AMEX HELL! Need Help!!

[Ombler]

Hi guys i'm a bit worried/stressed but mostly confused. I just recieved a letter from Allied International Credit saying that my Amex blue card accoutn has been passed on to them and there demending £2161.65 (a referal fee of £329.74 included in this) however i have ran my account in good order now for a long long time. I set up direct debit so's not to miss a payment, i have checked and i havent missed one in years.

Confused i rang up amex they say it was out of there hands. It turns out this has all come about because i had a gold card with them last year which i cancelled, however some how 4 months ago a payment of £13 odd got charged to it i queryed this as i failed to see how they accepted this on a closed account. i paid £14 into the closed account to sort it out last month and now i got hit with this letter. is there any advice or help please as i dont have the £2161.65 there demanding. I have tried for a loan but wont find out untill wed. Thats when the credit people want this money. Surely they cannot just do this as it was originally an error on there part?

HELP PLEASE!!!

[Ombler]

Does anyone have an name or adress of someone who i can write to about this

[MARTIN3030]

So have Amex defaulted you ?

Did they send you a notice of default ?

They are obliged to do this and should also have advised you about the sale/transfer of your account.

 

It may require you to send a CCA request to the current dcas and also one to Amex.

Costs 1.00 and gives them 12 working days to reply.

Whilst you are disputing the alleged debt they must not attempt further recovery action from you.

 

You can read more about this in the baliffs and debt collectors threads in the consumer action group boards.

[Ombler]

I just recieved this letter

 

Dear Mr ombler,

 

Allied International Credit (UK) limited (AIC) are writing to nitify your that the above outstanding account has been refered to us by American Express and payment of the total ammount due must be directed immediatly to the offices of AIC. Please note that faliure to pay the above ammount could result in court proceedings being issued against you.

Along with payment in full, please forward your american express card (cut the card into two parts) to our officesby either registered ir recorded delivery. To ensure immediate credit to your account, you must write your AIC case number on top section on the front of your payment and also return a copy of this letter with your remittance.

 

blah blah.

 

so guys i dont know why or what to do???

[Ombler]

This is the letter i wrote to AMEX

I am writing to you to see if you are able to help me with my situation. I am extremely confused and angry to open my post today to find that my American Express Blue card account has been passed on to Allied International Credit. I fail to see why this has happened as my account xxxxxxxxxxx as not fallen over its credit limit. I have a credit limit of £2000 and the balance was at £1831.61. I have been making the minimum payments by direct debit without trouble.

I rang your customer services department and all I got is “oh yes we cannot see why it has been passed over, but it has and there’s nothing we can do now” surely this is not right? I had some trouble with American Express regarding a payment you accepted on a closed gold card account of mine for £13. I rang up about this and the customer service rep said a note would be made that I was investigating the matter as I had no recollection of authorising the payment, not to mention the fact that the account was closed but you accepted the payment? I had since paid £14 to the “closed” account which was more than the amount and now I’m stuck with £2161.65 (a referral fee of £329.74 is included) to find in 48 hours before court proceedings against me are started, this sort of money I do not have just tucked away. I am extremely unhappy that you have not contacted me about this matter before you passed this over to the credit agency and put a default notice on my credit report. I am sure that there is proper customs and practices that you should have taken before just passing my account over to Allied International Credit. I hope that you can see by looking at my account that the above information is true and that you will be able to help sort this matter out. The case number that Allied International Credit have given me is xxxxxxx. I hope that you will be in touch with me because I am very worried that this will now affect my credit rating and thus I will not be able to get a house (still living at my mothers). If you would be able to contact me as soon as possible I would be grateful, you can contact me on (0xxxx) xxxxxx or 0xxxxxxxxxx I would be also grateful of an acknowledgement of this letter being sent to xxx@.com so I know that the matter is being addressed as you can imagine it is not a nice feeling at the moment to think I’m being treated like this.

