Help! Outstanding overdraft (Legal action imminent)

chanz4

Skrillex wrote: »

Does this mean that It has not been actually passed onto a real debt collection agency, what does this mean? I have no idea if the debt has been sold to another agency, on the Metropolitan Collection Services letter is states, 'Metropolitan Collection Services is a member of the HSBC Group and operates internal complaints handling procedure.'

So today I received a 'Final Demand' letter and that a £143.00 fee for legal costs will be added to the bill... am I too late to negotiate? Should I agree to the £10 a month or should I hold out for a possible court case, I don't know what to do.

Considering that this has happened and I have missed payments on other things in the past I suspect my credit rating is abysmal anyway and that I have nothing to loose by holding out for a possible CCJ, would I be right?

This will be a pre-court letter, others on here like to drag things out as it does not effect them. If you can afford the £10 pay it and set it up. Its buying x3 months time to get a job, they will then see you as a cant pay, rather than not wanting to. When sold debts only get worse

Skrillex

OK so I rang them up today again to tell them that I would be sending an Income/expenditure letter. To cut a long story short the guy offered me monthly payback of £5 for 6 months and he told me that it would not be increased if I could not afford it, which I was very happy to accept.

Thank you for all your help guys, couldn't have got this far without you!

Much love! :money:

Consumerist

Skrillex wrote: »

OK so I rang them up today again to tell them that I would be sending an Income/expenditure letter. To cut a long story short the guy offered me monthly payback of £5 for 6 months and he told me that it would not be increased if I could not afford it, which I was very happy to accept.

Sounds like a result. Well done.

Make sure you're clued up about your rights and responsibilities by the time they get back to you in 6 months. Don't forget to keep a copy of your income & expenditure statement and any other correspondence between you. When you send your I&E statement you should mention the agreement to pay £5 for 6 months. Set up the payments by Standing Order and NOT by Direct Debit or you could find your account cleaned out without warning.

Good luck. Post again if you need to.

paddyrg

Well done you! I can't imagine a fiver a month will do much beyond standing still with the interest accruing, but it sshows you are not trying to duck the debt, and that they stand a chance of getting more back when you sort out your financial position

Skrillex

Consumerist wrote: »

Sounds like a result. Well done.

Make sure you're clued up about your rights and responsibilities by the time they get back to you in 6 months. Don't forget to keep a copy of your income & expenditure statement and any other correspondence between you. When you send your I&E statement you should mention the agreement to pay £5 for 6 months. Set up the payments by Standing Order and NOT by Direct Debit or you could find your account cleaned out without warning.

Good luck. Post again if you need to.

Hmmm, they already have set the direct debit up, I will contact them and ask for it to be standing order.

Yeah I have been reading up allot so next time I will be more than prepared! I have asked for every detail to be sent to me so I will make sure I keep everything recieved.

Culex

Skrillex wrote: »

So now I have received 'Urgent communication' letters from a debt collection agency called 'Metropolitan Collection Services Limited'. It tells me that I if I do not contact them (which I will tomorrow) they intend to instruct solicitors to apply a 'Warrant of Execution', which allows them to take items from my house to pay off the debt which is very worrying.

If it were true, it would indeed be most worrisome.

But it isn't true. It is a lie.

A warrant of execution could only be obtained if the creditor - in this case, HSBC Bank plc - had obtained a county court judgement against you and only then if you had subsequently failed to make payments as directed by the court.

None of that would have been in the letter from MCS, though. Like most DCAs - both in-house and independent - they omit such details to make debtors panic, as you appear to have done.

Consumerist

Skrillex wrote: »

Hmmm, they already have set the direct debit up, I will contact them and ask for it to be standing order.

This could be a problem. As I said earlier, you could regret agreeing to anything before you're ready. DCAs are, generally speaking, unscrupulous and you should assume the worst by default. There are many posts in the Debt-free Wannabe forum of DCAs taking money from accounts without notice. Their primary objective is to get their money back with no care for your situation.

I suggest you open a new basic current account with a different banking group and get your income diverted to it as soon as possible. Write to the DCA cancelling the Direct Debit and cancel it on your current account straight away. Ask the DCA for the bank details which you will need to set up the Standing Order.

I really hope I'm over-reacting but I have serious misgivings about DCAs as does Culex, above.