Help and Advice Please

pratt596

Have just received a phone call from a company called First Credit Ltd advising that a debt has been sold to them and demanding settlement in full immediately or else anyone of the following could happen:

Bankruptcy
County Court Judgment
Attachment of Earnings
Bailiffs attendance at property.

First of all I have never heard of them and secondly I had an arrangement with company who has sold them the debt.

I have until the 31st to phone them back with the funds in place to clear the debt (some £8,000).

Has anyone heard of them and am I right in thinking that they are just trying to scare and bully me into paying up in full -(which I am unable to do). I did explain when they called that I was on an arrangement but all I got told was they have been instructed to collect in full.

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

Mum_of_3_3

Hi!

You may be better off copy & pasting this post on to the Debt Free Wanabe (DFW) instead of here.

I know the debt collection agency (dca) may be chasing a CC debt, but the DFW guys are very up on things like that and may be able to help you more.

Hope you get things sorted.

M_o_3

relay

pratt596 wrote: »

Have just received a phone call from a company called First Credit Ltd advising that a debt has been sold to them and demanding settlement in full immediately or else anyone of the following could happen:

Bankruptcy
County Court Judgment
Attachment of Earnings
Bailiffs attendance at property.

First of all I have never heard of them and secondly I had an arrangement with company who has sold them the debt.

I have until the 31st to phone them back with the funds in place to clear the debt (some £8,000).

Has anyone heard of them and am I right in thinking that they are just trying to scare and bully me into paying up in full -(which I am unable to do). I did explain when they called that I was on an arrangement but all I got told was they have been instructed to collect in full.

Any help and advice would be appreciated.

And therein lies the problem - you had an arrangement with the company who sold them the debt - not with them, so i can't really see why they would have to honour an agreement that wasn't made with them.

CannyJock

relay wrote: »

And therein lies the problem - you had an arrangement with the company who sold them the debt - not with them, so i can't really see why they would have to honour an agreement that wasn't made with them.

They're doing standard bullying tactics.

There are a stack of other threads where this problem is covered in great detail. The DCA's will do anything they can to get you to pay the money.

Search the forums for other posts and you'll see some of the excellent tips they give - NickX posted a few good points on this I seem to remember.

relay

If no agreement was made with them how is it bully boy tactics?

CannyJock

relay wrote: »

If no agreement was made with them how is it bully boy tactics?

Have you ever spoken to DCA people yourself?

They're following their standard script on how to put pressure on someone to pay a debt regardless of the previous agreement that the OP was sticking to, with the expected list of threats.

They will make claims that are fundamentally not true.

Surely you're not trying to defend their indiscriminate tactics?

relay

CannyJock wrote: »

Have you ever spoken to DCA people yourself?

They're following their standard script on how to put pressure on someone to pay a debt regardless of the previous agreement that the OP was sticking to, with the expected list of threats.

They will make claims that are fundamentally not true.

Surely you're not trying to defend their indiscriminate tactics?

Please don't put words in my mouth, i'm not trying to defend anything.

I have not spoken to 'DCA people' - that's why i asked the question because i don't understand why a seperate company would have to honour an agreement they didn't make with the OP.

His agreement was with the company who sold them his debt - not with them.

I am merely asking a logical enough question - why would they have to honour an agreement they didn't make?

NickX

CannyJock wrote: »

NickX posted a few good points on this I seem to remember.

Thanks for saying this CannyJock. There is something of a tendancy of certain posters on this board to be rather critical of people with debt problems which I have found rather unpleasant on occasion.

I have said it before and say it again, people from all walks of life can get into debt and it is not necessarily their own fault. I am sure that the majority of people who take out debts do so in good faith with every intention of paying them back. However, life is not fair, and events can conspire against you. Unemployment, illness, accident, relationship breakdowns can happen to the best of us, and sometimes it results in difficulty paying debts. IMHO people in this position need advice and support, not critiszm. The "you borrowed it, you should pay it back" brigade are simply not helpful.

To the OP, I do sympathize with your position. It is horrible of the Credit Card company to sell your debt to DCA when you were already on a payment plan. The people at the DCA are just bullies, they are the scourge of society in my opinion.

The main thing is to remember your rights and know their rights. They key thing is that you have a right not to be harrassed under any circumstances. Multiple telephone calls, visits from heavies, threats of bailiffs could all consitite harassment and if you feel that they are harassing you, then say that you only wish to communicate with them in writing and that if they do not comply with your requests then they are in danger of being reported for harassment.

The DCA does not have any right to enter your property or take your belongings. Only bailiffs appointed by the court can do this. The DCA will need to take you to court for repayment, however provided you have made an effort to make some repayments and behaved reasonably, then the court is very unlikely to send bailiffs to you.

The CAB (Citizens Advice Bureau) will be able to advise you in more detail, but I would recommend that you say to them that you will continue to make the payments that you have been previously, but you simply cannot afford to pay any more. This is very reasonable, and any court is unlikely to go against you.

They can huff and puff all they like, and please don't get upset about this, but they are just using bully boy tactics to try and get paid. If they really do upset you, then you are within your rights to report them. Certainly do not permit visits or any form of entry into your property.

Do go to CAB, they are very experienced in these matters, and have access to professional legal advice if necessary.

Finally Good Luck and keep us posted.

neverdespairgirl

Nick's reply is great, bang on. I'd second his suggestion that you visit the CAB.

Lorne

I am very wary of folk calling out of the blue, I take it the original copy didn't tell you that this was happening? should you maybe check with them first just in case the First Credit people aren't involved, if they got your information elsewhere you could end up paying twice (happened to me!)

Good luck with this, remember you have the right to ask for all communication to be done by post only if that helps with the bullying over the phone. It is horrible getting the phonecalls. The CAB are excellent so I'd definitely back up the recommendation in the previous post.

Lorna

pratt596

Thanks for all your comments.

I am not trying to avoid the debt - I owe it so must pay it - just want to be able to come to a monthly repayment arrangement with them. The person I spoke to just kept repeating that they had been instructed to collect the debt in full.

Will phone back next week and explain am unable to raise funds and see what they say.

If they insist on court proceedings etc then I will lose my job as this is a big no no and then I will be unable to pay them anything at all.