Help! Creditor has sold my debt, but they are asking for more than I owe!?

Niennamarie

Going to start with a bit of background. A few years ago I got myself into some debt with payday loans, fell into arrears on my rent and council tax. I was facing eviction so seeing no other way out I stupidly applied for one big loan, big enough to pay off everything I owed the council. Obviously, this put me in a worse position so I finally decided to get some help and set up a dmp. I also got given some advice to complain about the company to the Financial ombudsman, as i shouldn't have been given a large loan with large monthly replayments when I was already in considerable debt. I did this and I won my case, the only thing I have to repay was the principal amount they lent me to start with and they are not allowed to add any more interest or charges to my debt. I have been paying monthly using my dmp company and I have managed to get this amount down a fair bit and I now have a few hundred pound to pay rather the few thousand which I originally owed, so I am very happy.

Unfortunately, every few months, this creditor feels the need to write to my dmp company and tell them I still owe them thousands. I then phone the creditor to query this and they tell me it is a mistake and send me a copy of the updated amount owed, which is in line with what I believe I owe. This happens, as I said, every 2-3 months.

Now, I have received a letter from a debt collection company saying that the creditor has passed the debt onto them and you have probably guessed, the debt they are collecting falls at a few thousand pound. I am getting really fed up now, and it's worrying as I fear they will take me to court. I know I would win, but could do without the worry and hassle. I just want them to leave me alone and let me pay my actual debt to them in peace.

I am just wondering if anyone has any advice to how I should approach this? Do I contact the debt collection company now to prove that I don't owe this money? And if I prove it will they then leave me alone? I am coming to the end of paying them back anyway. Would it be worth contacting the FOB again or would they not deal with a case once it has closed?

Thank you for your help. I tend to ramble a bit so I hope I've gotten to the point well enough .

Karonher

Can you send a copy of the updated amount showing what you actually owe?

Suseka97

Sounds a bit odd - but I would write to the DCA with a copy of whatever it was the creditor sent you showing what was owed (the principal balance) and say that you will pay them exactly the same as you were paying the original creditor and only to the amount you have proven you owe. You could also send a copy of the FOS letter showing your case was upheld and what was agreed.

For now just update your DMP details so that your payments go to the DCA - or perhaps even contact your DMP provider to see if they can intervene on your behalf as well.

I wouldn't bother going back to the FOS, at least not at this point. Chances are your creditor has effectively mis-sold your account to the DCA and I bet they'll be none too pleased when thy find out. You have the body of proof on your side - so I'd ride this one out and see what happens when they realise the error

sourcrates

Hi,

If this DCA are just managing this debt on behalf of there client, you can ignore them completely, as they do not own the debt, they are powerless, and you are wasting your time and energy attempting to deal with them.

I hope your DMP company is a free one ?

There should be an amount the FOS told you to repay, stick to this payment, no matter what anyone else says, keep paying it regardless of what rubbish they tell you in return, when its paid off demand a statement to confirm its settled.

Write to the creditors compliance debt complaining about all the mis-leading information they have been telling you, head your letter "COMPLAINT" they have a duty to sort this out for you, if they do not, then go back to the FOS.

Niennamarie

Thank you for all your help.

I can send the last amended statement the creditor gave me but it's 3 months out of date now and I've paid more since then. So I think I will follow sourcrates advice and write a complaint, when they send me my new correct balance I will forward this onto the DCA. Hopefully then that will be the end of it, fingers crossed!

This company has been an absolute nightmare to be honest, even in the beginning they refused to honour the ombudsmans decision and needed some reminding that it was legally binding and they didn't really have any choice. I think I may need to check my credit rating too, as they were told to remove my debt from it as though it never existed and I'm starting to think that probably hasn't been done either! I haven't been too bothered up until now because my credit rating will be terrible anyway, but it's not really the point when they should have done it

I'm using stepchange to manage my debt.

sourcrates

Niennamarie wrote: »

This company has been an absolute nightmare to be honest, even in the beginning they refused to honour the ombudsmans decision and needed some reminding that it was legally binding and they didn't really have any choice.

Just clarify a few things here for me please.

Who is the original company, and what is the name of the debt collector ?

Name names its ok, just confirm if the debt collector are only acting for this company, or if they have bought the debt, actually giving me there name will tell me that anyway.

Niennamarie

I didn't know if I was allowed to name names, new here sorry. And I didn't know there was a difference, I just presumed it had been sold. Sorry if I've caused any confusion.

The creditor I got the loan with is AvantCredit, and the debt collector is Asset Collections and investigations ltd.

The letter says "On and with effect from 5th July 2017 the assignor assigned to Asset Collections & Investigations Limited (Assignee) all it's rights, title, interest and benefits in and to the Assigned documents and debts.

All future corrispondence, dealings, deliveries and payments in respect of Assigned Documents or the debts should be made to the Assignee."

So it may be that they are acting on AvantCredits behalf? I'm still not sure to be honest. Does this mean I should do anything differently?

sourcrates

Niennamarie wrote: »

I didn't know if I was allowed to name names, new here sorry. And I didn't know there was a difference, I just presumed it had been sold. Sorry if I've caused any confusion.

The creditor I got the loan with is AvantCredit, and the debt collector is Asset Collections and investigations ltd.

The letter says "On and with effect from 5th July 2017 the assignor assigned to Asset Collections & Investigations Limited (Assignee) all it's rights, title, interest and benefits in and to the Assigned documents and debts.

All future corrispondence, dealings, deliveries and payments in respect of Assigned Documents or the debts should be made to the Assignee."

So it may be that they are acting on AvantCredits behalf? I'm still not sure to be honest. Does this mean I should do anything differently?

That makes perfect sense, Avant credit are an american company and are on the verge of going bust, they have been trying to raise capital and have sold on a lot of there bad debt portfolio, yours included.

Asset collections now own your account, so you should deal with them now, send a letter outlining previous events with avant, the FOS etc etc, as they will not be aware of events prior to sale of the debt.