Got a letter from a debt collection agency..

moneywow1

So long story short, I had a domain with 1&1/IONOS. After the year I didn't want to renew it with them as it was too expensive, so I transferred it somewhere else.

1&1 told me I owed money for a year of domain hosting (about £16), and if I didn't pay, my account would be suspended and I would lose the domain. I ignored it since I'd transferred my domain elsewhere and paid for a year of hosting (starting from the end date of my first year of hosting, Sep 2019) so I couldn't lose the domain and I didn't care about my account.

However, today I got a letter from Arvato saying I owed them just over £30 for the year of domain hosting, and a late payment fee.

Nothing on the letter mentions any timeline of when I need to pay, or what happens if I don't pay.

Will this already be on my credit reports (I only have the free CK, MSE CC, CS reports) or will it show up at a later date?

How does it work? The money isn't a problem, so I'm tempted to just pay them off, but I'd rather avoid paying it if I can since my domain has been transferred out, and I don't want to pay for a year of domain hosting which I haven't received/won't receive.

I also don't want to just admit and pay if I'm gonna be stuck with a debt on my credit report for another 6-7 years. I'd rather try and fight it.

boo_star

You owe them money, you should pay it.

Paying it or not won't change whether it is reported on your credit file (although it's likely it won't be.)

DCFC79

So do you have confirmation that you cancelled ?

Other thread
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6070020/defaulted-account

moneywow1

I rang them up today, told them I would be happy to pay if I'd received or would receive the service in question (a year of domain name hosting from september 2019-2020) but since the domain has been with Namecheap since september 2019 I hadn't received that service from 1&1/IONOS.

She was pretty quick to say she'll put the request on hold and go back to 1&1

If they close it, I won't hear anything back, if they come back with anything else they'll contact me again..

Guess I just need to wait and see now. Not sure if it's worth speaking to 1&1 as well or not.

Willing2Learn

I would check my three statutory files to confirm the whether or not the account has been recorded on my files. I would also just pay the £30 as it is such a small amount. It seems from your post that you failed to cancel your agreement with 1&1 using the correct cancellation procedure.