Paying debt collection fees?

declan16

Hi all,

I got into some debt with SSE which meant I didn’t pay for two months.

I then called up and paid off the entirety of the debt but discovered that a few days prior SSE had passed my debt onto Advantis, a debt collection agency.

Advantis, therefore, now had ownership of the SSE balance plus a third party fee worth £70. As a result of this, SSE told me I should never have been able to make payment to them as by the time I paid off my SSE balance, the debt has already been passed on.

I thought it unfair that I should pay this additional charge and take a hit on my credit rating when I had already paid them - unaware that just prior to me doing this, they’d sold the debt.

SSE then emailed and wrote to me with a new bill with charges for third party fees. I think I’m doing this, they had taken ownership of the third party fees.

Can I challenge SSE on this? Should I pay them the third party fees, especially when they’ve accepted that the system shouldn’t have taken payment from me but a colleague on the phone did? 

The whole thing just feels really unfair - struggle to pay your bills, finally find a way of doing it and then discover that they’ve transferred the debt and now want you to pay even more.

Jonboy_1984

Taking any emotion out of it:

Did you communicate with SSE in the two months payment was due or did you just ignore/avoid them?

If you had advised them of financial position and when they were to be paid, or made partial payments in the interim then it would potentially be unfair. 

If you ignored or avoided them the process will likely be considered fair, as they would have had no idea if or when payment would be made.

declan16

Jonboy_1984 said:

Taking any emotion out of it:

Did you communicate with SSE in the two months payment was due or did you just ignore/avoid them?

If you had advised them of financial position and when they were to be paid, or made partial payments in the interim then it would potentially be unfair. 

If you ignored or avoided them the process will likely be considered fair, as they would have had no idea if or when payment would be made.

Hi,

For a while, there was no contact but the window between the debt accumulating and the debt being passed was very quick. 

For context, I closed the account as I moved out on the 29th of July. My final direct debit was paid to them on 1st August, following that and unbeknownst to me they passed the debt to the third party near the end of September and I made payment of the remaining balance on 29th September.

There wasn’t any communication bar a chat which occurred around a week before I made payment, and before the debt passed to the debt collector, where I explained how I wanted to make payment but was struggling. After that discussion and on their advice, I called up a few days later to settle the debt.

Then I became aware of the third party, told them I’d already settled the debt. SSE told me I shouldn’t have been able to make a payment, but accepted their colleague had advised to and then another willing took the payment over the phone. As a result, as best I understand it, they’ve now taken ownership of the third party fees and want me to pay for them.

I should’ve contacted them, I get that, but I didn’t anticipate things moving so quickly to a third party - and as you can see, I had settled quite soon in the grand scheme of things.

ariarnia

two months does seem very quick. i dont know enough about debt collection to help but i recon the people on the debt free board will be able to help. i suggest you post your thread there (there very friendly people )

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/debt-free-wannabe

declan16

ariarnia said:

two months does seem very quick. i dont know enough about debt collection to help but i recon the people on the debt free board will be able to help. i suggest you post your thread there (there very friendly people )

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/debt-free-wannabe

Thanks for this.

I’ll try and work out how to shift my post my thread to that board. 

ariarnia

you could just make a new thread there (cut and paste) or i think if you use the little red flag to 'report' your post one of the options is suggest they move it. 

declan16

REPOST FROM ENERGY BOARD:

Hi all,

I got into some debt with SSE which meant I didn’t pay for two months.

I then called up and paid off the entirety of the debt but discovered that a few days prior SSE had passed my debt onto Advantis, a debt collection agency.

Advantis, therefore, now had ownership of the SSE balance plus a third party fee worth £70. As a result of this, SSE told me I should never have been able to make payment to them as by the time I paid off my SSE balance, the debt has already been passed on.

I thought it unfair that I should pay this additional charge and take a hit on my credit rating when I had already paid them - unaware that just prior to me doing this, they’d sold the debt.

SSE then emailed and wrote to me with a new bill with charges for third party fees. I think I’m doing this, they had taken ownership of the third party fees.

Can I challenge SSE on this? Should I pay them the third party fees, especially when they’ve accepted that the system shouldn’t have taken payment from me but a colleague on the phone did? 

The whole thing just feels really unfair - struggle to pay your bills, finally find a way of doing it and then discover that they’ve transferred the debt and now want you to pay even more.

kimwp

What dates did you miss the payment on and when did SSE sell the debt?

declan16

kimwp said:

What dates did you miss the payment on and when did SSE sell the debt?

Cancelled services - 29 July
Regular direct debit paid - 1 August
Final bill date - 11 August
Debt passed - 26 September
Bill paid in full to SSE - 29 September
11 October - SSE send new bill with third party fees

sourcrates

I don`t think Advantis actually buy debts, they just collect them on behalf of their clients.

These collection companies are engaged to collect the debt that is owed, now obviously they don`t do this for free, but normally they are paid a percentage by the client company for recovery of the debt, but it appears Advantis do things slightly differently and charge the debtor for the privilege instead.

So, it`s a similar situation to when you get a parking ticket in a private car park, what they have actually sent you is an invoice for £70, there fee for collection of the debt, which according to your post they didn`t do anyway.

My response to them would be to write and tell them in no uncertain terms that you do not owe them anything, the fee they are attempting to charge you is nothing to do with you, as the debt was settled in a timely manner, so it is a matter between Advantis and SSE to sort out.

A few DCA`s try to charge these collection fees which are usually totally dis-proportionate to the actual cost of collection, so SSE are now trying to recover the collection cost from you, basically debt collectors cannot charge you any fees unless the original agreement allows them to do so, so this would never stand up in court, and the fees are basically unenforceable.