So my debt free journey has truly began.....

exponential

Hi all,

I hope you're all well.

After taking advice on here around 3 months ago, I decided to allow my debts to default as I could no longer afford to pay.
It's looking like my creditors are now defaulting my accounts which is great I suppose although I'm now receiving text messages from "Wescot" asking me to get in touch to arrange payment.
I have also received a couple of letters from Marble and Fluid saying that Wescot are now taking over and are seeking payment.
Apparently, I must get in touch to discuss with them to either pay in full or pay 1% of the balance.

Looking at these letters, I am to ignore these too?

I have 10 days to respond which is grossly unfair as I only received these letters yesterday but they are dated 1st January!!

fatbelly

Wescot are just a debt collection agency. They will run through their standard letters. You can ignore them and their fake deadlines

exponential

When reading their letter a bit more thoroughly, I noticed there was a paragraph about defaulting if you don't make any contact or payment. That's when I realised that they're just a whipping boy for the bank. Looks very threatening on first glance though....

Do all creditors use Wescot as an attempt to force a payment? 

EssexHebridean

You can block the numbers those texts are coming from, too - if they have anything truly important to tell you, they have to put it in writing anyway! 

Different creditors use different DCA's - it is probably just coincidence that a lot of yours are heading to Wescot.

Rob5342

exponential said:

Looks very threatening on first glance though....

That's the way these companies work. Their only weapon is a keyboard and a printer so they write things to try and frighten people and take advantage of their lack of knowledge. They often use vague phrases like "Further recovery action" to make people fear the worst, or quote some meaningless made up deadline to try and panic you. I had one that sent me a "notice of continued action" saying I had 14 days to contact them. It was just made up nonsense but clearly designed to and make me think that it was some sort of legal notice. 

sourcrates

Wescott are acting as collection agent only.

They don`t own the debts they chase, therefore they are limited in what they can do.

This is known as an equitable assignment, in order to take legal action, they would have to have purchased the debt, via a legal assignment, so all they can do is ask you to pay, they can`t use the courts to do it for them.

You can just ignore Wescott, they will eventually return the account to their client.

exponential

Thank you everybody. The information is extremely helpful indeed!! So much so that even my wife (who is scared of the wind blowing in the wrong direction) is willing to look at these letters and hear the advice you guys give where, not so long ago she wouldn't entertain any of it.

Thanks guys. 

I'll post back when I feel something significant has happened.