Daily phone calls and initial letter from Westcot

CardiffGirl88

Earlier in the year you all gave me some really useful advice about my frightening debt situation.  I stopped paying all my cards in Feb/March, and am waiting for them to default.  None of my credit card debts have been closed and defaulted yet on my credit record.  I had a letter from M&S saying they were passing my debt to Wescot and I should receive an ‘introductory letter’.  Last week from Wednesday onwards and up until today, Westcot have called every day, left voicemails and sent text messages asking me to phone them. I don’t want to speak to them and would prefer to do everything in writing. It feels quite relentless and harassing already.  

On Saturday (27th July) I received the ‘introductory letter’ from Westcot dated 21st July asking me to contact them. Can I just write to them and offer to pay e.g. £30 per month or does that then become an ‘arrangement to pay’ or worse, and therefore on my credit record for 6 years after I’ve paid it off? My debt with M&S is £13k, and I’m still waiting to hear from my other cards (total is around £80k), so I can’t just agree to pay all of my leftover salary to them. Can they just turn up at my house or go straight to court proceedings?  I know I need to contact Westcot and can’t ignore this letter, I’m assuming my other cards will follow this same route over the next few weeks/months.  

Any advice very gratefully received. Thank you.

RAS

Offering £30 per month, or any other figure, before the debt is defaulted will almost certainly result in AP markers. 

Write to Westcot, cc M&S and require them to remove your phone number(s) and email address from their records. It could take a few weeks to update, but if they don't comply put in a formal complaint.

They cannot start formal proceedings until they have issued the default, which is why you'll set up a payment schedule once that happens. And bailiffs are exceedingly rare, and only if you've failed to comply with court orders.

lillypoo

I have debt to an m&s credit card too.

Just to reassure you 

Stopped paying m&s May 2023
They handed it to wescott to handle Sept 2023
Wescott wrote to me every week and rang every day for two months
They stopped contact then jn December 2023 said they were returning the debt to m&s

I've heard absolutely NOTHING from either company since

So my advice would be , just don't engage with them unless you get a letter saying they're going for a ccj ...but I doubt you will

Floss

Set up a new email address purely for creditors to use.

Pick up a PAYG sim & stick in an old phone, and switch it off.

Contact your creditors with your new contact details, and swap them on websites where you can.

Sly72

Floss said:

Set up a new email address purely for creditors to use.

Pick up a PAYG sim & stick in an old phone, and switch it off.

Contact your creditors with your new contact details, and swap them on websites where you can.

why do:

Set up a new email address purely for creditors to use.

Pick up a PAYG sim & stick in an old phone, and switch it off.

You can block emails and calls that's what I did.

Floss

Because the volume of calls & texts can disrupt life - I needed my phone to be available & ringing for family & friends, not silent to avoid debt chasers.

It also stops calls at stupid times - 7.30am-9pm...

Sly72

Floss said:

Because the volume of calls & texts can disrupt life - I needed my phone to be available & ringing for family & friends, not silent to avoid debt chasers.

It also stops calls at stupid times - 7.30am-9pm...

Block the number wont ring, they also stop after a while so then expect to get loads of letters in the snail mail!!!

Floss

Sly72 said:

Floss said:

Because the volume of calls & texts can disrupt life - I needed my phone to be available & ringing for family & friends, not silent to avoid debt chasers.

It also stops calls at stupid times - 7.30am-9pm...

Block the number wont ring, they also stop after a while so then expect to get loads of letters in the snail mail!!!

I already did, all my debts defaulted 18m+ ago - this is advice for the OP.

Sly72

Floss said:

Sly72 said:

Floss said:

Because the volume of calls & texts can disrupt life - I needed my phone to be available & ringing for family & friends, not silent to avoid debt chasers.

It also stops calls at stupid times - 7.30am-9pm...

Block the number wont ring, they also stop after a while so then expect to get loads of letters in the snail mail!!!

I already did, all my debts defaulted 18m+ ago - this is advice for the OP.

apologies sometimes hard to read if folk dont qoute

CardiffGirl88

Thank you all for your advice.  When I write to them to ask them to delete my phone/email and only contact me by post, would you recommend sending via Recorded Delivery or just put in a Post Box?  Thanks

sourcrates

Wescott, are just a collection agent, they act on behalf of their clients banks.

They do not own the debt, so cannot take any action against you whatsoever, this applies to all other debt collectors acting in the same capacity as well.

Yes you can ignore the letter as it means nothing, collection agents are equitably assigned the debts they chase, which means they can collect the payments, but cannot enforce their clients rights in court.

Think of it like this, you owe person one, ten pounds, they ask person two to get this ten pounds off you, and give you 10% of that ten pounds for your trouble.

You can just ignore person two, as they never lent you any money, and you don`t know them from Adam.

Person two returns to person one and says they were unsuccessful in obtaining the ten pounds.

That is debt collection in a nutshell, there are so many mis-truths and false information doing the rounds, only the owner of a debt can take legal action against you, and they tend to be debt purchasing companies that do that, rather than original creditors, debt collectors have no more power than you or I do, and can be ignored with impunity should you wish, absolutely nothing will happen as a result.

Wait until it defaults and gets sold if that`s what you want to do, don`t be intimidated by the likes of Wescott.

Its been said a 1000 times, over and over again, the only letter you should take heed of is a "letter before action" its the only thing that can potentially harm you.