Lowell Debt Collection - Help Please

stueymoo

Hi,
Just wondering if anyone has any similair experiences or can offer any advice.

My girlfriend had a Sears Card (owned by Creation financial services), which was basically a store card that she ran up some debt on. in 2000 we were skint and couldn't afford to eat nevermind pay £60 a month to them. So she rang up and agreed to pay them back at £20 a month.

We got a copy of our credit record in 2005 and she realised that there was no record of owing Sears/creation any money (Sears card company went bust i think). So she stopped her direct debit payments and heard nothing until 16th jan 2008 when she received a letter from Lowell Financial Services saying that She had a debt of £172.68 . She has since had another letter and a phone call from lowell saying that she needs to pay up. Yesterday she received a letter from Creation saying that the debt had been sold to Lowell. She then spoke to Lowell on the phone today.

She is not disputing the fact that she didn't finish paying the debt but doesn't want to pay them because she owes creation the money not them. They called her a liar when she said that she hadn't had any correspondance from creation saying that she'd missed a payment or owed them any money (She's not lying!). If she'd have received a letter saying she'd missed a payment she would have set the direct debit back up and finished paying it. In the end after hassling her she said she she would pay them back at £5 a month, which they point blank refused and said they needed take payment over the phone, so she told them she wouldn't pay them at all.

What are the legal implications if she refuses to pay them? Can they take her to court to recover the debt? will they bother for such a small amount, or are they just trying their luck to see if she pays up.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

Stueymoo

bountiful

Hi Stueymoo - I have come across the name Lowell on these boards and quite a lot of people seem to have had (negative) experiences with them - until someone
replies to you with KNOWLEDGE you could try searching the forum for 'Lowell' and see what previous advice and info has been posted. Good luck!

stueymoo

cheers bountiful. I've looked at a few lowell posts and they they don't seem like they 've got a great reputation. I've read delicioas's post but i think it's different with their debt being over six years old. just wondering if this is the same, if they are trying to get her to pay when she doesn't legally need to.

AGB863

If your girlfriend stopped paying the direct debit in 2005 then the debt is not over 6 years old. She may have taken out the store card in 2000, but you are getting a bit mixed up with the debt being statute barred.

This only comes in to force when no payment or acknowledgement of the debt has been made within the last last six years - then the debt becomes unenforceable through the courts and as the last payment was in 2005 this rule does not apply.

As for Lowell Financial Services now owning the debt - Creation have every right to sell the account - in the small print of the credit agreement (assuming that your girl friend signed one) there will be a clause that allows them to do this if the account is defaulted and as such payments are now legally due to Lowells and not to Creation.

It may be that the Lowells are now the legal owners of the debt, but they will not have paid Creation the face value of the debt ie the outstanding balance is £172.68 but it is most likely that Lowells have paid Creation a lot less than the outstanding amount - this is how Lowells will make their profit.

There are a couple of options - (1) you can ask Lowells to produce a signed copy of the credit agrreement - there is a letter around here somewhere that can be sent - and it has to be supplied within a set time frame. (I will try and find it and post it one here - or someone else can in the mean time) (2) you can ask Lowells for a settlement figure - ie they may be prepared to reduce the amount of money that your girlfriend would have to pay to them to efectively cancel the debt. With this they mark her credit rating with the words "partially settled" - which will show that at some point she has had credit problems and this would stay on her file for six years. You could ask them to mark the file as fully satisfied - but they may not agree to it.

As the debt has appeared only recently - and it was in 2005 that you last checked her credit rating - it would be worth now checking again to see if it has been ammended recently.