That is an excellent link andyorch, much more up to date than my experience. Looks like the OP needs to respond in some way. I am no expert but based on your link I would say an S78 is a good start. I also wonder how an overseas debt can be enforced in a UK Court. Wouldn't the original agreement be subject to the Laws of the Country in which it operated? I am following as I am interested in learning more about this stuff.

Around about fifteen years ago 1st Credit was very busy sending out Statutory Demands. This is potentially serious as you only have a limited time to reply (about eighteen days I think). If you do not respond before that time has elapsed the creditor can then move to make you bankrupt. But..... 1st Credit sent their SD's out second class post with no proof of service. It costs nothing to print out an SD form and send it. However, the Ministry of Justice took a dim view of 1st Credit using Court documents as a debt collection tactic. The reason was that if you are serious about issuing an SD then you would normally be expected to have it served in person. 1st Credit had no intention of paying around £700 per Creditor to start proceedings which, if successful would cost them more in Court fees and result in the Creditors assets being passed to a receiver who would (eventually) share them out at pennies in the pound to ALL creditors. First ask yourself if this is a serious threat. How did it arrive? Was it normal post, recorded delivery, signed for or a personal service? I ignored all the SD's I got from 1st Credit as I had no assets to protect. However, you have a house and it is possible the Creditor has researched you and identified you may have assets. So second, evaluate what the risk is of the Creditor moving to an Application for Bankruptcy. I question who IDR is and if they actually own the debt, and if they do not then are they in a position to actually progress an Application for Bankruptcy. I write the above not because I have any specific ideas of what to do next but to give other CAGers some further food for thought. Having said that I think it important to understand if IDR can start proceedings and if so the SD should be responded to avoid a Court asking the awkward question of why it was not answered when or if the case does come up for a Hearing.

Happened to me twice. If they think you are dodgy for any reason they will report you to the national crime agency and suspend your account and refuse to speak with you until the NCA advise that they are not interested. Either of those accounts, or both would be good.

Suggest you put your savings with someone other than Starling, try ford money or Marcus from goldman sachs or similar on line accounts. There is always the possibility down the line that Starling will freeze your account for some reason, they may not like your new credit record or something else. You will at least have access to your savings for the period of the freeze. Might not hurt to get another current account as well, a few on line out there. I am paranoid now and don't trust any bank.

With regard to the phone it cant hurt to try. My guess is that the creditors will start to use your new number and keep a record on their system of the old number. However, I speculate that when they sell the debt on they may not pass on the historical number, just the new one, but it IS just speculation, cant hurt to try, other wise you will get six to ten automated calls a day, not necessarily a problem if you have the right mental attitude but they will be using automation to call you so why not use your own automation to answer them! by the way on the one occasion I tried this it worked.

As a long standing member here I have loads of experience in not paying these kinds of debts and find the advice here sound. I would totally agree with DX in post 2, keep your van. (I got a VW bay window 1974, she is not going anywhere!). In your situation I would stop paying the unsecured debts, including VERY, stuff the morality and shame. I would also establish a savings account and put as much as you can afford that you would otherwise have paid towards your debts into that account. All of those debts will eventually be sold to debt buyers and maybe one to two years down the road one of those buyers might successfully beat you in Court (though if you follow the advice here then a good chance that wont happen) and if they do then you have a reserve available to pay that debt off before they get it secured on your property. If after six years you have got those debts to the Statutory Barred stage you will have a nice little pile of money to do something with. Given the shear number of debts you have got you might consider buying a car boot mobile phone and a pre pay SIM and advising your creditors of phone number change before you stop paying. Once the onslaught of calls starts your car boot phone can take all the calls whilst it sits on your kitchen window, leaving you in peace!

Going to follow this one, have dealt with Cabot before. 1. Don't throw anything away, file it all in date order including the envelope. Gather any remaining material you have from the original debt, bills, letters etc and also add it to the file. 2. Don't reply to emails, just file them in an email folder on your computer 3. Don't answer the phone to them. If they call from a different number put the phone down and add that number to the list of Cabot numbers on your phone. 4. Don't worry about any contact you have from other Debt Collecting Companies they may pass the debt onto for a chase. They have zero standing. They are good at using their letters and techniques to play phycological games but it is like Tennis, if they hit a ball over the net at you don't hit it back. They will be in for a doodoo game then! 5. DO advise them of any change of address so they don't send Court papers or important correspondence to an old address. 6. DO get back on here if you receive a letter before action. 7. DO (Optional). Might be worth doing a Subject Access Request to Aqua to see what data they hold about you. Would reveal stuff that might be useful later such as default date (helps to calculate the statutory Bar date) and other things. Nothing nasty can happen until AFTER they have successfully won a County Court Claim, which is usually very very hard work for them and mostly impossible if you follow the advice here. I have benefited from loads of advice from here and like to add my own from experience to help others.

