My first Debt Collection Letters, HELP!

BB8_3

Hello

On the 6th of April i received a letter, dated 1 April, from FPC Debt Collection Services/Fredrickson International Limited.

The debt is from Vodafone. My contract finished with Vodafone in FEB this year and i received a final bill of £129.03. I could not afford to pay this so i received the letter from FPC.

The FPC said i had failed to pay a balance of £148.56 which remains outstanding despite repeated requests for payment. Our client now requires payment in full to avoid further action.

Why are they saying i have ignored previous communication when this was my first letter from them and why are they saying i owe £148.56 instead of £129.03? By the sound of "our client requires full payment" Vodafone have not sold the debt but hired them to recover the debt for them. I read something about a CCA Letter, can someone tell me more about this and if it would be appropriate to use in my situation?

Anyway, I received this first letter on the 6th April and wrote them a reply on the same day. I did not phone the number the wanted me to phone as 1. I don't have any credit and 2. I want all our communication in writing.

The reply letter i sent was a template letter from Citizen Advice website of making them an offer of monthly payment that i can afford to give them. I included my budget and offered £10 per month and that my situation is unlikely to improve within the next 6 months and when it does i will contact them.

Then only 2 days later (today) i received a second letter from them, dated the 8th April, saying Letter Before Action, the debt must be paid in full within the next 7 days otherwise they will take immediate action and then listed the new balance of £225.54 if proceedings are issued including court and solicitor fees and costs.

This means they gave me only from the 6th to the 8th to reply to them! I don't think that is fair.

I have yet to hear back from them about the offer i made them. I don't have any money and that was all i could afford.

I have also had my voice mail box filled up with messages which are them calling. I only realised the messages was from them when i got the first letter from them as non of the messages where clear at all, i thought they said it was cpc calling...... But i will not answer as i have sent my letter and want all communication in writing.

Please Help , what are my right and what should i do?

THANK YOU !!!!!!!

Tixy

Hi

A CCA letter is not suitable in this situation as a telephone contract is not covered by the consumer credit act.
You are right not to speak to them on the phone.

The letter you sent offering £10 a month - did you send this recorded delivery? Did you include the first £10 payment?

Their second letter to you has obviously crossed in the post with yours.

I would reply to this second letter enclosing a copy of your letter and enclosing the first month's payment and sending signed for so that you can prove that they received the letter.

If you are being charged to retrieve messages from your voice mail maybe you could consider switching your voicemail off for a while (if that doesn't inconvience the rest of your life too much? hopefully friends would just text if they couldn't leave you a message)

BB8_3

Hello

I only sent the letter by second class but i will reply to the second letter recorded delivery like you advised with my original letter.

I used the template letter from citizen advice bureau so instead of sending first payment i told them when i could make the first payment.

And yeah will turn the voice mail of lol

Tixy wrote: »

Hi

A CCA letter is not suitable in this situation as a telephone contract is not covered by the consumer credit act.
You are right not to speak to them on the phone.

The letter you sent offering £10 a month - did you send this recorded delivery? Did you include the first £10 payment?

Their second letter to you has obviously crossed in the post with yours.

I would reply to this second letter enclosing a copy of your letter and enclosing the first month's payment and sending signed for so that you can prove that they received the letter.

If you are being charged to retrieve messages from your voice mail maybe you could consider switching your voicemail off for a while (if that doesn't inconvience the rest of your life too much? hopefully friends would just text if they couldn't leave you a message)

BB8_3

Should i include the first £10 payment in this second letter i will send them and should it be a postal order or a cheque? What if they don't accept my £10 offer? :O In the first letter i sent i offered £10 and could make the first payment on 27th April so it would give them time to reply.

Cheers

Tixy wrote: »

Hi

A CCA letter is not suitable in this situation as a telephone contract is not covered by the consumer credit act.
You are right not to speak to them on the phone.

The letter you sent offering £10 a month - did you send this recorded delivery? Did you include the first £10 payment?

Their second letter to you has obviously crossed in the post with yours.

I would reply to this second letter enclosing a copy of your letter and enclosing the first month's payment and sending signed for so that you can prove that they received the letter.

If you are being charged to retrieve messages from your voice mail maybe you could consider switching your voicemail off for a while (if that doesn't inconvience the rest of your life too much? hopefully friends would just text if they couldn't leave you a message)

Culex

BB8 wrote: »

Should i include the first £10 payment in this second letter i will send them and should it be a postal order or a cheque? What if they don't accept my £10 offer? :O In the first letter i sent i offered £10 and could make the first payment on 27th April so it would give them time to reply.

I'd say that you should send a cheque - so you can see when it was cleared - and as soon as possible, by 1st class Recorded Delivery if not by Special Delivery. Ask for their bank details so you can set up a standing order for regular payments - do NOT use a direct debit or make a card payment by phone, as they'd be able to grab more and leave you skint.

Vodafone

Hi BB8,

I’m sorry to see the difficulties you’ve experienced in getting a payment plan set up.

If you have any problems with getting this sorted, feel free to email us via Web Relations Team as we’ll be happy to look into this for you.

(When contacting, please quote the code WRT135 in the subject line. In the main message body, please include a link to this thread and your user name. This will ensure that your message comes directly through to my team).

Kind regards,

Jenny
Web Relations Team
Vodafone UK