capital one refusal

matttye

matttye wrote: »

For any debts that are over six years old, reply to them saying that you don't accept that the debts are yours but they are statute barred in any event, and as such no enforcement action can be taken. Put "Without Prejudice" at the top of the letter.

Get your credit reports NOW and see what's on them. Sometimes credit reference agencies don't automatically remove defaults after six years and need a gentle reminder.

Further to my post above, and quite important, it's six years since you last paid/acknowledged the debt that it becomes statute barred, not six years since it came into existence. Sorry - should have said that.

shortcrust

lizziebabe wrote: »

I think it is about time you took your debts seriously and made a plan for paying them back now, so that you can get a better credit rating.

Those debts are still biting you on the b**

What rubbish. If the OP's debts are eight years old they're potentially having no negative effect on his/her credit rating and there is potentially no advantage to the OP in paying them off.

You may not like the OP's approach to their debts, but that doesn't mean you should post misleading info in here.

OP - Yes, they're just trying their luck with the letters.

koooowweeee

The debts have been over 6 years since I had any contact with the company's but I'm still getting letters. They stop for a few months then I get them every two weeks for a few months.

Last time I did a credit report I got bombarded with letters so im a bit worried that it's all going to start up again

But as said the only way I'm going to start getting this sorted is by checking my report.

Is it total free with those company's i vaguely remember paying a fee to look at a detailed report

lizziebabe

shortcrust wrote: »

What rubbish. If the OP's debts are eight years old they're potentially having no negative effect on his/her credit rating and there is potentially no advantage to the OP in paying them off.

You may not like the OP's approach to their debts, but that doesn't mean you should post misleading info in here.

OP - Yes, they're just trying their luck with the letters.

So what kind of state would the country be in if everyone decided to wait for 6 years so they didn't have to pay off their debts.
There are people on here that are seriously trying to do the honest thing and pay off their debts and in real hardship. The OP is only now concerned because he has been refused a credit card. And so he should be as he has not made any attempt in the last 6-8 years to pay his debts.
Why should he get credit? He seems to have managed so far without it.
Even when he looked at his credit reports a few years ago he didn't do anything about it.
OP it is a good start to ask for help but you need to get your head out of the sand and do something about it now. You haven't set a good example for credit, but maybe you have changed?
I haven't misled anyone but only the OP can do something about this. He has had good advice here, so get on with it.

matttye

koooowweeee wrote: »

The debts have been over 6 years since I had any contact with the company's but I'm still getting letters. They stop for a few months then I get them every two weeks for a few months.

Last time I did a credit report I got bombarded with letters so im a bit worried that it's all going to start up again

But as said the only way I'm going to start getting this sorted is by checking my report.

Is it total free with those company's i vaguely remember paying a fee to look at a detailed report

You need to be absolutely certain it's six years since you last acknowledged the debt or paid any money towards it, as if you reply to them saying it's statute barred and it's actually not, they might up their game with trying to get it back off you.

Noddle is free, Equifax and Experian have free trials which then automatically move onto a pay per month service if you don't cancel. You can get a copy of just your credit report and not their other services for a one time fee of £2. It costs £2 each time you request a copy of your report, so you should get a copy from each credit reference agency and then try to solve any problems with it and wait until you hear back from lenders that any issues have been resolved before you buy a further copy of your report.

You shouldn't get any letters from companies when you request your reports, just untick any boxes that say something like 'tick here if you wish to allow our partners to contact you with deals' or whatever they usually say during the signup process.

matttye

lizziebabe wrote: »

So what kind of state would the country be in if everyone decided to wait for 6 years so they didn't have to pay off their debts.
There are people on here that are seriously trying to do the honest thing and pay off their debts and in real hardship. The OP is only now concerned because he has been refused a credit card. And so he should be as he has not made any attempt in the last 6-8 years to pay his debts.
Why should he get credit? He seems to have managed so far without it.
Even when he looked at his credit reports a few years ago he didn't do anything about it.
OP it is a good start to ask for help but you need to get your head out of the sand and do something about it now. You haven't set a good example for credit, but maybe you have changed?
I haven't misled anyone but only the OP can do something about this. He has had good advice here, so get on with it.

I wouldn't necessarily argue with the sentiment but laws are in place for a reason. The Limitations Act says that if six years have passed since a debt was last acknowledged/paid it cannot be enforced. This doesn't stop companies chasing you for the debt, but they cannot take you to court or apply for reductions from your benefit/wages/etc.

