Problems With Lowell Financial (Help needed)

KerryAnne96

Hello
I'm seething!:mad:

The problem we have is LOWELL FINANCIAL

My husband and myself recently became redundant and fell behind with the credit repayments.
(my husband is now back in full time work and i have just set up my own business.)

We called the above people to arrange a repayment plan and couldn't believe the the abuse we received from the agent on the other end of the phone!
The man on the other end of the phone was unbelievable!! (read on)

We gave him the details of money in, outgoings, How much the household needed to live on for a month.
And told them at this point we were only willing to communicate via email.
The only phone number we gave them was a recently cancelled mobile as i had heard of them plaguing people all day & night with calls.
After what seemed like 2 minutes came back with a repayment plan for £150 a month!!! :eek:
I replied excused me i don't think so!!
As we have 6 other creditors to pay!
I managed to get it down to £30 witch we still couldn't afford! So i said firmly NO! We can only offer you £10 a month take it or leave it!
That's when he became more aggressive, obnoxious and sarcastic!
In the end i had heard enough and hung the phone up on him! But not before i heard him say "FINE THEN!" i'm just going to mark this account as failure to want to pay!!
(Witch was totally untrue!!)
And you will both get a black mark against your credit files for 6yrs!!

Since then they have plagued us with threatening letters from pay now or else , to we are now preparing your account for further court proceedings!
We have tried to arrange payments over the phone many times but each time they get aggressive, wont listen and keep repeating like a broken record "WE WANT THIS £??? DEBT PAYED WITHIN 12 MONTHS!
Witch i have told them time and time again is simply not going to happen in this life time!

I'm so frustrated, like i'm banging my head against a brick wall!! at the simple fact they WILL just not listen to what we can afford to repay them each month!

Yesterday the phone calls started to my husbands mobile,
(witch we did NOT give them the number too!!)

Thankfully i answered it, i went to town on them! i demanded to know how they had gotten the number, they tried to give me some waffle about us giving it to them but i shouted at them "NO WE DIDNT!!" (As its my 12yr old son`s mobile.)
And "how dare they go by back handed means to get it! For your information yes the phone is registered to my husband at this address but the phone belongs to our 12yr old son!!"
"So are you aware that its illegal to harass a minor!!??
I bet you are!
SO DONT EVER CALL THIS PHONE AGAIN!"

I also said to them "You are going to regret doing that very soon!
As you have now stalled any communication/payment between us due to your dirty under handed tricks! I hope your happy!
As until i get a written apology from you this account is going no further!
And i WILL be reporting you to the OFT and Trading Standards!!
Maybe even the media!"

I'm just hoping they do not find my husband`s or my work number and start ringing them!

Sorry for the long winded story.
If anyone could offer me any advise on what to do with them i would be very grateful.

Many thanks.
Kerry-Anne

brettcooper1

Hi Kerry-Anne,
Sorry to hear you're having troubles, hope the rant helped at least clear your head if nothing else!
You need to send them a letter stating that you are no longer prepared to discuss things face-to-face or by telephone and you want everything from them in writing. If they continue to ring then report them to the police for harrassment and the OFT.
As for them demanding payment within 12 months... well as you said it's impossible. My opinion, your best bet is to stand your ground and watch as eventually they agree to your offer rather than expecting you to agree to their demands.
Having dealt with similar companies in the past (Direct Collections anybody?!) I know how frustrating it is. It's as if they expect you to just nip to the bottom of the garden and grab the payments from your money tree. I ended up losing my rag (much to my eternal shame) and bellowing "IF I WAS IN A POSITION TO PAY THIS OFF IN FULL TODAY THEY DON'T YOU THINK I F*****G WOULD?! I WANT TO SEE THE BACK OF THIS AS MUCH AS YOU DO" Whilst the delivery was coarse i stand by the sentiment!

Mrs_Ryan

Sorted it for you will have them quaking in their boots by the time I'm done *evil laugh*

Know what u mean Brett. I had the same discussion with HFO when I told them I missed a £35 payment as I was on long term sick and had very little money - they told me they could clear it for like £700 so I snapped 'If I havent got £35 how the hell do you expect me to have £700?!'

give_them_FA

Why are you talking to these IDIOTS? Why does anyone ever talk to these IDIOTS?

