. They reckon that because I settled the debt early at an agreed amount, Three are now probably after grabbing back the bit they "let me off with" so to speak.
Ive been advised to write to Moorcroft and Red and Three and threaten them with the FSO (or is it the FOS??) Anyway, whatever it is, would it be wise to do that?

Err no. More likely Three agreed a settlement and it was not recorded as full and final, so Red have decided to get you to pay the remaining portion.

Red are Lowell and if you search this forum, you will find that they specialise in trying to get peopel to pay unenforceable debt.

murtle1981

So what do i do? Just not pay it and ignore them? Ive heard bad things about Red before, can be quite nasty apparantly???

RobertoMoir

murtle1981 wrote: »

So what do i do? Just not pay it and ignore them? Ive heard bad things about Red before, can be quite nasty apparantly???

Your bin will work just as well for nasty letters as any other kind. Debt collectors have little to no power to make you pay a debt even if it is one you do owe. And as RAS says, they have to prove you owe the debt (e.g. it's valid & enforceable), you don't have to prove that you do not. I'd say you've already done as much diligent research to see if you owe the debt as its reasonable to expect any honest person to do.

PNPSUKNET

mobile service agreements dont call under cca, so unforecable route wont work. If you dont have the proof offer 50%, they will be able to get the bills proving you owe very easy

murtle1981

RobertoMoir wrote: »

Your bin will work just as well for nasty letters as any other kind. Debt collectors have little to no power to make you pay a debt even if it is one you do owe. And as RAS says, they have to prove you owe the debt (e.g. it's valid & enforceable), you don't have to prove that you do not. I'd say you've already done as much diligent research to see if you owe the debt as its reasonable to expect any honest person to do.

Thank you for your reply. Im more hacked off than worried about this situation as i know i paid it. What makes it worse is the fact that I lived at the same address for another year after I had paid it and never had another letter regarding it and like Moorcroft and Wescot said, if i hadnt paid it they would have chased me for it. But its now almost 6 years later and Im only just getting correspondance from Red regarding the other £95 odd that i apparantly still owe! Makes me laugh. On 13th May this year, it should become statute barred?? So they cant make me pay anyway after then?? Im not sure how that side of things work to be honest. All I know is that Red or Lowell or whatever they are bloody called have put the account on hold for 30 days and say I MUST send them proof that this debt was infact paid.
Moorcroft said that paid debts are archived so that should tell me something but they cant get into the archives without my original ref number which i have no longer got! And if they cant get into them, I will have no proof.
Ive spoken to my DMP people and they have told me not to ignore it..ive got to find out as much as i can to prove that it was paid. So im getting conflicting advice.
What do i do?

RAS

murtle1981 wrote: »

But its now almost 6 years later and Im only just getting correspondance from Red regarding the other £95 odd that i apparantly still owe! Makes me laugh. On 13th May this year, it should become statute barred?? So they cant make me pay anyway after then?? Im not sure how that side of things work to be honest.

Hi

the tactic is now clear. if you write to them acknowledging the debt any time before the 6 year limit is up, even producing documents indicating that you do not believe you owe the money, they can chase you for the next 6 years!

Who is your DMp with?

nottoolate

PNPSUKNET wrote: »

mobile service agreements dont call under ccay

who said they did?

the debt collector still has to prove you owe them anything. not the other way around

murtle1981

RAS wrote: »

Hi

the tactic is now clear. if you write to them acknowledging the debt any time before the 6 year limit is up, even producing documents indicating that you do not believe you owe the money, they can chase you for the next 6 years!

Who is your DMp with?

So they can still chase me for the money then? Is that what you meant^^^^? God, Its so confusing! And my DMP is with Chiltern Debt Management.