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BLS Collections and AIC
Kojak_2
Posts: 2 Newbie
Hi everyone,
I've been reading this site for a couple of months now, and I'm finally posting for the first time. The forum has been an amazingly helpful place in dealing with my financial issues and I've made some brilliant progress thanks to the advice given to other people - The time has now come to ask for some myself.
I hope I've got the right section of the forum - if not, and you're a mod, please feel free to move my thread.
First I'll give a quick background to my issues, then list how far along I currently am, and finally ,what exactly it is I need help with.
The background - in early 2006 I went over the agreed overdraft on both my Lloyds TSB credit and debit cards, while trying to keep myself afloat as a student working on a masters degree. (which I subsequently had to drop out of due to these money problems.) Lloyds applied charge after charge which pushed me further into debt. The two accounts were shut down and the debt was transffered to two collection agencies - BLS collections were responsible for my debit card debt, and AIC were responsible for my credit card debt.
What followed was the typical example of AIC and BLS behaviour on these boards - constant harrassing phone calls, letters demanding full payment or court action, and general unpleasantness. I knew nothing of the sort of advice containted within these forums that would have helped. I caved in faster than a wet paper bag being sat on by a sumo wrestler, and by August 2006, was paying £75 per month to each company, whose debt stood at over £2000 for the debit card, and £2500 for the credit card.
This cycle continued until very recently - January 2008 - when I decided enough was enough and looked into doing something about my situation. I am currently back at university and re-studying for the masters degree that I had to leave 2 years ago - and currently doing very well!
Paying £150 per month to these two companies was a crippling financial drain as a full time student - £150 is actually above and beyond what I would spend on normal living expenses for a month (excluding rent) so it was destroying my budget.
I finally found this forum and read with great interest the need for these companies to be able to prodice a signed CCA if the debt was to be enforcable.
My plan here had two initial goals - to buy myself enough time to finish university and get working full time before I had to re-commence paying the debt, and to reduce the amount I am paying per month. Now however, I have come to realise it is possible for these companies to be forced to drop their illegally acquired debt, and for me to be totally rid of them. If I manage to do this, so much the better.
I'll list what happened with each company below, and explain my current problem after that.
AIC
AIC were the particularly nasty ones of the pair, being very rude and constant harrassing me over the phone. I have now been very successfull in dealing with them, and currently consider the debt to be unforceable and the issue to be over!
26th March - Sent an initial CCA request letter sent to Allied International with £1 postal order, via recorded delivery. The deadline was the 11th of May 2008. The CCA request letter was lifted from advice posted on these forums, and is detailed below -
Dear Sir/Madam
Re:− Account Number: xxxxxxx
Reference Number: xxxxxxxxx
I do not acknowledge ANY debt to your company nor any company you purport to represent. I require you to supply the following documentation before I will correspond further on this matter.
1. You must supply me with a true copy of the alleged agreement you refer to. This is my right under your obligation to supply a copy of the agreement under the legislation contained within s.78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 (s.77 (1) for fixed sum credit) - your obligation also extends to providing a statement of account. I enclose £1 in payment of the statutory fee. This is not to be used for payment of the alleged debt.
2. A signed true copy of the deed of assignment of the above referenced agreement that you allege exists.
3. You are notified that you are obliged to supply these documents, whether you are the original creditor or not under S189 of the CCA 1974.
Non-compliance with my request is a criminal offence under the above Act and will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities, therefore if I do not receive evidence that I owe your company any monies by 11th May 2008 , I will have no hesitation in passing your details to the Office of Fair Trading.
As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the CCA and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued.
Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested.
I will require all further correspondence from you in writing.
Yours faithfully
PRINTED NAME
27th March - The letter, which had been sent by recorded delivery, had been recieved and signed for by a member of AIC, according to the royal mail tracking feature on their website.
15th April - my old address (where my parents now live) recieved a phonecall from AIC. They had been asked not to phone me or contact this old address in any way. Obviously, they have ignored or not processed my letter.
