Hahaha! I know but I couldn't contain myself and am more than happy to ruin their day as they have ruined countless other poor soul's days by the very nature of their job! It feels good to have the upper hand for once!

I'm fully prepared for anything they can throw at me Fletch and they have also been pre-warned that I am in possession of a true copy of the original agreement which will be compared to any documentation they send me and if any changes are identified, I will have no hesitation in reporting them to the OFT! I've got absolutely nothing to lose and would dearly love to be a fly on the wall when they receive my letter!

Hi Fletch! Yes it does have my signature on it! Its such a good feeling to be in a position to stick it to these bottom feeders!

Hi Brigadier, Concocting is probably the correct term! The beauty is, I have a true copy of the original agreement that was sent to me by another DCA, so if 1st credit try a recon on me, it will be identified and I'll report them. Haven't checked my CRA files but have had no problems getting credit - maybe I should check just to make sure they haven't registered anything recently. The last letter I received from them was rather long winded and actually apologetic but I wouldn't trust them an inch!

Yes Brigadier and they are currently "liaising" with the original creditor.

Morning Brigadier! If the original agreement pre-dates the changes made to the CCA, how can it be compliant? I've already received one from a previous DCA that did not contain any of the prescribed terms which is why they did not pursue the matter or are you suggesting 1st Credit may produce something that is not strictly "legal"?

Hi Ford and thanks for your reply and informative link! The original credit agreement is dated 1998 and does not contain the "prescribed" terms required to enforce it and on highlighting this fact to two previous DCA's, this resulted in them selling the alleged debt on and taking no further action which I assume means they could not enforce it. I'm just waiting for 1st Credit to produce a copy of the agreement.

Hi there, I have recently received a letter from 1st Credit in connection with an alleged debt of £284 last payment made in 2009 via a Debt Management Company - they have produced a statement of account but has no reference to the DMC or original creditor. The debt has been chased by 3 other DCA's from 2010 to 2012 and one produced a 16 year old credit agreement which did not contain the necessary prescribed terms for them to enforce and after I advised them of this in writing, they haven't bothered since, until now 1st Credit have picked up the baton again! In their letter they have advised that they are contacting the original creditor to obtain a copy of the Credit Agreement and will be in contact again when it is received. Can they proceed further with this ie can they put any defaults on my credit file or enforce the debt just on the statement of account? I have not acknowledged this debt. Thanks in advance for any help!

Hi All, If the cca was signed prior to 2007, there is a provision for making an agreement unenforceable if it does not contain certain pieces of information. If one of the following "prescribed terms" is missing, the agreement is unenforceable. A. Amount of credit - A term stating the amount of credit B. Repayments - A term stating how the debtor is to discharge his obligations under the agreement to make the repayments, which may be expressed by reference to a combination of any of the following:- (a) number of repayments (b) amount of repayments © frequency and timing of repayments (d) dates of repayments (e) the manner of which any of the above may be determined; or in any other way, and any power of the creditor to vary what is payable C. Rate of interest - A term stating the rate of interest to be applied to the credit issued under the agreement. D. Credit Limit - This may be a term or the manner in which it will be determined or that there is no credit limit. Hope this is of use!

Hi Fred, Hi Deb, Thanks for both your replies. Apologies, I should have made things a little clearer. The debt paid is only £278 and went under management with a whole bunch of other loans etc. in 2000 so its not an earth shattering amount, but more the principle of the matter. CL Finance have harrassed hubby for months over it and we even had someone turn up on the doorstep last year making demands and threats. I guess this is more about getting back at these people for the way they operate than the actual money because they frighten, bully and harrass people, sometimes for debts they do no even owe, and I just want them to have a taste of their own medicine. These debt buying companies are renowned for changing their names frequently to avoid litigation which suggests that they sometimes operate outside of the law, which is why I would like to pursue this case to somehow help prevent this happening to anyone else by making an example of them. Again, thanks for your replies, so if there is any further advice you could give, I'd be grateful. Deedy

Many thanks Mightyacorn - done! Cheers!

