Nationwide Personal Loan - Cabot Financial Letter

eruka

Hi All,

I hope someone can help me!

I recently got a letter from Nationwide stating that they have transferred my debt to Cabot Financial as of 22/10/2018 and all communication should now be to them.

This was for a unsecured personal Loan from a very long time ago with approx. £3000 outstanding.

I have looked back and the last payment i made for this was 30/12/2011. Having done a little research online i think this means the debt is now statue barred.

What should my next move be?

I am conflicted between sending a letter about the debt being Statute Barred

or

A CCA Request with £1 postal order?

Please help if you know what my best option is!

Thank you.

Eruka

CakeCrusader

Wait for them to contact you. They will, it shouldn't take too long, then send them the statute barred letter.

fatbelly

My thinking is that the statute barred angle is a compete defence, so would concentrate on that.

Wait until cabot write to you then respond with this

https://www.nationaldebtline.org/EW/sampleletters/Pages/Time-has-run-out-to-recover-the-debt-%28sole-name%29.aspx

assuming you're not in Scotland

eruka

Thank you for the quick replies.
I forgot to say the letter from Cabot was attached to the letter from Nationwide!

I will send them the letter from the link - Thank you!

I'm a little confused as when the statute barred timer starts. Can they claim it started when the debt defaulted?

Thank you again for your help!

Just_Di

eruka wrote: »

the last payment i made for this was 30/12/2011. Having done a little research online i think this means the debt is now statue barred.

Did you acknowledge the debt in any way after your last payment?

Do you know when the account was defaulted?

Nationwide can be slow to assign (sell) delinquent debts, but seven years is longer than the norm for them.

You can send a Subject Access Request to Nationwide to see what data they hold on file just in case there's anything which could scupper your SB argument.

Better safe than sorry and a SAR is free nowadays

Di

eruka

Just_Di wrote: »

Did you acknowledge the debt in any way after your last payment?

Do you know when the account was defaulted?

Thank you for your reply :heart2:

I don't think i acknowledged it. Just to make sure what are the possible ways of acknowledging the debt?
(I definitely did not write to them or call them)

I don't know when the debt defaulted - do you know how i can find out?

I will submit a SAR request - Thank you!

Just_Di

eruka wrote: »

confused as when the statute barred timer starts. Can they claim it started when the debt defaulted?

Yes.

However there is a case on its way to the Court of Appeal which may settle this legal issue.

District Judges (in lower courts) sometimes rule in favour of the Claimant (default date is Cause of Action for SB purposes), and sometimes they don't, so a COA (Higher Court) ruling is needed.

Di

Just_Di

eruka wrote: »

I don't know when the debt defaulted - do you know how i can find out?

You can check your credit reference agency file for the default date.

If the Nationwide loan is no longer showing on your file then that should mean that the default was more than six years ago because the whole account entry is removed from your file six years after the default was first registered.

You may need to check more than one CRA file becuase not every creditor reports to all of them.

From what you say you've received a Notice of Assignment from both Nationwaide and Cabot.

I would expect you to be on the receiving end of endless phone calls and texts for a while, and then they'll start to write to you.

Meanwhile do your discrete research behind the scenes

Di

eruka

Bad News for me - i just checked my Experian credit report and the Nationwide Loan is still there. It is showing as "Account Settled" - 15/03/2013

This would mean it will disappear on 15/03/2019 :mad:

I'm not sure why it took them over a year since i stopped making payments to default the account.

Is there anything i can do?

What would my next move be?

Thank you again for your replies

fatbelly

'Account settled' usually means the debt has been sold to a third party

This loan was never defaulted then? Creditors would like to argue that they are in charge of the 'cause of action' and by delaying a default they can take an infinite amount of time and still make a valid claim. It's clearly a ridiculous argument and treated as such in some of the important cases.

Your entry will drop off after Mar 2019 (6 years after defaulted or settled, whichever is sooner) and you can ignore Cabot till then if you want.

Sending Nationwide a SAR should give you confirmation of that last payment from their records and that might prove useful if you do get into an argument.

Just_Di

eruka wrote: »

Bad News for me - i just checked my Experian credit report and the Nationwide Loan is still there. It is showing as "Account Settled" - 15/03/2013

This would mean it will disappear on 15/03/2019 :mad:

What would my next move be?

Not really bad news, all that's happened is you've done your research which has flagged up something useful i.e. the debt is arguably not Statute Barred yet.

It's better to know this now rather than after you tell them it's Statute Barred and they check their files and issue a claim to thwart your assertion.

However I would think an account has to be properly terminated before it can be assigned lawfully so the default issue may still be relevant if they've not done what they should have done, when they should have done it.

What is the exact name of the debt purchaser who's been assigned this debt? Is it Cabot Financial Ltd or Cabot Financial (UK) Ltd which may give them assignment issues? Your Notice of Assignment from Cabot may say "The Cabot Group" but what does the NOA from Nationwide say?

Why not wait until Cabot write to you a few times or mention instructing solicitors such as Mortimer Clarke, Restons or Shoosmiths. At that point you could send them a s77-79 CCA Request which might put things on hold while they ask the original creditor (Nationwide) for the credit agreement.

Even if the credit agreement is sent to you as a result of your SAR to Nationwide that doesn't necessarily mean that Cabot will have access to the same information/documentation because that will depend on the conditions written into the Deed of Assignment.

Finally (:)) have you been receiving an Annual Notice of Sums in Arrears (s86 etc) since you stopped paying the debt?

Di