why have halifax sold on my debt?

tiredwithtwins

I received 2 letters from the Halifax this morning informing me that my debt has been sold on to a group called pra ... but I don't know why as I was sticking to the repayment agreement?


bit of background - I was a specialist nurse but left my job due to intolerable long hours, increasing stress and increasing workload, plus I failed the prescribing course (that was part of my job requirements). I chose to leave as my family life was falling apart, my stress levels were through the roof and I couldn't cope with it any more. my salary dropped from about £30k to around half of that .. I literally couldn't get out of bed for months. I owed £10k for a loan and £1500 on an overdraft.
my manageable debt became unmanageable, and after months of struggling I contacted my debtors and made reduced payment arrangements. this was 11 months ago, and I have stuck to the payment plan (paid by direct debit).


So I was quite surprised that they sold it on .. I had every intention to resume normal repayments once the 12 months was up and did say this to them when I was making the arrangement.


I didn't received any notice or warning .. is this normal?
What do I do now? the letter said pra group would take over my repayment plan .. I know I need to contact them and will do once I have an idea whats happened and if its normal for the Halifax to sell them on?


thanks for any advice


sue

sourcrates

Hi,

Yes it's common practice amongst the banks to sell on bad debt.

They have neither the time or resources to manage it themselves, so sell it on for someone else to deal with.

PRA group will write to you to "introduce" themselves!!

Bluetonic123

Sometimes DCAs are easier to deal with than original creditors. If you have a payment plan in place they should let you stick to it.

National_Debtline

Hi tiredwithtwins


Once a debt is subject to a reduced payment arrangement like this, the bank may no longer consider it part of their normal everyday business and that's one reason it gets farmed out to other companies like PRA instead. You should be no less able than before to continue any existing plan and renegotiate if/when necessary.


Dennis
@natdebtline

The_Analyst

PRA are an ok bunch to deal with. Not aggressive like some other collection agencies.

fatbelly

The_Analyst wrote: »

PRA are an ok bunch to deal with. Not aggressive like some other collection agencies.

Hopefully they sacked all the old Mackenzie hall staff then.

OP, if you can get a lump sum together, your chances of getting this cleared are now much better. They will have bought this account for 10-20% of the balance figure.

Details on this thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/115430

tiredwithtwins

Thank you so much for your replies, I feel much better about the situation now. I will contact them once I get my statement of affairs redone (just waiting for my tax credits renewal to be finalised so I know what my income will be).


thank you again for your kind replies


sue