Broken Arrangement with Debt Collection

bcebandit

Hi,

I really hope someone can help me.

Basically, I received some charges that went unpaid and were sent to a debt collection agency.

After receiving letters from them, I got in contact with them and offered to pay £10 a MONTH - this is due to me paying off other debts. These arrangements have been kept up with other firms.
They eventually agreed to a payment plan but put it at £10 a WEEK! I can barely afford to get to work, let alone pay an extra £30 on top of what I offered.

I am not able to post links so can not upload the letter they sent.

In the letter, they state the agreement in place and that the first payment was to be received on 12th January. Because they had sent me, via email, their bank details to do a bank transfer as well as their number for card payments, I made a transfer on the 5th January 2018. This was my last £10 in my account. I then received the letter I had requested for all details for my own records and in that letter, it states (as it shows above) that first payment is to be made by 12th January 2018.
To me, that means that the payment I made 3 days earlier covers that first payment.
I then made a 2nd payment on the 19th, via my mum, as I do not have the funds still to make the payment. I was also going to make the same arrangement tomorrow.
Today, however, I received a letter stating that I have failed to keep to the payment arrangement agreed previously, this has now been cancelled.

I called the number on the letter.
The woman on the phone was really rude. She was talking over me, and would not let me talk/explain.
She asked why I did not make a payment then on the 12th (as I made the payment on the 5th) and my response was I thought I had. She said why did I not make another one then on the 12th as I already had the details and I said because I received a letter and that told me that the first payment was due on the 12th. I paid that first payment, however, before the 12th. She again asked why I couldn't have made another payment. I said I did not have the money to do so. But before I could explain that I would have obtained it elsewhere if I knew that in fact the 12th was meant to the 2nd payment, I would have made arrangements for payment then.
She then said I was late anyway with each payment. Because I made the transfers on Friday evenings, when home from work, they never received the transfer notice until the following Monday. This meant the payment was late.

As I said above, she was rude and was not listening to me at all.

I want to take this further but not sure who to. I spoke with the Financial Ombudsman and they said they are unable to help.
I've since searched on the FCA website that they are a lapsed registered company and that on the Consumer Credit Centre website, they mention:

What is meant by lapsed on the FCA register?
At the time of the changeover from OFT to FCA, the FCA granted all transferring companies interim permissions under which they could operate taking into account the new rules and regulations. At that time you will have also been given a window of three months by which it would want to receive your completed application. If you didn’t apply within that window, your application is classed as lapsed. Your interim permission is immediately withdrawn and you have no permissions to carry out regulated business.

Does this mean they should not actually be chasing credit or have I completely missed the idea of this? Do they not have to be registered with the FCA?

I am writing an email and letter to both the company again, and the main creditor, to outline my disgust with this and wish for them to reconsider the agreement. It's not like I was months in and forgot, it is a bit of miscommunication, more on their part.

I would also like to add that at no point did the person on the phone do any form of data protection with me. Was happy to take the reference number and discuss the debt. I could have been anyone.

Any ideas on what I could/should put in the emails/letters?

National_Debtline

Hi there bcebandit


It sounds as if you might be making more work for yourself than is strictly necessary.


If this is indeed simply a debt collection agency and the debt is not subject to any court proceedings, they will have no special legal powers here and any payment deadlines they have set will be arbitrary. You would do better in my opinion to step back, determine what you can pay, when you can pay it and at what intervals, and then tell (not ask!) them that is what you will be doing, and proceed with the payments as planned, rather than have numerous back and forth conversations which tend to resolve very little in my experience.


By all means, exercise your right to complain about any aspect of their service you are unhappy with, but it's for you to gauge how you value the time you spend pursuing such complaints.


I can't offer any insight as to their rights to chase this debt without knowing who they are, I'm afraid.


Dennis
@natdebtline

sourcrates

Agree with Dennis, who is the debt collector, and how much do you owe ?

What were the charges originally for ?

The DCA does not own the debt, they are just collecting it on their clients behalf, you don’t really have to deal with them, there’s nothing they can do to you.

Stay off the phone to them, if they are been awkward, I’d just ignore them, eventually they will either pass the account back, or another DCA will get the job.

fatbelly

Agree with the above - but if they are trading without permission then they do need to be reported to the FCA

I have had a couple of cases like this. One was prosecuted, the other was actually trading under a different registration but was too lazy to print new letterheads.