9th June - As of today, I have not had a single further communication with AIC, and all phone calls and letters have ceased. They have gone way over the allotted time period, and I will be shortly sending them a final letter, informing them that they have committed an offence and that the debt is unenforcable.
BLS
BLS have been slightly more persistant than AIC in reaction to my CCA request, although still very half-hearted.
4th April - sent the initial CCA request letter, same as above, to BLS, via recorded delivery.
14th April - Recieved letter from BLS at my old address (where my parents currently live), asking me to phone them. Obviously, they have ignored or not processed yet my letter from the 4th, as I listed my new address in that letter and asked that all further correspondence be sent there.
28th April - Recieved a letter from BLS at my old address, indicating they had still not processed my letter, or were ignoring it. They threatend both a personal visit and further telephone calls. Made no mention of my letter, my request for a CCA, or my new address. I ignored it.
13th May - Recieved a third letter at my old address, informing me I had 2 weeks to make payments of they would consider legal action. No mention of my first letter, the CCA request, or my new address. Ignored it.
22nd May - Final deadline passed by BLS. Recieved no recognistion of my letter, and no CCA.
23rd May - I sent this final letter to BLS detailing their failure to act, again, lifted from advice on this forum -
Dear Sir/Madam
Re:− Account Number: xxxxxxxxxxxx
Reference Number: xxxxxxxxxxx
Regarding your letter to myself dated the 13th of May, which was posted to my previous address and threatened legal action - I wrote to you on the 4th April 2008, requesting a copy of the executed agreement for the above account pursuant to s77(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. This letter was sent to you via recorded delivery with Royal Mail and a £1 postal order was enclosed to cover the payment of providing the statement of account. You failed to comply within the statutory period of 12 days.
Under s77(4) of the Act you may therefore not enforce the account and, further, since you have not complied within the additional statutory period of 1 calendar month, you have committed an offence under s77(4) of the Act. If you continue to pursue the matter I intend to make this fact known to the Financial Ombudsman, the Office of Fair Trading and my local Trading Standards office. Should you commence civil proceedings against me, I will also make this known to the court as it constitutes a complete defence.
In the absence of an executed agreement, I acknowledge no debt to you.
I trust that the matter is now closed.
Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested. I will require all further correspondence from you in writing at the address given above.
Yours faithfully
PRINTED NAME
2nd June - Finally recieved some kind of recognistion from BLS. They claim they did not recieve my letter on the 4th of April. This won't do them any good. I have the proof from Royal Mail that it was successfully delivered by recorded delivery. Their defence is "We would advise you that the above account relates to an overdraft. Therefore no agreement is availible." Remember, that BLS were in charge of my debit card debt.
They go on to say "Since February 2006....regular payments were made by you, thereby acknowledging the debt, and no other concern has been raised. As a gesture of goodwill we have requested copy statements up to the date of closure for your persual.", and slightly further on "Should you still dispute the balance, please contact us, highlighting the entries on the statements. In the meantime, the balance remains due and payable."
Along with this letter, I also recieved a seperate package, containing 25 pages worth of back dated bank statments, showing my debit card amount, dated from 2002 up to its closure in 2006. (This also handily lists all the bank charges they have made against me, which I may use in the future!)
So this was their defence - a.) they claimed they did not recieve my first letter, when I have proof they have, b.) they claim no CCA agreement is availible and c.) printed off a bunch of my old statements for no particular reason.
So, here's the issue - where do I take it from here? I have no intention of calling them or writing back to them yet. As far as I'm concerned, they have still yet to produce a CCA and I will not acknowledge the illegal debt from this company.
I've been reading this site for a couple of months now, and I'm finally posting for the first time. The forum has been an amazingly helpful place in dealing with my financial issues and I've made some brilliant progress thanks to the advice given to other people - The time has now come to ask for some myself.
I hope I've got the right section of the forum - if not, and you're a mod, please feel free to move my thread.
