We received a letter from Freddie's today thanking us for the correspondence and telling us that they're contacting their client for instructions and the account is on hold. Since neither dad nor I can remember anything about a 4k loan since my mum died in 2003 it should be either statute barred, or it belonged to my brother who was named after dad. If it isn't statute barred then hopefully the CCA or SAR will sort out who it originally belonged to. If I remember rightly the yellow "give us the money" letter mentioned a successful trace, which seemed odd since we've stayed at this address for 20 years or so, and the only people who've been chasing owed money in the last few years are Capital One and Provident, both of whom should be paid off by summer next year with a bit of luck. Anyway thanks for all the help so far and I'll be back in touch once there are any more developments.

I'm pretty sure the threat of bailiffs is just that, without a court order you have no obligation to admit anyone to your home anyway. Debt collectors love to make us panic and worry so we'll just roll over and do what they want, so personally I wouldn't worry until a letter from their solicitor arrives, as well as checking to make sure their solicitor is actually eligible to practice law in Scotland. In the meantime, since as far as I can see the debt isn't statute barred, I think you're going to want to send off a CCA request letter, the template for which is here along with the £1 postal order to pay it, and as people have said in other threads it's important that you don't sign your name on any correspondence with the debt collectors as some have been known to lift the signature. Once you have the CCA there are people here who will be able to tell you if it's enforceable or not. Finding out when the last payment was made and how much will take a SAR letter which has a fee of £10 and the template for which is here, you may have to send it to the RBS depending on whether the debt collector bought the debt or is acting for them. I'm pretty new to this as well and in the process of dealing with a debt collector myself so you might want to get confirmation before sending anything off, but the main thing is not to panic because as far as I can see there isn't much they can actually do without a court judgement beyond letter and telephone harassment, well aside from messing with your credit rating.

Thanks Rory, it does say we will take legal action and then lists the debt, and the interest and legal charges that will be added on if it goes to court. I'll get the camera out and take a photo later, but I'll definitely wait until we get a letter from their solicitors then before sending next day delivery letters. Frustratingly the recorded letter is still being progressed through their system according to the website.

It's been a week and apparently the statute barred letter is still being progressed through the Royal Mail's system. We now have a Letter Before Action instructing us that if the debt isn't paid in full within seven days they'll take immediate action and additional fees will be added, honestly not too worried since as I said my dad's 72 and we're already paying off a few debts so I doubt the court will insist he pays too much a week. Still we sent the satute barred letter to their PO box address, should we try sending it again to a different address if we can find one? Edit: comparing dates it seems to take four days for their letters to get to us so if you think it's worth sending the letter again I'll wait until Tuesday or Wednesday. Since even though we missed the last post on the Friday we sent the letter it should still have arrived by Wednesday, assuming the postman just hasn't bothered to get a signature.

Thanks a bunch Ida, I'll get that sent off recorded delivery tomorrow and see what they send back. And it's nice to be here, aside from the annoying debt collector

Hi, we received a letter from Fredrickson International last week about a 4.3k debt, apparently they're acting on behalf of Arrow and Paragon held the original debt. When my dad, who's 72 this year got the letter he called them up and offered them a pound a month. After telling me about how they refused I started looking in to things and we've decided to send off a CCA request letter and follow it up with a SAR if they can provide a proper one, but I have two quick questions. First it's entirely possible that no payments or contact was made from us regarding this debt in the last six years, if that's the case does the fact that my dad made an offer prevent us from claiming the debt is statute barred, and if it doesn't does requesting the CCA and making a SAR to confirm information about the debt have an effect on it? The second one is a lot simpler, since we're requesting data they hold on us the letter should be addressed to the Data Controller correct? Edited to add link to photo of letter with all personal information excised.