Help! Can you refuse to pay CC charges in the first place?

purplezebra_2

I moved houses 2 years ago, and thought i had updated my details with the credit card company. However, when i didnt receive any further bills I wasnt that bothered as I had paid the card off and stopped using it, so thought no bills was because nothing was on the card.

Anyway, I recently went back to the flat, and the person living there had kept all my mail for the whole two years(!!) including a load of credit card bills. It turns out that I had 1 pound owing on the account due to interest, and now with interest and 2 years worth of late charges its over 200 pounds!! I know you can attempt to claim unfair charges back, but can you refuse to pay them in the first place? The company never once tried to contact me, even though my tel number did not change. This seems a silly amount to charge for an initial debt of 1 pond - what can i do?

Noz

Not sure what you mean by refuse to pay them. The CC just adds them to the balance of the account. The longer you don't settle the account, the higher the balance will get.

purplezebra_2

Sorry, what i meant was I know once they have been paid, you can try to claim them back, but can instead can you say they are unfair to the cc company before paying them, and they credit it back to your account

Noz

What advantage would there be for the CC company? Remember they will say that the charges are fair anyway.

NickX

If the debt goes unpaid for 6 years and they still do not contact you, then it becomes unenforceable, known as "Statute Barred" and you will not have to pay it.

jonesMUFCforever

In the meantime you credit file is trashed because of the outstanding debt.

Paul_Herring

I would have thought that after this length of time that the debt would now be in the hands of a collection agency.

Your first port of call should be to ring up the CC company and ask
1) Why didn't they change your address
2) Why they didn't attempt to call you
3) How they plan on justifying the extortionate charges
4) The current state of the debt.

And finally a question for you - didn't you realise you weren't getting statements/verification of account closure and didn't you think this unusual?

NickX

Paul_Herring wrote: »

I would have thought that after this length of time that the debt would now be in the hands of a collection agency.

Your first port of call should be to ring up the CC company and ask
1) Why didn't they change your address
2) Why they didn't attempt to call you
3) How they plan on justifying the extortionate charges
4) The current state of the debt.

And finally a question for you - didn't you realise you weren't getting statements/verification of account closure and didn't you think this unusual?

I don't really agree with this. If the OP contacts the CC company he is admitting liability to the debt, negating the 2 years that have passed.

He could dispute the debt saying that he paid everything off the card and does not accept the amount they are now asking for, but really it is down to the Debt Collectors to contact him and provide evidence that he actually owes this money. If they cannot supply the original CCA, then it is not valid either.

As they haven't bothered to contact him in 2 years, I think there is a possibility that another 4 years could pass and it will become "statute barred" and unenforceable.

Paul_Herring

NickX wrote: »

I don't really agree with this.

Not even my last sentence?

If the OP contacts the CC company he is admitting liability to the debt

Indeed. They didn't ensure that the CC company had changed the address on file, and somehow it isn't their fault?

They suddenly stopped receive statements, and, by the looks of it, failed to have any sort of mail-forwarding, not even with the new owner of the old address, and somehow it isn't the CC company's fault? (well it partially is for not using all avenues of contact)

While I do feel that £200+ fees for an alleged £1 debt is extortionate, I also feel that the OP isn't wholly free of blame in this.

As they haven't bothered to contact him in 2 years, I think there is a possibility that another 4 years could pass and it will become "statute barred" and unenforceable.

And as pointed out by someone else, while this is still outstanding, it's going to affect their credit record. The only way to sort it out (unless they follow your advice and suffer another 4 years of bad credit scores) is to contact the CC company.

krisskross

It sounds as if the CC company do think they are contacting him. OP doesn't know if he updated his details with them.

jonesMUFCforever

And in the meantime his credit rating is trashed making any other kind of credit impossible to get.
Good advice that.