Red Debt Collection HELP!

NicolaBurn

Hi everyone

I have been reading all these posts since 2008 about Red debt collection and Lowell and need some help about this. I can see from these posts that they are all very negative, false and unjusticed. However I would like to know if anyone has actually beaten Red/ Lowell and if so how. As it can be very confusing as some posts say dont ring them, dont write to them and some say do write to them etc. So this is my case.

On the 11th January 2011 Red wrote me a letter saying that I owe £611 with regards to Three Mobile. I did have a contract with Three Mobile in 2006, to which i moved abroad and received a letter whilst i was there saying i owed some money. This was the first time i had ever received a letter saying i owed money and if i didnt pay i would be taken to court etc. i therefore went directly to the post office there and sent the money to three mobile by postal order. Bearing in mind this was around October 2006 somewhat 5 years ago and i do not have this evidence today!!! Since then until January 2011 I did not hear anything from Three Mobile (and why should i? i paid!)

And so coming to present i received this letter and of course was shocked so i telephoned Three immediately, informed them of my story and that i 100% believed that i do not owe one penny never mind £611!!! They said they would contact Three, put my account on hold for 30 days and get back to me and if i did not hear from them to call again. So one month later in February like a good human being i called them again and asked them to update me as i had not heard from them. they told me that they sent a letter to three mobile on my behalf and that they had not heard a reply and for me to phone them again in 2 weeks! And so 2 weeks later i did! I then spoke to a guy that told me that they could see i had 2 current account and FOUR credit cards?! I do not have 4 credit cards to which he said oh i dont know then! He said that this sort of thing can take up to 3 months, and to not contact them again until i receive a letter from them. I said ok but to be honest i believe i do not owe one penny, it is totally out of order and that i will see them in court infront of a judge before i will pay anything. To which he made out like he was trying to do me a favour and said well that could take years and so i might be best to negiotate with Red and they would give me a discount up to 50% so i'd only have to pay £306!!! of a debt that isnt mine!!! I said no way and i would be happy to wait however many years to go to court and this is injusticed.

So until today i had not heard anything, today i received a letter now from Lowell Portfolio explaining that after them corresponding with three mobile they have reached an outcome regarding this matter. they have no record of a payment being made to clear the balance. and if i believe that a payment has been made i have to provide proof of this in the form of receipt or statement. Of course i do not have this proof as it was paid in cash in a foreign post office over 5 years ago!

I am therefore looking for someone to help and advise me in this matter as i only have 28 days to contact them.

I look forward to hearing from someone as soon as possible in order to result in this unfair proceedings against me and after reading all these negative posts about Red and Lowell, to not let them win.

Many thanks

Hannah_10

You're looking at this back to front. It is not your responsibility to prove you do not owe it. It is thier responsibility to prove that you do. Instead of defending you need to proactively go after them. Phoning them is where you went wrong, you have now allowed them to manipulate you into thinking you have to do something. Not so. They have to. Send the prove it letter as late as you dare and see what they send back. Come and tell us what they send back. Itis in yoru interests to leave responding as late as you dare because if this debt gets to 6 years old (5 if it's Scottish) without you paying it or acknowledging it then it becomes statute barred and they can't successfully take you to court for it because that it is SB is an unshakable defence (as long as it is). Again by phoning you have done everything quicker- thus played right into thier hands. Also by phoning you have allowed them to write down that you said anything at all. You could have been quoted as saying "yes Sir, sorry Sir, I will pay next Tuesday Sir". Don't think they're that devious? Well they are. Stop this phoning business immediately, you are leaving yourself open to being told things they wouldn't dare put in a letter least you told them to the regulatory bodies. They do that all the time too. Other people were probably told to not write because the sums were so low that court was unlikely or the debt was already SB or the DCA were clearly fishing. In all of those cases it can be best to do nothing at all. Doing nothing at all is not the same as ringing up. Ringing them up is almost always a really bad idea.

McKneff

Hannah_10 wrote: »

You're looking at this back to front. It is not your responsibility to prove you do not owe it. It is thier responsibility to prove that you do. Instead of defending you need to proactively go after them. Phoning them is where you went wrong, you have now allowed them to manipulate you into thinking you have to do something. Not so. They have to. Send the prove it letter as late as you dare and see what they send back. Come and tell us what they send back. Itis in yoru interests to leave responding as late as you dare because if this debt gets to 6 years old (5 if it's Scottish) without you paying it or acknowledging it then it becomes statute barred and they can't successfully take you to court for it because that it is SB is an unshakable defence (as long as it is). Again by phoning you have done everything quicker- thus played right into thier hands. Also by phoning you have allowed them to write down that you said anything at all. You could have been quoted as saying "yes Sir, sorry Sir, I will pay next Tuesday Sir". Don't think they're that devious? Well they are. Stop this phoning business immediately, you are leaving yourself open to being told things they wouldn't dare put in a letter least you told them to the regulatory bodies. They do that all the time too. Other people were probably told to not write because the sums were so low that court was unlikely or the debt was already SB or the DCA were clearly fishing. In all of those cases it can be best to do nothing at all. Doing nothing at all is not the same as ringing up. Ringing them up is almost always a really bad idea.

