PRA Group advice

beecharmer

Hello there, 

Nervy lurker seeking some guidance on the infamous PRA group if possible, please. I’ve read other threads but they don’t seem to quite fit what I’d like to settle in my mind. I hope it is ok to start a new thread.

I’m in the process of becoming debt-free (having made so many mistakes in dealing with the debt before finding this forum) and I have two defaults. One is with the original lender that I’m dealing with directly and one has been sold to PRA in the summer of 2020. I’ve never spoken on the phone with PRA and I’ve only written to them once relatively recently to ask for the CCA agreement, which has been provided. I was paying £50 a month to the credit card company and just carried on doing that with PRA. I’ve never given them a monthly budget or shown affordability of repayments but I would rather prioritise paying off a loan for now and in a few months hopefully have enough saved to start making full and final offers to PRA (I don’t assume I’ll have much luck there but we will see).

I’m nervous now having received the CCA in June; their letter asked me to get in touch to agree a way forward to clear the debt and I’ve had some missed calls from them the last few days. My questions really are:

Is it silly to ignore their calls? I’ve never given them my number but I assume they can check records from my credit card company for it. I would rather deal with them by email if I must, so should I pre-emptively email and ask why they’re calling? My fear is if I speak to them it will confirm my number and they’ll just keep calling and raising stress levels.

Given I have made monthly payments ever since 2020, is there a chance they would try and get a CCJ against me because I’m not engaging with them? Would they write to me first before starting any of that? As it stands, I won’t have paid off the debt by the time it drops off my credit reports. 

Realistically I could up my payments to them but it would be at the expense of overpaying my loan and the interest rate on that is better than credit card APRs but not amazing. 

Any advice would be gratefully received, thank you. 

Grumpelstiltskin

Yes ignore phone calls.

If they do intend to take you to court ( highly unlikely ) they must write to you by snail mail, so until you get a letter before action just carry on paying the amount you have been paying.

beecharmer

Grumpelstiltskin said:

Yes ignore phone calls.

If they do intend to take you to court ( highly unlikely ) they must write to you by snail mail, so until you get a letter before action just carry on paying the amount you have been paying.

Thanks so much, that’s a big relief. 

DjangoUnchained

I had a debt nearly 6 years ago with pra. I requested the CCA and months later they sent me a bundle of papers. I don't know whether it was a legit CCA or not but i wrote back saying it wasn't legit and not what i was asking for. They wrote back saying they were still waiting for it, meanwhile the debt was unenforceable. Ive never paid them a penny, and nearly 6 years later im still waiting for the cca (dont think they're gonna get it now but you never know.) For nearly 2 years they've been phoning me everyday (even some bank holidays), but their number is blocked soi dont get to see it except if i look at my phone logs. 
As said above, i think if they were going to do anything ie court , they'd write first , but apart from an occasional statement and i polite invitation to phone them to discuss it, which i ignore, there is nothing.  I would block their number and just ignore until they write to you and then ask advice here.  I get the impression if you ignore them they just move on to more easily bullied people.

beecharmer

DjangoUnchained said:

I had a debt nearly 6 years ago with pra. I requested the CCA and months later they sent me a bundle of papers. I don't know whether it was a legit CCA or not but i wrote back saying it wasn't legit and not what i was asking for. They wrote back saying they were still waiting for it, meanwhile the debt was unenforceable. Ive never paid them a penny, and nearly 6 years later im still waiting for the cca (dont think they're gonna get it now but you never know.) For nearly 2 years they've been phoning me everyday (even some bank holidays), but their number is blocked soi dont get to see it except if i look at my phone logs. 
As said above, i think if they were going to do anything ie court , they'd write first , but apart from an occasional statement and i polite invitation to phone them to discuss it, which i ignore, there is nothing.  I would block their number and just ignore until they write to you and then ask advice here.  I get the impression if you ignore them they just move on to more easily bullied people.

It sounds awful that they were hassling you when they can’t even prove it’s enforceable. It seems like the documents they provided were accurate in my case but as I’d been paying it ever since they bought the debt it would be risky to potentially let a court decide this far down the line. The funny thing is the other default with the original lender I have been happy to speak to as they’ve been pretty good about everything, but I don’t trust PRA at all so I think that makes me get in my head about it a bit. I’ll carry on as I have been then, thank you for your advice. 

Onebrokelady

I'm with PRA too and had asked for my debts to be written off due to unaffordability. They tried phoning me so I emailed them and told them they were only allowed to contact me in writing or via email which they have agreed to and I haven't had a phone call since. They have emailed me for proof of my health problems that have made me cut my hours and decrease my earnings and I had gathered all the paperwork they asked for part from the health document because I had trouble getting it. They then mentioned something about the land registery and I read that they have put a charging order on someone's property via the land registry which scared me so I've now sent them a shirty email saying I will pay them what I can afford ( £1) a month and I will just have to pay that until the end of time 😀 I haven't heard back yet 

fatbelly

beecharmer said:

Hello there, 

Nervy lurker seeking some guidance on the infamous PRA group if possible, please. I’ve read other threads but they don’t seem to quite fit what I’d like to settle in my mind. I hope it is ok to start a new thread.

I’m in the process of becoming debt-free (having made so many mistakes in dealing with the debt before finding this forum) and I have two defaults. One is with the original lender that I’m dealing with directly and one has been sold to PRA in the summer of 2020. I’ve never spoken on the phone with PRA and I’ve only written to them once relatively recently to ask for the CCA agreement, which has been provided. I was paying £50 a month to the credit card company and just carried on doing that with PRA. I’ve never given them a monthly budget or shown affordability of repayments but I would rather prioritise paying off a loan for now and in a few months hopefully have enough saved to start making full and final offers to PRA (I don’t assume I’ll have much luck there but we will see).

