Can I refuse to deal with debt collection agency?

ValHaller

iolanthe07 wrote: »

but I want to pay the original creditor directly rather than the agency.

Why? As long as you have a receipt, or other means of proving that you have paid, why does it matter? There is no point in just making things difficult for yourself for no real reason.

Until and unless the creditor sell the debt on, you are entitled to make out your cheque to the original creditor and you are entitled to continue any dispute with them in correspondence. If the original creditor refuses your cheque, they cannot force you to write the cheque to the DCA - about all they can do is back down and accept it at some stage.

rizla_king

ValHaller wrote: »

Until and unless the creditor sell the debt on, you are entitled to make out your cheque to the original creditor and you are entitled to continue any dispute with them in correspondence. If the original creditor refuses your cheque, they cannot force you to write the cheque to the DCA - about all they can do is back down and accept it at some stage.

Yes, and they would have a hard job explaining to a court why they refused to take a genuinely offered or given payment. Judge would rip them a "new one".

jkdt0077

ValHaller wrote: »

Until and unless the creditor sell the debt on, you are entitled to make out your cheque to the original creditor and you are entitled to continue any dispute with them in correspondence. If the original creditor refuses your cheque, they cannot force you to write the cheque to the DCA - about all they can do is back down and accept it at some stage.

rizla_king wrote: »

Yes, and they would have a hard job explaining to a court why they refused to take a genuinely offered or given payment. Judge would rip them a "new one".

Cheers guys. Don't suppose you know where I can find an official written reference to this? Something to quote to them would be great.

sourcrates

Your debt is with the original creditor, you are under no obligation to deal with a DCA, they have no power, and can only "recommend" a course of action to there client, they are a 3rd party to the agreement, an interloper if you like, you can choose to ignore or deal with them as you wish.

jkdt0077

sourcrates wrote: »

Your debt is with the original creditor, you are under no obligation to deal with a DCA, they have no power, and can only "recommend" a course of action to there client, they are a 3rd party to the agreement, an interloper if you like, you can choose to ignore or deal with them as you wish.

Do you know where I can find an official reference of this to quote to them?

ValHaller

jkdt0077 wrote: »

Do you know where I can find an official reference of this to quote to them?

You are overthinking this. As long as the debt has not been sold, it is just logic that you can continue to deal with the original creditor. Thy are entitled to use a DCA as an agent and if they tell you this, then any correspondence from the agent is as good as a letter from the creditor.

But at this point, you just need to get a complete explanation of why they believe you owe the money. Once you have that, you can either accept it as correct or fight it with logic and facts. If you cloud your thinking now with questions about DCAs and their rights, you are going to stir this into a big mess from which you probably won't get the facts you need.

jkdt0077

ValHaller wrote: »

You are overthinking this. As long as the debt has not been sold, it is just logic that you can continue to deal with the original creditor. Thy are entitled to use a DCA as an agent and if they tell you this, then any correspondence from the agent is as good as a letter from the creditor.

But at this point, you just need to get a complete explanation of why they believe you owe the money. Once you have that, you can either accept it as correct or fight it with logic and facts. If you cloud your thinking now with questions about DCAs and their rights, you are going to stir this into a big mess from which you probably won't get the facts you need.

I've had an explanation as to why I owe the debt, and I agree that I owe it. I just want to pay the creditor rather than the DCA but they will not allow me to.

I know I'm splitting hairs about who I pay the money to but it's a matter of principle now and I want to know if I can force it.

Heffi1

jkdt0077 wrote: »

I've had an explanation as to why I owe the debt, and I agree that I owe it. I just want to pay the creditor rather than the DCA but they will not allow me to.

I know I'm splitting hairs about who I pay the money to but it's a matter of principle now and I want to know if I can force it.

Just pay the bill, principles are all well and good when you have the upper hand, you agree you owe it, so now is the time to take responsibility for it and pay the bloody money back.

You won't win any friends by being awkward, but you just might get a nice warm fuzzy feeling to keep you going when you are sat in front of a judge and he asks why you are playing silly !!!!!!s with this...

chanz4

what you don't want them doing is contacting your mortgage lender for the payment, as they will charge you on top.

jkdt0077

Heffi1 wrote: »

Just pay the bill, principles are all well and good when you have the upper hand, you agree you owe it, so now is the time to take responsibility for it and pay the bloody money back.

You won't win any friends by being awkward, but you just might get a nice warm fuzzy feeling to keep you going when you are sat in front of a judge and he asks why you are playing silly !!!!!!s with this...

Just to update everybody:
I held out with this and kept saying I wanted to deal only with the original creditor. PDC eventually dropped the case and told me that they had handed my file back to the creditor. I have since paid the creditor (excluding the £150 PDC were going to charge me) and the matter is over.

:beer: