Welcome to the Monument/Cabot club -- I'm in exact same position as you are....I've just told Cabot that if they believe they have complied etc etc then they are welcome to take me to court and we'll see if the judge agrees with them...I'm still waiting for a reply from them 5 weeks on. ...Oh and by the way, this has been to ing and froing from me and Cabot for 3 years now - still haven't got a penny out of me ;-)

Well of course you did, did you really expect anything else? None of Marlin's practices surprised me, and I doubt it surprised anyone who has been a member here for any amount of time. It was all too 'old news' for me and I think dispatches let themselves down somewhat. Marlin were always going to deny any wrongdoing. And as for 'Mark' (was that the name he used?) - Rest assured he'll be lapping up all the attention at work tomorrow and making the exact same sort of calls to all and sundry, no doubt with pats on the backs from all his bosses. I hope they make one of these sorts of programmes one day that actually contains some real juicy stuff....Wonder if there are any undercover reporters willing to get a job with Cabot.

Without trying to sound rude, but ignorance is no defence. If monies have been paid toward the debt (and more so on a regular basis) then that counts as payment/s. Hence the debt will not be statute barred until 2011. Having said that, if there are unlawful charges on this, then you can claim those back, or at least attempt to. If the banks keep the claim thing tied up in red taope until 2011, it will become state barred by then anyway

Granted, but what are we really going to learn? Do you honestly think Chan 4 are going to expose some practices we have never heard of before?? - highly unlikely. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad idea- if fact, it will be great for those people who have no idea this sort of website exists - and hopefully it will get many more people to fight back. But these programmes do have a knack of 'taking it easy' on the companies involved. Just one other point - The chan 4 'advert' says DCA's pay as little as 16p in the £ for debts purlease! - Where did their investigating people get that info? 16p in the £ is the MOST any of these DCA's are going to pay for debts, most of the time it's less than that.

Ok, but don't hold your breath - I'm still waiting for 5 CCA requests to be furnished and I've only been waiting 2 1/2 years - and now they're all very close to being SB'd ;-)

The debt is clearly not statute barred as 'Sane Man' states he paid minimum payments for many years. Please be careful what you advise people (specially new members) on here, as the wrong advise could get people into trouble. Sane Man- If a CCA request on this account remains unadhered to, then simple write to Aktiv Kapital and tell them as much. You merely have to state that this account is still in dispute with Thames Credit as they failed to supply you with a completed CCA request - and until your CCA request is furnished correctly the account remains in dispute and no acknowledgement of the debt exists on your part. Just add a note which says that you have no wish to report them (AK) to the relevent authorities but you will be left with no choice (to do just that) if they keep harassing you unlawfully. Keep us posted.

I think you're missing my point here...In this scenario, the 'debtor' gave the car up, knowing the car would be sold & then this money would go toward the debt. It's just like saying; "Here, take the car for payment"

send CCA first - no need to waste £10 at this stage if the OA is unenforcable

If it came down to it, it would be argued that by the CAG member giving the car up for repo, he would acknowledge it would be sold to pay monies toward the clearing of the balance...It doesn't need clarifying any further than that...It's a shame, but that's the way it is. The balance showing as zero is normal practice when a debt is sold on. It's an argument that's raised its head on these boards before, it's just normal standard practice for the industry. Again, none of this should matter as the agreement itself leaves a lot to be desired.

The repossession payment on 27/2/04 would actually count as a payment toward the account...meaning it wouldn't be Stat Barred until end of Feb next year, however there is the issue of the validity of the Original Agreement....I'm sure you can play postal Table Tennis re this until it is officially stat barred

Without you mentioning who this is with, I bet it's a Cap1 credit card.

Any reason why you don't dispute the debt....is there a valid Original Agreement then? The Judge wouldn't make you pay more than you could afford. I suspect they would have combined the wages, despite it being 'your' debt. The fact that he's your husband means it's got everything to do with him

I've highlighed the only word you need to take notice of... ;-) The account's still in dispute, correct? ...Nuff said

That's Cabot for ya!

If the card was £200 limit and now stands at £648, its obvious there's £448 in unlawful charges, which you can claim back but it'd only reduce the card back to its original limit...unless of course there are additional charges on it as well...so your sister won't get any money back in her pocket. CC's are not subject to the current court action so you can go down the normal route of claiming these. Are these charges £20 or £12 ? If you start the process of reclaiming the charges, the first thing Cap1 will do is drop the £20 charges to £12 and say that's all they're going to offer...And that's where you get the FOS involved...Remember, these £12 charges have not been proved to be lawful. Cap1 hate the FOS being involved and seem to always fold at this point- very very doubtful they'll let it go to court. As previously advised, you need to send a CCA and if that's proved to be valid (which I doubt it will) you then SAR Cap1 and go from there. If she is, tell your sister not to panic. Send (unsigned) CCA to Lowell and sit back and relax.

Well, they are sort of right....Monument were owned by Barclays.

Make you bankrupt for £1400? Hmm, I don't think so - cost them nearly that much to do it. Sounds like a scare tactic and they are doing a good job. Er BTW, are there any unlawful charges on this account?

