Debt recovery - any advice please??

cherylwales

Hi All

I'd be really grateful if anyone could give me advice on the following situation:

When i was in uni 7 years ago, i had an overdraft with HSBC. two years ago, i had a debt recovery agency, Lowell financial, contact me asking for the debt of the overdraft to be repaid. This was a complete shock to me as I had been in contact with HSBC when I left uni and filled out various forms and stuff trying to find a way to repay the money i owed them as i had no income and nowhere to live at the time, and they eventually said that they would write off the debt. I heard no more about this from HSBC and assumed that it was sorted. I dont know if i ever had it in writing from them that they would write it off, because i cant find any confirmation in my paperwork now anyway.

Then, as i say, two years ago, i had this company write to me to say they would be sending bailiffs round to collect the money. I had no proof that HSBC had agreed to write off the debt and they wouldnt leave me alone - i had endless letters, phone calls, cards through my door saying they had been round while i was at work. it was constant and very scary. i ended up on anti-depressants, having panic and asthma attacks and didnt know what to do because I have no money and am in debt (which I am paying off slowly and managing ok otherwise). In the end, i agreed with Lowell to pay them £800 and borrowed the money off my Nan and paid them last April 2007.

Yesterday, i had a letter through from a different debt recovery company (1st something - i cant remember the name and the letter is at home) asking me to repay the same HSBC debt. I dont know what to do now. I cant pay it again. I cant borrow any more money and i thought it was all settled with the other company anyway. Please can somebody give me any advice because I dont think I can cope with going through at this again.

Thank you very much in advance.

cheryl

HHH_2

sorry not to be more helpful but I dont want to give the wrong advice. I think you should phone the National Debt Help Line or the CCCS and take their advice as they are professional ( also very nice and non judgemental)

10past6

cherylwales wrote: »

In the end, i agreed with Lowell to pay them £800 and borrowed the money off my Nan and paid them last April 2007.

Hello Cheryl

How did you pay them, cheque / postal order / cash, and did you receive confirmation the debt was paid IN FULL.

GeorgeUK

AAaaaaaaarrrrrggghhh

Sorry - had to get that out the way first.

If you have not made any payment towards a debt for 6 years (5 in Scotland) and not acknowledged the debt in writing, then the debt is statute barred an unenforcable. Do you know if the debt would have been statute barred?

You PROBABLY won't be able to get your money back if it is a statute barred debt, but hopefully we can deal with this new lot.

(I'm guessing 1st Credit)
When you agreed to pay Lowell the £800, was this the full amount of the debt? If not, do you have any letters from them about the settlement? In particular if this was not the full amount owed, was the settlement a "full and final" settlement?

A debt is never written off - until you die, but you wouldn't be worrying about that then.

cherylwales

Hiya - thanks for replying.

I paid via my bank account - i have bank statements to show this and also a letter from Lowell about it, but i cant say from memory whether it says full and final or not, but i can check that when i get home.

1st Credit sound like it actually. the £800 i paid to Lowell wasnt the full amount - it was all i could manage to borrow and they agreed to accept it.

i phoned these new people (1st credit?) yesterday when i got the letter and they started asking me loads of questions about my marital status and whether i owned my own home and stuff, which i refused to answer. i explained all of the above and the bloke basically just said, yeah, yeah, whatever, you can pay us by debit card now if you like or we'll take you to court. i tried explaining over and over that i'd already paid it, but he just wouldnt listen. in the end i hung up because i was getting upset.

i dont know about the statute barred bit, cos although i last spoke to HSBC about it in 2000 and paid it in 2007, which would be over 6 years, i first heard from Lowell financial in about 2005 / 2006 and spent maybe 1 1/2 or 2 years arguing with them about it. i asked them why HSBC hadnt been in touch with me for so many years if i still owed them money and they said that they had been writing to me. i later discovered that they'd been writing to a 38 Hxxxxx Close in Lxxxxxx, when my parents address (the one they would have had for me while at uni) was 38 Hxxxxxx Close in Lxxxxxxx, so i'd had no letters at all. I asked why they couldnt have found my correct address back then, since they managed to find it 5 years later, but never got an answer to that.

10past6

cherylwales wrote: »

a 38

Hi

It's very important, for your own personal security, you delete those personal details above, amend them with XXXXX

I'll edit my post when I see you deleted them.

GeorgeUK

If there is any period where there was no payment towards the debt for 6 years and no WRITTEN acknowledgement, then the debt is statute barred. Making payments after this does not change that. It sounds as though it could be statute barred. Try to get confirmation of the dates, but if you can't and are pretty sure the debt is statute barred, we can provide a template letter to send to 1st credit.

cherylwales

ok, i'll read through everything i have from the first time around tonight and post again tomorrow. by written acknowledgement, you mean me agreeing that i owe the money? because i dont think i ever agreed that i did - even when i paid them i said that it was just because i couldnt cope with the stress and constant demands anymore and because they kept increasing the debt saying that it was interest - i think it was only about £750 in the first place, but Lowell Financial put it up to £1500 and i didnt know what else to do (i hadnt heard of this fantastic site back then).

cherylwales

Hi All

Thanks for all your previous advice, however I've been doing some digging into this since last week and I'm afraid the situation seems to be different than I explained in my original post. This new demand for the £797 is apparently for a different debt - a HSBC credit card. I have gone through all my records and find that I was making regular monthly payments onto this card, with a final payment of £450 in January 2003. For some reason I made no further payments after this amount and can find no correspondence in my records (strange as I keep everything) regarding the card. In fact I'd forgotten I had it. I cant for the life of me remember why I would have made this large payment and then no further subsequent payments - I can only think that I must have thought this had cleared it for some reason. However, having spoken to HSBC, they say that they closed the account after this payment of £450 in January 2003 and sent the remaining debt to Metropolitan. They say that they cannot give me any copies of statements or letters sent regarding the card as it was too long ago.

I've had another letter from 1st Credit this week saying that they will now be taking legal proceedings. I guess that since I made the last payment in 2003, it is only 5 1/2 years, not 6 so the debt wont be statute barred.

I guess I will have to pay 1st Credit the £797. Could you give me any advice as to how to approach them now? would you recommend trying to pay it monthly or trying to find the whole amount to pay them in one go? I i have absolutely no idea how i would get this much money - i dont have a good enough credit rating to get a loan or anything. Our mortgage company offer a payment holiday service (interest is added on still) would you recommend doing this?

Thanks for all your help.

Cheryl

gazroe

why not ask for your CCA
if hsbc say they have no paperwork then the debt becomes unenforceable.
If you look on here you will find a sample letter to send

what ever happens dont let them get you down its not worth it

Runnybabbit

Hi Cheryl, A Gazroe says previously, don't let them get you down - I've got similar situation with HSBC and to be honest I don't let the phone calls worry me now - I JUST HANG UP, and I certainly NEVER speak to them on the phone, because THEY DON'T LISTEN!!!!. Your health is more important and reading about your panic attacks etc, this worries me deeply. Please take care of your health, and as much as anything, don't become another statistic through the doors of a cardiology dept. Good Luck and hope you get it sorted soon.