Provident Personal Credit Visit Threat ref Lowell Debt

fluffykittens

Hi all

I have received a letter today from Provident and I am somewhat confused, the letter reads like this:

"Lowell Portfolio Ltd assigned Provident Personal Credit Ltd the legal rights to your outstanding debt of £370.00. This means a friendly local agent will call at your home to discuss your weekly repayments with you.

We understand there may be reasons why you have been unable to make repayments with Lowell Portfolio Ltd in the past, if you sign a new agreement with us you will repay less than you currently owe, spread over a term which is more manageable for you with repayments collected weekly by an agent.

It is simple with your new repayment plan. Your oustanding debt will be settled and you will start a new 0% credit agreement"

I assume they are going to turn up, can I ask for proof of the debt as I am genuinley unsure what Lowell are suggesting I owe.

If I am honest I am not even sure I have had any correspondence from Lowell. If I tell them to sling their hook what will they do next? will they give it back to Lowell who will contact me in due course? or will they keep coming round to my house?

Thanks Guys

taffy056

Do you owe them money, if so how much do you believe you owe ? How old is this debt ? And you don't have to accept an appointment from them. And don't sign any agreement with them, as that could be a new credit agreement .

fermi

As said, do not under any circumstances sign a new agreement with them.

Provident seem to try this dodgy tactic on old and unenforceable debts to try to circumvent those problems.

fatbelly

fluffykittens wrote: »

"Lowell Portfolio Ltd assigned Provident Personal Credit Ltd the legal rights to your outstanding debt of £370.00. This means a friendly local agent will call at your home to discuss your weekly repayments with you.
"

Whatever this account is, Provident have bought it. You can write to them - it would be a combination of a prove-it and a don't visit paragraph like:

I also note that the OFT Debt Collection guidance states:

3.13f Examples of unfair or improper practices are: visiting or 'threatening' to visit a debtor, without his prior agreement, when the debt is deadlocked or reasonably queried or disputed.

I dispute the allegation that I owe this sum and do not agree to a visit.

Alternatively just tell the friendly local agent where to go when they turn up.

jgbird

I had my visit from the local friendly agent today. I also have a loan with them anyway so I knew the woman.

She claimed this was a government backed scheme where the government is trying to get money back to companies by offering a discount on the debt.
The discount they were offering was £50 off the £550 debt, I had more of a discount from Lowell. It was credit as they required me to sign a credit agreement so they are offering loans to repay a debt which I thought was against OFT guidelines.

However, all she wanted to know was will I be paying, I said no and that was that, no pressure or anything.

Told her I wasn't happy about them becoming debt collectors and that I would be using another company in future if I needed that kind of credit.