parking fine, shall I pay or ignore?

hayley_r

I have recieved a parking fine through excel parking about 3-4 weeks ago now, I didnt pay as I read online that its unenforcable.
I have now recieved a letter listed above, 'notice to the owner' asking me to pay £100 or it may go to court.

Im now scared of them gettin debt collectors and it affecting my debt record and credit ratings. I live with parents and dont want them collecting stuff from the house as its not mine for them to take.

Please will someone adise me what to do, is it best to pay? ignore or reply?
Thanks

trisontana

You must understand the difference between debt collectors and bailiffs. The former are just powerless individuals who have no special powers. They cannot enter your property, they cannot seize goods and they cannot blacken your credit record. Bailiffs only come on the scene in the very unlikely event that it goes to court. In your case this won't happen. So keep ignoring these clowns and don't respond to their stupid threatening letters.

Coupon-mad

hayley_r wrote: »

I have recieved a parking fine through excel parking about 3-4 weeks ago now, I didnt pay as I read online that its unenforcable.
I have now recieved a letter listed above, 'notice to the owner' asking me to pay £100 or it may go to court.

Im now scared of them gettin debt collectors and it affecting my debt record and credit ratings. I live with parents and dont want them collecting stuff from the house as its not mine for them to take.

Please will someone adise me what to do, is it best to pay? ignore or reply?
Thanks

But the debt collector letters are part of the scam - and IMHO it's your 'duty'(!) to educate your parents about this con so they never pay one themselves - lots of people get fake PCNs, your parents could get one just from shopping at a supermarket and you would want them to know not to pay it wouldn't you!

Read the sticky threads (permanent info threads at the top of the current thread list on this parking sub-forum). And then read any other thread on the first page that takes your fancy, except threads about REAL parking tickets from Councils:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...play.php?f=163

You will soon be confident that you must just ignore the bogus PCN as it's a scam, it's NOT a fine. Make sure you watch the Watchdog link and check out the preview pics of the 'scary debt collector letter-chain' that you can look forward to filing in your drawer marked 'ignore, scam'.

I promise you that when you show your parents this thread and the Watchdog clip and then the preview thread with 'your' letter-chain in pics, they will also understand that this is a scam. It cannot affect your credit rating nor theirs, only defaults on credit agreements/proper debts can do that (or if a company goes to Court and wins and you don't pay, then you can get a CCJ). But that will NOT happen here as Excel do not try Court any more, they only tried a few times and lost - because this isn't a valid debt.

ALWAYS simply ignore any private parking ticket. Only ever take seriously a ticket from the Police, TFL or a Council. If your parents do not agree with our view - after watching Watchdog and playing snap with the letters as they arrive and match our preview thread at the top - then please ask them to post their own concerns here. But debt collector and 'let's pretend we are a firm of solicitors' (debt collector again!) letter-headings are part of this whole mail scam.

Jle756

Echoing the posts above, continue to ignore. Companies such as PPC's thrive on the ignorance of the public. In the series of letters they send, they are fully aware that the words "court" and "debt-collection" will sufficiently intimidate some people into paying up.

Most of the public are ignorant about the distinction between "debt collection" and "bailiffs", as trisontana explained above, and such ignorance is wantonly USED by them as a tool in their arsenal. So take the advice, and please continue to ignore their desperate pleas for money. And I’d emphasise Coupon-Mad’s advice that we should all be informing as many people as possible about the scam. It seems that many of the big-name companies that hire these unscrupulous criminals to “manage” their car parks are in on the act, and frankly, don’t give a rat’s behind about the extent to which they hound their customers for money (that they have no authority to charge for, anyway). So the only way to even possibly put these companies out of business is to spread the word... as more and more people become wise, the amount of money PPC’s make from innocent victims will decrease and we might, just might, get rid of this blight on society.

I've made it a personal mission to tell EVERYONE I can think of to boycott a car park recently taken over ParkingEye. Or if not to boycott the car park, for convenience, say, then to make sure that they are aware that any charges they will inevitably receive, should they park there, are ILLEGAL and to be IGNORED! I hate these f******. :rotfl:

RENEGADE_2

NOTICE TO OWNER?

Wrong. Registered keeper is more precise.

Hayley, you haven't communicated with anyone so nobody knows you drove. You have no obligation to communicate with private companies and there is no debt according to law until it has been proven in court, and believe me, this won't happen.

Grin and bare these debt collector letters, they are as phony as the original document.

trisontana

"Notice To Owner", yet another instance of a PPC trying to mimic a council parking ticket. That could be illegal.

peter_the_piper

trisontana wrote: »

"Notice To Owner", yet another instance of a PPC trying to mimic a council parking ticket. That could be illegal.

I can't see trading standards etc ever doing anything about this. The vat man did not do anything about the ppc using Barclays vat number so what hope do we have.

unlocated

Hello all!

Any updates about this story?
I've just got the fine today cause I left the car over the time allowed - but I don't think I caused a £40 damage to any of the retailers on site!

Any suggestions about what to do? (apart from ignoring any communications from them) e.g. taking pics of the car park signs, the fact the car park is empty throughout the day so there's actually no silly damage during weekdays mornings!

Best,
Unlocated

trisontana

As you should know by now this is not a "FINE". So just ignore.

We don't have to know any "updates", as we all know how it will end - the parking company getting the message that the motorist won't play ball and fall for their con, so they will move on to somebody else.

hayley_r

Hi all,

Thanks for your replys I didnt reply to any of the letters and got sent a few more since this thread but today i got a text message on my phone which says ' URGENT - (my full name!! (sacry)) please call Roxburghe on 01932332016, quoting ref number ********. this is not a sales messge' i rang this number as i didnt know what it was and it turns out excel have passed it onto them who are debt collectors, im so sacred, i wasnt given anything away when they said it was regarding this, i said i dodnt know what they was talking about and i have moved address 'which i have' they even knew my new address!!! i denied this was my address and said i wasnt discloing my personal information they was then saying they are solicitors and can act on this he then asked me to hold the line whist he spoke with credit control which i then hang up!! i didnt know what to do!! HELP ME PLEASE, im so panicking!!

vax2002

Go buy a dictionary look up the word IGNORE.
You appear to be having a lot of trouble understanding the advice given which is to ignore them, they are scammers and you have just spoken to a spotty teenager who is impersonating authority.
Now there is only so many times someone will help you if you IGNORE the advice given.
You are having no difficulty IGNORING the people advising you yet you are playing ball with scammers.
Dont be surprised if people loose patience with you.
We can lead your horse to water, but we can not make it drink.

IGNORE