I would agree with Nickyboy post 30. Never throw anything away, not even the envelope. Ideally create folders and store it in date order but if nothing else have a big box and throw it in there. If it should be needed then a glass of white wine and a big kitchen table would enable you to find everything again!

I am no expert but here are my thoughts. The MC100 form is a Court document that you need to fill in which contains boxes for your income and outgoings. Ultimately it will reveal how much surplus income you have after your bills are paid. In ordinary circumstances it allows the Court to assess how much you can afford weekly to pay towards a fine that is, or is about to be levied. I have never heard of this being asked for by a Court long after the proceedings have ended but I am not a solicitor and neither have I had fines or weekly payments so it might be quite common. My suspicion is that maybe they think you have not been paying or they have lost the records of your payments. If I was you I would download the Form, print it several times. Fill out one in pencil in case you make any mistakes and once you are satisfied you have got it right then fill out the other in Pen. When you get to Court you can hand it in to the clerk of the Court who might just be satisfied and dismiss you from the Hearing if there is one for that day. I would also download your bank statements for the entire period and highlight the payments so that if they think you have not paid then you have immediate evidence to hand that you have in fact paid. I stress my inexperience in this matter, just laying out what my thoughts are and what I would do. Hopefully some other CAGers will come along to add to the thread. Good luck.

If what you say is correct then the debts will have become statute barred in November 2022 or even November 2021 if you live in Scotland. See what others say but I would advise Lowell of your current address so they don't attempt to get a back door CCJ by sending a claim form to your old address. Always best to advise creditors of your correct current whereabouts. They will very likely send you a letter. At that point, or even before that point, advise them it is statute barred. There is a great template letter on this site I have used before. Seems to me you are home clear. They cannot enforce these debts and they probably have dropped off your credit reports (might be worth checking all three Credit Reference Agencies to make sure!). Well done!

Yes, defo a SAR. Also ask for an up to date statement. If he was in an IVA they usually last five years and then he is out of it, though some IVA's will want a final payment of somesort , I am not an expert. Find out what date he started and when it is due to finish. Also. Find out who tge creditors are and write to each of them asking for a copy of the original credit agreement. When they cant produce one there is an opportunity to stop paying the IVA.

yeah done that in post 2.

OK so I have prepped my response to the LBA to go to Mortiner Clark and produced a CCA request to go to Cabot and they will be posted Monday which is within the thirty days I have to respond. Here is my answers to the standard questionnaire: Name of the Claimant ? Cabot via Mortimer Clark What is the claim for – the reason they have issued the claim? Unpaid Opus Credit Card bought by Cabot from Opus/Newday What is the total value of the claim? £2892.11 Have you received prior notice of a claim being issued pursuant to paragraph 3 of the PAPDC (Pre Action Protocol) ? Yes Have you changed your address since the time at which the debt referred to in the claim was allegedly incurred? No Did you inform the claimant of your change of address? N/A Is the claim for - a Bank Account (Overdraft) or credit card or loan or catalogue or mobile phone account? Credit Card When did you enter into the original agreement before or after April 2007 ? After Do you recall how you entered into the agreement...On line /In branch/By post ? On Line Is the debt showing on your credit reference files (Experian/Equifax /Etc...) ? Yes Has the claim been issued by the original creditor or was the account assigned and it is the Debt purchaser who has issued the claim. The Debt purchaser has sent the LBA, no CC claim pack yet. Were you aware the account had been assigned – did you receive a Notice of Assignment? Yes Did you receive a Default Notice from the original creditor? Yes Have you been receiving statutory notices headed “Notice of Sums in Arrears” or " Notice of Arrears "– at least once a year ? No, but there is a statment from Cabot as part of the LBA pack which I take to be an annual statement. Why did you cease payments? Ran out of money in November 2021 What was the date of your last payment? Around November 2021 Was there a dispute with the original creditor that remains unresolved? No Did you communicate any financial problems to the original creditor and make any attempt to enter into a debt management plan? Asked for a payment pause which was granted on another New Day card I had and still operate. It was not given for this one so I stopped paying. I will update the thread when/if I hear back from Cabot and MC.

Post 2, Got it!

No DX , this was an Opus own brand card taken out in 2017 I think. I will follow the advice as above. You referred me to post 5 which deals with overseas debt but I will extract the UK centric relevant stuff and go from there. Will also now post up the usual questionnaire and answers.

