Court Action by 1st Credit Finance - How to respond?

nick351378

Hi everyone,

I am looking to for some advice on how to deal with a County Court claim from 1st Credit Finance relating to an old HSBC Overdraft. Apologies if this is posted in the wrong place but couldn't find anywhere more suitable.

To cut a long story short, some years ago I lost my job unexpectedly and was no longer able to meet my monthly payments on a few credit accounts as I was already stretched and without income it was impossible. I contacted all the companies and agreed small repayments etc including HSBC who agreed to freeze interest and charges and I paid £5 a month for a while but then gave up and stopped paying around 2012. Account was closed and defaulted with a balance of £1177.50 in August 2012.

Since then various debt purchasing companies have written to me and I have (rightly or wrongly) ignored all correspondence. I have had a few letters from 1st Credit and thier solicitors Lester Aldridge but ignored them until last week a County Court Claim pack arrived. They appear to have very limited information about the account as there are several incorrect figures/details quoted in the "particulars of claim" section. What has annoyed me is they are also claiming interest on the amount since it was assigned to them in 2015 meaning the total claimed is £1488.23.

So how do I deal with it? I accept that I did owe HSBC the money and should have continued the repayments. But what I don't want to happen is a company like this who have obviously bought the debt for a few pounds to get a judgement against me for the whole balance! My situation is I am a single father of 2 , working full time but not much spare money at the end of the month if any so couldn't afford to pay the balance or any significant amount even if I wanted to.

Any advice would be greatly appriciated...

Thanks
Nick

StopIt

As you mention it being a CCJ, I assume you're not in Scotland where the Statute of Limitations is 5 years on debt after non payment or acknowledgement.


In England and Wales it is 6 years so you can't use that as a defence.


As Overdrafts are not CCA regulated you cannot do a CCA request and if you're not disputing the debt in any other way you will have to make an arrangement to pay.


As there's now a live court filing you must acknowledge service, which can be done online, and contact the DCA offering a payment plan. If they accept they'll drop the CCJ but if not, they'll press through and you'll need to make sure to communicate with the courts to organise affordable payments.


I'd be talking to the CAB or debt charity like StepChange too for some free advice too.

National_Debtline

Hi Nick

Welcome to MSE. I agree with StopIt, it doesn’t sound like you can argue they are out of time to collect the debt. This could only apply if, since the bank called the overdraft in, there had been a 6 year period without any payments (by any liable party) or written acknowledgement of the debt (by you). Assuming this does not apply you need to respond to the court papers.

Debt collection agencies (DCA) are allowed to buy debts for less than is actually owing and you can’t try and use that as a defence. They can also add interest as long as it is in line with the terms and conditions of the credit agreement.

You could ask the DCA to accept a payment plan and withdraw the court claim but it would be unusual for them to agree to do that. If that doesn’t work make an offer based on what you can afford on your SOA. You will need to respond within 14 days, you can find details on how to respond here https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/factsheets/Pages/replyingtoacountycourtclaim/replyingtoaccj.aspx.

Susie
@natdebtline

sourcrates

nick351378 wrote: »

So how do I deal with it? I accept that I did owe HSBC the money and should have continued the repayments. But what I don't want to happen is a company like this who have obviously bought the debt for a few pounds to get a judgement against me for the whole balance! My situation is I am a single father of 2 , working full time but not much spare money at the end of the month if any so couldn't afford to pay the balance or any significant amount even if I wanted to.

Any advice would be greatly appriciated...

Thanks
Nick

You need to respond to the claim as quickly as possible as strict timescales apply here.

It looks like you can do nothing else but admit the claim, and make an affordable offer of payment to the court.

fatbelly

Yes you need to do something (offer of payment or acknowledge service) within 14 + 5 days of the issue date.

Points made already are correct: unlikely to be statute barred unless you are living in Scotland; can't do a CCA; unlikely to withdraw now that they've paid for the claim.

However, it would do no harm to nip over to

http://www.legalbeagles.info/forums/forumdisplay.php?105-Received-a-Court-Claim

to get more specialist help.

It sounds like you have a collection of debts. Now it looks like a ccj is coming, and heading for your credit file, it may be worth running the whole situation past someone impartial (National Debtline, CAB, Stepchange) in case something like a DRO would work for you.