Ridculous Credit Card Charges / Debt collection involved - HELP!!!

draven_girl

My partner had a credit card in 2003 that he thought he'd paid off, they have contact information down for his parents address (they moved shortly after this period), he has since lived at four different addresses (we've given forwarding addresses to all) but had no contact about the debt.

We've recently been contacted by a debt collection agency which have a 17 page account rundown apparently.

Initally my partner advises the limit was £500, the debt collectors are advising he owes £2,500

How do we go about tackling this problem?

Could we approach the card company about charges? I've done this in the past and it had worked well.

If there is debt to pay then I understand it must be paid off, but I don't see why we should pay possibly £2k in charges.

Can anyone help, we certainly don't have £2,500 to throw around.

Many thanks.

gillypkk

first of you need to send the "prove it" letter for them to prove he owes this money. i dont have the link to it just now but someone will be able to give you it or just search the forum.

also i would be inclined to check the credit ref agencies reports to see what is listed.

draven_girl

Yes we sent that letter in the first instance, and then got another standard letter from them to call them quite a while later, so he rang them this morning, and has asked for this so called 17 page summary.

Clive_Woody

I would avoid dealing with them by phone, get everything in writing. When you next write to them make it clear that you will only communicate with them by mail and not be telephone.

This debt may well be statue barred so look into that first.

Make the debt collection agency prove everything they claim.

draven_girl

How do we work out if its statue barred, I'm afraid I don't even know what that means.

draven_girl

Just looked that up cheers, although how do I find out if it is or not???

dtsazza

draven_girl wrote: »

Just looked that up cheers, although how do I find out if it is or not???

Erm, it's very simple according to the definition. If the debtor hasn't paid or acknowledged (e.g. by writing) the debt in six years, it's statue barred.

So you'll need to look at when your partner's last "interaction" with the credit card was (payment or communication with the lender about it), and see if it was more than six years ago.

Vortigern

I wouldn't normally pick up anybody on a simple spelling or typing error but I think it would help the OP to look for information on Statute Barred rather than Statue Barred

draven_girl

Unfortunately I don't think we have any paperwork at all for the card (my partner was rubbish at things like this before we got together four years ago) where might I be able to source something like this from???

richard734

Start at the begining, if your other half paid this off in 2003, it is well and trully Statute Barred.
If you find the standard 'Go away -this debt is statute barred' letter and send that in the first instance, 99% of teh time the DCA recognises that they are flogging a dead horse and send back an 'account closed' letter.
If they have any further evidence to argue against it being statute barred, they will respond with that.

Do not panic, do not try and think 5 steps ahead, there are a bunch of knowledgble people on this board, and they will all help you out at each step. They did with me in the beggining and with plenty of others both before and after.

Clive_Woody

Vortigern wrote: »

I wouldn't normally pick up anybody on a simple spelling or typing error but I think it would help the OP to look for information on Statute Barred rather than Statue Barred

Doh :doh:, thank goodness I have people checking my spelling as the poor OP might have been very confused.