Lowells Debt that I do not owe!

Chrisjblack23 · 8 July 2016 at 6:43AM

Good morning everyone.

Hope you can help with this as I'm at a bit of a loose end!

My girlfriend received a letter from Lowell Financial Ltd stating she owed the sum of around £800 due to outstanding debt from Shop Direct Ltd in June 2015 whom they have bought the debt from.

They had her full name (she has pretty common name) and quoted an old address (she hadn't lived there for 3 years or so)

In the first instance we contact Lowell to dispute this and reported this as fraud. We have recently received a further letter outlining the findings.

They concluded that the debt did belong to us and stated a few vague bullet points as evidence

- Credit file indicated she lives at that address at the time of debt
- Payments were being made against the debt until Aug 2015
-All the goods were delivered.

Once again, I rang to dispute the findings in this letter and they could give me very little information other than they stand by the decision and will freeze the debt for 30days whilst we continue our investigation.

My plan was to do as follows:

1) Get a hard copy of my credit file (I already checked the report online via clearscore and the debt does not appear on there nor does it show that Lowells have done a search on it.

2) Obtain bank statements covering the start period of the debt (01/06/2015) to the last payment date (28/08/2015) as evidence that no payment has ever been made

3) I also plan to get my girlfriend to ring Shop Direct to obtain further information.

I have also read contradicting reports as to whether I should request a CCA.

Can anyone help/advise with this? It's stressing us both out!

Thanks

StokieBecks · 8 July 2016 at 7:21AM

You need to get your girlfriends credit report not yours if the debt is in her name. Was she living at the address when the account was opened? Shop Direct covers Very, Littlewoods, Simply Be etc ...the catalogue type accounts. Did your girlfriend ever have one of these accounts.

Also never ring these people. They will use any means on the phone as the team you get through to just want your money. Conduct everything in writing.

Shop Direct will probably not be able to shed any more light. Even if you have the original account number thry will simply direct you to Lowell

fatbelly · 8 July 2016 at 8:56AM

It's their job to prove you owe this, not your job to prove you don't

So do not send a CCA request. You should have just sent a prove-it. Maybe you did. This post explains

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2607247

It appears they have shown you no real evidence regarding proof of liability, e.g. statements, signed agreement.

sourcrates · 8 July 2016 at 10:58AM

Agree with Fatbelly, send the provit letter, stay off the phone.

Lowell must prove liability, you don't have to prove a thing.

Are you 100% positive the account is not hers ?

Many catalogues are marketed under the shop direct banner.

Chrisjblack23 · 8 July 2016 at 6:02PM

My mistake. My girlfriend has requested a copy of her credit report. The address the debt was registered at was her mother's address in Bristol. She left Bristol in 2012 and moved to the north east. She swears blind she has had no account with any of the catalogue type companies. I am aware that I should have sent the 'prove it' letter in the first instance but panic struck! Is it too late to send the prove it letter after they have already completed an 'Investigation'?

Spoonhead88 · 8 July 2016 at 6:55PM

could her mother opened the account?

sourcrates · 8 July 2016 at 7:21PM

Chrisjblack23 wrote: »

Is it too late to send the prove it letter after they have already completed an 'Investigation'?

Not at all, get it sent !!!

Chrisjblack23 · 9 July 2016 at 9:46AM

Her mam swears she doesnt know anything about it. She has a pretty close relationship with her mam so can't see her doing anything this harsh. Thanks for all your help guys. I'll let you know the outcome. Hopefully, a positive one!

Chrisjblack23 · 11 August 2016 at 5:44PM

So I received a letter in response to the 'prove it' letter saying that they're 'looking into my enquiry '. Do they have a specific time frame in which to provide the evidence?

fatbelly · 11 August 2016 at 6:25PM

Chrisjblack23 wrote: »

So I received a letter in response to the 'prove it' letter saying that they're 'looking into my enquiry '. Do they have a specific time frame in which to provide the evidence?

No, it's just a waiting game now

Distemper · 20 March 2017 at 10:08AM

Hi
I wonder if you could offer some advice please? I had a letter from Lowells back in Jan saying I owed £85 to EE in 2013. I sent a prove it letter and they have just come back with some statements that are not on any form of headed paper.. They are now asking me to make a payment but I do not believe I owe this as I always paid my bill in full by DD on the due date. Also I had never, at any time during the 3 years I was with them, ever run a bill up any where near close to that.

When I left EE in Jan 13 I was told I would get a rebate of around £40-50 I never heard anything after I left. I moved over to O2 on 24/01/13 ported my number across and forgot all about it until April of that year when I got a letter from a DCA saying I owed £93. I sent a prove it letter and heard nothing back. I emailed EE and got no reply from them either..

I am just not sure where to go from here .. Or how to reply to their letter.. Any advice would be great, thanks.

Lowells Debt that I do not owe!

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