Have made an enquiry, will let you know if I get a reply.

A quick google and hey presto: http://www.dbsg-uk.com/members-list/details/424/lloyds-banking-group

Citibank maybe an American company, but their subsidiaries Citi Financial Plc and Citi Bank Plc operate under UK law in this country. So I don't think that you will have any joy reclaiming interest from OPUS on a point of US law, unfortunately it doesn't work that way.

Beat me to it shadow.

Sounds like a threat-o-gram in an effort to get you to start making payments. Simple fact is that Citi do not have enforceable agreements for a lot of their accounts, that is why customers have hit a brick wall when trying to gain copies of their agreements. Likewise the DCAs who have purchased accounts have not been furnishing people with copies of agreements - because Citi are unwilling to release them. Strange that 1st Credit have said they will refer the account back to Citi Financial Europe Plc for further action. From memory Citi have pulled out of the credit card business in the UK and sold it onto another company. I do believe this is 1st Credit clutching at straws in an effort to scare people. They never were that bright especially with the likes of photoshopping notifications purporting to come from Citi etc.

It's possible they could defend for that amount.... albeit it is close to what their costs would be. Ultimately you are probably like the rest of us, you would be willing to meet what is a reasonable cost to them for you default in paying on time. However believe £12 to be way too high - as part of an overall IT system, the cost to them to add a penalty charge and mail you regarding it is probably under £1. If you decide to go ahead, there is a draft order that you would submit which is a corker. It asks for full disclosure on their part.

Ultimately it's your own decision to make. Citi will defend any action, and there solicitors will try to delay and put obsticles in the way. Whether they pay up before court depends on the size of your claim. If you decide to proceed I would be reluctant to claim contractual interest. It boils down to whether you believe £12 is a fair price to pay per penalty fee. Personally I fought it all the way to court (and won), but it's not an easy route to take.

If your claim in total is under £450-£500 they are likely to settle before any court proceedings, because they won't wish to spend more to defend a case than the claim itself. The fact is that even £12 is a highly inflated figure, for a process which is part of an overall IT system. It would be the equivelent of saying to process and print your statement costs them £12 per month. There is a draft order which has been submitted to courts which when adopted requests a breakdown of their charges, Citi have never once complied with it, which then strikes out their defence. The one thing to be wary of with Citi, is that they are not the easiest to make a claim against. That said there are a fair few of us that have done it.

Is that a Notice Of Assignment, if so then the account is being transferred to another company - if it's not a Notice Of Assignment (i.e. the document is headed) then it could just be DCA working on behalf of Opus.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you, have a new job and girlfriend which leaves me with next to zero free time. Ultimately if you have not acknowledged the debt, you should lodge a pre-action request to view the "original executed agreement"..... someone should be able to advise you with relation to this. With no acknowledgement they will be trying to enforce on the basis of this - if they don't have it it puts them on shakey ground. That said you probably do need some sound advice on this - shadow i'm not a mod anymore so would be greatful if you could get one of the experienced mods to look and advise on this.

A dispute involves two sides, just because one says its closed - it doesn't make it so. Citi accounts are a bit of a Catch 22 situation, you can't get hold of a copy of your "executed agreement", but likewise to date assignee's (the likes of OPUS) and DCAs such as Cabot aren't getting them either. My reasoning is that Citi might have destroyed, or have issues with a lot of their original executed agreements - and hence why no one is getting them. Obviously expect Cabot to be unpleasant in an attempt to get you to fold and cough up regardless of any dispute, or whether you actually owe anything. Any problems, get in touch with me, i've become relatively good at letter writing..... and mentioning the elephant in the room with regard to finance normally stops things.

You've likely had a learning experience...... goes to show that these banks will make peoples lives a misery in the hope that they pay up. But you've come out the end the better for it, take a break, put your feet up, and well done.

Hi bud, don't worry i've been loiterring, just don't have as much free time as I used to.

Got a feeling that Citi have destroyed a lot of their original "executed agreements", or there are legally deficiencies in them - hence why it's hard to get documentation out of Citi, than it is blood out of a stone.

