Negotiating with Lowell

fevlo

Morning Everyone,

I decided a few weeks ago it was time to sort my Debt problems out, the threat of doorstep visits and legal action was becoming greater and greater with every letter the dropped through the door. The first milestone was telling my partner the debt problems that I had and she was very understanding.

Milestone 2 was to get everything in order, previously when I received a letter from a DCA I simply read it and shredded it, the odd one or two where sent a letter if they threatened the usual doorstep visit. Basically it was a case of “head in sand and hope it goes away”
I now have all my debts separated in files, keep all letters from DCA’s and have a cover sheet on each file showing where I am at with it. I have started communication with all of them.

I have numerous debts that have been bought by Lowell, a couple have gone to their in house collection agents "Red" then to their legal people "Hamptons" and they are now with Scotcall and Advantis. The rest are fairly new assignments (They must be having an end of financial year buy up)

In total, I have 6 accounts with Lowell with a total of just over 3K. I am in the fortunate position that I can make Full and Final offers on the accounts.
I particularly want to clear the debts with Lowell having read the thread about them being frivolous with Statuary Demands and following through on Bankruptcy threats.

Does anyone have any experience of negotiating with Lowell and what sort of percentage discounts have you achieved with them? I have negotiated with Debt Managers against a debt but they wouldn’t budge at 25% discount (Paying 75% of the debt).
My initial thoughts where that Lowell would be a bit more flexible as the cost of the debt to them would be pence in the pound but I’m sure I remember a thread on here where someone said they were quite difficult to negotiate with.

happy_bunny_2

Not sure.

Have you sent CCA requests for each account?

If they don't have them its easier to negotiate especially for pre 2007 cards, loans and mail order.

Fyffes

Lowell recently offered me a 70% discount on a £500 balance for full and final settlement. However, this was because they were aware that it is Statute Barred and they are therefore unable to enforce it via the courts. Definitely worth establishing whether or not your debts are SB before you negotiate with them. The involvement of their so called legal departments suggests that they are not SB but it's still worth checking on (it could be part of their elaborate scare tactics). Your negotiating prowess would be drastically improved if any of these debts are indeed Statute Barred.

Hope this helps.

fatbelly

and anything that isn't SB or no-CCA ... offer them 30p in the £.

fevlo

Thanks guys, I spoke to a very nice chap at lowell a few days a go and we settled on 55p in the £ for all accounts in full and final.
Closed 4 of the 6 accounts, one of the remaining 2 was with debt managers and i was able to secure the same F and F discount with them. The final account is with advantis credit and im in the process of negotiations with them.
Its made a massive dent in my debts and given Lowels recent rise in using bankruptcy as a recovery option its nice to now have my debts with them below the £750 mark.

Fyffes

Glad to hear you're happy with the outcome. Just out of interest, can I ask if any of these debts were Statute Barred? It may help people with their own negotiations with this company if you could let us know if your debts were theoretically enforceable via the courts.

fevlo

Fyffes wrote: »

Glad to hear you're happy with the outcome. Just out of interest, can I ask if any of these debts were Statute Barred? It may help people with their own negotiations with this company if you could let us know if your debts were theoretically enforceable via the courts.

Yea no problem, none where statute barred.
In hindsight I probably could have negotiated a bit lower but we got to a level I was happy with and I didn't want to risk refusal.

kittycat47

Hi!

First time to post; hoping for some advise on how to deal with Lowells please. They are attempting to get payment for a debt that they've bought from Vodaphone. Just received what I think is 2nd letter from them and thought I better check my paperwork to see if the debt was state barred or not. From what I can tell the last contact I had about the debt was another debt Company whom I spoke to and made a payment of £20; this was 31st May 2007. My bill had been under query with Vodaphone but I've not kept full paperwork and don't know where to go from here; approx 12 weeks from debt being state barred

fevlo

kittycat47 wrote: »

Hi!

First time to post; hoping for some advise on how to deal with Lowells please. They are attempting to get payment for a debt that they've bought from Vodaphone. Just received what I think is 2nd letter from them and thought I better check my paperwork to see if the debt was state barred or not. From what I can tell the last contact I had about the debt was another debt Company whom I spoke to and made a payment of £20; this was 31st May 2007. My bill had been under query with Vodaphone but I've not kept full paperwork and don't know where to go from here; approx 12 weeks from debt being state barred

You could ride out the 12 weeks until it becomes SB but in all honesty, just because its SB doenst mean they wont still hound you by letter and phone for the money.
The SB only means the debt cant be enforced by the court.

You could write to lowell and explain that it was under query but to be honest they arnt really going to be that botherd. If you feel you owe the money then you could write to them and offer to pay the ballance monthly or by way of Full and Final settlement

If you wait the 12 weeks until it becomes SB, your likely to be able to negotiate a large amount off the debt in full and final settlemet.

Debt purchasing companies like Lowell will be open to negotiate Full abd Final settlements as they have often baugh the debt for a few pence in the pound.

If you need any more advice, post back here

fatbelly

kittycat47 wrote: »

Hi!

First time to post; hoping for some advise on how to deal with Lowells please. They are attempting to get payment for a debt that they've bought from Vodaphone. Just received what I think is 2nd letter from them and thought I better check my paperwork to see if the debt was state barred or not. From what I can tell the last contact I had about the debt was another debt Company whom I spoke to and made a payment of £20; this was 31st May 2007. My bill had been under query with Vodaphone but I've not kept full paperwork and don't know where to go from here; approx 12 weeks from debt being state barred

Ignore them for 12 weeks then.

Fyffes

I'm not sure that fevlo is offering particularly good advice there. Based on my own experience it makes a huge difference if you can get to the stage where the debt is statute barred. I had Cabot Financial chasing me for two debts which were approaching the required six year cut off point a few years back. I was able to stall them for around eight months by various means and this meant that one of the debts became SB which resulted in their Statutory Demand being set aside in court. I haven't heard from them since.


You cannot just presume you'll be able to "wait" or "ride out" twelve weeks with companies like this (particularly when you've posted enough info on here for them to identify you when they read it). They are absolutely aware that the clock is ticking and there is a possibility that they will come at you relentlessly over the next few months. If they do, youll need to be prepared to engage them and use your legal rights to put a spanner in the works to buy you that time.

I may be wrong of course. I don't know exactly how Lowell operate but I'm basing my opinions on my own experience with a similar debt collection agency.