I’m nervous now having received the CCA in June; their letter asked me to get in touch to agree a way forward to clear the debt and I’ve had some missed calls from them the last few days. My questions really are:

Is it silly to ignore their calls? I’ve never given them my number but I assume they can check records from my credit card company for it. I would rather deal with them by email if I must, so should I pre-emptively email and ask why they’re calling? My fear is if I speak to them it will confirm my number and they’ll just keep calling and raising stress levels.

Given I have made monthly payments ever since 2020, is there a chance they would try and get a CCJ against me because I’m not engaging with them? Would they write to me first before starting any of that? As it stands, I won’t have paid off the debt by the time it drops off my credit reports. 

Realistically I could up my payments to them but it would be at the expense of overpaying my loan and the interest rate on that is better than credit card APRs but not amazing. 

Any advice would be gratefully received, thank you. 

You're paying £50 per month. There wouldn't be much point in them starting a court claim as theh might get less!

Certainly ignore their calls, and there isn't much point in writing to ask why they are calling either.

When you are in a position to offer them a lump sum, and it sounds like this one is the least of your priorities, then write and offer them half what you can afford. To give you room for negotiation!

beecharmer

Onebrokelady said:

I'm with PRA too and had asked for my debts to be written off due to unaffordability. They tried phoning me so I emailed them and told them they were only allowed to contact me in writing or via email which they have agreed to and I haven't had a phone call since. They have emailed me for proof of my health problems that have made me cut my hours and decrease my earnings and I had gathered all the paperwork they asked for part from the health document because I had trouble getting it. They then mentioned something about the land registery and I read that they have put a charging order on someone's property via the land registry which scared me so I've now sent them a shirty email saying I will pay them what I can afford ( £1) a month and I will just have to pay that until the end of time 😀 I haven't heard back yet 

Wow, I can’t believe you’ve shown them proof of your health conditions and still they mention the charging order. It shouldn’t shock me, but it does. Thank you for sharing, I hope the affordability request goes in your favour.

beecharmer

fatbelly said:

beecharmer said:

Hello there, 

Nervy lurker seeking some guidance on the infamous PRA group if possible, please. I’ve read other threads but they don’t seem to quite fit what I’d like to settle in my mind. I hope it is ok to start a new thread.

I’m in the process of becoming debt-free (having made so many mistakes in dealing with the debt before finding this forum) and I have two defaults. One is with the original lender that I’m dealing with directly and one has been sold to PRA in the summer of 2020. I’ve never spoken on the phone with PRA and I’ve only written to them once relatively recently to ask for the CCA agreement, which has been provided. I was paying £50 a month to the credit card company and just carried on doing that with PRA. I’ve never given them a monthly budget or shown affordability of repayments but I would rather prioritise paying off a loan for now and in a few months hopefully have enough saved to start making full and final offers to PRA (I don’t assume I’ll have much luck there but we will see).

I’m nervous now having received the CCA in June; their letter asked me to get in touch to agree a way forward to clear the debt and I’ve had some missed calls from them the last few days. My questions really are:

Is it silly to ignore their calls? I’ve never given them my number but I assume they can check records from my credit card company for it. I would rather deal with them by email if I must, so should I pre-emptively email and ask why they’re calling? My fear is if I speak to them it will confirm my number and they’ll just keep calling and raising stress levels.

Given I have made monthly payments ever since 2020, is there a chance they would try and get a CCJ against me because I’m not engaging with them? Would they write to me first before starting any of that? As it stands, I won’t have paid off the debt by the time it drops off my credit reports. 

Realistically I could up my payments to them but it would be at the expense of overpaying my loan and the interest rate on that is better than credit card APRs but not amazing. 

Any advice would be gratefully received, thank you. 

You're paying £50 per month. There wouldn't be much point in them starting a court claim as theh might get less!

Certainly ignore their calls, and there isn't much point in writing to ask why they are calling either.

When you are in a position to offer them a lump sum, and it sounds like this one is the least of your priorities, then write and offer them half what you can afford. To give you room for negotiation!

Thank you, that’s great advice. I read another commenter on a forum who also said once you’ve made your offer, if rejected, to then request a Subject Access Request as sometimes they say “will accept 50%” in the notes.

fatbelly

SARs can be interesting. I remember getting one from a creditor that had the interesting bits redacted. However, when you held the paper against a bright light, you could read it

Onebrokelady

beecharmer said:

Onebrokelady said:

I'm with PRA too and had asked for my debts to be written off due to unaffordability. They tried phoning me so I emailed them and told them they were only allowed to contact me in writing or via email which they have agreed to and I haven't had a phone call since. They have emailed me for proof of my health problems that have made me cut my hours and decrease my earnings and I had gathered all the paperwork they asked for part from the health document because I had trouble getting it. They then mentioned something about the land registery and I read that they have put a charging order on someone's property via the land registry which scared me so I've now sent them a shirty email saying I will pay them what I can afford ( £1) a month and I will just have to pay that until the end of time 😀 I haven't heard back yet 

Wow, I can’t believe you’ve shown them proof of your health conditions and still they mention the charging order. It shouldn’t shock me, but it does. Thank you for sharing, I hope the affordability request goes in your favour.

Sorry I wasn't very clear  😊I didn't show them proof of my health problems because I couldn't get and they didn't say they would put a charging order on my property just that they would look at the land registery then I read on here that they had put a charging order on someone else