Transport for London - Cyber Attack - Credit Card expiry - Mistaken Debt Collection

chrispar

Hi,

I'm wondering whether anyone has a similar problem - and if so, what happened.
My partner received a debt collection notice out of the blue from Bristow & Sutor claiming monies for Auto Pay due. This was the first time we had heard of it this and were a little surprised.
After some research we found that the credit card we use to handle Auto Pay (for the congestion charge) has expired - and that there was a payment due. 
TfL had both our email and ordinary mail addresses but had not contacted us about this at any stage.
I assume that it is unusual to (a) not tell people when cards expire (other companies seem to manage this) and (b) start debt collection proceedings with out advising someone. 

The Consumer Credit Sourcebook (CONC) says: CONC 7.3.4 (Contact with Customers):

"Firms are required to attempt to contact customers in default or arrears to discuss their account status and explore solutions. This implies that creditors must make reasonable efforts to communicate directly with the debtor before involving a DCA."

It can't be normal practice for TfL to ignore CONC can it? It must be the result of something like the cyber attack. And if so there must be quite a few people whose credit cards expired and were not advised.
As soon as we realised there was this issue, we updated the credit card and made all the payments - taking snips of the screens to show this has been done.
We raised this issue with TfL - but have heard nothing back.
We called Bristow & Sutor immediately and told them what had happened. They said they would need to confirm with TfL. They have now sent an even stronger letter demanding the monies (which we have paid to TfL) are paid to them.
I'm hoping there are others who have been drawn into the Kafkian nightmare - and will have some idea how to talk to someone who can fix things.

Angelbean11

Ugh - I am literally having this exact scenario. Card expired and I didn't receive anything from TFL to make me aware. Now I'm getting threatening letters from CDER for a £12.50 debt. I've paid up via TFL and it's hasn't stopped the debt demands. I've sent TFL an email but I don't think I'll give it much more energy.