"stroke a badger", it's fairly obvious why they are willing to give you a 50% discount. Not only will it respresent a three fold return on their original purchase price of 10%-15% of the account balance, but also get around the nuisance factor that the original holder is reluctant in the extreme to supply them with a copy of the "executed agreement". T&C are fine, but not the original signed agreements as Citi have lots of issues with them being unenforceable, or have destroyed the original documents!!!!! Finely, from the point of view of Cabot. If you wish to reply I would keep it short and sweet, inform them that you hold the account in dispute and do not acknowledge the debt. If they wished to proceed to the court (which is highly unlikely), you could request that the original "executed agreement" be produced under Civil Procedure Rules, as they would be reliant on it to seek an enforcement order, since Citi aren't releasing the "executed agreements" it's a Catch 22 situation for them. And that's before you get to the elephant in the room, the factor that no bank would want brought out in a court room. That our currency is fiat, i.e. created from thin air. This has been the case ever since Pounds Sterling came off the gold standard in 1931. So we've had a central bank (The Bank Of England) that has been able to create money from thin air since then. Likewise I have documents from Deutsche Bank and a US Bank that allude to the fact that commerical banks can do likewise. I'm nothing but thorough when it comes to research, it's interesting to learn that the first bank notes were created by blacksmiths. They were receipts for gold stored within the secure walls of their businesses. In the middle ages blacksmiths found to be issuing more notes than they had gold recevied the death penalty..... it's funny how things have changed, and bankers can now create credit out of the etha - and receive real world goods in exchange when the economy turns sour. A US banker who was owed billions in derivatives gone sour by Greece is rumoured to have taken one of the Greek islands in exchange. Essentially it's the labour of people, and peoples willingness to accept the likes of Pound and the Dollar in the false belief that they have true intrinsic value that gives these bits of paper value.

Plus, if they are offering you a 50% discount - it's likely they're making 35%-40% on their purchase, as they likely bought it for between 10%-15%.

They went very quiet one me....... mainly because they know I have an unenforceable executed agreement - funny though as they asked me for a copy, because Citi aren't furnishing them with anything.... needless to say they didn't get one.

From my experience, keeping it short and sweet is the best option, so don't know if you can boil it down a little more. Of course the elephent in the room, that no one looks at, is that central banks and commerical/retail banks such as Citibank can create money out of nothing - which are loaned out, and need to be repaid plus interest.

In the unlikely event that it went that far, they would be trying to gain an enforcement order on the basis of the "executed agreement" - that very document that the majority of us have been trying to get hold of all along. As far as I am aware Citi are not releasing these to anyone, whether it be their customers with a valid request, or third parties that have purchased accounts. So it's unlikely that Cabot would be able to obtain the original of this document to be able to persue action. If they did go that far it would be a matter of submitting a request under civil procedural rules to view the original document in advance - and obtain a copy. At that point you could ascertain whether it's fully legally compliant (and thus enforceable or not), and decide what to do from there. i.e. make an offer of greatly reduced offer of settlement or wait things out if it was not legally compliant, or come to an arrangement before proceedings if it was fully compliant. There are bods behind the scenes that are clued up on what to do if the Cabot did proceed down this avenue, though as with a lot of their letters they are normally sent to instill a sense of fear and intimidate without carrying through their threats.

Reading the bottom, Morgans, inhouse collection for Cabot. So essentially it's another letter from Cabot.

If previous history is anything to go by, it will be a small dent in their profits. After all where does all that drug money go? It gets laundered through banks, including some here.

Dependent on the age of the account Citi will unlikely have a copy of the executed agreement, in a legally compliant form if your account was opened prior to 2006. My feeling is that a lot of their agreements have issues, hence why they doggedly resist giving them out.

Hi, if you type your postcode into the box on the Trading Standards website it will give you the details of your local council one. http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/advice/index.cfm Either call or write to them, normally if you e-mail they link you to Consumer Direct (CD). I'm sure that once you've outlined your position they should help. Sure the company in quesiton is entitled to contact you regarding the matter, but they are not entitled to bombard you with letters (i.e. harass). I'm sure that they are sending so much correspondence because they believe you are vulnerable considering your husband/partners condition. I would be tempted to get in touch with the Ombudsman again, and inform Cabot that you have contacted Trading Standards with regard to their actviity.

Hi, if you type your postcode into the box on the Trading Standards website it will give you the details of your local council one. http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/advice/index.cfm Either call or write to them, normally if you e-mail they link you to Consumer Direct (CD). I'm sure that once you've outlined your position they should help. Sure the company in quesiton is entitled to contact you regarding the matter, but they are not entitled to bombard you with letters (i.e. harass). I'm sure that they are sending so much correspondence because they believe you are vulnerable considering your husband/partners condition. I would be tempted to get in touch with the Ombudsman again, and inform Cabot that you have contacted Trading Standards with regard to their actviity.

These companies are parasites, normally if you show any weakness, they'll cease on it and add pressure in the attempt of getting you to cough up. If the letters really are that frequent you should get your Trading Standards department involved... because that really is clear harassment.