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Some years ago I took out 2 mobile phone contracts with T-Mobile and defaulted on the payments. Some time later, I started receiving correspondence from Lowell Portfolio regarding this debt and I agreed to make monthly payments of what I could afford to clear this debt. Obviously, knowing what I know now, it was the wrong thing to do but the damage has been done! I noticed recently that they were marking my credit file as late/missed payments although I had been paying the agreed amount every month without fail. However, they had attempted on numerous occassions to increase my payment to which I never agreed. Due to this, I decided to take some action. There have been several letters going backwards and forwards as I have refused to discuss this over the telephone so I have a record of all communication. I have requested the following information from them:- 1) A copy of the original agreement To this request, I was advised that in the case of mobile contracts, inserting the SIM card and usage of the equipment is taken as acceptance of the terms and conditions of the contract. Telecommunications accounts can be obtained by telephone, over the internet and by email and therefore, they are not obliged to provide a copy of such agreement. What are your thoughts on this? I can't remember how I obtained the contract. 2) A signed true copy of the Deed of Assignment To this, I initially got a currently dated letter saying that the debt had been sold to them and that they will be recovering what I owe. After 1 or 2 futher letters, they still refuse to provide the original Deed of Assignment stating that this does not have to be provided unless the matter progresses to court action. I do not doubt that the paperwork existed, or I am giving them the benefit of doubt but I think they are unable to locate it and therefore this is why they are reluctant to supply it. 3) Statements of the account since the contract was taken out To this, they simply supplied the final bill before the debt was sold. They refuse to supply any previous bills, perhaps because they do not have them!!!! The latest letter I have received states that if I wish to dispute the legitimacy of the assignment then I should contact the original creditor direct. I would like to know what you advise me to do now? Do I ignore further correspondence? Do I resume payments? Do I continue to insist on this documentation? Do I sit back, let it go to court and fight my defence then? Court action does not worry me at all, I deal with it regularly at work so know what I am doing if it goes that far. Any help/advise would be greatly appreciated!

Hi all, I'm new to the CAG and also forums in general, so please bear with me! I've been finding a lot of useful information over numerous threads, but was wondering if anyone could offer any case specific advice. In early 2011 I fell into arrears on an MBNA credit card after they increased interest rates, meaning that the minimum monthly payment nearly doubled. Due to personal circumstances I was unable to meet the new monthly payments and continued to pay £75 per month, as previously. However, I contacted MBNA and provided them with details of my income and expenditures. They agreed a reduced payment plan with me of £35 per month, which I paid faithfully. In April 2012, I received a letter on IDR Finance headed paper, advising that they were giving notice that the debt to MBNA had been assigned to Link Financial Outsourcing Limited on 29 March 2012 and that on the same date, Link had assigned the benefit of the debt to IDR Financ UK Limited. The letter states that as a result of the assignment the debt was now owed to IDR and Link were acting as servicer for the debt. The letter advises that any payments should be made to Link at the PO Box shown above (no PO Box details were actually given) and that no further payments should be made to MBNA. I was therefore left with no choice but to contact them by telephone. I spoke with one of their 'advisors' and said that I wanted their bank details so that I could continue to make the £35 a month payments, as had been agreed with MBNA. I was told that they were not prepared to accept such a payment and they were seeking recovery of the full amount. I told him I was not in a position to pay the full amount, otherwise I would have cleared the debt directly with MBNA. He then went on to suggest that I take out a loan to pay the amount, or perhaps sell my house. I was disgusted with the careless and frankly irresponsible 'advice' he was giving and told him I would only be in a position to pay on a reduced payment plan. He said he would knock 20% off the debt then and there and I repeated that I still was not in a position to pay. He said he would put a hold on the account for 7 days and asked me to ring him back to discuss my 'circumstances'. I researched Link and decided it would be prudent to only communicate with them via written correspondence. I therefore wrote to them on 25 May, making an ex gratia offer and also advising that I would only be prepared to deal with the matter via written correspondece. I also advised that my partner had been ill health retired and that I was due to go on maternity leave in August, which would mean a further reduction in income. I have therefore been engaged in written negotiations with them, with offers on both sides being made for settlement sums. I continued to receive telephone calls to both my mobile and work number from the advisor I orignally spoke to. I eventually had to write a letter of complaint as despite written requests on 3 different occasions for the phone calls to cease, he then rang through to main reception number at my place of work, which my boss was not best pleased with. The phone calls finally stopped. They made a counter offer in writing in early August and before I had time to respond, I received an lba from them at the end of August. I immediately wrote to them advising that I thought the LBA was unnecessary and also it advised they were seeking payment of the full amount, yet they had already told me they would accept a reduced amount. I advised them that I am due to give birth in the next couple of weeks (now within a matter of days) and that I have also been made redundant, so I made a final ex gratia offer and said if they were unable to accept that, I would only be able to pay them £10 a month at the moment, which would begin to pay in October if I heard nothing further from them. I have now received court papers from Northampton county court and IDR Finance have issued against me for the full amount, plus the issue fee and interest. My question is, if we were in the middle of written negotiations, how can they suddenly decide to issue proceedings for the full amount? This is a blatant waste of the Court's time and incurs unecessary costs. Is my best course of action to defend the claim in full? Any help / advice is much appreciated. As with everyone else experiencing the ups and downs of life and struggling with debt, this is one thing I could do without at the moment!