Ok....Here's how things work...Please don't think I'm insulting your intelligence by the way, I'm just going to explain things in simple detail, hoping I'm making myself understandable. DCA's buy a portfolio of debts. These portfolios contain somehwere between 200 and 2000 'debts'. Said DCA's pay anything from 2p and 12p in the pound for the whole portfolio amount. The price is dependant on the amount of 'white data' contained with the debts. 'White data' is basically debtors details..phone numbers..current addresses etc. Depending on the DCA, they will (or should) send you a 'hello' letter, introducing themselves and explaining that they are now 'owners' of the debts. Thereafter, certain DCA's (Cabot is a great example) like to sit on these debts, allowing them to accrue interest, for anything up to four years, then they come chasing. They'll threaten all sorts, but in a very high percentage, they are just empty threats. Some DCA's get to work straight away trying to recoup the monies owed. The first thing to do with these DCA's is (as you know) send them a CCA request and wait and see what they come back with. If they haven't sent you the Original (or a readable copy of) Agreement within 14 days, the debt is officially in dispute and you are perfectly within your rights to withold any further payments until the original agreement (with all the correct terms and conditions) turns up. If, as has happened in many cases, there is no OA to speak of, then no further payments need be made until the debt becomes statute barred and falls off of your Credit Files. Even without and OA the debt, of course, is still owed but there's nothing a DCA can do to enforce it. If a legitimate OA is produced then the next step is to negotiate a Full and Final payment with the DCA. It's of my opinion that a DCA would usually accept 40% of the debt as F & F, but your negotiations should start at about 20%, barter your way up to no more than 40%. However, if you do negotiate a settlement figure, you must (before you pay) insist the DCA writes to you and states that the agreed amount is in F & F settlement of the account, make them assure you they will never chase you for the remainder of the account, nor will they sell the remainder on to another DCA. Finally, get them to agree to wipe your credit file (that's completely wipe it and not just mark it as settled) in respect of the debt. If the DCA tries to play hardball, then you will need to advise them that if that's the case ( they not accepting your F&F offer) then you will have to go down the road of reclaiming all the unlawful charges on the account. DCA's will insist this s done with the original lender, however me and many many others believe ths can be done with the DCA. This is a bridge you can cross as and when, so don't worry about it for now. In respect of Cabot themselves...Farming a debt out to another DCA is usual practice for them. It's very easy to get Cabot's collection boys off the trail, just write to them and tell them the debt's in dispute and it's against OFT guidelines for them (in your case, Link) to be chasing the debt and you'll be reporting them (Link) for doing so. Link, or whoever, will very quickly give the debt back to Cabot. There are many little 'tricks of the trade' to learn with dealing with DCA's, all of which can be picked up from here. And just to finish; My situation is thus (and I'll be very brief).... Sent CCA's to eight different DCA's regarding 10 different debts...I have had four of those debts written off (no OA)...and I am stil awaiting for 6 others, and have been doing so for over 2 years...I haven't paid a penny to any one of them and the debts total about £30k. They all become statute barred quite soon. There is hope and you will get all the help you need from people on here...some more sympathetic than others ;-) The thing is not to worry, DCA's have no powers and are very reluctant to go to court, and even then I know of many cases where they have lost (Cabot in particular). Don't concern yourself with ethics...after all, Ken Maynard (head of Cabot) recently bought himself a £4 million mansion...you think he cares about ethics??...nuff said Keep us posted and ask any questions you have.

I did have a thread on here but I have no idea where it might be.... I think it was entitled "Brian Carter ceased as a company"- am not entirely sure. I started the process of claiming the unlawful charges back with Cap1, at first they wanted to reduce all the £20 payments to £12 and were adamant that's all they'd do. I didn't accept this and got the FOS involved, and that's when cap1 folded. They were as 'tough as nails' before that. I can't tell you what you should be doing, at the end of the day it's your call. I don't beleive what they've sent you is a valid agreeement, I guess this all depends on what you want to achieve with all this. Remember, if there's no valid OA then the debt is in dispute and it can't be sold or transfered to a DCA whilst it is in dispute. If they are saying it's a valid OA, why not get the FOS involved and ask them what they think? Keep us posted.

Hmmmm

Let's say I obtained a new Credit Card on 1st Jan 2003.... If I made purchases on this credit card every month in 2003 ...and didn't pay anything back, would the purchases made in Jan, Feb, March, April, May now be statute barred and the purchases made in June through to December still be owing? Might sound like a dumb question but I'm a bit bored and thought I'd rack your collective brains.

Don't worry, the DCA wont turn up at your house. Even if they did, it would be regarded as tresspass. Remember to remind the DCA the debt is in dispute and was at the time it was sold to them, which is a big 'no -no'. I'm certain you'll find the DCA will return the account back to Barclays pronto.

Send a 'Debt is statute Barred ' letter to them

Send a letter to the DCA pointing out that you're happy that this debt has been sold to a DCA because now you can report both Barclays and the DCA to the OFT, FOS etc etc because a disputed debt has been sold. Remind the DCA that there is no OA available for this account, which renders it unenforcable and they (the DCA) have bought a lemon.

I'm coming in a bit late here but I am one of many that have had success with Cap1 - let me give you the very condensed version. 2005 got into trouble with finances...My Cap1 CC went to Bryan Carter, who in turn got a CCJ for part of the debt. 2007 discovered this site and began to fight back...Disputed the crap CCA Cap1 sent me, loads of letters back and forth demanding repayment of unlawful charges- Cap1 refused to repay etc. 2008 Started fighting at a different angle...Argued that Bryan Carter should never have gone for CCJ as correct paperwork not in place, got FOS involved... Final Result: CCJ set aside + all payments made to Bryan Carter returned + whole of debt with Cap1 written off + a cheque from them for repayment of unlawful charges + account closed + CRA files wiped.