Excellent post there Hannah.

OP = good advice there, dont forget to come back on and let us know how you get on.

NicolaBurn

Oh my god thank you Hannah and McKneff so much, it is this sort of thing that annoys me so much, how can they be allowed to do this?! There will be so many people that will get these letters, be nice decent and honest people, and phone them try to sort it out inorder not to effect their credit rating and of course be making everything a whole lot worse without even knowing it! (like me!)

In this case i will draft a letter now to them stating the above i.e on the fact that the onus is on them to prove i owe the debt etc and so when i receive the next letter from them (hoping it is not too late and they dont put a CCJ against me!) i will send this letter and hope that everything takes so long it will go past the 6 years. It feels like they are just trying to allege that i owe this money so that i get scared pay up before this 6 years expired since i took this contract out!

Thank you both so much again for your sound advice it is much appreciated and that i hope that myself and everyone else that has received this unfair letters and being causd distress can put an end to this sort of thing.

I of course will keep you updated.

Kind regards

Hannah_10

They're not allowed to. Or at least, what they have said to you is borderline. How are you going to prove it though? You can't prove what was said on the phone even if you had recorded calls because who would you play them to? One contacts the OFT and FOS and the other organisations who keep an eye on DCA's by letter, not in person.

Here's the rules they should be playing by: oft664 - Office of Fair Trading Save this on your computer and refer to it a lot. If you catch them breaking a rule complaining about it to the proper authorities drags it out too. I realise you can't prove you paid, but there is more than one way to skin a cat.

McKneff

They do it because they can and lots of people fall for it. They play on people not having knowledge and their gullability and just pay up.

Dont draft your own letter, there is a 'prove it' letter template on here somewhere, Im sure some one will post a link for you or look
on the 'Forum Search' at the top of here, I'll have a look also. Look for 'Template Letters'
They really are brilliant formal letters, so I would strongl suggest you use one of them.

Good luck

McKneff

Here you go, have a look at this thread.

Good luck

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1394709

Annie

NicolaBurn

That's brilliant thank you for your help, advice and template. All I gotta do now is be strong and wait patiently to hold off as long as possible before I send that letter. I will keep you posted. Thanks again

McKneff

Yes, just stand your ground, dont take any telephone calls, if the call, tell them not to call you again and send everything in writing.
If they call you again, tell them you are reporting them for harrassment. If you write to them, dont under any circumstances sign your letter, its easy to photocopy on to an agreement, print only, and always use recorded delivery.

Hopefully, they will run out of time.

Annie

NicolaBurn

Hi Annie,

hoping you can help me again please // i have today received a letter stating:

It is now from Lowell not Red like before. they are saying that they have wrote to me recently (the last letter was saying that i owe the money & they never proved or showed evidence why or from what) and now they are saying that they hope this resolves things and that if i have a query to call them (funny that) they have made me an "affordable" plan. either i pay £30 a month approx £1 per day or pay £50 a month approx £1.50 a day (of which i have never agreed) they say that they hope this plan works for me and that they look forward to eeceiving my payments.

However i do not owe them one penny and i REFUSE to pay anything to them however i do not want to receive more letters from them saying if i do not pay the plan they have suggested then they will put a CCJ on me or take me to court (which i am willing to do as i will go to my grave saying i do not owe them) i mean Three NEVER contacted me about this then nearly FIVE years later i get these letters from RED then i dont hear from RED and now i get this letter from LOWELL with no connection to RED on this letter. i know from the internet that they are part of the same group but they are not consistent in what they say or who the letters come from.

please please please can someone help or advise me i dont know what to do i paid all money outstanding from this contract with Three in 2006 and do not owe them any money and of course do not wish to be taken to court.

Please help and advise me ASAP as they say i only have 10 days to reply

i look forward to hearing from someone

many thanks and kind regards

Nicola

ladybez

Hi Nicola,
You could re-send the "Prove it " letter to Lowells not Red, as it appears they have not done so. Don't be too concerned about the 10 days in their letter, it is to frighten you into giving in and paying.
Just one work of warning though, as the contract was for a service, rather than a loan or credit card, I have a feeling that the 6 years Statute Barred rule does not apply.
Good luck and keep us informed