Capital One + Cougar. Advice please.

GoinUnder

Firstly, Hello, Im totally new to all this (Both the forum, and realising its actually time to stop burying my head in the sand!) and so when I saw this website I thought Id join up for some help.

Im in Debt. Its not a stupidly huge ammount of debt, but with a fairly low salary job and a family it sometimes feels like it. Untill today Ive always opted for the 'ignorance is bliss' way of dealing with it. Never checking my bank account or balance, never opening any mail, and not even answering my phone. I now want to try and sort things. (Please bear in mind, I may need things in Lamans terms as, due to my ignorance, Im really not used to any money/debt related lingo.)

Amongst other debts, my credit card stood out as a good first thing to sort. I only have the one card. I thought paying that off would pontentially free up money/credit that could help me in the future should i need it.

Last time i checked I owed Capital One £800 on a card with a £1000 limit. I also know that in the last 5 months Ive missed some of my minimum payment direct debits and that I havnt used the card since about June. Going through my draw of unopened mail I found some letters from capital one. I held my breath and opened them.....

The letters were from Dec/Jan. I now owed them through charges/intrest etc just over £1000 and needed to phone them to resolve it.

When I rang, it turns out after just leaving things/ignoring it I have defaulted and my account is closed. (Good Ideas Club!!!) They have passed my account onto an agency called Cougar and I was given their number to ring (tried 3 times so far and no answer) I was also told it would be on credit status for 6 years and they cant 'reopen' defaulted accounts so as far as my credit rating goes its all bad and I have to start over again from scratch with a bad name.

After reading a few threads on here it seems this could be the start of a very bumpy ride dealing with scare mongering idiots.

I just want to know the best course of action, and although it seems all the 'paying back' power is in my court, and they will try scaring me etc, I dont want to make this any harder than it needs to be.

I just dont have a lot of money coming in, or any savings.

Any advice would be great. Thanks in advance.

camuk81

Ok things first. Have you got an address for Cougar. Ideally everything should be in writing and from a quick browse other people have struggled with them.

So start with a letter to them explaining you want to agree a set payment each month to pay off the debt

Have you thought about reclaiming the charges from capital one?

camuk81

Too true. My own experience is when I went to one once and it scared the bejuss out of me!

Fa is right. Once its passed it goes on your file though the date it goes on as finished will be down to paying or not paying.

I.e. if you default it will show default
If you pay it will show default and satisfied.

If they really want to be mean they may take you to court and you may end up with a CCJ, which register from the time of the court case.

give_them_FA

Not quite right, camuk, a court judgment is only registered if you have failed to pay it 28 days after it was made. But the point I am making is that in reality, debt collection agencies but rarely resort to court; they have to front up money to do it; so they don't do it "blind" if you don't reply to them, as the risk is that they might invest the money and get nothing back even if they get a default judgment. That has worked for me without fail. I am not saying they NEVER do court (although many firms never do it) but they will need to know they are not throwing good money after bad, if the debtor is dead/has moved/can't pay anything. So ignore works.

What our OP does is up to them. They can either go and negotiate something, or ignore and walk away, given that their credit file is shot anyway.

GoinUnder

Thank you both for the replys. Like you say, it does seem Im !!!!!!ed either way, just by paying it back Im !!!!!!ed, and minus a grand. That said.....

A few years ago (2007/2008) I borrowed £3000 from Nationwide. After paying back roughly £1500 properly, I defaulted on the repayments. After a couple of "DCA/ pay a bit/ default/ New DCA" cycles all while working a very poorly paid job, I couldnt pay what they wanted so decided to ignore everything (Im sure the last couple of payments I made were to some random "DCA" that was literally just some random bloke with a mobile phone. Or thats how it felt.) To cut a long story short, the last I heard was about a year ago at my last address and the DCA (at that time) said I owe them £2200. Ive since heard nothing.

Essentially these two things together are 95% of my debt. Call it £3400 total. (I did say its not a great deal) I just dont like the worry it all brings. I feel a bit like a theif, and its only my own stupidity really thats made things this way. All they want is what I borrowed. I just certainly cant pay it back in one, and cant afford too much a month if I was to repay.

I just think although ignoring everything is easier (and cheaper) its not right, and Ill always have that worry as well as never be able to borrow anything off anyone again. Especially now this cap 1 thing has just begun. I just wish there was an easy, affordable, clear cut way I could both pay what I owe and sort my credit rating without feeling like Im being bullied or harrased to pay my money back to some skinhead !!!!!.

What would you do? Who would you go to? Where should I start? Or would you just still ignore things? The thought of balliffs/court etc scares the crap out of me. I just want it resolved. (You all know so much more about this sort of thing than me its scary.)

Thank you though.

GoinUnder

BTW, I didnt "swear" in that post. Please dont think youl see me on Jeremy Kyle tommorow. Ha.

TakingControl

Aww my buddies Cougar Financial Services :rotfl:First off, do absolutely everything in writing with them and DO NOT sign your letters, only digically (in case you wanted to look at your CCA later on depending on the year your card was openened).

Be prepared for a bombardment of calls and texts and the threat of a door stop visit. Send them the telephone harrassment and you do not wish to make an appointment with their collector letter. Send everything registered.

They will send you a couple of letters about paying now and threat of legal actions, to stop them dead in there tracks, send a CCA request. Even if the account is enforcable, until they supplied this, they can't even try and get a CCJ. They ignored my request for 6 months, then threatened me with P2C visiting me (same company, different name) and when I wrote to them reminding about the outstanding CCA request they placed my account on hold. Funny enough I have been paying C1 during all this time direct. I have not heard from Cougar since November last year

Work out what you can afford to pay and speak to C1 direct to make payments and do it in writing.

Good luck

GoinUnder

Thanks for the replys. Just a couple of questions....

A) What does CCA stand for? And After your advice I wont, but why should I not sign any letters to anybody?

I will try talking to Cap1 and pay them direct. Id be happy to do that if they let me.

Also, what would be the best next step to try and eventually improve my credit score? Or am I basically scum for the next 6 years, end of?

Thanks again. Appreciate the help.

give_them_FA

A: CCA is Consumer Credit Agreement. It's the document you signed agreeing to pay back the money and is required to enforce the debt. If it's gone missing or is defective the debt can't be enforced.
B: The advice not to offer them a specimen of your signature stems from the fact that unscrupulous debt collectors have been known to resort to forging documents purportedly signed by you.

You could try talking to Cap 1 but if they sold the debt to Cougar then it isn't theirs to deal with any more. If they haven't they may be amenable to talk because it would save them paying Cougar a commission. Unless Cougar is a division of Cap 1- I don't know.

As for improving your credit score, I will leave that to others more informed than myself on that issue. I will say yours is at the moment a lot better than mine, though I have less time to hang on before the slate gets wiped.

Good luck.

nottoolate

not part of cap one. cougar also dont buy accounts. they just chase arrears for them.

GoinUnder

Cheers.

Il just see what Cap One say and at worst await a whole bundle of good news via my postman from 'Cougar'

I checked my Credit Report earlier too for the first time. I did the quick £2 effort. Its quite a strange eye opener seeing your finacial decline marked by more and more little red boxes over a period of time.