I would like to thank you in advance for your time and cooperation.

[Ombler]

I sent this to the credit agency

 

Dear Sir/Madam,

Having received your letter dated 16th August 2006 today I am extremely shocked and confused as my American express account is not in default. I have not missed a payment for a long long time now having set up direct debits to make sure. American Express has made no attempt to contact me to make me aware something was wrong. I have been on the phone to American express and they cannot understand it either as I am still making payments to the account and everything is in order. I am waiting for one of the managers to get back to me about this. I would not be able to meet your full demand of £2161.65 as I currently am working my self out of debt. I was planning on paying the minimum payments of £57 until I got a pay rise at work.

I was told when I rang up that I would have 48 hour before court action was taken.

I find this very harsh as I am trying to investigate why this has reached this stage so I am asking for more time to try and sort out this mess they have placed me in, I feel that this is a reasonable request as I have had no prior warning of this action. Can you tell me who passed this account on to you so I can write to them?

Would you be able to contact American express about this also as I previously said this is a lot of money to just pay off. My mother (who I live with) is currently away on holiday for 2 weeks and she would be the only person that would be able to help me.

If you would be kind enough to reply to this letter or e-mail me at xxx@.com

Thanking you in advance.

[MARTIN3030]

I think you should be looking at also telling them that you now withdraw permission for your data to be given to third parties due to your account being effectively closed.

You should,as suggested before have a look at the defaults issues in the other board.

 

The letter you have wrtitten does not carry any legal threats,and as such they may choose to ignore your requests

[Ombler]

would you be able to help me write one? (i'm not to legally savvy)

[LouizeM]

Take this straight to the Financial Ombudsman! Its not fair at all, complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk. Or if you prefer to phone or write in, try their website. they'll sort it for you, and they are of course legally savvy!!

P.S - i was in a similar situation with them. Got them to remove this "blemish" from my credit file, refund all fees - just fighting to get that outside ahency fee back see my posts below (click amex)

[Ombler]

Thanks Louize,

I wite that letter to Amex adressed to Sylvia McAllister (address on the sitcky at the top of the forum) She's been ace after "there's nothing Amex can do" from the customer services, i think she's kicked some peoples butts as i got a letter appoliagising for any stress ect and they sorted AIC out and settign me up with brand new accounts and they wrote to experian and the other people to get the default removed!!

Result or what!

 

Ben (happy as larry) (who as larry anyway???)

[Paula 22]

Hi the best advise i can give you is what ever you do don't ignore the collection company, in my experiance never never never call them always put everything in writing, keeping a copy for your own ref, write a stiff letter of complaint to the collection firm advising them that you dispute all charges and your reasons of complaint are put in bold that you are in dispute send a copy to head of Gold customer card services to Amex at brighton use recorded delivery post. Wait for a reply from the collection company which will be in writing, don't give them any phone number or speak to either them or Amex as they will both record the call and could use it against you.

The collection firm can never take you to court for non payment in one go they must always show a judge that they have tried to recover all funds owed and have been in contact with you over a period of time, as you are disputing all charges and it's Amex falut put this in your first letter, if you just start by saying first you are in dispute then give are far as you can the reasons it gives you time of which next step to go.

If it helps i no a good friend who had nearly the same problem as you and Amex just don't worry if you have paid on time been a loyal customer over many years, all they look at is are they making money out of you.

I wish you the best of luck and hope this helps.

[DazNorthants]

This sounds so familiar - I went through the same thing 2 years ago. I had to take out a 2nd mortgage to repay the £10,000 they demanded. To be honest it was hell. If I could calculate the cost to me of the knock on affect I'd take them to Court.

After finding this site - I wrote and demand default notice and found they hadn't issued one and again they removed it quickly - but I have had 3 years of poor credit and increased interest rates. They seem to pass stuff quickly to agency but don't sell debt. So "it is not out of their hands'.

Glad you got it sorted.