Being chased for a debt on CC she never took out

gratton20

Hi

I hope I am posting in the right section, until now I have only been in the BR sub forum!

I am really worried on behalf of my wife. I went BR last year and am now discharged and we thought all money probs were behind us ... wrong!

Briefly, or as briefly as possible, last September a DCA, (Cabot Financial of West Malling) wrote to my wife and said she owed approx £1400 on a M&S store card, apparently taken out in June 1997. My wife has never taken out such an account and the address the application was made from her was her dads home, where she has not lived since we got married in 1990. Apparently, and this is where it gets odd, some repayments were made and then stopped - seems odd that a fraudster would do that, our thoughts were that her dad who has suffered mental health probs in the past and is now quite senile had done the application, thinking he could make the payments so it wouldnt matter, (that is our suspicion, no proof and he says No he didnt).

Anyway my wife wrote to the DCA and asked for a proof of the agreement and said she would not pay because it was not her. Nothing heard from them until today, another letter arrived with photocopy of the original application signed in her name, but is not her writing and the details of her supposed bank account are fiction and the details about her spouse, me, are wrong, wrong date of birth and occupation.

The DCA say if she still says it is not her account she MUST send proof that she lived elsewhere at the time and a copy of her driving licence or passport, she has neither. I dont think she has to do that. I believe, and please correct me if I am wrong, that it is up to the DCA to prove she owes it, not for her to prove she does not.

We have sent them a letter by recorded delivery, will post it monday, telling them all the above and pointing out three times it is not her debt and they should either go away or sue in county court and we said that even if it had been her debt, which it is not, it is now STATUTE BARRED since it was almost 11 years ago that the agreement was made and payments apparently only made for about a year. Until last Sept we had heard nothing of the alleged debt.

Are we right? Any advice would be very welcome as although we do know about harrasment etc as we had to sort out my BR last year we dont want yet more hassle. Any advice or thoughts from you clever guys would be very welcome. Sorry if I have gone on too long!

gratton20

* BUMP *

40 reads but no advice?

msmicawber

I'll give it a go, Grattan. I think what you've done is fine and correct. When you send the letter to the DCA make sure that you just print the signature, but don't sign it. I've seen posts on here where people have reported signatures being photocopied and used by DCAs to 'prove' things. I don't know whether it's the case or not, but worth being cautious.

If there's been no contact in the past 6 years about this debt then it's statute barred, as you said.

The only other thing I thought was that it may be worthwhile contacting the bank holding the account in your wife's name to report identify theft.

Broken_hearted

It would have been written off in the BR so all you have to do now is decide whether to persue the fraud aspect. (ok read it wrong sorry ignor)

postingalwaysposting

Broken_hearted wrote: »

It would have been written off in the BR so all you have to do now is decide whether to persue the fraud aspect.

No it wouldnt have, HE was made bankrupt not HER!

Op send the letter as you state, they cant chase for it anyways as its satue barred. So I would just sit back and watch the dca squerm

cassy

it wouldnt be in the BR as HE wend br not HER,

but the letter you wrote etc seems ok and like you said they need to prove that not you

gratton20

Thanks guys, thought I was right ... just needed some reassurance LOL

The BR was just me so doesnt apply with wifes affairs. I guessed about not signing the letter too ... they are really sneaky these guys!

I shall send the one letter and tell them I will not have any more contact with them, if they wanna try and go to court .. fine ... bring it on and we will win!!:beer:

Poosmate

Broken Hearted (hope it mends soon) I think the OP is the husband and he went BR but the M&S debt is in the wifes name so I don't think it would have been written off (had it existed then) because the wife didn't go BR. Is that right Grattan?

Anyway, I'm no expert, but I'm with Msmicawber on this one I've read loads of stuff on these threads about debts being "statute barred" after 6 years.

I think the DCA's having a laugh!

I don't know about the fraud bit as it would appear a lot of the details are made up (fiction) so I don't know what could be gained from it.

Just my thoughts

Poo

fermi

Add to the letter that your complaint is:

A formal complaint under the procedures set out by the Financial Ombudsman.

Based upon the fact that they are attempting to collect a debt based upon a fraudulently concocted agreement. EDIT: And one that would be statute barred in any case.

State that if they wish to correspond with you further, then you demand a "final response notice" from them that you can forward to the FOS.

After the first one or two complaints a year, the FOS charge a creditor £400 a case if they investigate a complaint. That tends to get a creditor's attention.;)

Broken_hearted

Sorry I misread the op, so its the fraud route and check her credit files for other activity.

gratton20

fermi wrote: »

Add to the letter that your complaint is:

A formal complaint under the procedures set out by the Financial Ombudsman.

Based upon the fact that they are attempting to collect a debt based upon a fraudulently concocted agreement. EDIT: And one that would be statute barred in any case.

State that if they wish to correspond with you further, then you demand a "final response notice" from them that you can forward to the FOS.

After the first one or two complaints a year, the FOS charge a creditor £400 a case if they investigate a complaint. That tends to get a creditor's attention.;)

Sorry to sound daft but who is FOS?

Thanks for all your help everyone I will get the letter done again and ready to send on Monday