LINK CCA peoples experiences

3011gillian

We sent CCA requests to LINK back in January for three accounts. No acknowledgement ever, they sent regular statements, cashed the postal order so we know it was all received. We did send F&F settlement offers a few mo the after the CCA request but again heard nothing back to either accept or decline!
Also stopped paying our DMP and self managing.
Today we get the default notice from Link for one of the accounts. Quite standard but requesting a response or they may take actions etc.
Does anyone have experience with Link in the best way to approach? Do nothing?-they have our request and f&f offer on the table.
Respond?-remind them of the CCA and repeat the F&F offer. From memory the offer was around £200/300 on accounts of about £1800/2000.

I’m trying to be proactive but it seems they aren’t even bothered when they aren’t getting any money!

sourcrates

Default notice ?
Wasn’t it defaulted already by the original creditor ?

You should not complicate the issue by making settlement offers whilst your CCA request remains outstanding.

A reminder may be appropriate, but your accounts are currently unenforceable.

3011gillian

sourcrates wrote: »

Default notice ?
Wasn’t it defaulted already by the original creditor ?

You should not complicate the issue by making settlement offers whilst your CCA request remains outstanding.

A reminder may be appropriate, but your accounts are currently unenforceable.

Yes it states the default date from 2016 so nothing new but is asking us to make payment

Suseka97

My experience with LINK is that they are a complete shambles. They never acknowledged receipt of my CCA requests and it took them some 6 months or more before they finally came up with the paperwork. During that time I'd stopped making any payments and yet I continued to receive requests to contact them to agree a payment plan - which I ignored.

When they eventually turned up with the paperwork which did prove to be enforceable - I still ignored them for a good few months and intended to do so for a lot longer, but then I was informed by Barclaycard that on review of my accounts they felt they had 'not treated me fairly blah blah' and subsequently offered me a refund of a large amount of interest and charges they'd applied during the early years of the DMP (yes, it took them years to stop charging me interest). Anyway, long story short - they sent the refund straight to LINK and as a result the balance/s ended up being less £100 on 2 of the 3 accounts and so because I was peeved that they'd got the refund I just said that as far as I was concerned those two accounts were closed and I'd be making no more payments. They eventually wrote those balances off. The one account that remains and is enforceable I'm literally paying pennies to the pound each month - and quite happy for it to stay that way even though it will take something close to 8 years to pay off its less that a tenner a month!

So I'd just ignore anything they send along the lines of default notices, reminders to pay, statements or the like and just wait until they provide you with the CCA paperwork. Hold off for as long as you like. You can remind them of your CCA requests if you so wish, it's entirely up to you.

3011gillian

I’m really hoping they don’t find the paperwork! That was always our worry that we stop paying via the dmp but then end up having to pay again, which just extends the amount of time we’re in debt, although in theory we should have saved enough to pay larger chunks off or f&f settlements but theory and practice are proving hard. We’ve saved a bit, then car repairs, saved a bit more, husband changed jobs and we needed a second car, saved a bit more...had to book a hotel for a wedding etc
Fingers crossed we can carry on saving and they’ll eventually respond positively! I heard some stories of Barclaycard cancelling people’s debts recently for various reasons so I was hoping that will be us!

Suseka97

Yes, life throws curveballs at us doesn't it and plans vs practice are often at odds with themselves..

Hopefully you've not heard anything because they can't find anything, especially if these are old accounts. This is why I personally would not chase them on the CCA - just wait it out and see what happens. Worst case they dig up the paperwork and you have to restart your DMP. If that happens you just go self-managed and pay what is affordable based on your circumstances at the time. Always remember a DMP is an informal arrangement and you are in control.

How_much

We requested around 4 CCA from link last October, still no reply, I really need to cancel the payments, but not sure how stepchange will respond.

Suseka97

How_much wrote: »

We requested around 4 CCA from link last October, still no reply, I really need to cancel the payments, but not sure how stepchange will respond.

They won't be happy and will insist you continue to pay. Don't forget they are funded by the banks and their modus operandi is for you to pay your debts in full and as soon as possible. I'm not bashing SC, just saying how it is.

So, your best option is to go self-managed and take control of your own financial situation and stop paying Link.

3011gillian

How_much wrote: »

We requested around 4 CCA from link last October, still no reply, I really need to cancel the payments, but not sure how stepchange will respond.

We stopped our stepchange DMP once we sent all the CCA requests. They were fine, we sent a letter explaining what we were doing. They automatically cancel it after 3 missed payments and inbetween we got a few standard letters saying ‘we haven’t received payment’ by these were just sent automatically.

Out of 8 creditors. We agreed a settlement on one, managed to finish paying one low one. We have 6 left. 3 with Link one with Capquest all awaiting CCA requests. 2 with PRA which came back enforceable and we are paying the same amount we were with the dmp. So out of the £450 we were paying SC each month we are now paying £164 to PRA and in theory we are saving the rest for f&f offers...although we’ve had a few curveballs but the money we’ve saved has helped us out in other ways.