debt collection agencies fees

jkhillary

I am the originator of the question. I have been working with CCCS for the last 6 months and have a DMP in place.

I have a debt with american express of £8300. They have 'referred' this to AIC (allied international credit) and they have added a wopping £1476 as a referral fee.

I understand the debt is mine but I am extremely miffed about this additional cost that has been added by this group.

Many thanks to you all regarding the SAR that I will be penning this evening but looking again at the wording of the letter leads me to believe that they do not own the debt

but my question is with the legality of the charge. I have not asked for this service, nor have i signed any document to allow them to add this to my bill

can anyone help

tomterm8

It is almost certainly NOT legal, but the purpose of the above letter is to find out all the charges that can be disputed.

There is a high chance, in my experience, that they won't even have a credit agreement, in which case the issue is null and void (no credit agreement = not enforceable).

Even if they have a credit agreement, they can not charge you more than any default actually cost them, and in any court case you have the right to require them to prove these costs are real. Which they won't do, because that would force them to disclose very sensitive information which could literally cost them tens of millions of pounds.

hopeless_saver_3

My wife has also received a letter from debt collectors claiming that she owes £170 pounds to them for a barclays account that was closed 10 years ago
they cannot even tell us what the debt is apparently for. Barclays say they cannot even access or find any record of the account because it is from so long ago my wife has received no correspondence from the bank or any one else although her address has changed since the account was closed . My wife has no paper record of the account being closed but as I say it is from 10 years ago .the debt company are saying that they have bought the debt and are the fourth company to do so can anyone please offer any advice on what to do next many thanks

rog2

hopeless_saver wrote: »

My wife has also received a letter from debt collectors claiming that she owes £170 pounds to them for a barclays account that was closed 10 years ago
they cannot even tell us what the debt is apparently for. Barclays say they cannot even access or find any record of the account because it is from so long ago my wife has received no correspondence from the bank or any one else although her address has changed since the account was closed . My wife has no paper record of the account being closed but as I say it is from 10 years ago .the debt company are saying that they have bought the debt and are the fourth company to do so can anyone please offer any advice on what to do next many thanks

Hi hs - I would tell your wife not to worry. Any 'debt' arising out of an account which was closed over ten years ago is, almost certainly, going to be covered by the terms of the Limitation Act of 1980, which gives creditors a maximum of six years in order to take action to recover any 'debt' for which there has been no payment towards by the 'debtor', nor written acknowledgement of the 'debt' by the 'debtor'. After this 'limitation period' the 'debt' can no longer be pursued through the Courts.

Have a look at the following National Debtline link, and send the debt collectors a copy of the template letter that you will find in the article:

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/factsheet.php?page=25_liability_for_debts_and_the_limitation_act