Lowell claims I owe them outstanding debt

phonicbrewer

Hi all, bit of a newbie here!  After umpteen calls and text msgs from Lowell early in the year [ignored]; just received a letter from Lowell citing that I have outstanding debt with them for £xxx.xx with O2 (UK Ltd).  However I have not been with O2 for many years since the release of the iPhone 3G I think (well over 10 years ago!), which to the best of my knowledge the contract was completed in full with nothing outstanding. 

The letter from the lovely Lowell reads:

Dear <my name>

You have not responded to our attempts to contact you

We haven't heard from you and we can help you if you get in touch.  We want to make paying this debt as easy as possible for you but we really need you to engage with us,
What happens next?

You need to let us know you'll be repaying your outstanding accounts if you don't engage with us, we may take further recovery action which is likely to include sending letter, calls and SMS message.  We may also proceed with our assessment to decide whether to involve a debt collection company who will discuss your debt(s) on our behalf and content you to discuss payment.

Call us on 0333 556 5700 by 09/12/2024 or set up your payment plan(s) by using our app or website.

Your sincerely.
Lowell

I have seen that a (incorrect CCA) correction “prove it letter” can be requested for proof that I have outstanding debt; would this apply in this instance and if it does, is there a template?  Found this template in debtcamel website and send to the debt collection company in recorded post:

Dear [debt collector company],

 I am writing in response to a letter from you dated [dd/mm/yy], reference number [reference]. A copy is attached.

I have no knowledge of any such debt being owed to [company name]
If you do not stop collection activity whilst investigating my dispute, you are breaking FCA rules and guidance.

Also, ignoring claims that debts have been settled or are disputed and continuing to make unjustified demands for payment is harassment.
Please provide evidence of my liability for the alleged debt or send me written confirmation that this matter is now closed.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Your name

Any help is greatly appreciated  

fatbelly

You can't request a copy of a credit agreement for two reasons. One is that this is likely to be a service agreement. The other is that you do not want to be exercising any rights that the debtor has when it is by no means certain that this is anything to do with you.

The appropriate response, if you want to make one, is the prove-it letter, which is all explained in this thread

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2607247/letter-when-you-know-nothing-about-about-the-debt-aka-prove-it-letter

phonicbrewer

Hi fatbelly, many thanks for your response and link.  The template in my original post found from debtcamel appears to be similar to the first template in the link you've posted. 

I feel the correct thing to do is respond to their letter requesting a CCA “correction: by sending a “prove it letter” as i am certain that i do not have any outstanding debt

Edit; Thanks to fatbelly, Rob and RAS for your patience and correcting me! 

Rob5342

Why are you mentioning a CCA when the letter you originally quoted doesn't mention it and Fatbelly told you not to request it. Just send the prove it letter mentioned in the link and see what comes back. The chances are they are just trying their luck to see who will pay. 

RAS

No. A CCA is not relevant to a phone contract, so you make yourself look like an easy target for Lowell.

Lowell seem to have bought a LOT of out of date accounts recently. And they are very good at phrasing letters so they muddle legal issues. In England and Wales most debts become "statute barred" after 6 years.

Legally the debt still exists and the owner can ask the debtor to pay, BUT they cannot enforce the debt in the courts, nor make any reference on the debtors credit record, so the debtor has the option of paying if they feel charitable, or refusing.

Lowell and others may have paid 5p in the £, probably less. So getting 5% of the debtors to cough up earns them a profit. If you want to be charitable, personally I make a donation to CAB, CAP or a DV charity (given how many people in that situation escape with debts).

phonicbrewer

Rob5342 said:

Why are you mentioning a CCA when the letter you originally quoted doesn't mention it and Fatbelly told you not to request it. Just send the prove it letter mentioned in the link and see what comes back. The chances are they are just trying their luck to see who will pay. 

It has been a long day and hasn’t helped receiving Lowell letter at the end of it! Apologises, I did mean a “prove it letter” and was muggled with the jargons by mentioning CCA, thank you for correcting me appreciate it. 

For my tired and simple mind, I will send a “prove it letter” (hope I have this right!) 

Rob5342

RAS said:

And they are very good at phrasing letters so they muddle legal issues. 

They certainly are. They use the classic "further recovery action" phrase which is designed to scare people into thinking they mean legal action but really just meana that they'll try and annoy you again. 

dc_scotland

There are a number of websites which suggest that the phone number you have quoted is related to a debt scam.

Here is one of them: https://who-called.co.uk/Number/03335565700

RAS

I suspect that most people assume that they and their debt are subject to close scrutiny? 

When actually the absence of minimum payments triggers a programme of computer generated letters, auto-dialed calls and texts littered with catch all payments. As you say,

May be or may include = there is a chance we can take an action although it's very unlikely to be cost effective (so we won't) even if the courts agreed.
Further recovery action = the computer generated stuff will keep coming
Referred to our legal team = we do have a contract with someone with legal training, which we occasionally use if you have a lot of assets.

phonicbrewer

The "prove-it-letter" per @fatbelly link above was sent to Lowell the following day after receiving the initial letter from them.  Today I have received another letter from them which reads:

Dear <my name>

Thank you for your letter.

I understand that you are disputing this account and would like information regarding the validity of the debt.

We can advise that we purchased the account in good faith from O2 (UK) Ltd and were not aware of any outstanding of pervious disputes.

We kindly ask that you provide us with full details of your dispute and copies of any support documentation as evidence of your dispute so that we can investigate this matter for you.

We have noted the contents of your letter and I can confirm that I have requested a copy of the statement from O2 (UK) Ltd. 

We will advise you of the outcome in due course.  This would take a number of weeks to complete therefore we have placed your account on hold until the investigation concludes. 

If you have any further queries in the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We trust that this is satisfactory.

Yours sincerely,

Lowell.

As far as I am aware, I haven't been with O2 for well over 6 years and I do know that I do not have any outstanding payments owed to them.  I did not have any disputes with O2 therefore have nothing to send to Lowell!!  

Anything that I should be concerned about; or is this just a Lowell boilerplate response to a prove-it-letter?

sourcrates

Standard response letter from Lowell, they regard any request for information as a "dispute", and are just trying to muddy the waters a little.

See what they send you, as its quite likely the debt will be statute barred.

Post back when they respond to you.