Old debt 10 years ago

PDS24649449

Hi

I received a letter from a company called Clarity explaining that I had a debt of 7K which was in the form of a unsecured loan and this was taken out 11 years ago.

According to them I have made payments up to 2003 and after that I stopped paying. I have received no communication from this company in relation to this loan.

What can I do or should I do now?

Hope someone can help or advise!


Paul Stead

indigo739X

First question people are going to want to know is - do you actually owe this money? And is the position as outlined in the letter correct. Or do you have no knowledge of the debt at all.

McKneff

Whether you have knowledge of the debt or not is irrelevant.

If no payments or acknowledgement of the debt has been made then it is statute barred ( 6 years England, 5 years Scotland) and you do not need to pay it .

I'm sure someone will post a link to a statute barred letter whch you can send (recorded and keep a copy) so stop worrying about it.

ALIBOBSY

If the last payment or acknowledgement of a debt is over 6 years old it becomes statute barred.
They are allowed under current rules to ask once for the money, but as soon as the debtor points out its statute barred they have to cease action. They can't go to court or take any further action on it.

However on here you will get some people telling you you owe it so pay up (I don't know if this was ever your debt or what personal circumstances led to it not being paid off so won't comment).

I will point out that the original creditor will have likely had some payments and interest on the original loan, plus sold it on for more cash and written off any balance against their tax, so will have likely made "profit" or at least not a loss out of the loan and clarity are the lowest of the low debt collectors who for this sort of debt will likely have paid only a matter of pennies in the pound so say 2p per pound ie. £140. It is also probably this debt included PPI which the bank have gotton away with miss selling, so all things being equal I would tell clarity to go jump.

If you do decide to settle you want a full breakdown of how the 7k came about and negotiate hard for a low full and final offer.

Ali x

Gordon_Hose

No payment since 2003, definitely statute barred. I wouldn't even be considering paying anything if I were you.

Hopefully someone will link to the SB letter template to send them.

PDS24649449

Thanks Guys. Silly question how do you find out if your loan is statute barred? is it just a quick phone call?

PAUL

Gordon_Hose

Well, if you know you only made payments up to 2003 then it went SB sometime in 2009.

fermi

Clicky ----> https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2606811

PDS24649449

Would I be right in say that if the loan is statute barred surely the debt collecting agency would know that but they are still going to try and get the money back?

Gordon_Hose

They try and collect in the hope the debtor doesn't know their rights. They shouldn't, but they do.

Once you've told them it is SB and you won't be paying they must cease collection activity.

teffers

PDS24649449 wrote: »

Would I be right in say that if the loan is statute barred surely the debt collecting agency would know that but they are still going to try and get the money back?

Yep, as has been said, they'll try their luck until you point out it's Statute Barred.

Companies buy these ridiculously old debts by the truck load and then begin a fishing expedition. A bit like spam, they send the letters out and hope for a small percentage who mistakenly pay up.