The OP said he wants to rebuild his creditworthiness so trying to obtain credit on that basis isn't a bad idea as long as it's now managed properly.

If there are any debts less than six years old it would be in the OP's best interests to pay those as they are current.

Edit: responding to your edit.

Saying that eight year old debts are biting him on the butt is misleading if they're statute barred, because they're unenforceable and do not appear on a credit report.

rartherinv

lizzibabe's posts are her opinion which she is entitled to, but OP appears to be looking for the laws covering the matter which we can help them with.

Under the Limitations Act 1980 debts are statute barred in England and Wales if the debt is not acknowledged for a 6 year period after default (or 5 years in Scotland). By 'acknowledged' they mean payment plan agreed or written/provable acknowledgement of the debt.

If the debts are indeed statute barred then the owner of the debt is still allowed to ask you to repay the debt, but legal action can no longer be taken to enforce it and they cannot report the account to CRA's.

If your dates and information given are correct then the people trying to get repayments from you are within their rights to ask for the money but they are indeed chancers hoping to scrape the barrel for debtors who will pay them out of a feeling of moral duty or naievety to the law.

If you tell them the debt is statute barred and you have no intentions of paying it, there will be no further recourse for them and they will write the debt off.

If as your original posts suggest, you feel some moral duty to repay what is owed and you can afford to do so, may I suggest instead of feeding the debt collection wolves, instead make a small donation to a debt charity which could help give information and support to others going through what you did?

shortcrust

lizziebabe wrote: »

So what kind of state would the country be in if everyone decided to wait for 6 years so they didn't have to pay off their debts.
There are people on here that are seriously trying to do the honest thing and pay off their debts and in real hardship. The OP is only now concerned because he has been refused a credit card. And so he should be as he has not made any attempt in the last 6-8 years to pay his debts.
Why should he get credit? He seems to have managed so far without it.
Even when he looked at his credit reports a few years ago he didn't do anything about it.
OP it is a good start to ask for help but you need to get your head out of the sand and do something about it now. You haven't set a good example for credit, but maybe you have changed?
I haven't misled anyone but only the OP can do something about this. He has had good advice here, so get on with it.

You have tried to mislead! You tried to give the OP the impression that the old debts are responsible for current problems getting credit and that paying them off will help. Everything the OP has told us suggests that that's not the case. Thankfully there are people on here who are prepared to give honest advice.

koooowweeee

lizziebabe wrote: »

So what kind of state would the country be in if everyone decided to wait for 6 years so they didn't have to pay off their debts.
There are people on here that are seriously trying to do the honest thing and pay off their debts and in real hardship. The OP is only now concerned because he has been refused a credit card. And so he should be as he has not made any attempt in the last 6-8 years to pay his debts.
Why should he get credit? He seems to have managed so far without it.
Even when he looked at his credit reports a few years ago he didn't do anything about it.
OP it is a good start to ask for help but you need to get your head out of the sand and do something about it now. You haven't set a good example for credit, but maybe you have changed?
I haven't misled anyone but only the OP can do something about this. He has had good advice here, so get on with it.

I get your point debts should be paid but the charges they have added on are just ridiculous so im not going to pay what they say I own and I can't pay what I do actually owe.

I do understand that chasing a debt does cost but it doesn't cost the amount what they have added on.

So basically I'm not going to pay it.

Now obviously it's had a effect on my rating and it's going to effect me getting a mortgage in a few year so that's why I wanted a credit card to start rebuilding my score but it must be that low that I can't get credit and therefore I can't rebuild it so I need a way to do it?

lizziebabe

shortcrust wrote: »

You have tried to mislead! You tried to give the OP the impression that the old debts are responsible for current problems getting credit and that paying them off will help. Everything the OP has told us suggests that that's not the case. Thankfully there are people on here who are prepared to give honest advice.

So why has he been refused a credit card then?
He needs to check his credit reports. He has done this before so he knows what to do!
I did not intentionally intend to mislead anyone but it would seem that the OP had a chance in the past to sort out these debts as he had already looked at his credit reports but didn't do anything about it then. So has he deliberately left his debts so he could not be chased for them as the 6 years have lapsed and now he wants credit when they can be written off.
As I said he is not a good example for credit, but let's give him a chance. I think the idea of giving some money to a charity to others struggling is a good idea.