OAP Needs Help With CCAs, DMP & F&F

sunny68_2

For many years my husband & I have had a DMP with StepChange due to foolishly trying to keep an ailing business afloat with credit cards. We sold our house in 2006 and moved to Spain due to my husband´s ill health, he is now 78. We settled some of the accounts with proceeds from the house sale but still owe £32,500 spread over 8 creditors. It was always our intention to somehow pay them off one day. Our only income is the basic State Pension from which we pay £51.00 to our DMP. We have always kept our creditors informed of any change of address but have had very little contact with them over the years, rarely receiving a statement, just an occasional letter to say the debt had been taken on by yet another DCA.

After reading all the helpful threads on this forum I recently sent CCA requests to all. So far only one has the original CCA, the others either say they will endeavour to find the paperwork within 12 days or in the case of Barclaycard are unable to fulfil my request and as such are not currently able to enforce their agreement which will remain unenforceable until such time as they can fulfil the request. Our account with Cabot is £5200 and their reply was:

"Unfortunately we are unlikely to be able to provide the requested documentation. Therefore, we can confirm that we have taken the decision to no longer pursue collection of this account unless this information is obtained in the future. Please note that this decision is not to be confused or interpreted as a write-off of the outstanding balance on your account as the debt legally remains. In addition we confirm due to the time elapsed this entry should no longer appear on your credit file."

We have £5000 with which we would like to make F & F payments to all to bring this nightmare to an end. Should we make a F&F to Cabot or just take this off our DMP? Also how much should we offer to each creditor?
Any advice would be very helpful.

sourcrates

Hi,
Well I have some good news for you.

Any account that cant produce the correct paperwork, you do not need to worry about any longer.


There one avenue to recover the debt by legal means, has been denied to them, although the debt still technically exists, it cant be enforced by a court, so you do not have to pay it.


If at some point any of them do produce a valid agreement, unlikely, but possible, then matters would change.


How much is the debt that has produced the correct paperwork for ?


You can make an offer to settle that one, rule of thumb, if its an old debt, start at 30%, you can always increase the offer, remember its a matter of negotiation, so could take a while, and involve a bit of letter tennis.


I would stop paying the DMP straight away if it was me.

sunny68_2

Thank you for advice. The amount is £2978.84

sourcrates

sunny68 wrote: »

Thank you for advice. The amount is £2978.84

So I would wait for conformation that non of the other creditors can supply the right paperwork, then on the one that can, hit them with an offer of around £900, they will most likely not take the first offer, but should come back to you with a figure they would accept.
Its then up to you if you accept, or make a counter offer.


National debt line has an excellent template letter for making offers to creditors on its website, link below :


https://www.nationaldebtline.org/

sunny68_2

Much appreciated. Will make a F&F offer on that one. Feeling better already but are we likely to start receiving threatening letters if we stop making payment on those that don´t have right paperwork?

sourcrates

sunny68 wrote: »

Much appreciated. Will make a F&F offer on that one. Feeling better already but are we likely to start receiving threatening letters if we stop making payment on those that don´t have right paperwork?

It is possible, yes, but that's all they will be, computer generated threatograms, you can put them straight in the recycle bin, then respond with a letter stating :


"on xx/xx/xxxx I made a request for a copy of my original consumer credit agreement. You have confirmed to me that you do not hold an agreement for this account, and that as a result, all recovery action has ceased.


For the avoidance of doubt, this account remains unenforceable, therefore I will not be making any payments to you. Please do not contact me again about this matter"


sunny 68

sunny68_2

Great, thank you!

sunny68_2

So I have now received replies to all my requests except M & S which I will have to chase up. Only one has been able to supply the correct paperwork. As advised here I did not sign any of the requests, but typed my name at the end of the letter. MINT however, has returned my request & £1.00 postal order, saying:

I am unable to deal with your request because your section 78 (1) request has been received, however, this has been returned to you as we require the primary cardholder´s signature before we can proceed for us to satisfy ourselves of the identify under the Data Protection Act, section 7 (3) (a).
Additionally, currently we hold a different address for you than as above. When replying, please authorise us to amend the address on our records, again, this will require a signed authority from you to do this.
I have therefore returned the request to you and require that you please provide me with the correct information and this will be dealt with accordingly.

Can anyone please advise how to proceed with this? I have always kept them informed of my change of address, the last one was in 2013. I have been in a DMP with SC for 12 years and in that time have never received a statement from MINT so only have an estimated balance on my SC account which is around £5000. Should I now return the postal order with a signed letter together with a copy of the 2013 change of address letter?

tomtontom

If it was always your intention to pay off the money you owe, why are you now trying to get out of paying your debts? *confused*

sourcrates

That may be your only course of action if you want them to respond to your CCA request, but, you may want to remind them that there is no requirement in the consumer credit act to provide them with a signature, at all.
They should process your request without the need for a signed authority.
They appear to be avoiding the issue by claiming the incorrect address may breach data protection laws, you can update your address with them, but there's no requirement for you to sign it.

fatbelly

ttt - Read the thread - the OP is checking that they hold a copy of the agreement ahead of F&F deals or completion of a dmp. Obviously unenforceable debts are a much lower priority than enforceable ones.