First I'll give a quick background to my issues, then list how far along I currently am, and finally ,what exactly it is I need help with.
The background - in early 2006 I went over the agreed overdraft on both my Lloyds TSB credit and debit cards, while trying to keep myself afloat as a student working on a masters degree. (which I subsequently had to drop out of due to these money problems.) Lloyds applied charge after charge which pushed me further into debt. The two accounts were shut down and the debt was transffered to two collection agencies - BLS collections were responsible for my debit card debt, and AIC were responsible for my credit card debt.
What followed was the typical example of AIC and BLS behaviour on these boards - constant harrassing phone calls, letters demanding full payment or court action, and general unpleasantness. I knew nothing of the sort of advice containted within these forums that would have helped. I caved in faster than a wet paper bag being sat on by a sumo wrestler, and by August 2006, was paying £75 per month to each company, whose debt stood at over £2000 for the debit card, and £2500 for the credit card.
This cycle continued until very recently - January 2008 - when I decided enough was enough and looked into doing something about my situation. I am currently back at university and re-studying for the masters degree that I had to leave 2 years ago - and currently doing very well!
Paying £150 per month to these two companies was a crippling financial drain as a full time student - £150 is actually above and beyond what I would spend on normal living expenses for a month (excluding rent) so it was destroying my budget.
I finally found this forum and read with great interest the need for these companies to be able to prodice a signed CCA if the debt was to be enforcable.
My plan here had two initial goals - to buy myself enough time to finish university and get working full time before I had to re-commence paying the debt, and to reduce the amount I am paying per month. Now however, I have come to realise it is possible for these companies to be forced to drop their illegally acquired debt, and for me to be totally rid of them. If I manage to do this, so much the better.
I'll list what happened with each company below, and explain my current problem after that.
AIC
AIC were the particularly nasty ones of the pair, being very rude and constant harrassing me over the phone. I have now been very successfull in dealing with them, and currently consider the debt to be unforceable and the issue to be over!
26th March - Sent an initial CCA request letter sent to Allied International with £1 postal order, via recorded delivery. The deadline was the 11th of May 2008. The CCA request letter was lifted from advice posted on these forums, and is detailed below -
Dear Sir/Madam
Re:− Account Number: xxxxxxx
Reference Number: xxxxxxxxx
I do not acknowledge ANY debt to your company nor any company you purport to represent. I require you to supply the following documentation before I will correspond further on this matter.
1. You must supply me with a true copy of the alleged agreement you refer to. This is my right under your obligation to supply a copy of the agreement under the legislation contained within s.78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 (s.77 (1) for fixed sum credit) - your obligation also extends to providing a statement of account. I enclose £1 in payment of the statutory fee. This is not to be used for payment of the alleged debt.
2. A signed true copy of the deed of assignment of the above referenced agreement that you allege exists.
3. You are notified that you are obliged to supply these documents, whether you are the original creditor or not under S189 of the CCA 1974.
Non-compliance with my request is a criminal offence under the above Act and will result in a report being submitted to the relevant statutory authorities, therefore if I do not receive evidence that I owe your company any monies by 11th May 2008 , I will have no hesitation in passing your details to the Office of Fair Trading.
As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the CCA and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued.
Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested.
I will require all further correspondence from you in writing.
Yours faithfully
PRINTED NAME
27th March - The letter, which had been sent by recorded delivery, had been recieved and signed for by a member of AIC, according to the royal mail tracking feature on their website.
15th April - my old address (where my parents now live) recieved a phonecall from AIC. They had been asked not to phone me or contact this old address in any way. Obviously, they have ignored or not processed my letter.
9th June - As of today, I have not had a single further communication with AIC, and all phone calls and letters have ceased. They have gone way over the allotted time period, and I will be shortly sending them a final letter, informing them that they have committed an offence and that the debt is unenforcable.
BLS
BLS have been slightly more persistant than AIC in reaction to my CCA request, although still very half-hearted.
4th April - sent the initial CCA request letter, same as above, to BLS, via recorded delivery.
