Can I get away with this?

amg4jag

Hi Guys,

I hope this is in the right forum but here goes anyway.

Long story short. Was in huge debt, sold house now renting, paid off most of debt. Two credit card accounts left both of which have defaulted and subsequently sold on to collectors.

When paying off my debts i phoned all my creditors and negotiated settlement figures. The two debts i have left were the ones i choose to keep and i settled the more aggressive ones first.

However i received a letter from one of the two creditors saying

'I am pleased to confirm we have received your payment of £3700. Once this payment has been applied and the funds cleared, the account will be closed' etc.

Obviously i know i have not sent them anything. This debt has now been sold to someone else who is asking for the money. I told them about the letter (not that i hadn't paid) and now they are asking for proof of payment.

My question is do i need to provide proof or is what i've got in writing from the original creditor enough to say the debts been paid even though they have admitted it was an error to send the letter in the first place.

All advice greatly appreciated.

Al

floss2

So let me get this straight - you are trying to prove to the purchaser of this debt that their payment for this debt has paid the debt off with the original creditor and therefore they do not need to pursue you for the money?

Or did I read it wrong?

amg4jag

In a nutshell:

The company i owed the money to sent out a letter by mistake thanking me for a settlement payment which i didn't make.

It has now been sold on and that company has spoken to the original company and are now asking for proof that i made the payment as obviously no record can be found.

Can i get away on the technicality that the letter was sent even though it was sent in error.

Al

immoral_angeluk

You won't get away with it as they'll easily be able to check their records and see that no payment was applied to the account. Hence the 'Once this payment has been applied and the funds cleared, the account will be closed'

bank_of_slate

Is the payment the one that the debt collection company paid to buy the debt from the original creditor?
...Linda xx

floss2

amg4jag wrote: »

...even though they have admitted it was an error to send the letter in the first place...

Pardon me if I have misunderstood, but you are happy to avoid paying your debt by adopting a mistakenly-applied payment of £3,700 made by someone else to clear their own debt, because the company sent a letter in error? :rolleyes:

How would you feel if that was your £3,700 that had gone missing and been adopted by another person....not too happy I'll bet. I know I would be pretty furious if it was me.

stapeley

No they will prove no settlement was paid. As the account was sold on , chances the CC AGREEMENT has been lost or is incorrect. I would read some of the other threads to see what is involved . good luck

amg4jag

Floss2 - I'll put this as simple as i can. A company i owe money to, who have made a fortune out of me in the past, sent me a letter in error saying my debt had been paid off..by me. It concerns no one else, no fraud, robbery or other wrong doing. I thought the answer to my question would have been no but i thought that for £3700 it was worth asking. I'm sure the bank i owe the money to won't go bust overnight because of me.

Al

rayday2

Just because finance companies make millons does not give us the right to rip them off. We apply for the credit we are our own fools!

Personally I would write to both companies and offer limited payments and take responsibility for the fact I ran credit up!