Another HFO Services harassment victim?

Richy2304

Hi

Like so many other people in these forums I too had a suprising call just the other day from HFO Services Indian call centre claiming they had been assigned my old MBNA debt. First off this chap called me at work which was really odd as I have no idea where he would have got the number. I was caught quite off guard when he called me and so I was strictly honest with him and admitted I did have a previous debt with MBNA but this was assigned to another company a few years ago and I made some substantial payments to clear it. He said people tell him all the time they have no recollection of any debt, implying that he didn't believe a word I was saying. This doesn't sound like the words of someone who wants to "help".

He said he had plenty of proof in front of him that the debt was still live and even told me what my last payment was. Because I didn't want him to ring me at work again I gave him my mobile number. This may or may not have been the right thing to do but like so many others I have read about I went into panic mode. I suppose at least I can see who's calling me on my mobile and have the option to ignore the call and I can always change my number of it gets really bad.

He said he would send me the notice of assignment and asked for my email address. Stupidly, panic mode kicked in again and I gave it to him... oops!

I asked him to give me time to read the notice and I would call him back the following day on the number he gave me after I had had the chance to think about what I was going to do but that same evening he rang me again literally seconds after receiving his email. I hadn't even had long enough to open it let alone read it! I asked hime to give me time to take it in and I would call him, as originally promised, the following afternoon.

So the following "morning" he rang again and I politely reminded him that I had said I would call in the "afternoon"

During the day I did a lot of thinking and wondering why I hadn't been contacted sooner. The other confusing thing is that I am 99.99% certain I only ever had 4 credit cards and only 1 of them was issued by MBNA, and this was the one paid off to the other company. I was starting to think I was losing it and there was perhaps another card I'd forgotten about but I decided to see what I could find out about HFO Services.

Google returned some very suprising results and thats how I ended up here (and other forums) reading all day about so many people who have been experiencing HFO's bullying tactics. Also I can't find an actual website for HFO, the only one that came close has been disabled.

I never did call him back but that same afternoon my mobile rang 3 times in as many minutes, each time displaying a different international number.

So where do I go from here? Reading everybody elses cases has almost answered my own questions but how do I deal with this chap when he starts calling me again after the weekend? If I keep ignoring his calls to my mobile he'll just ring my work number again which I certainly don't want.

What if I've got it completely wrong and the IS another card I forgot about? Maybe I do owe money to MBNA that I'd forgotten about.

I've read the terms "Staute Barred" about a million times in these threads and this probably applies to my case also. It will certainly be at least 5 years since I acknowledged any debt, and if it is only 5 I'm sure I can stretch it out to 6!

Any help much appreciated

R.

Ps. You might see this posted on another thread because at the time I couldn't work out how to start a new thread!

fermi

So, you only had one MBNA card which you are sure was paid off?

If so, then you dispute that the debt is yours.

Wouldn't be surprising for HFO to go after the wrong person.

So a letter along these lines is probably the place to start ---> http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=11570893&postcount=2

fatbelly

Firstly you need to do everything in writing

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2719675


Then refuse to speak to them when they phone and send this

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=11571485&postcount=4

You need to see if you can find paperwork from when the debt was owned by another DCA and you paid the balance in full. But you also need to see what they have. If they don't send it, then there's a prove-it letter you can send, which may need some re-wording to suit your circumstances

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=11570893&postcount=2

Crossed post with Fermi - think we're singing from the same hymnsheet!

fermi

fatbelly wrote: »

Crossed post with Fermi - think we're singing from the same hymnsheet!

Yep. ...........

Richy2304

Very helpful so far. However, he didn't ring me today as expected so maybe he already got the message (or it could just be his day off!)

fatbelly

I thought he was sending you the notice of assignment, by e-mail.

How long does that take?

Richy2304

He sent that already on Thursday and then called me immediately after before I even had a chance to open it! Then he called 4 times on Friday but I haven't heard since.

fingers crossed