Is it harrasment??

Legacy_user

I owe Lloyds TSB a little over £3000, which I am currently making agreed weekly payments to a Debt Collection Agency called Credit Security Ltd. I have been making these regular payments for over a year now and have not missed any. They are coming out of my bank by standing order.

In July, they (CSL) sent me a letter stating that I had failed to honour the terms of my agreement and was in arrears. A little worried I was as I had been sure I had not missed any payments, so I asked them to send me a statement. They sent me out this statement and there were no payments missing on it.

A week or so later they sent me out a letter identical to the first, saying i was in arrears. So, I wrote them a polite letter asking them to explain how I had failed to honour my agreement as I had been making payments each week as agreed, and they had received them.

No reply came, just another letter identical to the previous 2 saying I hadn't hounored my agreement etc.

I wrote them another letter saying I felt I was being harrassed and not to write to me again unless they could show how I was in arrears.

I got another letter in this morning identical to the others...............

Am I being harrassed?

I don't know, but I know I feel miserable about this. I am not in a position to pay any more than I am at the moment, being a student I am struggling to keep up with the agreed payments, as I was working at the time I made the agreement. I don't actually have a copy of any agreement anyway.

What should I do?

skylight

Try phoning them? Speaking to a person can help

HelenR_3

seven


phone them ,and dont get off the phone till you get an explanation,(TAKE THE PERSONS NAME AND WORK STATION NUMBER IF APPLICABLE AND TIME AND DATE OF CALL) also , if that doesnt help write a letter saying youre not prepared to enter into any more dialogue unless they answer your questions.

and as an aside , go to the CAB


All the best

H
x

skintchick

Did you send the letters by recorded delivery? If not they may say they didn;t get them, but that is secondary as you are not in arrears so phone them and get a supervisor to explain HOW you are in arrears and why they are senidng you these letters.

And yes, make a note of time, date, person you speak to etc.

AGB863

I work in this area and you will find that these letters are automatically generated and basically, if you have not contacted them by phone to discuss the situation, they will continue to be generated with out human intervention. It will get to the next stage where one will say something along the lines " becasue you have failed to contact us we are now preparing to take you to court etc etc".

As someone earlier said, call them and expalin the situation and do not get off the phone until they have looked in to the case and sort it out.

Rikki

AGB863 wrote:

I work in this area and you will find that these letters are automatically generated and basically, if you have not contacted them by phone to discuss the situation, they will continue to be generated with out human intervention. It will get to the next stage where one will say something along the lines " becasue you have failed to contact us we are now preparing to take you to court etc etc".

As someone earlier said, call them and expalin the situation and do not get off the phone until they have looked in to the case and sort it out.

I thought the same thing the computer is churning them out automatically
I would speak to someone take their name and what you discussed and ask them to put it in writing.

Xbigman

If you have made your payments for just over a year I suspect the agreement may now be up for revue. Yearly, 6 monthly or 3 monthly revues are common. The computer meanwhile is sending you out letters because it knows the agreement has expired and thinks you are in arrears of the full / normal payment. Point out you have kept to the existing agreement and ask for it to be extended. Or if you have trouble paying send them then send an updated budget and offer them less.
This is mainly an admin problem and is annoying but not serious.
Regards



X

PS. Did they freeze the interest on the debt? If so check it is still frozen.

trace-j

If you have exhausted the suggestions as already mentioned here, it may well be worth a Recorded Delivery letter to both LLoyds and the debt collection agency citing Section 40 of The Administration of Justice Act 1970, is a crimal offence to harass debtors and will go to Trading Standards.

System

Thanks for all your suggestions, I will let you know how I get on with them

Pere_Ubu

When my husband and I moved to a new address we kept getting post for the previous occupier. Letters from credit agency acting on behalf of Abbey demanding payments or else! I wrote to them explaining the person who they wanted no longer lived there. My letters were ignored. One day I was fed up with receiving yet another letter demanding money and as in my previous correspondence I had told them I felt harrassed by their letters I went to the police with the letters. I sat in the station waiting not in the mood to move until it was sorted. I felt harrassed by the debt agency I didn't care about anyone elses definition it was mine that was important. The police soon took notice of me. Took my letters telephoned the debt collectors and said that I felt harrassed, that it may constitute a criminal offence if they continue. Hey presto no more letters and £30 cheque from the Abbey to say "sorry". I would write and say you feel harrassed by what would appear to be unnecessary letters. That your account is up to date unless they can produce evidence to the contrary. Put cut off dates in each letter i.e. 7 days from the date of this letter, that sort of thing.

Stonk

Pere_Ubu wrote:

When my husband and I moved to a new address we kept getting post for the previous occupier.

I don't think you should be opening the previous occupier's post, let alone feeling harassed by it!