Cahoot

yellowlawn

On 28/04 we received a letter from Cahoot bank to a previous address we lived at saying we owed them money and they would issue a default within 28 days of the situation wasn't resolved. We sent a letter by recorded mail in reply saying we haven't banked with them for 7.5 years, had no correspondence or statements since then. A few days later they sent another letter stating that they would be issuing recovery instruction for monies owed. We rang them up but as we were unable to remember account security so they wouldn't speak to us. We spoke to customer services (getting names, times and dates) who agreed to send out forms to reset account security.

We received the forms and duly sent them back and have heard nothing. On 14th Feb we wrote to the MD of Cahoot again by recorded post and to date have had no reply. I understand it may be statute barred, but I need to remove this default notice. I contacted Credit Expert who advised me to write to the ICO? Why?

I have no knowledge of ever using this account.

Anyone dealt with this before? Were do we stand?

fermi

Does a default show on your Experian/CreditExpert report then? If so, what is the "default date"?

yellowlawn

Yes it does. It was on in July 2011.

fermi

OK. You need to dispute that default.

Even if it did happen to be your debt, then as you say it would be statute barred by now.

Equally importantly, they shouldn't have added a default in 2011.

It is either:

- completely false if this isn't your debt.

or

- or grossly inaccurate, as it should have been recorded 7+ years ago if the debt on the account was valid.

Whichever way you cut it, Cahoot have breached the data Protection Act by recording that in 2011.

Now in terms of what to do about it, Experian are sort of correct. But they are jumping the gun a bit.

First you write to Cahoot and dispute the debt and default making the following points.

- You have no knowledge of this debt, and so far Cahoot have refused reasonable requests from you for them to provide details of it.
- You have had no dealings with cahoot for xx years.
- On the details they have provided, even if the debt was valid (which you dispute) the debt would be statute barred.
- The recent default they have registered on your file is in breach of the Date Protection Act as it is inaccurate. It is inaccurate because (a) you dispute that any such debt/default occurred, and (b) the default date of 2011 would not in any case be accurate based on the account history Cahoot claims.

- You require that they remove the false default information immediately.
- That if they do not you will be making a formal complaint regarding breaches of the Data Protection Act by Cahoot to the ICO.
- That you require a final response from Cahoot that you can take on to a formal complaint with the FOS.
- That as recording a false default is an act of defamation, you will consider other formal action for reparations.


If the above doesn’t; get them to back off and remove the default, THEN you do as Experian advised and complain via the ICO/FOS.

That can be a drawn out process, which is why it's best to give Cahoot one last chance to sort their act out first.

yellowlawn

Okay previously I have written to both Customer Services and the Managing Director of Cahoot by Recorded Post. And to date have had no reply.

Incidentally I have emailed customer service today and had a read receipt back.

taffy056

Don't email or phone, put fermi's points in writing via recorded delivery as mentioned above, you need to give them a certain amount of time to respond, 28 days is the norm. If they don't respond you take it to FOS and ICO.

fermi

Yep. I gathered you had complained previously.

However, it's important to do so making the points in my previous post. As said by taffy, giving them a time limit to sort things.

So if you didn't cover those in previous complaint letters/email, then you need to do so again.

The reason is that if you do need to take things further to the ICO etc, they will need to see that you have raised all the relevant points of dispute and given the company opportunity to put things right themselves. If you don't have that, then ICO will usually refuse to look at your case until you have.

Experian_company_representative

You usually need to have followed the company's official complaints procedure (which, if you ask, they should send to you) and have received a 'final response' letter before referring the matter to FOS.

James Jones

yellowlawn

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

You usually need to have followed the company's official complaints procedure (which, if you ask, they should send to you) and have received a 'final response' letter before referring the matter to FOS.

James Jones

James,

I have been liaising with your colleague: Mrs Catherine M Procter who advised to contact the ICO.

yellowlawn

Email from Cahoot (finally)


Dear XXXX,

Thank you for contacting cahoot in Coventry.

I have requested a list of transactions to investigate this further.

I would only be able to send these to a registered address or if you could pass security I could then send them to an address you then specified.

If this is a cahoot error, I should be able to resolve it quite quickly.

I will contact you as soon as I hear anything back from the department I requested the list of transactions from.

If you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind Regards,

Michael Brown
cahoot

yellowlawn

fermi,

Should I respond with your points to this?