NEVER phone a debt collector, this is the standard way they treat you!

Here's how I dealt with LOWELL:

(Phone rang)

Hello, is that (Give them FA)?

Who's speaking?

John from Lowells.

Sorry I think you have a wrong number, there's no one called that (G.T.F.A.) here'

END OF CONVO, END OF THEIR PHONE CALLS. Now you try that instead of getting all worked up over this shower of you know what!

Gordon_Hose

Yep, as you have found out, it's unwise to speak to a DCA on the phone. If they call again tell them you will only correspond in writing (that way they can't lie and you have everything they say in writing), and put the phone down. Say NOTHING else.

The phone is the favourite of the DCA because it means they can bully and threaten you with no comeback whatsoever. You'll see a marked change in their tone via letter, purely because they won't say anything incriminating.

Also, they have not right to see your income and expenditure. Only a court can force you to provide this information.

What was the debt for?

fermi

Do it all via letter. No phone conversations. Or if you do get caught on the phone, tell them that you are recording them.

Follow through and report them to the authorities if/when you can.

Write to them telling them what you will be paying and when. If they don't like it, then tough.

How big is this debt? Presumably some £1,000s if they wanted £150 per month over 3 years? Do you own a house with equity in it?

KerryAnne96

Hello again.
Thanks everyone for your advice.
Iv sent them a nasty email and its now over a week and still heard nothing.
They have stopped calling the phone i never gave them the number to but still are plaguing the number we gave with threatening text messages and nuisance calls.

Debt is with Home Shopping Direct/Great Universal witch now comes under the umbrella of Isme ect.
Most people will probably say these amounts are not much, but i beg to differ when you have little money left to play with.
Debt owing is only £715.91p

And this morning i have received another letter from Lowell for another Home Shopping Direct account this time, Kays Cat.
Witch also seems to have been passed over to them without my prior knowledge!!
(Thanks Home Shopping Direct)
This one is demanding £561.60p to be payed with in twelve months at £100!!

KerryAnne96

Ps, I am council tenant.

National_Debtline

Hello KerryAnne96.

As others have stated you should always communicate in writing if they are not going to be reasonable via the telephone. You can actually write to them removing their permission to contact you by the telephone full stop. State that you're happy to communicate in writing only and that if they continue to try and contact via the telephone their behaviour contact constitute harassment. Do consider completing a a financial statement and making them an affordable offer. it can sometimes take a few attempts to consider a reasonable offer. You may also wish to request a copy of their complaints procedure.

We've a really good fact sheet on harassment, you can find it here:
http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=03_harassment

Hope you get the situation sorted!

Best wishes,

National Debtline.

womble_lancs

I'm sorry to read of your difficulties, KerryAnne. I had terrible trouble with Lowell a few years ago, and they were awful to deal with.

I was the victim of identity theft; someone had used my name and old address (which I'd left 6 years earlier) to get mobile phone contracts, which they then didn't pay for, and Lowell was the company which acted as a debt collector for the mobile phone company.

The very first letter I received from them (at my new address) read something along the lines of "you have ignored all of our previous correspondence and telephone calls". I rang them to ask what on earth it was about and the man who answered the phone was incredibly rude and unhelpful. He gave me another number to ring, which was never, ever answered. When I rang him back to tell him this, he said that they only worked from noon until two (or something like that). When I asked why he didn't tell me that in the first place, he just hung up.

I contacted the mobile phone company directly, and their fraud department was wonderful. They wrote to Lowell to tell them to stop hounding me (and copied me in on the letter), but Lowell kept on harassing me until I threatened them with legal action. It took about nine months to get rid of them. However, during that time, the mobile phone company was really helpful, and kept me informed of what was going on.

As others have said, deal with Lowell only in writing, because anything said in a phone call can be denied, or twisted. Good luck!

KerryAnne96

Hello everyone.
Thanks again for the advise.
Since i last posted Lowell have been sorted.
Four accounts are getting a £1 a month. They dont like it! But i dont give a dam!! lol

womble _lancs, They are a bunch of (insert your own insult here!) lol
I will only talk to them via letters or email now.