HELP! Debt Collection Agency Commencing Legal Action!!

ebsay2000

I owe The Abbey 923 pounds..... (most of it their charges n unpaid fees etc)...Now their 'new' Debt Agency has written that if payment is not made in full, by the 19th.... they will start legal action at my local County Court!

Whats going to happen??

Will i have to appear? (I dont even have a suit, and can't afford one).

Im so scared!

3 of my other creditors have accepted token monthly payments (as i'm on Income Support), and as such have been getting repaid (very slowly)........But The Abbey has ignored all correspondance and now are taking me to court!

:sad:

bank_of_slate

Hi Ebsay,

Have you kept copies of all the correspondence that you sent to Abbey?
Make sure that you have these to hand to demonstrate that you attempted to make payments.
Are you with CCCS or payplan? Don't try to handle it all by yourself!
I'm sure that the others will have lots of really good advice for you.
...Linda

immoral_angeluk

Offer them monthly payments. The court action is just a threat to scare you into paying up. Firstly ask for a copy of the CCA..

LuciferTDark

Did you arrange the payments yourself or did you have someone like the CAB help you with it? Did you start making the payments or did you just wait for the Abbey to reply?

ebsay2000

Thanks for your replys.

A Man at The C.A.B. had been helping me (since March last year).........he had been negotiating with my Creditors...... But then he wrote to me in November to say that, as we had heard nothing from any of them for several months.......my case/file was being CLOSED!!!

He said he was funded by legal aid and it couldn't go on indefinately.

BUT....although 3 of my creditors had accepted token payments....Barclaycard and The Abbey hadn't....... And had ignored all his letters.........now Abbey is taking legal action!

CAB will have all letters that were sent... i guess?

ebsay2000

Ive not been paying The Abbey anything, because they had not even acknowledged The CAB's letters, let alone accepted a token payment.

With the 3 creditors i am paying back, i use a paying in book that they've sent me.

This is sooo crazy! The Abbey Debt of 923 pounds is the smallest amount i owe anyone....yet they've not played 'ball'

RAS

Ebsay

According to debt doctor who is a CAB advisor and posts on here, CAb keep their files for 6 years. We have requested a copy of all the correspondence relating to another case on here and received most of it.

Secondly, have you started a unfair charges case against Abbey.

CCCS_Matthew

Hi ebsay2000,

First of all try not to worry. Legal action is normally a phrase used by creditors or collection agencies to suggest that they aren't happy with your offer of payment, with the possibility of applying for a County Court Judgement (CCJ) against you. This doesn't mean you have to go to court personally.

A CCJ is basically a way of getting an impartial 3rd party (I.e the county court) to review your offer of payment to see if it is realistic. You would have to fill out an income and expenditure sheet and then make an offer of payment of what you can afford (in your case a token payment). It's likely that providing your budget is realistic, then you won't pay more than you can afford

Just because a creditor says they are taking legal action, doesn't mean that they will necessarily go for a CCJ, sometimes it's used as scare tactic to pressurise an individual to make a larger payment than they can afford.

I can elaborate further if you want to ask any other questions, and I'm sure anyone else will help out you've got any queries. I just want to stress that you should stick to your guns and don't worry about any of your creditors as no one can make you pay more than you can afford.

Hope this helps for now

CCCS

fiveyearplan

I agree with IA and think it is a scare tactic. If you request a CCA, it puts the account in dispute and they cannot chase you until they comply. Good luck!

ebsay2000

Thankyou all for your prompt replys, words of wisdom and support!

ebsay2000

RAS.... No ive not tried to reclaim unfair bank charges, although without them my debt would be more like 300 pounds...The Abbey (unlike some banks) charged something like 50 pounds for the first unauthorised payment and 35 pounds for the following ones)

I owe several thousand of pounds with other creditors, but they've reluctantly accepted the token payment of 1 pound per month.......as advised by CAB, because i'm on income support (59 a week)!