Hi to all. For the past year I've been making minimum payments of £1pm to Link Financial for a Barclay's bank cc card which is reviewed every 6 months. I've sent them a budget set up online with CCCS which they ignore. They called me today to go through my income/expenditure and now want a copy of my benefit letter. Do I need to send this to them? If I don't what could happen?

Hello, I really hope you can help me. I am a single woman and have recently found myself in quite severe financial trouble. I have a debt of £2300 with Lowells (Black Horse Finance - 2007) and £2950 with Link Financial (Barclaycard - 2001). I had an arrange with both of them, paying £50 PCM. I am not currently in a position to pay this and I am scared of what will happen next. I don't understand how the law sees this situation. They phone quite regularly. I have read here that I don't have to answer their calls. Is that true? I don't know if I have PPI. Thank you for reading this.

Please can someone advise on the following:- On my wife's Experian statutory report which I have recently obtained there is no heading for Financial Associations within the report. It jumps from Aliases to Credit Account Information, does this mean she is not financially associated to me? I am querying this as when I look at my Equifax report I have a heading for Associations which then states underneath that I have no financial associations, therefore my presumption is that there would also be the heading available with Experian to and text stating that there are no financial associations, or am I barking up the wrong tree? If a person has no financial associations do Experian leave the heading off the statutory report altogether? Sorry for the ramble and any advise greatly appreciated.

Hi I am hoping someone can help me. I received a call yesterday from an unknown number on my mobile phone which left no voicemail. This morning they have called again and I managed to get there in time then I answered my phone, they referred to me by my Christian name and then confirmed my Surname, but, they would not respond to me as to who they were and why they were contacting me until I had confirmed my details. The reason they are contacting me was due to an outstanding debt to Student Loan. This i had, many moons ago, gone through to CCJ on my credit rating and as far as I was aware this was paid off as a standing order that was on my account and when I calculated the date to end on I stopped payment and heard no more. The CCJ is no longer on my Experian record so now I cannot confirm details of reference numbers, balance or anything. Link Financial asked me to confirm my address and are telling me I owe £2,350 and I have 21 days to pay this or someone will arrive at the door of my home to collect. I am in employment but do not have that kind of money that I could pay this, but I dont think I owe this money. When I disputed that I owed it they asked how much I thought I did owe. They went on to state they would not accept payments if I am deemed liable (at this precise moment in time I am working away from home but doubt in the eons of time I have any documentation regarding this at all so may have to accept by default as I fear I cannot prove otherwise). The original Student Loan was from 1994 (I graduated in 1998) and I believe the court judgement was dated 2004. This went to court as I went through an acrimonious divorce, moved home and papers were not forwarded to me by my ex partner and payments were not made due to personal circumstances at the time. I have now given my current address to Link, who infomed me they will send paperwork, but what paperwork I have no concept of, and they stated they will ring me again in two weeks. Please help as I dont know where to start to prove this has been paid.