Hi there! I wonder if anyone can please give me some advice about hubby's Credit Agreement from 1993. In short he took out an agreement with Frasercard in 1993 then in 2000 ran into financial difficulty and it went under Chiltern Debt Management until November last year when we decided paying £450 per month for 9 years was quite enough, so we stopped payment to Chiltern. He was then recently contacted by CL Finance who threatened Court Action as they had bought the debt from GE Capital (as was) and registered the debt with the court. In the meantime hubby sent them a Subject access request and all that came back was a bunch of spurious addresses, telephone numbers and a printout of what had been paid to Chiltern for 9 years. Sadly, the court papers got lost in the post and never arrived at the court and judgement was made against my hubby, but has since been cleared, however, CL Finance were not in possession of the credit agreement when it was entered into court - only the agreement number was quoted, as we asked for a copy of the agreement which they could not provide. Now because we have threatened CL Finance to take them back to court as they did not have a copy of the credit agreement, one has turned up. The original is illegible but they have provided a blank copy but the blank copy does not contain all the information from the original, and as far as I can tell does not contain a couple of the "prescribed terms" required to enforce it which are mentioned in this thread. Can anyone tell me if we can apply to the court to get this money back from CL Finance as they were not in possession of the agreement when they took hubby to court? Many thanks folks!

Hi there! I wonder if anyone can please give me some advice about hubby's Credit Agreement from 1993. In short he took out an agreement with Frasercard in 1993 then in 2000 ran into financial difficulty and it went under Chiltern Debt Management until November last year when we decided paying £450 per month for 9 years was quite enough, so we stopped payment to Chiltern. He was then recently contacted by CL Finance who threatened Court Action as they had bought the debt from GE Capital (as was) and registered the debt with the court. In the meantime hubby sent them a subject access request and all that came back was a bunch of spurious addresses, telephone numbers and a printout of what had been paid to Chiltern for 9 years. Sadly, the court papers got lost in the post and never arrived at the court and judgement was made against my hubby, but has since been cleared, however, CL Finance were not in possession of the credit agreement when it was entered into court - only the agreement number was quoted, as we asked for a copy of the agreement which they could not provide. Now because we have threatened CL Finance to take them back to court as they did not have a copy of the credit agreement, one has turned up. The original is illegible but they have provided a blank copy but the blank copy does not contain all the information from the original, and as far as I can tell does not contain a couple of the "prescribed terms" required to enforce it which are mentioned in this thread. Can anyone tell me if we can apply to the court to get this money back from CL Finance as they were not in possession of the agreement when they took hubby to court? Many thanks folks! D

Oh, Powelll, thank you so much for your link. Having just quickly scanned through it, it would appear that the DMP are in breach of many a guideline! I am just printing a copy to take along to our chappie next week, so thanks again for highlighting that information - it was just what I needed to see - you are an absolute star! Moggieb, it is really frightening isn't it, but I would be inclined to follow some of the other wonderful advice posted here and maybe get your son to look into one of the free DMP's such as Payplan or CCCS if it is proving too difficult to manage on your own, and no doubt there are a number of people on this site that are currently using the free DMP's that can give you more advice on the subject than I, as I am unfortunately still fighting with my DMP at the mo. and will continue to do so as I think people are duped into believing that their problems are being sorted out, then 8 years down the line you find that you owe considerably more than you started with! Watch this space as I intend to take this matter as far as it will go! My best to all Deedy

Thanks Suzieblooz! I will keep the site informed! Hopefully it will be a good outcome and maybe even an example to the many thousands of poor souls in the same predicament. I'm hoping that they won't get away with it, because my gut tells me it can't be legal somewhere along the line, and if there is a loop-hole, I'm determined to find it! Thanks for your reply - glad to hear you see light at the end of your tunnel and things are easier for you. I am possibly more fortunate than most as I am not struggling with the repayments, its just the number of repayments I'm finding hard to swallow! Also glad to hear of the non-ruthless companies such as payplan, and if it all goes pearshaped for me and hubby, we'll certainly drop Chiltern like a brick and hop onto the payplan or cccs train for the ride, only wish we'd done that in the first instance! Thanks again for your support, and I've no doubt we'll chat again soon! Take care My best Deedy