14th April - Recieved letter from BLS at my old address (where my parents currently live), asking me to phone them. Obviously, they have ignored or not processed yet my letter from the 4th, as I listed my new address in that letter and asked that all further correspondence be sent there.
28th April - Recieved a letter from BLS at my old address, indicating they had still not processed my letter, or were ignoring it. They threatend both a personal visit and further telephone calls. Made no mention of my letter, my request for a CCA, or my new address. I ignored it.
13th May - Recieved a third letter at my old address, informing me I had 2 weeks to make payments of they would consider legal action. No mention of my first letter, the CCA request, or my new address. Ignored it.
22nd May - Final deadline passed by BLS. Recieved no recognistion of my letter, and no CCA.
23rd May - I sent this final letter to BLS detailing their failure to act, again, lifted from advice on this forum -
Dear Sir/Madam
Re:− Account Number: xxxxxxxxxxxx
Reference Number: xxxxxxxxxxx
Regarding your letter to myself dated the 13th of May, which was posted to my previous address and threatened legal action - I wrote to you on the 4th April 2008, requesting a copy of the executed agreement for the above account pursuant to s77(1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. This letter was sent to you via recorded delivery with Royal Mail and a £1 postal order was enclosed to cover the payment of providing the statement of account. You failed to comply within the statutory period of 12 days.
Under s77(4) of the Act you may therefore not enforce the account and, further, since you have not complied within the additional statutory period of 1 calendar month, you have committed an offence under s77(4) of the Act. If you continue to pursue the matter I intend to make this fact known to the Financial Ombudsman, the Office of Fair Trading and my local Trading Standards office. Should you commence civil proceedings against me, I will also make this known to the court as it constitutes a complete defence.
In the absence of an executed agreement, I acknowledge no debt to you.
I trust that the matter is now closed.
Take note at this stage, that any legal action you may contemplate will be both vigorously defended and contested. I will require all further correspondence from you in writing at the address given above.
Yours faithfully
PRINTED NAME
2nd June - Finally recieved some kind of recognistion from BLS. They claim they did not recieve my letter on the 4th of April. This won't do them any good. I have the proof from Royal Mail that it was successfully delivered by recorded delivery. Their defence is "We would advise you that the above account relates to an overdraft. Therefore no agreement is availible." Remember, that BLS were in charge of my debit card debt.
They go on to say "Since February 2006....regular payments were made by you, thereby acknowledging the debt, and no other concern has been raised. As a gesture of goodwill we have requested copy statements up to the date of closure for your persual.", and slightly further on "Should you still dispute the balance, please contact us, highlighting the entries on the statements. In the meantime, the balance remains due and payable."
Along with this letter, I also recieved a seperate package, containing 25 pages worth of back dated bank statments, showing my debit card amount, dated from 2002 up to its closure in 2006. (This also handily lists all the bank charges they have made against me, which I may use in the future!)
So this was their defence - a.) they claimed they did not recieve my first letter, when I have proof they have, b.) they claim no CCA agreement is availible and c.) printed off a bunch of my old statements for no particular reason.
So, here's the issue - where do I take it from here? I have no intention of calling them or writing back to them yet. As far as I'm concerned, they have still yet to produce a CCA and I will not acknowledge the illegal debt from this company.
0
Comments
-
No you want the bad news or the good news ?????0
-
Bad news is a overdraft is not covered by the CC ACT . A debt card is just a easy way of using a bank account so a debt card debit is a overdraft as well .
Good news , next . You are entitled to the last six years of statements . You can then add up all the charges and put in a claim for those to be taken off the balance owed . Unfortunately due to the banks taking the bank charge refund issue to the high court , I would advise against holding your beath . sorry .0 -
Shame about BLS, but I thought that might be the case. At least I've bought myself some time to finish my uni course and I've learnt to be harsher with these debt companies. I'll try and re-negotitate how much I pay per month and bring it down to something I'm happier with.0
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