Hi, I received a mobile phone call out of the blue last Wednesday asking if I was me and giving very old addresses as contacts. After asking some questions they said they had bought my student loan debt and demanding payment of several thousand pounds. I was told I had 21 days to pay them - with no option of a payment plan or anything. When I questioned why I had not heard from the Student Loan Company for about ten years and now was getting a phone call out of the blue they advised they had only just managed to track me down. They offered very little information about who they were other than basic information. They did not even offer there company name. I seem to remember they asked me for my address to send a letter to and looking back I don't believe that had my address. They also advised that contacting the student loans company would not achieve anything and they would transfer me straight back to them. I did take out a student loan back in 95-97 and due to the amount I was earning after I graduated, I deferred it for a couple of years. Around 1999-2000 I did not receive my deferral letter and over a period of 6 months went backwards and forwards with the SLC to try and get them to send me a deferral form. I provided them with an alternative contact of my parents address during this time but nothing seemed to work so I gave up and stopped contacting them. I received no further contact either via phone or post and neither did my parents. I have been at my current address for seven years and have never been contacted by anyone about the Student Loan until last week. In a stress I called the SLC the next morning who confirmed they had sold my debt on, confirming the amount and that I owned no more than I was told on the phone. Today I have received a notice of debt collection services letter from Link Financial Outsourcing but it is single page of A4 with some references but no paperwork or evidence to back it up. Unfortunately I also have no paperwork as it has been lost in a number of house moves and having had no contact for so many years. Having read some of the threads on your forum I think this debt might be statue barred - do you think I have a case and what do you advise I do next? I'm sorry this post is so long and thank you in advance for any help and advice you can give.

Hi, I was chased by a company called Link Financial last year for a debt I owe. The debt was an old bank account overdraft that was withdrawn unexpectedley when the banks got jittery in 2006. I ended up getting a default on my credit profile and it is due to expire in November this year. Up until last year I did nothing with the debt until it came to a DCA called Link Financial. I decided then to start getting rid of it and told Link I would pay £30 p/m via standing order and not one of their direct debits. I've paid this without fail for the past 12 months. Link Financial have called me a couple of weeks back to make me an offer to settle the debt at a lower level in one payment. I said as much as I would like to I could not afford it at that time. They then asked me to answer some questions about my financial status, this got my back up and I said I did not want to do that ... at this point this company's representative got quite nasty on the phone and I sensed she was trying to wind me up which I did not fall into. They have now sent me a form to fill with my financial circumstances which I have not yet filled and really do not want to. Do they have any legal standing to request this info given the fact I agreed to pay £30 p/m a year ago and have continued to do so. Are they just getting jittery knowing the debt is exempt come November. Can I keep refusing to give this info without breaking any law? I want to pay ths debt off but I am not doing it by being bullied or what is starting to appear as harrasment by phone. I would be gratefull for any advice. Many Thanks

Ive been getting mail from Link Financial Outsourcing regarding an old student loan. I was deferring the payment as I was unemployed at the time then about 6 years ago I forgot to defer the payment and was asked to pay about 6 months worth of repayments, I told them I was unemployed and I didnt have it but they didnt care so I broke off contact completely with them. It looks like they have sold the debt to Link Outsourcing, my question is this, should I contact them and ask for the original credit agreement and use the statute of limitations defence or should I ignore it? Im not sure if its been over 6 years since I last contacted the student loans company (but I think its been over 6 years) If I contact them and its been under 6 years the debt becomes "live" again as I understand it. Any information would be gratefully received.

