Paying debt collection fees?
declan16
Forumite 5 Posts
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?
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.
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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.
For a while, there was no contact but the window between the debt accumulating and the debt being passed was very quick.
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.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/debt-free-wannabe
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It's amazing how those with a can-do attitude and willingness to 'pitch in and work' get all the luck, isn't it?
Please consider buying some pet food and giving it to your local food bank collection or animal charity. Animals aren't to blame for the cost of living crisis.
Hi all,
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?
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
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.
More than a third of IVA`s fail....fact.
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