the past caught up to me

easty

i got a letter, probably the start of November, from a debt collection agency that had taken over my debt to capital one credit cards. i owe them £550 (the limit on the credit card was only £200!! i went over by about £5, got sacked from my job-my fault, had no cash, amount started to add up and up). anyway it's a few years old and i know i owe the bank i was with at the time money as well but they've never so much as sent me letter to ask for it or tell me how much i owe them. it was a staff account and i took out a £1000 loan and had an overdraft, once they sacked me i just never used the account again. i probably owe them loads after bank charges.

what should i do about it all?

i know i need to get in contact with the debt collection folk about the capital one debt but i want to leave that till after xmas, despite the repeated letters.

should i contact the bank? i dont even know the account details anymore.

mrslawrence2003

easty wrote:

i got a letter, probably the start of November, from a debt collection agency that had taken over my debt to capital one credit cards. i owe them £550 (the limit on the credit card was only £200!! i went over by about £5, got sacked from my job-my fault, had no cash, amount started to add up and up). anyway it's a few years old and i know i owe the bank i was with at the time money as well but they've never so much as sent me letter to ask for it or tell me how much i owe them. it was a staff account and i took out a £1000 loan and had an overdraft, once they sacked me i just never used the account again. i probably owe them loads after bank charges.

what should i do about it all?

i know i need to get in contact with the debt collection folk about the capital one debt but i want to leave that till after xmas, despite the repeated letters.

should i contact the bank? i dont even know the account details anymore.

well, first things first, you really need to find out how much you owed in the first place. first thing i would suggest you do is to contact one of the credit reference agencies and have a look at your credit file. secondly, you need to find out how much was in bank charges as if they are 6 years old or younger, you can try to claim back all the bank charges.

there is a letter you can send to the DCA, but not sure if this is necessary as you accept the debt is yours, and are willing to pay it off.

it might be worth contacting the bank and asking them for details and a breakdown of the info as i am sure the DCA wil not be able to provide this info.

Broken_hearted

What position are you in now, can you pay it. The capital one debt needs sorting out, as for the other one check your credit file.

easty

mrslawrence2003 wrote:

well, first things first, you really need to find out how much you owed in the first place. first thing i would suggest you do is to contact one of the credit reference agencies and have a look at your credit file. secondly, you need to find out how much was in bank charges as if they are 6 years old or younger, you can try to claim back all the bank charges.

there is a letter you can send to the DCA, but not sure if this is necessary as you accept the debt is yours, and are willing to pay it off.

it might be worth contacting the bank and asking them for details and a breakdown of the info as i am sure the DCA wil not be able to provide this info.

how would i go about contacting a credit reference agency? email?

whats the DCA? its not that i accept the debt is mine, i dont even contest that i should be charged more on top but i think £350 charges on top of what i spent on the credit card is a joke!

what would you advise i say to the bank? i just dont know how to go about it at all???

easty

Broken_hearted wrote:

What position are you in now, can you pay it. The capital one debt needs sorting out, as for the other one check your credit file.

whats a credit file??

can i pay it off right now, as in today? no. i get paid monthly though and could clear it in 3 payements i reckon.

lynzpower

DCA is a debt collection agency

Credit file- basically its your credit rating and it will also show bad history such as defaults, late payments etc.

You can check it with experian online

Good luck & welcome :wave:

easty

mrslawrence2003 wrote:

there is a letter you can send to the DCA, but not sure if this is necessary as you accept the debt is yours, and are willing to pay it off.

where can i get this letter??

Storm

With the DCA you could ask for a full & final settlement figure, or offer what you believe to be fair - you will have to pay this in one lump sum however & make sure that you get the agreement that it's F&FS in writing. They will agree a payment schedule with you if you can't do it in one hit, but probably won't reduce the amount (and will probably ask for more per month than you say you can afford!)

I'm not completely understanding the account thing - is this a bank account you haven't used for ages? Seems weird that they haven't contacted you

I agree with Mrs Lawrence that you should look into trying to claim back as much in charges as you can as this will probably clear a whole load off the debt.

easty

Storm wrote:

With the DCA you could ask for a full & final settlement figure, or offer what you believe to be fair - you will have to pay this in one lump sum however & make sure that you get the agreement that it's F&FS in writing. They will agree a payment schedule with you if you can't do it in one hit, but probably won't reduce the amount (and will probably ask for more per month than you say you can afford!)

I'm not completely understanding the account thing - is this a bank account you haven't used for ages? Seems weird that they haven't contacted you

I agree with Mrs Lawrence that you should look into trying to claim back as much in charges as you can as this will probably clear a whole load off the debt.

the account thing was a staff account with the royal bank of scotland. i was sacked (in october 2002) so couldnt deposit any money into the account to cover what i owed them. i had an overdraft at the time and had taken out a staff loan of £1000 (of which i'd made one payment), the payments on the loan were coming directly out my wages. after i was sacked i knew there was no money in the account so never used it again. dont know if it's open or closed (probaby closed) and have no idea how much i owe them.

Storm

Oh, were you working for RBS then? Seems weird that you couldn't even deposit money after you left working for them. Have you got any paperwork still relating to this - if you can't access the account once you've finished working for them they must have something in place for situations like this surely?

When you had left, did you move away? I'm trying to figure out if there's a reason they haven't contacted you

easty

Storm wrote:

Oh, were you working for RBS then? Seems weird that you couldn't even deposit money after you left working for them. Have you got any paperwork still relating to this - if you can't access the account once you've finished working for them they must have something in place for situations like this surely?

When you had left, did you move away? I'm trying to figure out if there's a reason they haven't contacted you

yeah i was working for them. i dont know if i coulod deposit money into or not, but i didnt have a job, went to college and ended up starting my next job 2 and a half years later. i've got no paperwork for it at all. i dont know the account number/sort code/my staff number.

i moved away after a while but it was like a year.