Hi All, Can anyone advise me on what to expect initially from Link Financial ...I am still waiting for a letter from them after my MBNA CC debt was assigned to them. MBNA wrote to me on 8th August informing me they were no longer dealing with my account and I would hear from Link in due course.. .will they go straight to serving court papers for a CCJ or will they start with just a letter(s) demanding payment. I lost my job in January and could no longer pay anything. .wrote to MBNA informing them and heard nothing until end of march. I offered £1 per month and they wrote back asking me to fill in an income and expenditure. At first I refused and after a second letter I filled one in but heard nothing back. There is no PPI on the account and the balance is just shy of £6,700. Any advise would be great. I have read bad things about Link and want to just be prepared. I am happy to pay something but I want to arm myself with as much info as I can. Thanks all in advance.

hi i'm looking for some information regarding a letter i received from link. the letter says i owe £5000 referring to a repossessed van in 2010 which was originally take out with santander , they now say the debt is with them and i should pay them in full within 15 days. please could someone advise what my next step should be as i didn't take this debt out with link originally so dont feel i should start paying them now.

Hi, I sent in a letter to RCI financial asking for my PPI money back, they have responded by letter this morning telling me that the company that administered their PPI has gone in to liquidation and that I need to claim via the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. .. how do I find out who the company is, or does anyone know, ill send another letter to RCI but thought I would ask on the off chance anyone knew who RCI dealt with.

Hi all, A bit of background I had a Santander account with an £800 overdraft when I lost my job 5 months ago. A direct debit that I thought I had cancelled came out and put me £5 over the overdraft. I was then hit with the punitive charges that I had signed up for, these worked out at £100 over the month. This had the affect of wiping out the JSA I was claiming at the time. I rang Santander and asked if they could scrap the charges due to my circumstances and the small initial error. This was refused but they said so I could 'access' the JSA money they would increase my overdraft to £1100 but I would now have to start paying the overdraft back. Not sure about the ethics of this but it was the only thing I could do. They asked how much I could afford. I said only about £5 considering I had £280 a month to live on and other creditors. They said I would have to pay £50 a month. Needless to say I moved the JSA payments to another bank account. Last week, now that I am getting back on my feet, I sent Santander the letter from national debt line advising them I was trying to sort out my finances and asking them to freeze interest etc. (balance is now -£1350 with 0 overdraft). Today I received a letter from them saying they had recently reviewed my account and found that: 'the balance was in part due to account fees' 'These fees were incorrectly charged during a period when we had agreed to suspend all account fees' (don't remember this) 'We will be refunding these fees, totalling £150, within 28 days' (28 days!) Seems like a pre-emptive offer to me?

Hello all, My mum has received a letter from Cabot Financial in regards to a credit card, where the original lender Barclaycard Littlewoods. This letter is in one of her previously married names and its take a very long time for them to contact her, atleast 4/5 years. She apparently owes just over £2,200, although my mum can not remember ever taking out a credit card with Littlewoods, and if she ever did have a credit card, the limit would have only been maximum £500.. The things we were wondering is, how do we go about finding out what the original debt was for and how much for, and also when? Do we just write a letter to Cabot Financial and request a copy of her credit agreement under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 or are there a few more things we will need to include in the letter? Thanks

I started a PhD last year but have just found out that I've not passed the 1st year and so cannot progress onto the 2nd year. It's a total shock as I thought I was doing OK but the supervision has been absolutely appalling with little feedback from my supervisor. In addition supervisor has been quite elusive recently and she's due to go on mat leave next month, don't really know what is going on but I'm really worried financially. My stipend will run out end of September. I can write up what I've got as an MPhil, except there's no money for that, my other supervisor has offered to help out and supervise the writing up for that although he doesn't really have any money. I've asked if they can look into if the funding council will fund this (unlikely) and also asked if he has any jobs, due to meet with him in a couple of weeks when he's back from hols. My partner works more or less full-time, she's obviously really stressed out. We have a 5 year old and I have a daughter with my ex-wife who stays over regularly under a shared care arrangement. I'm panicking an applying for jobs left right and centre. I have worked in the past but wonder if anyone knows the situation regarding benefits to apply for??? We have bills to pay, mortgage etc. Really really stressed out.