Hello all I defaulted an Opus Credit card for about £2800 which was purchased by Cabot and after due course was passed to their Mortimer Clarke branch for chasing. I have totally ignored throughout, including a few letters from the Mortimer Clarke threatomatic system and calls. Recently received the attached letter. Am I right to treat this as a proper Letter before action? It comes with a number of enclosures including a statement from Cabot, a reply form and a direct debit mandate. Presuming this is a proper Letter before Action is there any opinion on whether MC will follow up? Is it time for me to ask them for "prove its" at this stage or wait to see if they issue a claim and do it then? I am getting to be a bit of an old hand here now but never one to pass up some hand holding if it is there. Presuming the consensus is that it is a proper LBA (the first I have received in about seventeen years of CAG reading) I will fill in the standard questionnaire and post up. Their letter is dated 17th January and claiming to give me thirty days to respond. I will also be reading up on similar threads. Many thanks in advance. M clarke LBA 20230117.pdf

Thanks DX I have looked into this and I believe that when the HCEO charges the creditor VAT the creditor himself claims that back and it does not fall on the Debtor. the debtor only has to pay it if the Creditor is not VAT registered. could be wrong but it seems to make sense. This "error" is making me suspect the whole rest of the fees which seem grossly inflated. A 6k debt has gone to 10K.

Hello All I am helping out a car mechanic friend of mine who is having Bailiff Trouble. Some time ago a supplier obtained a CCJ against him for around £6100. Long story short the above Bailiff got involved. The guy visited the premises and a payment plan was set up. This generally went well but a payment was missed on one occasion and it took a £2K payment to get the Bailiff of his back again. I got involved and we contacted the original creditor who confirmed they had received all the money bar £15 which was paid so as to get a letter of satisfaction from them. I contacted the Bailiff by email with the following; Following my last payment to your firm regarding the above debt I have contacted the original creditor who has advised me that the original debt is satisfied and no more money is owed to them. I am non plussed at your Officer's claim that I still owe some £5000 as much as the original debt. I therefore now request and require a full statement showing what your fees are, what work you have carried out to charge those fees and what the outstanding amount is. You may return it by email or post it to my business which is; I got the following back; Regards your high court writ with us you broke the arrangement so we had to send agents out then here is the break down of everything- County court judgement -£5713.35 Judgement costs-£422.08 High court execution costs-£117.75 Interest-£525.76 Compliance-£75 Enforcement fees-£1123 +Vat on fees-£239.60 TOTAL-£8216.54 Total paid-£4250 Balance -£3966.54+daily rate of interest If you had carried on paying your arrangement you would not have had the enforcement fees to which all are legally binding and set by the government. Please do not stop paying your arrangement as this will lead to agents visiting again and more costs going on. (the above is word for word what was sent). Can anyone help me make sense of these fees. I am sure the VAT for instance is in-correct. The original creditor is VAT registered as is the debtor. Also, this is far from a statement from any accounting system. It does not show the dates of any charges or routine payments made by the debtor. The individual Bailiff concerned is highly aggressive and non responsive when it comes to discussing these fees. any recommendations gratefully accepted.

Post 4 asked to go get your credit file. Suggest you check all three agencies as I have noticed that some accounts appear on one agency files but not the others.

If that house is in Scotland then you are already home free, stat barred in Scotland is five years!

I would agree that Starling bank is the best bet to get started. Just download the Starling Bank app on your smartphone and follow the process and you could have an account by the end of the week! The other good news is that as you have had these debts for four years you only have around two years to go before they become statutory barred which means the creditor will then be unable to take court action, so a couple of pluses there. My personal view is that you should treat it as a hobby. Start collecting all the letters etc together and filing them in the correct order. Make a note on a spreadsheet of significant events for each debt, when you stopped paying, when the default letters were sent, etc. In particular make a note of the Date the default letters were sent as that determines when the debts become unenforceable which is five yeas in Scotland and six years in the rest of the Country. It is very satisfying to calculate the date the debt becomes unenforceable in this way and to actually reach the date! Next work very hard at doing nothing! By that I mean do not answer any letters, calls or emails, let them do all the had work which is automated by them anyway. The only exception to this is if you receive a letter before action or a County Court Claim pack, unlikely as they would of done it by now. If that happens come back here before doing anything. Sounds like you got a lot of problems on your hands but this need not be one of them. I will follow the thread and keep posting up here when something happens and I am sure you will get loads of help including from me.

Why not get a Subject access request running. that will require them to deliver all the records they have about the account including recordings. they are screwing you around so time to do the same to them. Once you have the records you may find a lot of useful information in there including stuff you can attach to your witness statement to support your story.

Following with interest, a good chance you could stop paying most or all of these debts for good.

Might be worth doing screen shots of the Credit Agencies showing the account as settled and zero owing. Not sure what good it would do but just in case, costs you nothing but a few bytes of disk space. Also wonder if a SAR to 3 might be in order. At least you will find out if they did generate a final bill that you never got and the date etc that they sold the debt on. Also useful for determining what the STAT BAR date will be.

Can I stick my tuppence worth in regarding the SB date. I think it is worth trying to find out what the SB date is. The OP refers to a Default date on his Credit report but is that actually the correct default date or just the date that the default was reported to the CRA. The legal default date is I think ten days or fourteen days after the creditor issues a Default notice, which might be different to the Default date shown on the CRA. I think it is worth while issuing a SAR to the original creditor which should reveal the date that they sent their Default Notice. You never know this could be very close to being stat barred already.