How to strike a bargain with collectors - and my situation

holdorflod

I've got 3 accounts with Lowell Financial collection agency regarding 3 separate debts: a credit card debt of of £730, a phone debt of £150 and an unpaid loan of £620. Total debt is £1500.

For the past three months, I moved from the UK and have been living in Canada at my Mum's working on a project which is currently not providing any income, but will pay off in the future. I will come back to the UK perhaps in about 6 months.

I have some money in my bank account left over from my previous job and would like to settle this debt for the least amount possible to give me more to live on. I'm looking to make a Skype call to them from here, Canada, to settle my account.

I've got a few questions I hope someone could help me with:

1) I believe that at least one of these debts is over 6 years old, would the "Statute of Limitation" apply, and if so how would I get them to tell me?

2) Bearing in mind the total debt is £1500, what is a low/reasonable amount to aim for in terms of making a bargain?

3) I would like to give them the least amount of information regarding my situation. Do I have to give them my current address? I'd prefer to keep my mum's address out of this to be honest.

4) I usually use a secondary debit card to make payments instead of my main account which has all my money. I do this as a buffer incase anything goes wrong and only load that account with money I need for a short amount of time or a particular payment. It so happens my paranoia paid off recently as someone in the UK was using my buffer card for fraud a few weeks ago, so I only have my main account card at the moment. Would it be safe to pay with my main account card, e.g. could they take more from my card than I bargained and would it be safe for them to have this card on file in the future?

Thanks for your help

sourcrates

holdorflod wrote: »

I've got 3 accounts with Lowell Financial collection agency regarding 3 separate debts: a credit card debt of of £730, a phone debt of £150 and an unpaid loan of £620. Total debt is £1500.

For the past three months, I moved from the UK and have been living in Canada at my Mum's working on a project which is currently not providing any income, but will pay off in the future. I will come back to the UK perhaps in about 6 months.

I have some money in my bank account left over from my previous job and would like to settle this debt for the least amount possible to give me more to live on. I'm looking to make a Skype call to them from here, Canada, to settle my account.

I've got a few questions I hope someone could help me with:

1) I believe that at least one of these debts is over 6 years old, would the "Statute of Limitation" apply, and if so how would I get them to tell me?

2) Bearing in mind the total debt is £1500, what is a low/reasonable amount to aim for in terms of making a bargain?

3) I would like to give them the least amount of information regarding my situation. Do I have to give them my current address? I'd prefer to keep my mum's address out of this to be honest.

4) I usually use a secondary debit card to make payments instead of my main account which has all my money. I do this as a buffer incase anything goes wrong and only load that account with money I need for a short amount of time or a particular payment. It so happens my paranoia paid off recently as someone in the UK was using my buffer card for fraud a few weeks ago, so I only have my main account card at the moment. Would it be safe to pay with my main account card, e.g. could they take more from my card than I bargained and would it be safe for them to have this card on file in the future?

Thanks for your help

Hi,

They won't tell you if it's statute barred, or help you in any way, they want there money, period.
If you belive an account is SB you should send a letter to them saying so, plenty of templates on the web.

Treat each account seperatly, I would not recommend phoning them, to be honest, I would wait till you are back in the uk, then do it all in writing, never give a DCA your debt card details, in fact you don't have to cooperate with them in any way, shape or form, or give them any more information other than a reference number.

holdorflod

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,

They won't tell you if it's statute barred, or help you in any way, they want there money, period.
If you belive an account is SB you should send a letter to them saying so, plenty of templates on the web.

Treat each account seperatly, I would not recommend phoning them, to be honest, I would wait till you are back in the uk, then do it all in writing, never give a DCA your debt card details, in fact you don't have to cooperate with them in any way, shape or form, or give them any more information other than a reference number.

Thanks for the advice, problem is my mail is going to my sister's place in the UK since that was my last address. As long as there's little to no chance of anyone coming to her door, I'm fine with the mail going there until I get back but if there is a chance that someone would come around I'd need to settle the debt asap.

sourcrates

holdorflod wrote: »

Thanks for the advice, problem is my mail is going to my sister's place in the UK since that was my last address. As long as there's little to no chance of anyone coming to her door, I'm fine with the mail going there until I get back but if there is a chance that someone would come around I'd need to settle the debt asap.

Only a few DCA's use doorstep collectors, and not in any great number, as it's not cost effective, like so much of the rhetoric in there letters, it's used as a threat to get you to pay up, in reality, rarely happens.
Plus they are not bayliffs so have no power of entry or to Seize goods, you can ignore them and tell them to go away, they can't do a thing.

January2015

I would tell your sister to send back any post you don't want marked 'not at this address'. If you want some post and not others, you can usually google the return address/postcode and decide if it's post you want to keep or return.

That's not untrue