Hi I intend to move to an Assured Tenancy accommodation at the end of September. The new letting agent has had references form my 2 previous landlords and a personal reference as well. My previous landlords have confirmed that I left them with no arrears.the rent was always paid in full and on time etc. The new landlord now wants a financial reference and has requested me to provide him with full copies of my last 3 bank statements showing all monies paid into and out of my account along with details of where monies came from and where payments went out to. I feel this over intrusive and have offered to provide the summary sheets of my statements which show the total monies into and out of the account but he says he wants all the detail of the payments. I am not happy about having to do this although I have nothing to hide. Should I ask him to obtain a financial reference directly from my bank. I am not sure where I stand on this issue, can anyone offer any ideas on how to handle this. Thanks loring

Hoping someone can give me a little advice! On checking my credit report this evening I noticed there was an account with Cabot Financial (UK) Ltd which had defaulted and the outstanding balance shown is £49. I'd never heard of them so I looked them up and gave them a call to query it. They bought my account from Next in 2008 which rang a few bells with me. I couldn't remember receiving anything form them about this outstanding amount, and he confirmed they sent me two letter back in March 2008 - none since. Sorry if I'm being naive - I'm new to this, but surely they should have tried to contact me some time during the next 4 and a bit years? His excuse was "because it's such a small amount it's probably just gone under the radar" ... Under the radar???? It's been sitting on my credit report and I'd never have known about it unless I had checked it tonight? Surely this isn't right? The guy got stroppy on the phone and said I should have replied to their two letters in 2008, and they don't have an up to date phone number for me so "it's my responsibility" . . I accept it is my responsibility but again, I'd never have known unless I checked my credit report (can't remember as far back as last weeks post never mind 2008) I'm ready to complain but I just don't know if I've got a leg to stand on here??

Hi all, After some problems with debt I managed to remortgage in order to try and pay off my debts. MBNA had already sent me a letter saying they would consider an offer to settle the debt. (6k) last week in response I sent offers to all of my creditors for full and final settlement. Now two days later I have received a letter from MBNA saying they have decided to sell my debt to Link Financial Outsourcing and I will hear from them in due course No mention was made of the letter I had sent to them by recorded delivery 2 days previously I assume this new company would be delighted with any offer?

Hello, apologies if I get something wrong - first post. I've tried to read the FAQ but mental illness drugs have left me with the concentration span of a gnat (that may be insulting to gnats, amoeba maybe?!) I've lost a year of my life to a misdiagnosed mental illness and the ensuing drugs which left me in a lithium-induced coma like state. Meanwhile, I've garnered a lot of financial problems (including CCJs) albeit the one thing I've managed to get a temporary agreement on is my mortgage. Is there an optimal charity for complex debt (there's a company failure in there too) please? I can't handle this on my own, especially as I fear sliding back into depression.. already overwhelmed Many thanks in advance for your kind assistance

I wonder is someone could help me, I’m not new to the site but a little rusty on process for dealing with such issues. I’m unable to post the agreement until next week when I’m back at work, but as soon as I get back I will. Basically capquest have sent me an agreement that I signed in 2000 for a store card with a credit limit of £1000. The current balance stands at £4000+ due to charges incurred. Now I’ve looked at my credit file and this isn’t on there, but I’m positive I paid something towards the account in 2008, so statute barred it isn’t. Can someone please advise on my next steps please? Should I claim the charges back? But this doesn’t stop the process? Any help would be appreciated and I’ll get the agreement posted asap. Thanks

