Lowell Demanding 3 Thousand from Me, help!

Tixy

FusionFury wrote: »

I rang them up and asked for proof.

They said they will freeze it until then.

What's the next step now?

Also can someone answer me what the minimum payment is that a debt company would accept for someone on benefits and income support?

Next step is to wait to see if they provide any proof - or if they don't send proof and write again then send the prove it letter. Don't phone them again do everything in writing.

FusionFury wrote: »

Thanks so the rules say they HAVE to accept £1 a month? do you have a link for that? as it would greatly help me

The rules don't say that they have to accept £1 a month. But the guidelines do say they shouldn't pressure you to increase your repayments to an unreasonable level that you cannot afford.

You should only offer what you can afford and thats unlikely to be much more than £1 a month on benefits.
But your creditors could still decide to take court action against you to try to obtain CCJs. If they do this you would need to ask to pay in installments and the court should hopefully order payments only at this level that you can afford.

Tixy

OFT debt collection guidelines 2.6 f

Examples of unfair practices are as follows: pressurising debtors to pay in full, in unreasonably large instalments, or to increase payments when they are unable to do so

See full list here - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2992820

DVardysShadow

FusionFury wrote: »

Thanks so the rules say they HAVE to accept £1 a month? do you have a link for that? as it would greatly help me

If you don't owe anything, don't pay them anything. Nothing you have said here indicates that you have a debt for which you should pay. If you do pay them and don't owe, you can be sure they will find other debts they want to pin on you.

chesky369

Don't get confused between YOUR debts and THIS debt. At the moment, we're talking about this debt which you say is not yours. Do not acknowledge it or admit to it in any way. Do not offer them one penny. And certainly do not speak to them on the telephone again or they may talk you into something you don't want.

FusionFury

Tixy wrote: »

OFT debt collection guidelines 2.6 f

Examples of unfair practices are as follows: pressurising debtors to pay in full, in unreasonably large instalments, or to increase payments when they are unable to do so

See full list here - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2992820

So they don't have to offer the payment that I offer to them? or do most accept it because atleast you are willing to pay something?

DVardysShadow

FusionFury wrote: »

So they don't have to offer the payment that I offer to them? or do most accept it because atleast you are willing to pay something?

Why would you offer them anything?

Tixy

FusionFury wrote: »

So they don't have to offer the payment that I offer to them? or do most accept it because atleast you are willing to pay something?

A creditor/debt collector you owe money to don't have to accept that you only pay them that amount - ie they will accept the payment from you, as something is better than nothing and keeps the debt live.

But they could still decide that they want to start court proceedings for a court to decide how much you can afford.

Its impossible to say how likely it is that any individual creditor will actually take court action, depends on the DCA, the paperwork for the debt, the amount you owe, whether they believe you are offering all you can afford, whether they think you have assets etc, etc.

RobertoMoir

FusionFury wrote: »

So they don't have to offer the payment that I offer to them? or do most accept it because atleast you are willing to pay something?

Please remember you have two possible problems here, as far as I can tell from reading your posts anyway.

1) Is this debt yours

and

2) If it is yours, then how to pay it off

Right now you seem to be stuck on solving the second problem but you need to solve the first problem before worrying about the second one.

Don't worry about how to pay for this debt yet, worry about finding out whether or not it is actually yours. Send the 'prove it' letter as others have already suggested. Don't phone them to discuss the debt.

FTW

chesky369 wrote: »

Don't get confused between YOUR debts and THIS debt. At the moment, we're talking about this debt which you say is not yours. Do not acknowledge it or admit to it in any way. Do not offer them one penny. And certainly do not speak to them on the telephone again or they may talk you into something you don't want.

I'd firmly agree with that.

If you do some online searching for this company, you'll find that Lowell are notorious for this kind of thing.

jeff_jared

I have a friend in a similar situation and I did some reading on lowell for her. Perhaps this link will help you: bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/01/the_chase_for_debts_not_always.html

They have a template on the page which you could use.
Don't negotiate with them on the phone and don't acknowledge it in the first place. If you indeed owe this debt, they should have records about it, which in most cases they will not have.