Cabot advice

Essexangler

Hi all,
I had a loan originally from Welcome finance some 10 or 12 years ago for an amount I cannot even remember, but approx £1500.
I was making the normal payments until I got into financial difficulty and they let me pay a small amount of £20 a month and they said interest would be frozen. Some time later I moved house but continued to pay the £20 per month, right up until I changed banks and the direct debit was not set up again.
I'll get to the point now....... I have started getting letters from Cabot demanding over £4500 for the debt.
Looking back on old bank statements I found that the last payment to Welcome was made on 17th June 2009 which means that I am about 4 weeks short of statute barred.
Can anyone advise me what to do.

sourcrates

Hi,
That date may not be the actual statute barred date.
The SB clock runs from the "cause of action" the point at which a creditor could of taken legal action against you, that's usually after approx 3 missed payments.

You could send them the provit letter, that essentially asks for proof you owe the debt, without in any way acknowledging it formally, so won't affect the SB status.

It will also get your account put on hold, whilst they attempt to come up with the proof, from that long ago, chances are there will be no paperwork.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607247

Essexangler

Thank you very much for your help. I will give it a try.

fatbelly

Yes you can send a prove-it or just ignore

Unless they commence a court claim in the next month you will have a statute barred defence

Whenever the original cause of action was, you continued to acknowledge the debt by making payments until 17/6/09. I wouldn't rush to send a statute barred letter but the relevant date appears to be 17/6/15, if you are in England/Wales, it's an unsecured debt and there is no ccj on this.

Essexangler

Coincidentally I recieved a letter from Cabot today stating that they intend to instruct a solicitor to issue court proceedings. What should I do now?