Link Financial - settled debt letter??

olivia84

hi there,

my partner an i each have an account with link financial debt collectors. my partner's is an MBNA account with around £1800 and my account is for a personal car loan from GE Capital - balance around £2500.

We both received identical letters the other day saying that link had been informed by a credit reference agency that we both had recently settled a debt and to contact them.

i am wondering if anyone else has received a similar letter? i think it strange that we both received the same letter for two totally seperate debts. i have been racking my brains to think of what debt we have supposedly paid off recently but honestly cannot think of any!

i phoned link yesterday and spoke to a guy who said because of data protection the credit reference agency who told them we had settled a debt couldn't tell them what it was or to whom!

surely link cannot discuss our credit report with a credit reference agency without our permission? would they not have to do an actual credit check to get that info?

i'm wondering if the whole thing is a ploy just to get us to phone them and they can maybe persuade us to up our payments to them?

link have usually been one of the better creditors in terms of negotiating and they very rarely write to us or hassle us unless it's for a review on the account which they usually accept quite easily.

the guy at link basically told me to look my credit report (hassle i think as i think i've already signed up for the free one before so i don't know if i'd be able to do it again, plus you have to sign up to a monthly subscription then remember to cancel it)

anyone any ideas? have i really settled a debt i don't know about and suddenly have a load of cash i can offer link or is it just a ploy by them to try to increase our payments?

many thanks in advance


x

bottleofred

I think getting a copy of your credit file is the best thing to do. Get the free one with one of the other companies and check what's on it.

Good luck

Red

fatbelly

olivia84 wrote: »

i'm wondering if the whole thing is a ploy just to get us to phone them and they can maybe persuade us to up our payments to them?

x

I think that's the case - it certainly got you to phone them.

And now, if you didn't block it, they have your current phone number.

fermi

Yep. Most likely a fishing tactic.

I expect you and hundreds of others got the same template sent out.

olivia84

thanks everyone - they had my phone number anyway but strangely didn't phone me - they just sent the letters. i'll fill out an income and expenditure form for them and see how it goes - i just wondered if anyone else had heard of this tactic or if they genuinely have received this information from a credit reference agency.

thank you

x

unicornstar

I got a letter the other day from them saying that someone had applied for credit in my name but at a different address and to phone them urgently. I stupidly phoned them and turns out it was a ploy to get me to call them about an "outstanding debt". Surely this isn't allowed? It's very deceitful. The account they are chasing me for is showing as settled on my credit score so I'm not sure what they are playing at.

bottleofred

unicornstar wrote: »

I got a letter the other day from them saying that someone had applied for credit in my name but at a different address and to phone them urgently. I stupidly phoned them and turns out it was a ploy to get me to call them about an "outstanding debt". Surely this isn't allowed? It's very deceitful. The account they are chasing me for is showing as settled on my credit score so I'm not sure what they are playing at.

A settled debt on your credit file may be as the result of a debt collector buying the original debt but not updating the details with the credit reference agency. It doesn't necessarilly mean the debt is settled.

continualdiamond

Oh how very interesting in deed.

OH got a letter dated 15th June yesterday stating the exact same thing. That they'd been informed that his fiancial situation had improved cos he'd settled some debt.

Then stating that we agreed if our circumstances changed the monthly repayment would increase.

I only wish this were the case. We're with payplan & have just continued paying our normal monthly repayments to them, no debt has been settled.

I was all set for OH to phone link, but will not now, will let payplan know instead.