ACI chasing 15 year old credit card debt

dodginess

I just wanted to share this information with other forum members in case they have been contacted by ACI:

I have a very old credit card debt that I received a default notice for around 2008-2009. I had occasional letters from the lender in the first few years via about 3 intermediaries including Intrum Justitia, then nothing after that, then I got a letter from ACI at the start of last week. The letter I received was undated and it said that I needed to contact them within 10 days of the date of the letter (?) to avoid them sending Verify round. I emailed them the following day to ACCOUNTREF@aciuk.uk (as you're supposed to be able to do according to their web site) and told them that I did not acknowledge the debt and in any case it would be statute barred.

I have still not had any response to my email 8 days later and I received a letter today dated on the date I received the original letter saying that I hadn't responded so they have given instructions to send Verify round. So, their letters are apparently taking 8 days to get to me and that wouldn't give me enough time to contact them within the 10 day period except by telephone, which I have not done.

I've sent a letter by Signed For today that contains the same response as the email. Is there anything else I need to do at this stage? I moved back home to look after my elderly parents and I could do without some idiot coming round hammering on the door. I feel like ACI has been fraudulent by sending undated letters and not giving me enough time to respond by post.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

sourcrates

Yes, standard behaviour by a debt collector unfortunately, especially this one, as they have form for historic bad work practices.

Their deadline means nothing, you can state your own deadline just as easily, the company that may knock on your door has no authority or statutory powers, they are simply a collection company, you can dismiss them as you see fit.

Lots of activity on the boards at present with old debts resurfacing, tends to happen occasionally, see if they respond to your letter.

dodginess

Thank you for that, much appreciated. I'm assuming that they know the debt is out of time and unrecoverable by legal means (i.e. a judge might throw it out) therefore it's better to just harass people and hope they give in. I looked at their Trustpilot reviews and it seems that even if people do start making minimal repayments just to get ACI to go away, ACI still harasses them even once the debt is cleared.

I would also just add, in case others aren't aware of this, that Verify state on their web site that they make audio recordings when they door-stop poeple. I presume this is done covertly unless they are challenged on it.

dodginess

I just got this back by email:

Thank you for your recent email.
 
We can confirm your account has now been closed with ACI and returned to the original creditor, Intrum UK.
 

Please contact Intrum UK regarding this account going forward.

I don't understand why Intrum UK (a DCA) would ask ACI (a DCA) to deal with the account? Now I'm supposed to "reach out" to Intrum UK? I will post again if I hear any more about this.

RAS

Do not contact Intrum. Just stay quiet unless they write to you.

Big debt companies (Intrum are one of the biggest in Europe), don't really work on an individual level. They just farm out huge chunks of debt they've acquired. Some of it's uncollectable, some of it's possibly for people who are no longer alive. ACI and the like try to contact them and sift them from those which are collectable.

The one thing you need to watch out for if you are in England, is that even if a debt is statute barred it still exists. So debt collectors can try to take you to court for a CCJ. If you defend, it goes nowhere. If you ignore it they win and you have to try and overturn it. If you get a letter before action, come back for advice.

dodginess

Thank you. If it goes the way of court action I will definitely defend it. It would be nice to think that after some reasonable period of time you could just draw a line under your mistakes and move on.

sourcrates

Any further help required, please ask.

BartSimpsonsLeftNut

Hi all,

I’m in a similar position to the original poster of this thread.

An old debt (approx 1999 at a guess) is now suddenly being chased by ACI.

The debt was a bank overdraft & credit cards that I/we ran up on a joint account with my ex wife. We were a bit reckless financially & some of it caught up with us and some didn’t.

I’ve just had one letter from them and several missed calls/texts asking me to contact them so far, and as of yet I've not responded to them.

The debt hasn’t been chased for at least 20 years, and having looked into it should be statute barred.

My concern is that if i send the standard statute barred letter, am I acknowledging them & restarting the 6 year clock ?

I’ve spoken to my ex wife & she confirms she hasn’t been contacted or made any payments in the last 6 years either.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks.

sourcrates

BartSimpsonsLeftNut said:

Hi all,

I’m in a similar position to the original poster of this thread.

The debt hasn’t been chased for at least 20 years, and having looked into it should be statute barred.

My concern is that if i send the standard statute barred letter, am I acknowledging them & restarting the 6 year clock ?

Thanks.

If its been 20 years, the clock has long since stopped ticking on this one my friend, once statute barred, forever statute barred, I would say with some degree of certainty that you won`t be re-starting any clocks by sending the statute barred letter to them.