Hello, I am new to the forum. I have been reading though previous posts doing some research as I am pre-empting a difficult situation on our horizon. Hoping some of you may be able to give us advice on how best to deal with things if and when they occur. We have been living in Australia for almost a year. Before moving we had our house for sale for a year but unfortunately it didn’t sell so we had to rent it out. The rental income does not cover the mortgage but after months of negotiating, the mortgage company agreed we could change to interest only payments for 12 months. However after this time has passed we will be back to a monthly shortfall of over £100. Of course we knew all this before we left and had things gone smoothly we would have managed to upkeep things. However our first tenants went bankrupt, stopped paying us and consequently our payments with the mortgage company were missed too. We tried our best to find what we could but it is now the account is £3500 in arrears. Fortunately the tenants left at the end of the 6 months tenancy without any fuss and new tenants moved in the next day. The new tenants are paying in full and on time BUT they are flexing their muscles in unnerving ways. Looooong story won’t trouble you with the details but the essence of which is they have made numerous tenancy breaches, are refusing to let us advertise the property as for sale and we highly expect that at the end of their tenancy they will not leave. The property management company is has advised us to prepare ourselves as things are looking ‘messy.’ So it’s positive that rent is being paid but we will still have the shortfall, are unable to even try to sell the house and potentially have squatters. If this does happen we would have to take them to court to get them out and we do not have the money to do this. Also these arrears are still outstanding and we have no means to pay them and we are getting threats of repossession. If the house was repossessed I understand the mortgage company would sell the house for whatever they can get for us leaving us with the outstanding (negative equity) debt + fees. I don’t know how we could afford that. In the UK we also have debts of about £16,000 across credit cards, overdrafts and loans. If this were to happen we would have to declare ourselves bankrupt in the UK, but I guess my first question is can we do this from Aus? We have no financial assets left but I understand in bankruptcy they will take your possessions. Will they take our cars from us in Aus. Not that they are highly valuable – just A to B’ers but thats exactly it, without our cars we cannot get to work. In the back of my mind I am also thinking do we declare ourselves bankrupt before it even comes to that to save us the stress of these tenants and the problems they are causing us. I struggle to see a positive outcome to this but I am hoping that somebody out there may have a different viewpoint and see something that we don’t. Maybe we are just bogged down with all the negativity that we cannot see the way out. Also if anybody knows of a company that specialises in dealing with international debt I would be very interested to hear. Thanks so much.

Hello Not sure how to start really. I have a read and there is an awful to digest but I was wondering if anyone could help with our problem. Link Financial put both my husband an me in court in April this year, thing is they sent my court papers to my old address so I couldn't respond. My husband did put in a written defence for what it was worth and they still obtained judgement on him and on me by default. I have completed the N form and paid £80 to have stay of judgement or whatever it was and its being transferred to the local county court to be heard in two weeks time. In the meantime Link sent my husband whats called a tomlin agreement for the whole amount and he signed and agreed to the terms etc, however, Link are still intent on suing me for the full amount as well by saying I am still liable for the debt. I thought that if someone admitted liability and agreed terms etc then the other person could not be pursued for the same debt? What help I would like is on how to defend this cos Link have said to me on the phone they will go for a charging order even tho there is an agreement in place? Blimey this sounds complicated but I really hope someone can help. Thanks

just to say thanks to CAG as again i have had another success against lowell financial this time although i am fighting another two cases with them but this morning a letter landed on the mat stating they indeed had failed to notice the debt was statue barred only taken me 4 months to convince them but yaaay me thats 2 in my hat so far this month .. who knows maybe just maybe there'll b a third. ...not counting my chickens just yet. So to everyone who thinks they are alone and that no one could possibly help them please stick with it no matter how tiresome it seems set yourself an hour each week and check through everything u have sent and received and just keep an eye cos before you know it you too could be a happy bunny like me. . well for today anyway lol good luck guys and thanks again CAG

For the last few days, or so, I've been getting phone calls asking for my friend - she's still away visiting her family. They are mostly a mixture of Auto-digitalker messages and sms digitalker. I think it is to do with her Barclays account - we sent an SAR request months and months ago, see further up the "Continuing a financial arrangement" thread, and I think that they have got fed up. The SAR is at the local Barclays branch awaiting collection, it came a couple of days after my friend went away - the bank staff do know that she will be in to collect it, in very early August. We have no idea of the true balance, because Barclays never sent any statements, [probably needed all their paper for scribbling down "Libor" calculations]! On the two occasions that they've spoken, these CSL shower have asked if they can speak to her, and I told them, "No you can't, put it in writing, and it will be dealt with" I don't think that they can compose or read, letters. Never, ever, is my friend going to speak to them, [except over their dead bodies, of course] - she is classed as "a vulnerable person", disabled, deaf, and sometimes very easily confused - in fact she doesn't even know about it, I've not mentioned it, no need to spoil her holiday. Apart from the first three or four calls, I'm recorded, date, time, and type of each call. As I've told 'em twice to write, is that it, just ignore further voice calls, but simply carry on recording them? Sam