Been threatened with CCJ over credit card. What do I do?

Lensman_2

sourcrates wrote: »

OP don't panic about this, what you have received is a standard DCA "pay up or else" template letter, one of thousands sent out every week to unsuspecting punters, its just like, me, whom you don't know, sending you a letter asking for money before 6pm this Friday, are you going to send me it ? no of course not, so why would you send any to them ? send the provit letter, see what comes back.

Otherwise known as a Threat-O-Gram. Sourcrates is spot on.

Dexter274

eyeopener2 wrote: »

Bet it doesn't say the word "will".

Hope you've sent the letter today and the fight begins.

Who is the debt collector?

Thanks again to everyone helping me with this you've really eased my mind on it all.


The letter id from Marlin Financial Services who say their acting on behalf of cabot but Im thinking they've bought the debt from Cabot.

dancingfairy

To be fair it really is 50:50. Either you destroy it and hope for the best or you send them the prove it letter. Unfortunately nobody knows whether it is a fishing trip or whether they would actually take you to court.
Frankly they probably wouldn't bother, I guess they send thousands each week and I doubt they'd waste their time and money taking everyone to court but obviously I can't be certain.
You can always phone one of the debt charities to get their take on it.
What I would not do though is phone the company chasing the debt or write a letter regarding it or start paying it until you know what's what.
(the prove it letter is fine to send though).
df
edit: at least if you send the prove it letter you are doing something productive, rather than being sat there waiting and it puts the ball back in their court. IF they did have intentions to take you to court it might put them off in the first instance and I believe you can defend any court action based on the fact that they wrote to you out of the blue and you asked them for some proof of this 'aleged debt ' but they had't provided it (I'm assuming it's highly unlikely they would have decent proof).

Dexter274

dancingfairy wrote: »

To be fair it really is 50:50. Either you destroy it and hope for the best or you send them the prove it letter. Unfortunately nobody knows whether it is a fishing trip or whether they would actually take you to court.
Frankly they probably wouldn't bother, I guess they send thousands each week and I doubt they'd waste their time and money taking everyone to court but obviously I can't be certain.
You can always phone one of the debt charities to get their take on it.
What I would not do though is phone the company chasing the debt or write a letter regarding it or start paying it until you know what's what.
(the prove it letter is fine to send though).
df
edit: at least if you send the prove it letter you are doing something productive, rather than being sat there waiting and it puts the ball back in their court. IF they did have intentions to take you to court it might put them off in the first instance and I believe you can defend any court action based on the fact that they wrote to you out of the blue and you asked them for some proof of this 'aleged debt ' but they had't provided it (I'm assuming it's highly unlikely they would have decent proof).

Thanks. Yes its definitely 50/50 as to ignore it or to send this prove it letter. I'm having sleepless nights over this decision.


I find it very strange that they say their acting on behalf of cabot. The letter from Marlin says they will instruct Cabot to take legal action of I don't contact Marlin which doesn't make sense to me.

eyeopener2

Exactly, it doesn't make sense cos it's a load of bull. One dca, acting on behalf of another DCA? Mmmmmmmm.

If it was me, I'd send the prove it and then see what comes back. Usually it's a holding letter saying "we will contact our client for the information", and you wait for the next response.

Ignoring it, this is ok as long as you are ready to respond with a "prove it" straight away when you get another letter, probably in BIG RED LETTERS, threatening to take your house, dog, job and goldfish if you don't pay IMMEDIATELY!

I'd send a prove it as it puts the onus fairly and squarely back on them, and they hate that because they prefer to lie, cheat and bully. However I can understand your reticence.

What about just sitting and waiting for the next threat o gram and then sending a prove it? Get the letter ready, print it off, put in an envelope and if anything else comes from them send it off straight away.

sourcrates

　
"1,655 [FONT=Arial,Helvetica][FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Consumer County Court Judgements (CCJs) are issued every day (based on Q3 2013 trends). The average value of a Consumer CCJ in Q3 2013 was [/FONT][/FONT]£2,383 "


This made me look twice, average value of a CCJ only £2,383 !!!


info took from here :


http://themoneycharity.org.uk/media/Debt-Stats-Full-January-2014.pdf

eyeopener2

That's interesting sourcrates, that seems to indicate that solicitors are going after easy fees, easy kills and I bet Northampton is just pumping stuff out.

Justice eh? Don't ya just love it.

eyeopener2

That's fascinating stuff, and the figures are mind blowing. I'm not sure human beings are that sensible where money is concerned! We are very good at making other people rich though.

Off topic sorry.

fermi

Marlin certainly do issues claims in some cases. No way of telling if they really intend to here, but it is a (maybe small) possibility.