My husband has received a letter from Lantern debt recovery company advice needed

[Deleted User]

I wonder if any one can give me some advice, my husband has today received a letter from Lantern a debt recovery company. We have no idea who they are and have never heard of them before or had any contact or dealing with them.

This is the first letter my husband has received. Letter claims my husband has more than one account with them and that they have all been merged and a unique customer reference number given.

This is a complete lie my husband has no accounts with them we had not even heard of this company until received letter today 

The letter states that my husband owes £1550.91. 
It also states they have enclosed a break down of all accounts.

No break down of supposed accounts was enclosed and no where does it state what the debt or debts are for. All they say is my husband owes the money.

How can they say you owe money but then not say why you owe the money.

The only other things enclosed was a financial assessment form and a payment mandate form.

As far as we know my husband has no outstanding debt and nothing showing on his credit records ( I've  checked).

Where should we go from here what should be are first steps. Should we send a prove it letter first.  Can we send a prove it letter or do we need to find out what the debt is for first before we can ask them to prove it 

Any advice would be much appreciated

Thanks in advance

sourcrates

Hi,

What you have received is a typical DCA welcome letter, full of half truths, bold statements, and pay up quick options.

Lantern are a major debt purchasing company, (formally known as Motor Mile Finance), basically they buy up old debts mainly in bulk, these can include utility bills/mobile phone accounts/credit cards/loans etc, you get the idea.

So you may not have heard of them before, but they may have acquired one or more old debts, that belonged to your husband at some time, or, they may have done a mis-trace, and are contacting the wrong person.


Only one way to find out, the usual advice is never to contact these people by phone, do everything in writing only.
We have a letter that is specifically worded so as not to acknowledge any debt to a company, it can be found here -

Letter when you know nothing about about the debt - AKA "Prove it" letter — MoneySavingExpert Forum


Edit it to your situation, then once this is sent, Lantern are then obliged to provide details and evidence of the debts they say he owes.

If they do so, then you can take the matter forward, from there, if they don`t, then that is the end of the matter and it stops there.

Send the letter, see what comes back.

[Deleted User]

Thank you very much for your help I will send letter tomorrow.