Unrecognised Lowell Financial default for £61 on my credit file from 2014

Penri1980

Thanks for all your help so far. I struggled to get anywhere with BT so sent a Prove It letter to Lowells and unfortunately the situation is worse than I originally thought as they've come back claiming that they have two accounts against my name, one for BT and one for EE. As the Prove It letter I sent them pertained to the Lowell account number for the EE debt, they sent me the following info for it, and simply another Lowell account number for the BT debt and the amount (£75.40), without any further info:

Original Client: (EE Limited)
Original Client Ref
Current Balance: £61.28
Agreement Start Date: (Jan 2014)
Application Address: (My parents address)
Mobile Number: (Not one I recognised)
Handset: (Not one I recognised)
Application Channel: (Online & Telesales)
Client Last Payment Date: (21st May 2018)
Client Last Payment Value: (£27.28)
Last Payment Method:  (Direct Debit)
The balance is for Airtime Debt which is for services used

Having checked my bank account I was paying £27.28 via direct debit each month up until the last payment on 24th April 2018, I think for a mobile broadband dongle that I hadn’t used in months, if not years. So it looks like this debt probably relates to me and an account that I had with EE, so would your advice be that I settle the default and accept that this will impact my credit worthiness and my chances of getting a mortgage, or is it worth me following up to try and ascertain whether this is a valid debt that I owed or not? Unfortunately, I don’t have access to e-mail or letters from this period to investigate. Also, would the default drop off my file 6 years from settling the default or from the date the default was registered in 2018?

With the BT account I have sent Lowells another Prove It letter to get some further information about the debt.

I’m not too hopefully but any help would be appreciated.

D3xt3r5L4b

If it was being paid by DD then how is there money owing for it?

robatwork

This is a nice lesson in not assuming too much - your OP said you had no account.

Phone companies often sold those mobile broadband dongles as a way of "giving you the cheapest deal" on a handset. Never liked it much as it involved too much smoke and mirrors, but O2 do similar.

I'd pay it off as you're really talking peanuts compared to a mortgage.

I guess you realise that BT bought EE in 2016 so that could be the source of some of the Lowell confusion.

Penri1980

D3xt3r5L4b said:

If it was being paid by DD then how is there money owing for it?

My only thought is whether I cancelled the direct debit without cancelling the contract, but I can’t remember doing so, and as I said, I don’t have any communication from that time so can’t check what communication I may have received.

Penri1980

robatwork said:

This is a nice lesson in not assuming too much - your OP said you had no account.

Phone companies often sold those mobile broadband dongles as a way of "giving you the cheapest deal" on a handset. Never liked it much as it involved too much smoke and mirrors, but O2 do similar.

I'd pay it off as you're really talking peanuts compared to a mortgage.

I guess you realise that BT bought EE in 2016 so that could be the source of some of the Lowell confusion.

My OP was referring to a BT account at my parent’s address, which I know I’ve never had. So not so much an assumption, but rather my ignorance to the fact that BT acquired EE, but thanks for highlighting that fact to me. Hopefully Lowell come back to me confirming that it’s one and the same. 

I agree that it’s peanuts, it’s not the value of the debt that concerns me, but rather it’s validity and it’s impact on my credit history, so just need to ensure I’m making the right decision in paying rather than investigating further. Thanks for your advice though, it’s appreciated.

Penri1980

As I recognise the EE account and have no e-mails or letters from that period to be able to dispute that I had an outstanding debt when cancelling, I decided to pay the balance. However, on the same letter I received from Lowell, they also claim that I have a separate debt of £75.40 that they bought from BT. I don't recognise this debt at all, and all they had in the letter for the BT account was their account number for that debt, the BT reference and the value. I therefore decided to send a Prove It Letter specifically for it and have since received a letter back simply stating 'We recently responded to your request for information. It's now important that you get in touch to agree how you'll repay your outstanding account'. This suggests to me that they have no more details about that debt. How would you advise that I proceed? Any advice appreciated.

D3xt3r5L4b

Penri1980 said:

As I recognise the EE account and have no e-mails or letters from that period to be able to dispute that I had an outstanding debt when cancelling, I decided to pay the balance. However, on the same letter I received from Lowell, they also claim that I have a separate debt of £75.40 that they bought from BT. I don't recognise this debt at all, and all they had in the letter for the BT account was their account number for that debt, the BT reference and the value. I therefore decided to send a Prove It Letter specifically for it and have since received a letter back simply stating 'We recently responded to your request for information. It's now important that you get in touch to agree how you'll repay your outstanding account'. This suggests to me that they have no more details about that debt. How would you advise that I proceed? Any advice appreciated.

Ask them to prove the debt is yours or you’ll take them to the FOS and/or ICO

Penri1980

Just an update on this. After sending a second Prove It letter to Lowell, stating that I didn't recognize the debt of £75.40 to BT and that the minimal info that they provided was insufficient evidence that the debt was valid and belonged to me, they replied 2 weeks later to inform me that they had upheld my complaint and will be removing that default from my credit file and closing the Lowell account. So whilst I have the EE £61 default from January 2019 on my file, as I decided to pay it, this second default has been removed successfully, so thanks for those who helped. Now I just need to find out if it's realistic that I can get a mortgage in the next 4 years before the default drops off.......