Claim Form for old credit card debt - Vanquis/Cabot

ucangetrich

Hi

I'm new to the forum but was hoping that somebody may be able to offer me and my partner some advice.

Basically my partner has been mithered by Cabot Financial for a number of months about an old Vanquis credit card debt of £900. My partner was in a different relationship at the time and has no knowledge of ever having had a Vanquis credit card.

We have ignored the monthly letters but on Wednesday of this week received a claim form that basically gives us the standard deadlines to respond. Doing nothing is obviously not an option now.

My partner separated from her husband in 2009 and he dealt with all the post for the last couple of years of their relationship as he was out of work.

I have an inkling that he may have applied for this card in her name and ignored any mail relating to it. This is only an inkling however - but we're also being harrassed by Lowells on a separate matter.

It is only on the actual claim form itself that we have been given a credit agreement date of May 2008 and been advised that the debt was passed to Cabot in 2009 due to failure to make minimum payments.

The original debt of £918 has now been increased to £1,050 because of court charges.

We're not in a position to settle the balance in full & my partner is currently out of work, so I would be the one providing the monthly instalments. I have quite an old school attitude to debt, in that if we owe it, we'll pay it, but I'm naturally a bit reluctant to just accept the claim and fill in my partner's income details and suggest a monthly figure since we don't at this stage acknowledge that the debt exists. On the other hand, how likely are we to be able to defend the claim on the nebulous grounds that her ex-husband may have applied for it? It seems a weak argument to me that can not be proven. My other thought is that are we in statute-barred territory here in that it is six years and one month since the card was taken out?...(again I'm in the dark as to whether any or no min payments were made...ie if the debt has been acknowledged since May 2008).

If you try and defend a claim, do you end up paying more if you're unsuccessful?

Apologies for the long-winded ramble but any help would be welcomed.

Could you also confirm if this counts as a CCJ or is that only if the court has to pass judgement without both parties agreeing first?

grumbler

Re-post on Debt-Free Wannabe board. They are experts there in dealing with debt collectors.

If she didn't apply for the card I don't see any point in paying even if she were in a position to pay.

ucangetrich

Hi

I'm new to the forum but was hoping that somebody may be able to offer me and my partner some advice.

Basically my partner has been mithered by Cabot Financial for a number of months about an old Vanquis credit card debt of £900. My partner was in a different relationship at the time and has no knowledge of ever having had a Vanquis credit card.

We have ignored the monthly letters but on Wednesday of this week received a claim form that basically gives us the standard deadlines to respond. Doing nothing is obviously not an option now.

My partner separated from her husband in 2009 and he dealt with all the post for the last couple of years of their relationship as he was out of work.

I have an inkling that he may have applied for this card in her name and ignored any mail relating to it. This is only an inkling however - but we're also being harrassed by Lowells on a separate matter.

It is only on the actual claim form itself that we have been given a credit agreement date of May 2008 and been advised that the debt was passed to Cabot in 2009 due to failure to make minimum payments.

The original debt of £918 has now been increased to £1,050 because of court charges.

We're not in a position to settle the balance in full & my partner is currently out of work, so I would be the one providing the monthly instalments. I have quite an old school attitude to debt, in that if we owe it, we'll pay it, but I'm naturally a bit reluctant to just accept the claim and fill in my partner's income details and suggest a monthly figure since we don't at this stage acknowledge that the debt exists. On the other hand, how likely are we to be able to defend the claim on the nebulous grounds that her ex-husband may have applied for it? It seems a weak argument to me that can not be proven. My other thought is that are we in statute-barred territory here in that it is six years and one month since the card was taken out?...(again I'm in the dark as to whether any or no min payments were made...ie if the debt has been acknowledged since May 2008).

If you try and defend a claim, do you end up paying more if you're unsuccessful?

Apologies for the long-winded ramble but any help would be welcomed.

Could you also confirm if this counts as a CCJ or is that only if the court has to pass judgement without both parties agreeing first?

ucangetrich

Thank you - have posted there

fatbelly

Unlikely to be statute barred if the card was indeed taken out in May 2008 and the court claim started in June 2014. It would need the card to have had its first payment made say by 14 June 2008, money spent on it, no minimum payment or written acknowledgement EVER made and the court claim STARTED on 15 June 2014 or later. But by all means have a go if you think that scenario fits.

You must now respond to the claim within the timescales. If this came from Northampton Court, the claim is deemed served five days after the issue date on the form. You must either respond or acknowledge service within 14 days of it being served. Acknowledging service (tick 'defend claim in full') gives you an extra 14 days. You can do this online.

There is a factsheet on replying to a court claim, that you should read

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/20%20EW%20County%20court%20-%20replying%20to%20a%20claim%20form/Default.aspx

but this assumes that you agree that you owe the money.

If you are going to defend the claim, and if you want to discuss the statute barred aspect, then I would give National Debtline a ring as they have more info but not on their public site.

The claim will result in a ccj if you do nothing, or miss the timescales or if the court does not accept your defence. Don't think you can negotiate your way out of this with Lowells. It's a court matter now so follow the court procedure. If others suggest asking Lowell for info, do this alongside the court process.

harveybobbles

Was it a claim for from Northampton?

