Dormant Capital One Credit Card. Help!

TeaBoy100

I have recently started to receive letters and calls from a collection agency that is managing the balance of a credit card account I held with Capital One.

The card was taken out over ten years ago and to my knowledge, the balance was paid off and I no longer own the card, having destroyed it.

Suddenly, in June, a payment was made towards paying off the balance in form of a direct debit from my bank account and this went unnoticed by me.

Again, I had no idea that the credit card was still active or that I had any balance to pay as I have had absolutely no contact from Capital One. No letters, no phone-calls, no emails (I've checked spam).

The balance being asked of me by the collection agency (Fredrickson International) is for £309 which I'm guessing is made up of about ten years' worth of fees and interest which I was completely unaware of.

I've been bounced back between Capital One and Fredrickson International several times and Capital One has agreed to send me a full breakdown of my statements by post.

What are my options? Is it legal for a credit company to enforce fees after ten years? Surely they would have had to let me know about the card and its balance at some point between 2005 and now?!

Help!

Thanks

takman

So you just cut up the card and forgot about it?. How come you didn't cancel the card and the direct debit at the time then you wouldn't have had this situation?.

I'm no expert but if you had a balance and just chose to ignore it at the time and then left the direct debit setup allowing them to take payments then i would say they are entitled to their £309. Which isn't too bad considering 10 years of non payment.

System

Direct debit mandates cancel themselves after 13 months of non-use.

Clive_Woody

If there was a 6 year period when no payment was made then the debt becomes statue barred and cannot be pursued through the courts (look it up). Making an additional payment cannot reverse that. You need to check your dates when the payments were made.

jonesMUFCforever

Claim back the d/d using the d/d indemnity through your bank.
If you really have not made or acknowledged the debt for 6 years then it is indeed statute barred.

Ben8282

If the credit card account was in good order and had a nil balance at the time you cut up the card, I am curious as to why you never received any further replacement cards or other marketing communications from Capital One. As you have never cancelled the card it would normally have been automatically replaced when expired.
I hope that you took residual interest into account (if you were paying interest) and actually paid the final statement for that (possibly exceedingly small) amount after repaying the full balance of the previous statement. Did you actually recall seeing, and have you by any chance kept, the final nil balance statement? I am talking about the final statement after the one that you paid in full showing a balance of 0.
You say that the amount being demanded is made up of fees and interest, but fees and interest in relation to what original or defaulted balance? This is sounding more and more like residual interest to me.
But the direct debit business confuses me. If, as apparently alledged, there was a balance left on the credit card when you cut it up, why did Capital One not continue to take the monthly direct debit minimum payments? This is what confuses me the most. If, for example, you thought you had completely cleared the card but the following month there was perhaps an amount of residual interest, why did Capital One not continue to send statements or take the direct debit? Or did you perhaps cancel the direct debit? If so, why so hasty.
Then there remains the question of why Capital One did not send you any further statements letters or attempt to contact you by other means.
Have you checked your credit report to see how this account is shown there? If defaulted the default would be gone by now so no record. Or is it still there showing as .... open and unused, dormant, late ....?
It defies belief that Capital One would keep open a credit card account with a debit balance and the minimum payment 120 months overdue and continue to apply interest and fees on a monthly basis as if the account was in good order. It would have been defaulted after a few months at best! They would have had to have been producing and sending you a statement every month if they had kept it open with a debit though!
If you really genuinely have not made any payments towards this alledged debt and have not been contacted by anybody at all about it in all that time and you are sure of this, then basically tell the debt collection agency that it is statute barred and to get lost. This applies however the debt came about.
I cannot understand how the direct debit has reinstated itself. Ask your bank for an explanation.