Advice needed re court threat

Banksprey

Hi, I'd be grateful for some advice please. I naively opened a Topshop store account a couple of years ago, and spent £36 on it. Since then, I have made no further purchases, but GE Capital, who run the card tell me I now owe them over £450. I have had numerous telephone calls from a debt collection agency, so, following advice from this site, I wrote to GE Capital, enclosing a £10 cheque, requesting a full breakdown of the money they say I owed. They replied telling me that they had only sent partial statements, as some of my records are unfortunately not retrievable due to 'system issues'! Incidentally, they had also been sending my statements to a previous address, despite my informing them that I had moved. I replied requesting the charges be repaid. I didn't receive a response until yesterday when I received a claim form from Northampton County Court issued by CL Finance Ltd showing me as the defendant, followed today by solicitors letter confirming their intended court action.
Naturally I'm very worried - right before Christmas too. Before I go ahead and submit a counter claim, I'd be grateful for any advice from anyone who may have had a similar experience or be in the same position as me. Thanks.

aloiseb

what a horrible shock for you. Just offering sympathy really....this hasn't happened to me (yet!) - I hope you get the right resolution.
I should think it would be helpful to be able to prove when you changed addresses,and when you advised them - did you keep a list of people you told you had moved? Also all the bills you have from the storecard, which would presumably show your old address and how much you had paid them at the time.
Can the Citizen's Advice Bureau be any help? I know they give free advice on debt repayment.
Good luck, and happy Chrsitmas.

Banksprey

Thanks aloiseb. I'm going to try to get all the history of my account together, then put in a counter claim. Fingers crossed.

Chadsman

When was the debt first incurred? If it was more than 6 years ago you MIGHT have a defence that it is beyond the statute of limitations... someone with more knowledge will have to confirm or otherwise.

Did you ever pay the initial £36 debt?
I imagine most of the money now owed will have come from charges for not making a payment to the account when you owe them money.

Personally I think you have a good case for having the debt written off as you told them you had moved and they continued sending statements to the wrong address and also they are unable to give you a breakdown of the money owed.

I would contest the case with a written defence.
:beer:

exel1966

Are you saying that you borrowed £36 a couple of years ago and then made no attempt to pay it back ? Hardly surprising you now find yourself in debt for £450 if that's the case ? Is it ?

How long after you made the purchase did you move and advise them of your change of address ?

Moving, even though you advised them and they sent statements to the wrong address, is no mitigation for not paying a debt you owed. Could you not have paid the original debt before moving or when you advised them of your address change ?

Your credit record will already be tarnished and will be tarnished even further if you have a CCJ registered against you so you must try to stop the court action ASAP. You may possibly be able to come to an out of court settlement figure with them. The probability of that is not high, but it's worth exploring.

Statute only applies after 6 years and only if no contact has been made between GE and the OP, but that is not the case as the OP has contacted them, beside the OP has said it was 'couple of years ago'.

Dylanwing

I thought that they needed tbe able to provide a copy of the original signed agreement, plus full details of the debt for it to be enforcable. Totally disagree with Exel, £450 for a £36 debt is outrageous. It sounds like they know that they should have full documentation, and are trying it on, hoping that you pay up. It would be worth seeking help from the CAB, and checking all of the legalities before responding.
Here's a bit more info. on them, they sound like real sharks and the third thread should give you cause for optimism.
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/other-stores/57337-c-l-finance-ltd.html
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt/81586-c-l-finance.html
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/store-cards/52637-ge-money-cl-finance.html

cam101

Just dropped in and noticed this thread.

The OP has clearly made a minor mistake that has turned into a rather major one, but i'm sure others will agree when I say that these forums are best used to support and offer advice to those who need it.

Judging others helps nobody, it just shows how narrow minded people can be. It would have been very easy not to post that comment, or at least word it with sensitivity!

For the OP, a friend of mine works for a company that deals with storecards (not sure if Topshop is one of them), and she all too often has to deal with cases like yours where the original amount was very small. Many cases are thrown out, but sadly many are also followed through. Storecards are awful, so much potential to get in trouble with them.

Good luck with your counter claim, keep posting.

exel1966

cam101 wrote: »

Just dropped in and noticed this thread.

The OP has clearly made a minor mistake that has turned into a rather major one, but i'm sure others will agree when I say that these forums are best used to support and offer advice to those who need it.

Judging others helps nobody, it just shows how narrow minded people can be. It would have been very easy not to post that comment, or at least word it with sensitivity!

For the OP, a friend of mine works for a company that deals with storecards (not sure if Topshop is one of them), and she all too often has to deal with cases like yours where the original amount was very small. Many cases are thrown out, but sadly many are also followed through. Storecards are awful, so much potential to get in trouble with them.

Good luck with your counter claim, keep posting.

Taking money with NO intention of repaying it is NOT a minor mistake. It's tantamount to theft/fraud/deception !

You mention advice. So what advice have you offered ? Answer - Nothing !!

No judgements have been made yet, but questions have been asked of the OP which he/she has chosen to ignore, yet has found the time to come back to the thread on more than one occasion. Maybe the OP is just looking for sympathy ? Maybe the OP should move over to the DFW board ?

What particular comment was insensitive ? Shall we just wrap everyone up in cotton wool ?

Dylanwing - I refrained from making comments about whether the charges were 'outrageous' or not so how can you disagree ? Yes they are high, but why is that ? Answer, because the OP possibly ignored repayment for 2 years, therefore not surprising that they are now £450.

Banksprey

Thanks for your input exel - what I really needed right now was a lecture. To add a bit more fact to the equation, one month after spending £36 on the card I made a payment of £20 and a month after that I made a further payment of £15. One month later, I still owed £26.78 (work that out!) and I paid a further £5. This payment was late and incurred a charge of £18, on top of the other charges like interest and 'account cover premium'. By this time, my account was a runaway train, although I didn't realise it because the statements were not getting to me. For what it's worth I paid another £15 several weeks later. In the months following that, up to the present day, I have paid a further £287.87. For the record it is alleged that the amount I still owe comprises over £300 in late payment charges and £121.38 account cover, (that I did not ask for).

Thanks to all those contributors who have shown support, I really appreciate that.

Dylanwing

:xmassign:

Taking money with NO intention of repaying it is NOT a minor mistake. It's tantamount to theft/fraud/deception !

Touch of the 'Bah Humbugs' from Mr/Ms Exel. BTW, this is a CONSUMER website...........:rudolf:

Banksprey, I hope you get it sorted and give these cowboys all that they deserve.

Banksprey

Thanks Dylanwing, and much obliged for the thread you posted yesterday. You're right, the third link was particularly helpful. I'll continue to post updates as and when. Merry Christmas!