DCBL chasing for their fee - even though payment plan with Allegiant has been settled

nadine84

Allegiant recovered fees from a credit card I held, and monies were paid direct to my bank.  Unfortunately once monies hit my account my bank withdrew my overdraft.  I therefore had no funds to settle Allegiant's invoice.

I confirmed to them i would pay monthly - with the last payment being in October 2022.  

I changed jobs in September, and my payday changed to the 25th.  I therefore made my final payment 25th October (historically it had been on 1st).  I was also in a breathing space arrangement at the time, but did not list this in my debts as knew I could pay the £60 i was paying.

On 28/10/2022 I received a demand from DCBL for £150.  I wrote to them with a schedule of payments made from my bank statement and asked them to clarify where the £90 came from as i had settled the account.  They stated that they were instructed to collect £150 - I again requested confirmation of what payments had been received by Allegiant so we could see which payments they had not received.  This went on 4 times until last week where it was confirmed that the last payment of £60 had been received by Allegiant directly, and £90 is THEIR fee for recovery of debt.

 i advised that in that there is no debt to recover their fee should be waived.  they have confirmed that unless Allegiant confirm otherwise that this £90 for their fee remains outstanding

Allegiant have advised that they anticipated receiving the last payment on 1 October, so when it was not received they instructed DCBL for recovery.  Despite confirming the account has been settled they said they will not  liaise with DCBL or me further as the file is close

DCBL have confirmed that they will continue to chase until it is settled

It just seems unjust that they are simply chasing their own fee for recovery of a debt that was settled prior to their demand

Anyone else know where i can go from here?

sourcrates

Think of it this way, it`s essentially an invoice they have sent you, their fee for being engaged to collect your outstanding payment.

DCBL will have been acting as collection agents, and not as bailiff`s in this instance, so you are basically at an impasse, they say one thing, you say another.

It`s quite possible the client has refused to pay them as well, which would be the normal arrangement, as your payment, although late, was received, so now they are looking to you for restitution.

This is very easy to deal with, you simply ignore them.

There is no point whatsoever trying to argue with this company.

Should they choose to pursue this further, then you have a reasonable defence to any claim they may wish to make, they can continue their collection activity, it means absolutely nothing.

Ultimately only a court can decide the validity of their claim, and should it come to that, and you end up losing, (which would be unlikely), you have 30 days to pay any judgement without the CCJ being permanently recorded on your credit file.

So unless or until this happens, forget about them, this is just posturing, hoping you will pay up, its just not worth the hassle for £60.