Letter for creditors

tallyhoh

Hi, my friend has come into a little money. She has credit card debts from 20 years ago & she has been making token payments. Could someone direct me to a letter to send creditors to see if they still have a copy of the original contract. Am I right in thinking they can't take legal action without one?

Cheers

Sly72

link: https://nationaldebtline.org/sample-letters/information-about-your-agreement-under-consumer-credit-act/

tallyhoh

Thank you, much appreciated

Brie

She may do well to send them a full and final settlement letter at some point.  As I understand it it's best to send a similar letter to all creditors at the same time to show they are all getting a sensible pro rata amount from whatever pot of ££ is available.  

Rob5342

Brie said:

She may do well to send them a full and final settlement letter at some point.  As I understand it it's best to send a similar letter to all creditors at the same time to show they are all getting a sensible pro rata amount from whatever pot of ££ is available.  

Thats the advice that Stepchange would give as they operate a one size fits all policy. With old debts like these it's probably better to negotiate separately with each creditor for the minimum possible settlement.

With debts of this age i wouldn't make any settlement offer until I'd made CCA requests as there is a good chance they won't be able to produce them. PRA couldn't produce the CCA for a.2001 credit card I had

RAS

Definitely, do CCA checks before settling anything. Debts that old will have been bought for a few pence in the pound.

 And get her credit records first in case anyone is still leaving AP markers as that's always possible if she's been paying.

sourcrates

Twenty years ago, creditors were much more likely to default much quicker than they do today.

Chances are non of these debts still appear on her credit files, OP may want to confirm this.

CCA requests are a "must do" option here, as paperwork from that period is most unlikely to still exist.

tallyhoh

thank you all, excellent advice. she is checking credit files now. I have advised CCA requests next. If they are unable to produce them can she just tell them to whistle? quite honestly she has probably paid more than the original debts by now.

RAS

If they fail to produce the correct paper work, she stops paying. When I joined MSE a decade ago it was only the more recent agreements that were usually compliant, but there were a few clued up lenders.

They might find something in the future, but the incentive to dig around for decades old paperwork is smaller as time goes on.

If they produce paperwork, encourage her come back here with redacted copies, as it's not unusual for debt collectors to send any old rubbish in a hope of bamboozling the debtor into coughing up. They may just send a statement with a note saying she's been paying so still owes.

tallyhoh

Thank you all for your help. She has received a couple of letters. One DC state they have no paperwork & the debt is not enforceable. Another DC say they are trying to contact the original company for paperwork, after 20 years? good luck with that. She has received nothing from 4 other DCs. Is it safe for her to stop all payments until they come up with something? Cheers!

flipflopflo

oh! definitely, she shouldn’t be paying them anything at all until they can produce the correct paperwork.