Moorcroft and Stepchange

Dan21

Hello,

Hopefully can get some advice.

When I was 19 and at Uni, I took out a lot of money to help fund my girlfriend's place at an American College. She was supposed to pay me back, disappeared to said college is now in the US and I never received anything back.

Consequently, despite trying to pull a 30 hour a week job + Uni, I couldn't cope or even manage the repayments, so I dropped out of Uni and worked full time. This was 2015, the debts were about £10,000.

I then buried my head in the sand, and cost myself about another £5,000 in charges, unplanned overdraft fees, interest and other stuff. Then in April 2016 I got a new job away from retail (who were shafting my hours making it even harder) and moved with my grandparents, greatly reducing outgoings. I contacted Stepchange, and set up a DMP, which I have paid every month since on time and for the full amount they requested.

Today I owe about:

£1,500 to Vanquis
£600 to Aqua
£750 Capital One Platinum
£700 Capital One
£1,400 Co-Op (Student Overdraft, they aren't chasing and are lovely whenever I talk to them)

£600 - Moorcroft, formerly Barclays

This is where my troubles start, nobody has really bothered me, maybe I've been in a honeymoon period or something, but I've made my repayments, and knocked about £10k off of my debt.

Today my grandmother received a call on her landline from Moorcroft demanding I contact them immediately. This was at 20:30. I have never, ever, given her landline number to anybody, the only way I can think they have found it is the phone book.

Stepchange advised me they contact my creditors directly, so firstly, do I need to even talk to Moorcroft? Could I just continue making my DMP Payments? Secondly, can I ensure they never contact this landline again, my gran is now incredibly worried somebody is going to come and kick in her door.

I've been reading through the forum, and am thinking the best course of action would be to send them a CCA, then a Denial of Entry (I think it's called this) letter, and thirdly a letter threatening to call the Police if they harass or contact my Gran again?

Can anybody advise if this is the best course of action or what to do? Sorry for the essay.

Cheers

sourcrates

Hi Dan,

First off, calm down, such dramatic action is unnessessay.

Moorcroft only manage debts on behalf of there clients, they do not own the debt, so they have no power whatsoever to do anything at all.

Second, they are just debt collectors, not bayliffs, they can't "come round and kick your door in", that is fantasy.

Today's debt collectors don't look like Grant from eastenders, they are a mixed bunch, all sat at desks, in a large call centre on some industrial estate, they don't go around knocking on doors, again another myth, there weapon of choice is the telephone not a knuckle duster.

Some DCA's use self employed collectors to visit clients, Moorcroft is not one of them, but again, they are just ordinary people, with no more power than next doors cat, so again, nothing to worry about (lots of vids on YouTube about how to deal with unwanted callers, quite funny some of them).

Most likely they will either be looking for you to up your payments, or want to "review" your account.

Don't worry, Moorcroft are easily dealt with, I suggest you write a letter to them, (where debt is concerned, always do everything in writing) ask them :

why they are ringing you,
And how they got the phone number,

then tell them to remove all numbers from your file, and to only contact you in writing from now on.

Inform them that if they want to contact you about something, they should put it in a letter, as you will not speak to them on the phone.
And if they continue to ignore data protection laws you will report them to the ICO, the FOS, and the FSA.

That should sort them.

zippygeorgeandben

You're so helpful and speak in terms anyone can understand sourcrates. I salute you.

fatbelly

Dan21 wrote: »

Today my grandmother received a call on her landline from Moorcroft demanding I contact them immediately. This was at 20:30. I have never, ever, given her landline number to anybody, the only way I can think they have found it is the phone book.

I've been reading through the forum, and am thinking the best course of action would be to send them a CCA, then a Denial of Entry (I think it's called this) letter, and thirdly a letter threatening to call the Police if they harass or contact my Gran again?

All your Gran needs to do is to block their calls.

It's not expensive to have phone with that facility, e.g.

http://www.argos.co.uk/product/5434468