CCA / StepChange Sanity Check

DragonAge

Hi, thanks for reading!

I’m just looking to sense and sanity check and make sure that I’m on the right path and doing the right things. I’ve lurked and gleamed a lot of information from this forum over the months and found it so incredibly useful.

I’ve been in a DMP with StepChange since May 2021, this is for four separate accounts:

Link Financial Outsourcing, who took over a Barclay Card credit card. Default Date June 2020. Original account opened 2008. Balance remaining: ~£3,000

Lowell, who took over a Capital One credit card, which defaulted May 2020. Original account opened 2009. ~£2,800

BW Legal / PRAC Financial, who took over a 118 118 Money loan, which defaulted November 2020. Original account opened 2019. ~£220

Scott and Mears, who took over a Ratesetter loan, which defaulted November 2020. Original account opened 2018. ~£3,000.

A few months ago when I started looking through the forum properly, I stumbled upon the unenforceability and CCA request route, which is the path that I’ve gone down.

Scott & Mears went into administration in September, I only noticed this in October when looking at my StepChange statement and realised a payment had failed. I spoke to StepChange and they told me to speak to the administrators.  I sent them an email basically asking what was happening, and offered them a £250 F&F in light of the administration and hoping for a speedy close. They couldn’t accept (they weren’t accepting anything at all) that but they have requested no further payments while the situation is unravelled. So this debt is currently parked entirely.

I sent the other three creditors a CCA request posted out Thursday 13th November, and delivered 14th November. I believe making the 2nd December the 12 day legal deadline.

I received a letter back from BW Legal immediately on the Saturday morning (very quick turnaround!), stating that they have asked the original creditor for the CCA. Link have not been in contact at all, and I received a letter from Lowell on Thursday 27th that may have just been a coincidence with the timing, as it wasn’t CCA related, but just a standard, ‘it’s time to put your debt behind you’ letter. No reference to a payment plan or figures or anything.

In my letters to them, I stated that I would pay the month’s DMP as a good faith (more fool me, maybe!) gesture.

On the assumption that I don’t receive a CCA next week, I plan to do the following:

1.       My DD is setup with StepChange to leave my account on the 1st
of the month, and they pay my creditors ~15th of the month.

a.       I will speak to StepChange and thank them for their help (they have been genuinely helpful over the years and I absolutely would not have got the ball rolling without them), but cancel the DD
and tell them that I will be dealing with the creditors myself moving forward.

2.       As my accounts will now be legally unenforceable, the creditors will not receive a payment from StepChange in January.

3.       At this point, I intend to send F&F offers to each of them, stating the unenforceability of the account, with the offers being in the region of £50.

I think I’m going about things the right way, and I know every situation is unique and provides different avenues and ways that things can be done, so really I’m just looking for someone who has gone through the process similarly, or knows what they’re talking about, to be able to say to me, ‘Yep, you’re doing the right thing’, just for my own sanity!

When the S&M situation resolves itself, I will likely go down the CCA route with them, unless I can finagle the administration into a low offer from them, or them accepting a low offer from me.

Thanks for reading, and appreciate the time/any advice if it’s forthcoming

fatbelly

Unenforceable debts are unenforceable. I wouldn't pay them anything, and save your settlement offers for the possibility that they find or reconstruct the original agreement

sourcrates

OK, the 12 days are just guidelines, it is not a legal deadline, but you do get a temporary period of unenforceability until the original creditor can find the information you have requested.

Keep in mind it doesn't have to be the original piece of paper, a reconstituted copy is perfectly acceptable, and there is no requirement for it to bear your signature.

You won`t receive any paperwork next week, ideally you should expect the process to take anywhere up to 6 months, sometimes longer, the paperwork always stays with the original lender, even when debts are sold, so they have to go searching for your agreement amongst millions of others.

Making a CCA request is regarded as a "dispute" during which time you need not make any payments until you get what you asked for, or conformation they can`t provide it.

If one or more accounts are deemed to be unenforceable, why bother paying anything, you can just walk away, and eventually the debts will become time barred, you will find that even if an account is unenforceable, the creditor may not accept a low ball offer, preferring instead to hold out for all or nothing, they can do this as most debt purchasing companies buy these accounts for peanuts, and they tend to work on a numbers basis, so what they may lose on one account, they more than make up for on another.

Best advice after 18 years on this board is if any are deemed unenforceable, pay them nothing, take the win, and walk away.

Rob5342

I agree, stop paying them all immediately and only consider making any further payment if and when the CCA is produced. There's no sense in throwing money away on debts that might be unenforcable when you might need that money later to pay debts that are enforceable. If you are quick you might be able to cancel the Stepchange direct debit in your banking app before it goes out tomorrow.

I wouldn't bother chasing the Scott and Mears debt either, just wait until it has been sold on and whoever that is starts writing to you, then ask them for the CCA. There's no sense in prompting people to go hunting unless you really have to, and the longer things go on the more likely it is that it won't be able to be produced, especially when a company is in administration as the administrators will want to wind everything up and offload the debts.

My own experience is that it can take three months or more for CCA reponses, and in terms to settlement offers it makes little difference to the collectors.  I msde a CCA request to PRA and that came back as uneforceable, but they still wrote and emailed every few weeks with 5% off offers (with the text saying it was unforceable hidden away in tiny writing at the bottom of the contact us section).

ManyWays

There is no point in making low offers quickly. Either the CCA can be found (in which case the debt collector will reject your offer, the debt collectors are likely to know if this will happen) or it cant (in which case you shouldnt be offering anything.

There is no clever option of making a low offer quickly, the debt collectors will just reject.