PRA Group

demi60

Hi I'm looking for some advice. 
I recently received a letter from PRA Group in my former married surname stating that I owe money to a finance group called CLS Finance, a total of £430 from 2004.
This is the first time I have received anything from these people and have been at my address for over 20 years and have had no letters or emails regarding any debt whatsoever.
My credit file on Experian or Equifax show no such debt on my file so I am somewhat concerned about this. 
The only thing that I had back in 2000 was an Adam's storecard which was paid in full on 2004 as the store closed. I had to deal with something to do with the insurance on the card but that was all sorted.
I have looked back on my bank statements and cannot find CLS Finance. Please what do I do next? Thank you.

backinbusiness

You ignore.  It's probably not even for you.  And if it is for you it'll be Statute barred by now (assuming you've made no payments towards it?)  BiB x 

fatbelly

I got your pm. The advice above is correct.

demi60

Thank you Backinbusiness. I have not made any payments regarding this as I don't know what it alludes to. I've never had any dealings with PRA or CLS Finance ever before. I have an excellent credit rating and have no known outstanding debts. I actually thought it was a scam so will ignore and see what happens.

hoverFrog1

CLS finance, if it is the same firm, deal with car finance. They didn't have a very good reputation and were supposed to have gone into receivership in 2020. It's possible that the receivers took all the debts and outsourced recovery to PRA. PRA would then do a search for people matching the name and date of birth and write to them demanding money. The aim is to get a response and hopefully a payment.

You could ignore it or help them out by writing back and tell them they've got the wrong person. I'd just ignore it.

fatbelly

hoverFrog1 said:

CLS finance, if it is the same firm, deal with car finance. They didn't have a very good reputation and were supposed to have gone into receivership in 2020. It's possible that the receivers took all the debts and outsourced recovery to PRA. PRA would then do a search for people having a vague resemblance to the name and date of birth and write to them demanding money. The aim is to get a response and hopefully a payment.

You could ignore it or help them out by writing back and tell them they've got the wrong person. I'd just ignore it.

Corrected that for PRA policy

sourcrates

If they become persistent, just send the statute barred letter to them, it can be found in the stickies on this board.