Mobile phone debt and Moorcroft

Carer

Hi
would love some advice from you knowledgable people on here.
Daughter got in a mess with her mobile contract due to losing her job and moving to another country. She did try to continue the payments and paid several installments but was then unable to continue.
She phoned and asked for a reduced payment as she was unemployed and they verbally agreed for her to pay £5 per week. She started paying this and then received a letter telling her it was not acceptable and she had to pay the contract in full as she had defaulted. At this point she stupidly stopped paying altogether.

Some months later she got a threatening letter from Moorcroft saying they were acting for the mobile company (mobile company was their client). She rang mobile company and they said they had no record of her as her phone number was not active and they wouldn't help her.
Moorcroft continued to send letters and were abusive on the phone when she rang them to query their involvement.

She has never been notified by the phone company that Moorcroft were taking over, so for all we know, they could be scam company and any money she pays to them wouldn't come off the debt.

So to my question (thanks for reading if you got this far):
She is now living back in this country with a good job and would like to clear the debt. She is very reluctant to contact Moorcroft (for reasons stated above) and mobile company won't talk to her about the account. She would like to pay the debt by standing order to protect her account and does not want Moorcroft to know her new address as the other occupants there would not be happy if bailiffs turned up.
So....how does she pay this debt?

gizmo111

Baliffs are not going to turn up - the debt has to go to court first.
COntact Moorcroft for details and check the balance is correct and them make an arrangement to pay as you have said by SO.

Leon_Telford

"abusive on the phone"

What did they say?

Tixy

Are moorcroft still sending letters to chase the debt to her old address (is that your address?). If not when was the last one she received?
It could be that the debt has now been sold on to a debt collector (not necessarily them).

As said bailiffs won't turn up unless she has a CCJ for this debt - they'd have had to send court papers out. She could check for a CCJ if she in unsure. Either by getting a copy of her credit report (although that will link new address with her old address and debts) or by searching the registery trust online, which costs £8 but is anonymous - anyone can search it and it won't cause a link to her new address).

If moorcroft are still writing then dont call them but start by sending the prove it letter - which gets them to prove she owes the money and to prove they have a right to collect the debt.

Carer

Tixy wrote: »

Are moorcroft still sending letters to chase the debt to her old address (is that your address?). If not when was the last one she received?

Last contact was a phone call to her old address about 4 weeks ago. Person living there did not give them any details of her new address



If moorcroft are still writing then dont call them but start by sending the prove it letter - which gets them to prove she owes the money and to prove they have a right to collect the debt.

By sending the prove it letter, she would be giving out her new address which is not an option. This is the dilemma we have - how do we confirm Moorcroft is authorised to collect the debt when Orange won't talk to her at all? She really wants to clear this and move on. Why on earth didn't Orange send her a letter about Moorcroft, surely if they are legit then Orange should at least inform their customers that someone else is authorised to deal with it?
We have googled Moorcroft and apparently they do not accept standing order payments, and she refuses to do a direct debit or card payment as they can then take any amount they like and she will have to fight them to get it back.

nottoolate

moorcroft will take a standing order eventually. even if they swear black and blue they wont.

clueless86

I had a direct debt with Moorecroft from T-mobile a couple of years ago. They didnt take the wrong amount at all (18month was the agreed timescale). Ive had quite a few dealings with these companies and they certainly wernt the worst.

If you want to pay then you will have to deal with them. Although I think if i remember there is a payment part on their website all you need is your ref number which should be on the letter. Im not sure if that is still the case now.

I also had the problem that T-mobile wouldnt talk to me about the account. As far as they are concerned you dont owe them anymore. Moorecroft have more than likey bought the debt and you now owe it to them. Check the small print in the contract your daughter signed, it will more than likely say that they can sell you debt onto a third person/company.

Moorecroft are not Bailiffs so they cannot enter your property etc. As stated it would have to go to court etc first.

Hope this helps

Tixy

Carer wrote: »

By sending the prove it letter, she would be giving out her new address which is not an option. This is the dilemma we have - how do we confirm Moorcroft is authorised to collect the debt when Orange won't talk to her at all? She really wants to clear this and move on. Why on earth didn't Orange send her a letter about Moorcroft, surely if they are legit then Orange should at least inform their customers that someone else is authorised to deal with it?
We have googled Moorcroft and apparently they do not accept standing order payments, and she refuses to do a direct debit or card payment as they can then take any amount they like and she will have to fight them to get it back.

If orange won't discuss anything by phone then her only option would be to write to orange to ask them to confirm the situation with the account, whether they still own it and she can pay direct to them, or to ask them to confirm that moorcorft are acting in their behalf. And if she writes to them then they will pass on her address to the debt collector.

I don't see how she can resolve this without a) providing an address or b) simply calling moorcroft and agreeing to pay without getting verification from them first.

Why can she not provide her new address for them to write to? she could include in the letter that she does not consent to doorstop collection visits and so they could not visit. And if there is no CCJ then no bailiffs will turn up.

Carer

Tixy wrote: »

Why can she not provide her new address for them to write to? she could include in the letter that she does not consent to doorstop collection visits and so they could not visit. And if there is no CCJ then no bailiffs will turn up.

Because it's the registered office of our fledgling business and we are in current negotiations for some work from some fairly big organisations. I know that debt is (in theory) no longer attached to the address, but I am not willing to take a chance that her stupidity could have an adverse effect on all of our futures.

I am quite willing to clear the whole debt myself (and let her pay me instead) if I could be sure that by paying Moorcroft that would end it, but without any correspondence from Orange I am reluctant to even engage with Moorcroft.

Tixy

Maybe she could see if she can get anything out of orange by email.
They may just ignore her or come back with the same 'no information' line, or maybe they'll be able to confirm it was either sold to moorcroft or passed to them for collection on x date.
It could be worth a shot.

Though chances are they could well eventually track her to her current address at some point.

clueless86

Just aquick note to this. If you do pay them, they dont send out a letter to say the account has been settled. I had to call up to ask for one.