Pra group

KellyMariexx

Hi,

I had just over £5000 of debt with Barclaycard which I was paying off, it then got passed on to PRA Group who I have continued to pay it off with at £50 per month for the last few years so is now down to £3350 left to pay. Do I legally need to continue with these payments? I called a debt advice line an they said I legally do but reading other threads about PRA Group on here it doesn't sound like I do... Any advice would be much appreciated
Thanks,
Kelly

Suseka97

Simply put.. yes you do.

The PRA Group are a debt purchasing company and will have bought your debt, along with hundreds, if not thousands of others. It's what they do. Once purchased (assigned) the debt now belongs to them and your liability for that debt went with it.

What you may have read is that people, who have been in long standing debt repayment arrangements across several years, seek to find out whether their debt/s is/are enforceable through the Courts. So you may have seen references to CCAs - which is when people will have contacted PRA under Section 78/79 of the consumer credit act, asking them to provide various documentation which would prove whether that debt was enforceable or not.

Now, if it comes back as unenforceable (or UE, as its referred to) - that gives people two options. One being to completely walk away from the debt or more often to give them leverage on which to offer PRA a full and final settlement that is a lot less than the existing account balance.

Being UE does not mean that debt is not owed - they can still contact you (via various means) for however long they choose asking you to enter into a repayment plan. And, even though UE at a given time, if the debt is of a significant sum you can be pretty sure they will continue to dig for that all important paperwork.

So you could find out where you stand by sending in a CCA request and it's worth having a read of this article which you will find very useful in answer to your query https://debtcamel.co.uk/ask-cca-agreement-for-debt/

KellyMariexx

Thank you so much for your help. I did email PRA asking for the CCA document. They have replied very quickly saying they have contacted Barclaycard for my statements up to when they took it over in 2015, they said in the mean time find attached a document showing your history of payments to us from when we took over. The file does not open on nor my laptop or smart phone it says the file format is not supported on both so I have asked for them to send this in a different format but looking at the link you have sent me ( thank you! ) this does not sound like what they should be sending me when I have put in a CCA request.... Im not sure where to go from here if they can't send me a file I can actually open or if it's not what should be sent when asking for the CCA.. I appreciate your help

Suseka97

The requisite documents go beyond statements, or history of payments. It predominantly requires a copy of the original agreement, or a reconstituted copy along with all and any T&Cs provided at the time of the application.

You should also ask for everything to be provided in a hardcopy, especially if you are unable to access electronic files sent. In the meantime what they should have sent (again in writing, even if by email) is an acknowledgement that until they are able to provide said documents all collection activity will cease. That means you can suspend payments until such time as they do provide what you have asked for.

As for whether any documentation provided does prove an account is enforceable or not - is beyond my field of knowledge. But a good resource for that is to go on to the All About Debt forum. You'll find a section on there that deals directly with CCAs and unenforceable debts.

HonmaDP

I pay £5 a month on an old CC not on my file any more. Balance is over 8 large. I will never pay anymore!!