Advise required on debt with 1st Credit Ltd

001721

Hi,

I'm after some advice regarding a debt I have with 1st Credit Ltd, I will try to be as detailed as possible on my situation.

It started in January 2011, I was 18 and had 3 months left on a temporary 6 month job contract. At the time I had a bit of a stupid gambling habit, I was careless and had no real responsibility. I had been gambling around £200 of the approximately £800 I was earning a month via online betting sites.

In summary I ended up winning £10,000 from online gambling. After a short weekend away I came back and wanted to recoup the money I had spent (around £1500). I lost it all. I decided the best idea would be to try and get an overdraft online with my halifax current account, after a click of a couple of buttons I had an £1100 overdraft, no signing any paperwork or making any telephone calls. A few minutes later this £1100 had been put on a bet and lost.

I have made no contact with Halifax bank since then, I stopped using the account and opened a new one elsewhere.

Now that I've grown up a bit and am in a decent financial situation I am wanting to sort my credit rating out. I have a letter from the Halifax bank from November 2014 saying they passed the debt onto 1st Credit, I don't recall ever receiving a letter from 1st Credit.

I have contacted 1st credit recently asking them to tell me what information they currently have on the account, I have given them my name, date of birth, current address and address at the time Halifax said they had assigned the account to them. 1st credit have not replied to me.

I basically want to know the cheapest way of getting this settled so I can improve my credit report.

Perhaps Halifax should never have lent me the money as they could have seen that a large amount of my money was going to Paddy Power (online bet makers), and it could be considered irresponsible lending?

Maybe 1st Credit not replying to my numerous emails sent over the past ten days implies they have no proof of ownership of the debt?

If I was to call 1st credit and offer them a one off payment of £600 for example and they accepted this would it improve my credit report just as much as me offering to pay the full balance of £1524.29?

The overdraft was definitely only for £1100 by the way, I don't know where the other £424.29 has come from.

How do I find out when the debt will become Statute Barred? If for example this was in a years time should I just wait until then? If the debt became statute barred does that mean my credit score would then improve as it would be wiped? If not then this wouldn't help me.

Please provide your opinions on the best course of action.

Thanks in advance,

John.

sourcrates

Hi,

Why do you want to "sort out" your credit rating ?

Are you looking to take credit again ?

1st credit buy up debts in bulk, could be they just haven't got around to writing to you yet, or they may never write to you, accounts get assessed on how likley it is they will be able to recover the money owed, until they contact you, I'd just hang fire.

If your dates are correct, it could be SB some time next year.

January2015

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,

If your dates are correct, it could be SB some time next year.

But if the OP has contacted 1st credit and admitted the debt then surely the 6 years starts again from that point?

I realise the OP hasn't said if they contacted 1st Credit in writing, but if they did surely giving them "my name, date of birth, current address and address at the time Halifax said they had assigned the account to them" is admitting the debt as they most probably gave the sort code and account number information as well.

sourcrates

January2015 wrote: »

But if the OP has contacted 1st credit and admitted the debt then surely the 6 years starts again from that point?

I realise the OP hasn't said if they contacted 1st Credit in writing, but if they did surely giving them "my name, date of birth, current address and address at the time Halifax said they had assigned the account to them" is admitting the debt as they most probably gave the sort code and account number information as well.

But thus far they have failed to join the dots by putting those details to an outstanding account.
Usually they need there own reference number.
The OP should refrain from contacting this DCA until, or if, they receive a specific written request for payment.

The thing on the OP's side is that tons of emails never get read, I believe he could plead plausible deniability if he was challenged on this !!!!!

January2015

sourcrates wrote: »

But thus far they have failed to join the dots by putting those details to an outstanding account.
The OP should refrain from contacting this DCA until, or if, they receive a specific written request for payment.

The thing on the OP's side is that tons of emails never get read, I believe he could plead plausible deniability if he was challenged on this !!!!!

Just concerned they may have handed the DCA a silver platter with their information on it. But I agree! - refrain from contacting them and quietly wait out the months til the 6 years is up!

sourcrates

January2015 wrote: »

Just concerned they may have handed the DCA a silver platter with their information on it. But I agree! - refrain from contacting them and quietly wait out the months til the 6 years is up!

He may very well of done so yes !!!

001721

When I contacted 1st credit I didn't provide any of the bank account details nor did I provide the 1st credit reference as I don't have it. I pleaded ignorance as to why it was appearing on my credit report and asked if it was a clerical error by them. I claimed to remember being told by Halifax that the debt would be unassigned from 1st credit and written off after I accused them of irresponsible lending. (Apologies for not mentioning this in the first post).

The reason I want to improve my credit rating is because I want to get onto my partners mortgage and lease a car.

If the debt did become SB next year how would that affect my credit rating? Would it suddenly shoot up as if the Halifax and 1st credit accounts had never been on it? If it wouldn't improve and being SB just means I don't legally have to pay it then waiting for this is of not interest to me and I'd sooner know how to negotiate the best price.

001721

Contact was made by email by the way, not in writing.

sourcrates

001721 wrote: »

Contact was made by email by the way, not in writing.

Email is recognised as written acknowledgment, it would hinge on weather they could connect your garbled email to an outstanding account on there books, or not.

You do realise that Credit ratings are purely fictitious numbers plucked out of thin air by the CRA's don't you ?

They are totally meaningless, it's credit history that counts, ie, no defaults, pays on time, on the voters role etc etc.

I would be very wary of 1st credit, as they may throw a court claim at you just before it becomes SB, they are well known for this little trick.

001721

What can it be considered as acknowledgment of? I have acknowledged that 1st credit are mentioned on my credit report and told them I presume it is a clerical error, surely this can't be considered as me acknowledging owing the money to them.

I was under the impression that credit ratings were numbers generated by CRA'S based on the credit history..

If 1st credit are likely to throw a court claim before the debt is SB then I won't bother waiting for that to potentially happen.

I'd just like a list of the options I have aside from waiting for it to be SB and the outcome of each one.

If I was to offer 1st credit 600 pound and paid it in one lump sum would this look worse than paying the entire balance on my credit history or not make a difference?

I want to improve my credit so I can lease a car/get added to a mortgage. I basically want to know if I can do this without paying the full balance.

sourcrates

It could be argued you have acknowledged the debt, thus restarting the statute barred time clock.
If you partially settle the debt it will look better than not paying it, but it should be off your file anyway next year, so how it looks to potential lenders may be irrelevant as it won't be showing any longer.

If you go down the partial settlement route, follow National debt lines advice on full and final settlements.

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Full-and-final-settlement-offers-%28sole-name%29.aspx