Aquamania

ucangetrich wrote: »

Hi

I'm new to the forum but was hoping that somebody may be able to offer me and my partner some advice.

Basically my partner has been mithered by Cabot Financial for a number of months about an old Vanquis credit card debt of £900. My partner was in a different relationship at the time and has no knowledge of ever having had a Vanquis credit card.

We have ignored the monthly letters but on Wednesday of this week received a claim form that basically gives us the standard deadlines to respond. Doing nothing is obviously not an option now.

My partner separated from her husband in 2009 and he dealt with all the post for the last couple of years of their relationship as he was out of work.

I have an inkling that he may have applied for this card in her name and ignored any mail relating to it. This is only an inkling however - but we're also being harrassed by Lowells on a separate matter.

It is only on the actual claim form itself that we have been given a credit agreement date of May 2008 and been advised that the debt was passed to Cabot in 2009 due to failure to make minimum payments.

The original debt of £918 has now been increased to £1,050 because of court charges.

We're not in a position to settle the balance in full & my partner is currently out of work, so I would be the one providing the monthly instalments. I have quite an old school attitude to debt, in that if we owe it, we'll pay it, but I'm naturally a bit reluctant to just accept the claim and fill in my partner's income details and suggest a monthly figure since we don't at this stage acknowledge that the debt exists. On the other hand, how likely are we to be able to defend the claim on the nebulous grounds that her ex-husband may have applied for it? It seems a weak argument to me that can not be proven. My other thought is that are we in statute-barred territory here in that it is six years and one month since the card was taken out?...(again I'm in the dark as to whether any or no min payments were made...ie if the debt has been acknowledged since May 2008).

If you try and defend a claim, do you end up paying more if you're unsuccessful?

Apologies for the long-winded ramble but any help would be welcomed.

Could you also confirm if this counts as a CCJ or is that only if the court has to pass judgement without both parties agreeing first?

I see that you say court costs have been added.

These are normally added if the court has given judgement, although maybe the card supplier has been cheeky and added them as they became payable.

If the court has given judgement, then that is a CCJ (assuming it was a County Court)

If your partner has received a summons, but there is no court judgment yet, then that is not a CCJ ... yet!

On what basis would your partner defend? It sounds like even you agree she borrowed money. What are the particulars of claim on the summons?

If your partner does attempt to defend the claim, then some more court costs will accrue. But this shouldn't matter if she wins.

Aquamania

ucangetrich wrote: »

Hi

I'm new to the forum but was hoping that somebody may be able to offer me and my partner some advice.

Basically my partner has been mithered by Cabot Financial for a number of months about an old Vanquis credit card debt of £900. My partner was in a different relationship at the time and has no knowledge of ever having had a Vanquis credit card.

We have ignored the monthly letters but on Wednesday of this week received a claim form that basically gives us the standard deadlines to respond. Doing nothing is obviously not an option now.

My partner separated from her husband in 2009 and he dealt with all the post for the last couple of years of their relationship as he was out of work.

I have an inkling that he may have applied for this card in her name and ignored any mail relating to it. This is only an inkling however - but we're also being harrassed by Lowells on a separate matter.

It is only on the actual claim form itself that we have been given a credit agreement date of May 2008 and been advised that the debt was passed to Cabot in 2009 due to failure to make minimum payments.

The original debt of £918 has now been increased to £1,050 because of court charges.

We're not in a position to settle the balance in full & my partner is currently out of work, so I would be the one providing the monthly instalments. I have quite an old school attitude to debt, in that if we owe it, we'll pay it, but I'm naturally a bit reluctant to just accept the claim and fill in my partner's income details and suggest a monthly figure since we don't at this stage acknowledge that the debt exists. On the other hand, how likely are we to be able to defend the claim on the nebulous grounds that her ex-husband may have applied for it? It seems a weak argument to me that can not be proven. My other thought is that are we in statute-barred territory here in that it is six years and one month since the card was taken out?...(again I'm in the dark as to whether any or no min payments were made...ie if the debt has been acknowledged since May 2008).

If you try and defend a claim, do you end up paying more if you're unsuccessful?

Apologies for the long-winded ramble but any help would be welcomed.

Could you also confirm if this counts as a CCJ or is that only if the court has to pass judgement without both parties agreeing first?

I see that you say court costs have been added.

These are normally added if the court has given judgement, although maybe the card supplier has been cheeky and added them as they became payable.

If the court has given judgement, then that is a CCJ (assuming it was a County Court)

If your partner has received a summons, but there is no court judgment yet, then that is not a CCJ ... yet!

On what basis would your partner defend? It sounds like even you agree she borrowed money.

If your partner does attempt to defend the claim, then some more court costs will accrue. But this shouldn't matter if she wins.

Lensman_2

As FB has stated, you have specific time lines to meet in order to defend this successfully. You also have a set of rules to abide by (the Civil Procedure Rules or CPR) for the process. Getting the timings wrong or not abiding by the rules will probably result in judgement by default and you lose.

However, there is nothing wrong with making them prove their case. They will not have checked the validity of the paperwork before submitting the case. It will cost you nothing but time and a letter or two to find out.

Costs are limited for a small claim.