Carbot Financial Investigation What to do next

GreenGirl6

I am a single parent on benefits and make extra money through buying and selling items online, I had been with the HSBC bank for over 20 years having a normal current account with no overdraft as the bank had turned me down many times.

Back in 2018 I had sold quite a few items on different websites obviously getting paid in different methods, I received a cheque through the post addressed and payable to myself for £2,000. 

I took it into the HSBC and paid it into my bank account it takes 5 days to clear but the cheque then bounced, two days later, through the post I received another cheque exactly the same and again I paid into my account yet this time after the 5 days it cleared so I withdrew and spent the funds. 

A week later I received photo copies of both cheques and a letter from HSBC to say that both cheques had bounced and that I was now £2,000 overdrawn.

I then complained to HSBC telling them that they were the ones that cleared the cheque as that's what I thought there 5 day clearing was for and that they should be contacting the person/company where the cheque had come from in the first place. 

I later received a letter from HSBC stating that they were letting me know that they recently agreed to an unarranged overdraft for me, with the daily overdraft interest and fees and that the bank wasn't interested in looking elsewhere and said the debt was mine.

Lucky enough I already knew that as I was on benefits that also went into the same account, by law the bank has to let you withdraw your money over the counter even if you are overdrawn as this is your money for you to live on.

A couple of months later I opened up a new account as the HSBC was forwarding my details to a debt collection agency.

Now in 2023 I'm receiving letters from Carbot financial for the HSBC debt which I sent a prove the debts mine letter and last week received a reply to tell me they are now investigating the debt. 

Now I realise that this must have been a cheque scam although I did not get any messages regarding the cheque either so I'm still very confused by the whole thing.

Could anyone please give me some advice or help regarding this matter as I'm again not sure what to do next?

spinningsheep

I'm not sure you have a leg to stand on here. Sorry to be blunt.

You are 100% liable for the debt, you withdrew the funds and spent them. It sounds as though HSBC have done subsequent checks, after initially clearing the cheque, and reversed the transaction, presumably after discovering that the person who wrote the cheque does not have the funds to cover it. There has only ever been one guarantee of payments by cheque. Back in the day when cheques were used as a method of payment in shops, the cheque guarantee limit on your debit card did just that, GUARANTEED payment of the cheque, even if the person who wrote it had insufficient funds, this is a long distant memory now. 

I think the only chance you MAY have had would have been to negotiate a payment plan with HSBC for the amount overdrawn, but it sounds as though they've lost patience and passed the debt to Cabot. You may be able to negotiate a payment plan with them, but this would undoubtedly result in a default or AP marker against your credit file. 

I appreciate this may have been down to a lapse in financial management or circumstances, but if I received a cheque for £2000 in payment for item(s) sold online I'd know what they were for and the name matched with the person who purchased the goods. If you have supplied goods and the cheque had bounced, did you make efforts to contact the buyer? I'm assuming you supplied the goods BEFORE payment was received and cleared. If so and you're a selling individual on likes of eBay, Etsy, why? 

From what I read, a significant amount have time has passed between the "sale" and the situation you find yourself in now, you could attempt to recover your monies via the small claims court, but sadly you may have to chalk this up to very bad luck and circumstance and aim to be more diligent in future. If you continue to sell items online, if knock cheques on the head as a method of payment going forward. 

fatbelly

When did the bank terminate the account?

What date shows as closed/defaulted on your credit report?

Cabot have bought this for a pittance and it sounds like it will soon go statute barred

A prove-it was the right thing to do

sourcrates

Cabot have bought this debt from HSBC for very little money, they may take a while "investigating" this, it depends how cooperative HSBC are with them.

The account default/termination date may be critical here.

See what Cabot come back to you with, and let us know when they do.

You may still have options even if they manage to prove the debt is yours.

GreenGirl6

sourcrates said:

Cabot have bought this debt from HSBC for very little money, they may take a while "investigating" this, it depends how cooperative HSBC are with them.

The account default/termination date may be critical here.

See what Cabot come back to you with, and let us know when they do.

You may still have options even if they manage to prove the debt is yours.

Thanks very much for your reply as I see that carbot financial have done a credit check on me last week but I have still not heard from them yet and HSBC closed my account in 2019 so its been 4 years?
I'm also not sure what to do when carbot contact me again ?
Any advice would be great 

fatbelly

See what they come back with and post it here

sourcrates

GreenGirl6 said:

sourcrates said:

Cabot have bought this debt from HSBC for very little money, they may take a while "investigating" this, it depends how cooperative HSBC are with them.

The account default/termination date may be critical here.

See what Cabot come back to you with, and let us know when they do.

You may still have options even if they manage to prove the debt is yours.

Thanks very much for your reply as I see that carbot financial have done a credit check on me last week but I have still not heard from them yet and HSBC closed my account in 2019 so its been 4 years?
I'm also not sure what to do when carbot contact me again ?
Any advice would be great 

Debts are not always chased straight away, Cabot may have been sat on this account for some time.

They buy in bulk you see, so can take time to get around to every account that`s acquired.