Letter from MK Rapid recoveries

Bagpuss102002

Back in august 2008 I took out a unsecured loan with HSBC. I was only a teenager at the time and they offered me £11,000 and stupidly enough i took the money, I managed to repay £5,600 before I could no longer afford the repayments. I have not heard anything about this debt until today when I recieved a letter from MK Dent recoveries, asking me to contact them in regards to setting up a payment plan. This is the first letter I have recieved in regards to this debt. I am hesitant to contact them. I have checked my credit file and although the debt is registered on there it is not registered with a CCJ. Any advice would be great fully recieved. Many thanks.

Tixy

Hi and welcome to the forum

When did you stop making payments towards the debt?

If they did commence court action against you would you be in a position to repay the debt in full within a month?

Bagpuss102002

Hi the last payment was made on the 8th June 2009 according to the credit report.

No i would not be able to pay the amount if required to repay in full.

Tixy

Ok

Well they would have 6years from the payment date to commence court proceedings against you. Unless you are in Scotland in which case do say as the law is different there.

The usual advice to a debt collector's first letter is to send the prove it letter - this requires them to produce paperwork to prove that the debt exists and prove they have a right to collect it. See here Letter when you know nothing about about the debt - AKA "Prove it" letter

After that, assuming they can provide the correct paperwork you have a few options such as
1) offer a monthly repayment at a rate you can afford
2) consider trying to offer a reduced sum in full & final settlement of the debt (if you can get a lump sum of some of the debt together).
3) ignore it in the hope they don't take court action for the next year or so.

Bagpuss102002

So am I correct in thinking that they will take the last payment date as the begging of the 6 years? Or the date the first payment was made? Thanks

Tixy

The last payment date or the last written acknowledgment from you that the debt is owed if later.
The wording on the prove it letter very specifically does not count as acknowledgement of the debt.

Bagpuss102002

Thank you for your help. And for the link to the letter I'm not really sure if I should leave it as I only have to wait just over another year and wait and see what happens.

tomtontom

Bagpuss102002 wrote: »

Thank you for your help. And for the link to the letter I'm not really sure if I should leave it as I only have to wait just over another year and wait and see what happens.

Why do you not want to pay what you owe? I take it you did spend the money?

Tixy

Do you still live at the same address as when you took out the loan/last made payments?

The small risk if you do not respond to the letter is that they then take court action but send paperwork to your last confirmed address (if not this one) and so obtain a CCJ without you even being aware of it.

Bagpuss102002

No I have since moved from the address the original debt was at. And it is not the case of not wanting to pay the debt, it's that I don't have the means of paying. And may I add when I took the original loan out I did so over a phone call from HSBC. It all seemed to good to be true.

tomtontom

Bagpuss102002 wrote: »

No I have since moved from the address the original debt was at. And it is not the case of not wanting to pay the debt, it's that I don't have the means of paying. And may I add when I took the original loan out I did so over a phone call from HSBC. It all seemed to good to be true.

In which case contact them and offer to pay what you can - far better to make an arrangement to pay over time than to ignore.