Shop Direct , NCO, Lowell ...Lost payments

cado1

I have an outstanding debt with Very I was on a DMP with Stepchange until a May when I went self managed.

I wrote to all of my creditors which included very at the time as the debt was still with them and I was still receiving statements from them.

Then a short while after I received a letter from NCO Europe saying that they where dealing with the outstanding balance but did not give any new payment details so I carried on sending the bank transfers to the Very details for the June & July payments then I received a letter from Lowell saying they now had the debt and advised of their payment details.

A few weeks ago I received a call from NCO asking why I hadn't been making the agreed payments, I explained that I had made the payments in June & July and sent them screen shots from my bank statement as proof. It transpires that I got one digit wrong on the reference but the payments haven't been applied to my balance or returned to me.

I have emailed and called all three to try and find out whats happened to the payments I have made but no one seems to have a clue whats going on.

Very have said that they would have sent the payment straight to Lowells as my account with them is now closed.

NCO told me to speak with Very to find out where the payments are ...I thought they were pretty much one and the same ?

Lowells have just been really unhelpful on the phone and ignore my emails.

Very apparently have no external email addresses ? I wanted to set it out in an email as the phone calls are so frustrating.

So I sent an email to Lowell and NCO today saying I wouldn't be making any further payments until they found out whats happened to the June & July payments and either apply them to my outstanding balance or send them back to my bank account..... I want to be clear I don't want to not repay what I owe but at the same time I am not spending hours on the phone repeating myself several times over. If they cannot apply the payment why haven't hey returned it ? The threat not to pay was more to get someone to actually look into the issue

Not sure where to go from here ?

sourcrates

Send a written complaint to each company (copy to each one) stay off the phone to them.
It’s considered bad practice to have more than one DCA chasing the same debt, it’s likely the debt is owned by Lowell, and NCO we’re engaged to collect it, but you should be given clarification on that.

Get them to chase up the payments made, if no resolution after 8 weeks, get the FOS involved.

Use the complaints process to your advantage, tell them to put your account on hold until the complaint is satisfied.