Letter From Debt Collection Agency, Please Help

EmptyPockets

Good morning all.

My husband and I have been on a DMP with the CCCS for the past five years. We only have three more payments to make and then we will be DEBT FREE!!! Just one creditor left to pay off, and it feels great!

However; this morning we have received a letter in the post from 'Past Due Credit Solutions'. The letter is dated 19th September 2012, and demands that we pay the amount by 26 September - today! The date it arrived!

Formal Demand

Client: BT Group Plc
Supply Address: (our previous address of 3+ years ago)
Amount Outstanding: £129.01

We have been instructed by our client BT Group Plc to recover the above outstanding amount. We are aware that you may not have heard from BT Group Plc or one of its collection agents for some time however, it is believed that the outstanding balance is still liable for collection.

It is important that you repay the amount by 26 September 2012 at the very latest. This will avoid further calls and letters from Past Due Credit Solutions to recover the money owed to our client. You can pay today by... (etc etc).

Now, this is quite a surprise to both of us, as we were not aware we owed BT anything when we left our last property 3 years ago. If we'd known at any point, we would have added them to our list of creditors with the CCCS.

Neither of us are sure, but we do not think we owe this money to BT. We have no paperwork from that far back, certainly nothing to do with BT as we haven't had any dealings with them for over 3 years now.

We're quite reluctant to just 'pay up' when a) we have worked hard to pay off the debts we knew we had, and b) we're not sure this debt is ours.

What should we do next? Especially as this is the 'last day' we have, apparently, to pay this?

FireWyrm

Well, a standard Prove It letter would be a good start here. If, as I suspect, this is in fact far older than 3 years, they can take a run and jump. I wouldnt get in a twist over it right now and whatever you do, do NOT acknowledge it in writing.

EmptyPockets

FireWyrm wrote: »

Well, a standard Prove It letter would be a good start here. If, as I suspect, this is in fact far older than 3 years, they can take a run and jump. I wouldnt get in a twist over it right now and whatever you do, do NOT acknowledge it in writing.

Thank you for your reply. I've no idea how old this apparent 'debt' is, they have not stated this in the letter. My husband and I WERE with BT, for telephone line, right up until we left our old address exactly three years ago, but neither of us are aware of leaving a debt with them. Like I said, we'd have just added it to our DMP list of creditors otherwise.

We are hoping to leave our current address within the next four weeks, so although I'm not exactly 'worried' by this, I'd much rather get it sorted asap than leave it to possibly cause problems for future tenants, etc...

Could you please point me in the direction of a sample 'prove it' letter?

Thanks again x

fermi

Prove it --> https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607247

EmptyPockets

fermi wrote: »

Prove it --> https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607247

Thank you!