PRA

1stTimer

Is it normal for PRA to become more persistent the closer it gets to your default falling off credit file?

I’ve had a debt (currently £1020) with them since 2020 it defaulted in Dec 2019 and the last 3 months I have had non stop letters and voicemails asking me to contact them. 

The letter yesterday said I had until the 24/12/2025 to contact them before they hand it over to their debt collection partners.

I stopped paying at the beginning of the year and have recently paid them £5 a month thinking that would make them go quiet again but they don’t seem to be going quiet this time.

I have previously requested a CCA and they have provided the credit agreement and statement so I assume it is enforceable.

I’m just wondering if this is normal practice as I have another debt with them due to drop off my file in April 2026 which is a higher amount.

I will of course respond if they send an LBA but I just find it odd they have gone from silence to this all of a sudden? I also have the money to pay a F&F if necessary but they will not budge on a discount and I hate the thought of them paying pennies for it.

sourcrates

Debt collection can be a very unpredictable process, it generally goes in fits and starts, they may pester you for months with letters and calls, then all of a sudden go quite again, sometimes for years, then out of the blue, it all starts up again, its all computer generated, its the computer making the calls, and printing off the letters, it just does what its told to do.

I suspect the reason it goes quite is when they have more debts on their books than the system can cope with, they tend to concentrate on those who they think will pay, then when things quieten down, they go after the ones who didn`t "connect" with them previously.

Of course there are probably many other factors involved in all of this, time of year, new tax year only 4 months away, wanting to clear the decks for new business, maybe they are after making their bonus, I don`t know, but its nothing untoward.

fatbelly

Why are you paying them?

It would have gone statute barred this month!

Stop paying but make a low final offer on a 'without prejudice' basis

ManyWays

I stopped paying at the beginning of the year
If you were paying them up until the start of this year, then this debt would not be statute barred for another 5 years

But as they have the CCA and it is nowhere close to being statute barred, you do need to be paying them a sensible amount each month if you dont want them to go to court and you get a CCJ.

PRA will still be able to go to court when the debt has dropped off your credit record, that is irrelevant.

The fact that you hate the idea of paying them a lot as they bought the debt for little doesnt help you make a good decision at the moment...how much have you offered them to settle the debt?

The other PRA debt, how large is that and they also produced the CCA agreement for that?

Do you have other problem debts as well?

1stTimer

On this debt I offered them £400 and they will not go below £820. (This has been offered twice over 2 years)

The other debt is £3948 and is again enforceable they won’t go below £2623 

2 other debts with Intrum both unenforceable at present and they are proving difficult to get a decent F&F too.

I will just continue to pay small sums unless they send a letter before action I think. 

ManyWays

It is often hard to get a good F&F offer when a CCA hasnt been produced. Its usually simpler to stop making any offers and hope it will eventually become statute barred.

Rob5342

If Intrum haven't provided the CCA then just stop paying as they can't do anything, otherwise what was the point of asking for it?

Can you afford to pay the full amount outstanding on the PRA debt? If so then one tactic might be to stop paying and see if that prompts a better offer. 

tigergambit

Not something frequently advised on here but if you are happy to settle the £1020 debt for £400 you could try calling PRA. I did this under very similar circumstances recently and they settled at the 23% they refused 18 months earlier. You need to refuse any interim higher offer, insist the £400 is all you have and get it in writing (this wasn't a problem). 

Please stop paying the unenforceable debts. That's just throwing money away.

1stTimer

Thanks all, to be clear the only one I am paying is the PRA one they have started chasing and that is only because the letters came out of the blue and panic set in.
I was so focused on the debts dropping off my credit file I didn’t think about the possibility of a CCJ so it panicked me (I guess that’s the point of their letters)

I will play it by ear for now and hope they are just using scare tactics. The blessing is I can pay it so all is not lost

Rob5342

Debt purchasers can and do take legal action, but threat letters are an easy and effective thing they usually try first and sometimes it never goes beyond that. There are no hard and fast rules about how to handle it, it's a classic case of who blinks first. 

SPM87

"you do need to be paying them a sensible amount each month if you dont want them to go to court and you get a CCJ." sorry but provide evidence of this being a reality. The OP disproves your comment in his original comment and yet you confidently say such nonsense as the bit highlighted in bold. 

There is also going to court and getting a CCJ... 2 totally different concepts. Do half of you on here work for DCAs? 

OP, pay them down to £1 per month and I predict they wont even set foot in a court room, you have probably already paid their costs for this debt by now even at £5 per month