Old Debt Help

ConfusedGeordie

Hi all,

I'm hoping for some decent advice here.

I've recently had a letter come through from HFO Services saying that I owe them about £1,300 for a Barclaycard account.

I did have the Barclaycard account with a limit of £500 at university and forgot all about it.

I don't dispute that I owe some money, however, I do begrudge paying £1,300 to this company. Especially since I signed up to the Barclaycard outside a pub during the 2004 World Cup... Obviously they didn't make me spend any money on it.

They're saying that they're going to take me to court, so I was going to just pay a discounted amount of £1,000 that they've offered me.

However, after some searching online I've come across some sites suggesting that if a debt is over 6 years old then there is no way that these guys can take me to court. The last payment I made was the 5th of August 2005.

These guys are saying that they've been trying to contact me for 3 years, but I haven't moved around a lot in that time.

I've checked my credit report and it is rated as excellent (I'm a bit more responsible these days).

If I need to pay this I can, but I just wanted to see if anyone had any experience with this.

All help greatly appreciated!

pure_dead_dopey

You need to send a "prove it letter", to ascertain if the the debt is yours and current, even if it is yours it could well be statute barred so you need to be careful here. Do it all in writing, so that you have a paper trail.

ConfusedGeordie

It's definitely mine...

What's the best way to go about finding out if it's statute barred?

The last payment was over 6 years ago, but the debt didn't default until some time after that.

erdd2

It is not the date of payment that is important, it is the date of request for payment.

NB The 6 year rule is 5 years in Scotland

Mrs_Arcanum

There is a standard letter which you could send. I did this for a bill I received a few days before the 6 years were up (I had only moved once).

Important that you do not sign this letter just type your name at the end.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/content.php?408-Letter-sent-when-debt-is-statute-barred

NorthernLas

I cannot access the link provided by Mrs A since I am not a member of the consumer action group. I would suggest that you use letters from the samples provided by national debtline http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/debt_advice.php#6

There are 2 that should help
1. Dispute your liability where the creditor has not contacted you in over six years
2. To complain to the debt agencies where they are pursuing you when you do not owe a debt

I know you have said that the debt is yours, however letter 2 is useful because you make the company prove that you owe them the money. This is important as you have not heard from them for some time, so the likelyhood is that the original company have sold the debt on for much less than you owe. If you are certain you have not paid send the statute barred letter, if not send letter 2. If nothing else it will delay things while they find appropriate evidence.

fermi

erdd2 wrote: »

It is not the date of payment that is important, it is the date of request for payment.

The relevant date is usually the last time that the debtor either made a payment or acknowledged the debt themselves in writing.

fermi

NorthernLas wrote: »

I cannot access the link provided by Mrs A since I am not a member of the consumer action group. I would suggest that you use letters from the samples provided by national debtline http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/debt_advice.php#6

There are 2 that should help
1. Dispute your liability where the creditor has not contacted you in over six years
2. To complain to the debt agencies where they are pursuing you when you do not owe a debt

There is a letter in this link that combines the essential elements of those two.

Letter ---> http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=34906257&postcount=5

The thread itself contains further info and links --> https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2606811

ConfusedGeordie

Thanks everyone for your help, most useful...

It looks as though they've waited until over the 6 years to get in contact, which suggests to me that Barclaycard sold it off after the 6 years.

fermi

I would beware, as this my not be statute barred quite yet.

The very first time the 6 years starts running is arguably from the point that you MISSED your payments for the first time.

(Different from what you then have to do to reset the 6 years again later.)

For a credit card account that would be one month after the last payment that you did make.

So statute barred on 5th September 2011.

It's a debatable point though. If in doubt, give National Debtline a call.

HFO always say they will be going to court in something like 72 hours. They rarely if never do, so don't be panicked into making a response right now if your are not sure.

And HFO will normally fib and try to tell you that the 6 years started only when Barclays defaulted the account. That is nonsense. Plausible nonsense if you don't know better, but still nonsense.