MIL collections chasing me

inepta

About 2 or 3 years ago my OH was in a car accident and we had a courtesy car for a while. When we took the car we were asked for a cheque for a fuel deposit only to be cashed in (or so we thought) if we happened to hand the car back empty of fuel (which we didn't). Anyway they unexpectedly cashed the cheque - or tried to. I was the end of the month and we had no overdraft and no money in the account.
Turns out they cashed the cheque straight away, well tried to but it bounced.
They wrote to us and asked us to pay a £50 admin fee. I refused to pay because I was adamant that they'd misinformed us about the cashing of this cheque and I thought that the charge of £50 was excessive for an admin charge . We received a few letters and then nothing.
Fast forward a few months and MIL collections started harassing me over this debt. They constantly call and send letters. One letter came this morning saying they had handed the debt to door to door collections and they said they will take court action if they are unable to recover the money.
My question is....do they have the legal right to pursue this debt and is it likely that they will accept a payment of £1 per month? We are in debt management and completely on our knees right now. Just had our pooch pts after a lengthy illness and have £0 in our bank account.

Any advice gratefully received.

sourcrates

Hi,

Seems they specialise in parking fine recovery MIL collections.

Your best bet is to send a written complaint to the original company you dealt with.

Try and come to some arrangement with them, as there conduct seems to be far from exemplary.

At the same time send a letter to MIL telling them to cease all collection activity as the debt is in dispute with the original creditor.

Could be MIL have bought this debt.

How much are they claiming you owe them ?

inepta

Hi and thanks for replying!
My OH now seems to think the original charge was £30 but I think it's always been £50. The original debt was with Euro car rental. Will MIL tell me if they bought the debt? MIL are saying I owe £50.

sourcrates

inepta wrote: »

Hi and thanks for replying!
My OH now seems to think the original charge was £30 but I think it's always been £50. The original debt was with Euro car rental. Will MIL tell me if they bought the debt? MIL are saying I owe £50.

Do there letters refer to there client at all ?

I had a similar bottom feeder DCA chasing me for a £50 debt which I know I didn't owe (made up of fees they could not legally charge) just dispute the debt as I said before.

Complaints procedure the way to go.

inepta

The letter says re: Certegy Ltd who must have been the original debt management company. Do I address the letter to MIL or Certegy or Euro car?

sourcrates

inepta wrote: »

The letter says re: Certegy Ltd who must have been the original debt management company. Do I address the letter to MIL or Certegy or Euro car?

I refer you to post #2# again.

Deal with each company as I have advised.

Good luck, let us know if you need further help.

blisteringblue

MIL are simply bottom feeders they will have paid about £1 for that debt and they simply chase and chase and chase. They have bought up bucket loads of old parking charges that the parking companies can't be bothered chancing court to then have it thrown out. Chances are they are not going to take you to court for £50 it will cost them so much more than that, so they will simply harass you in the hope you pay them.