Moorcroft notice of intended litigation?

vicxzy

Can anyone help please?
I am on unpaid maternity leave & have arranged to pay creditors £1 per month for about the past year.
I found out a couple of days ago that all my £1 payments were being paid apart from one to Halifax credit card which for some reason Natwest failed have to set up incorrectly.
I rang Halifax to try & pay over the phone but they refused to speak to me & said it was 'Out of their hands'
Today I have received a letter from Moorcroft debt recovery LTD saying that if I do not pay almost £2000 immedietly they will take me to court (I only owed £700 in the first place!)

Any ideas on what I should do please?

Thank you in advance.

HappyMJ

The words "will" and "may" mean a huge amount in those letters. They "will" recommend to the client that the case goes to court. That does not mean they "will" take you to court only that they "will" recommend that course of action.

Moorcroft will not take you to court only the Halifax may and for £700 and you only paying £1 per month they may just leave the default on your credit record and leave it at that.

vax2002

If the debt is £700 then moorcroft would have great difficulty in explaining the £1300 and this could be defended as it constituting a penalty, they are only allowed to charge reasonable expenses £1300 for one letter would take some serious explanation.

If you have any details of the Halifax card, write a cheque for the balance to that account number.
If they are stupid enough to reject the payment they would loose the court case if you defended that they were suing for what they had refused.

vicxzy

HappyMJ wrote: »

The words "will" and "may" mean a huge amount in those letters. They "will" recommend to the client that the case goes to court. That does not mean they "will" take you to court only that they "will" recommend that course of action.

Moorcroft will not take you to court only the Halifax may and for £700 and you only paying £1 per month they may just leave the default on your credit record and leave it at that.

Thanks Happy do you think I should just carry on as I am then?.

vicxzy

vax2002 wrote: »

If the debt is £700 then moorcroft would have great difficulty in explaining the £1300 and this could be defended as it constituting a penalty, they are only allowed to charge reasonable expenses £1300 for one letter would take some serious explanation.

If you have any details of the Halifax card, write a cheque for the balance to that account number.
If they are stupid enough to reject the payment they would loose the court case if you defended that they were suing for what they had refused.

Thanks Vax the letter isnt clear but I think they are saying the 1300 has been added on for charges & interest over the past months where I thought I was paying £1 per month.
Also when you say write a cheque for the balance do you just mean the £12 in missed £1 token payments or the full balance? Obv I cant afford to pay the full balance?

fermi

You need to get a breakdown of the charges and interest that have been added. You have a right to ask for that.

See: Getting information about your credit agreement

In particular ref a breakdown of the account.

Paying the £12 is not going to make any court claim fail, but if all you can afford is token payments then Halifax or Moroncroft would probably be foolish to push for court action. Not because they would lose, but because even the court can't make you pay what you don't have.

I would also check with Halifax to see whether the account has been sold to MC, or if they are just collecting on their behalf.

chanz4

A lot of companys are not doing it to get increased payments, a lot are doing it to get ccjs preventing it from going sb for a while. Companys are catching on, also if halifax instruct the dca to act on their behalf they can apply to the courts

fermi

chanz4 wrote: »

A lot of companys are not doing it to get increased payments, a lot are doing it to get ccjs preventing it from going sb for a while. Companys are catching on, also if halifax instruct the dca to act on their behalf they can apply to the courts

You do post some pure tripe sometimes. :rotfl:

This debt would be 5 years off being SB at the best.

Moorecroft are very unlikely to go to court off their own back, and normally they only take on debts under an equitable assignment. Meaning that they can't start legal action on their own volition. Examples of them taking legal action are very few and far between anyway.

vicxzy

Thanks but sorry whats SB?

fermi

vicxzy wrote: »

Thanks but sorry whats SB?

Statute barred. i.e. when you have not paid or acknowledged a debt in over 6 years, then the creditor is barred from taking legal action.

Utterly irrelevant here, as presumably you were paying until a few years ago, and your offers of £1 a year ago would acknowledge the debt.

fermi

The "intended litigation" letter has long been Moorcrofts opening gambit when passed a debt, and the fraction of cases where they have gone ahead with it are mind bogglingly minuscule.

A typical "threatogram" from them.