Link Financial (MBNA) - County Court Claim Form Received - Please help if you can?

[emmaf01]

subscribing

[MARTIN3030]

Welcome to the site Ninge and thank you for your input.

Whilst its true that not all employees behave against the rules,theres much evidence of those who do,and we have seen many examples of that.

The naming of individuals is against site rules and most will agree with some of the comments that you have made.

I hope you can continue to answer some of the questions users may have here-based on your knowledge and experience,and that you will be allowed to do this freely without conflict nor predjudice.

[mr.ton]

I am sorry that you all feel so negatively towards the company as it stands it is a shame to hear.

Maybe some tatics of account officers are a bit aggressive but that also says something that Link are one of thee biggest DCA in the country with two offices in UK and another in Europe.

As far as it goes with paying £5 pound per month for the money that you spent why not it is your moral obligation to pay back that money that you were happy to spend at the time...

 

Regardless of the moral debate..would you agree or disagree that DCA's have no power or authority whatsoever to collect money off people?

[tierisch]

Just a thanks to Ninge for being brave enough to come on here and make some comments. Like many other businesses there are good and bad people, the only trouble is Link seem to have too many of the latter!!! Also people fall into debt for many reasons so can't be assumed that it is individuals going on spending sprees!

 

My present battle with Link is in the quiet zone. After their usual harassment and bullying (not sure which was worst...them or MBNA?) they did not come up with the CCA. So duly reported them to TS and OFT and haven't heard from them for months. No doubt they will surface again at some stage and then will go through the same process.

 

Tierisch

[spiritgirl59]

Update:-

 

These plonkers at Link have now written a long winded epic which basically says that even though they cannot supply an agreement I still need to pay them because they can prove I owe them money as I used to pay them a £1 token payment ...er well yes, I used to pay them a £1 total payment along with 13 other companies until I wised up with the help of CAG and found out that many of them probably had no right to be harrassing me for money in the first place!!.

 

Many of you will recall I then got rid of several of them as they could not prove I owed them any money by way of an agreement....so as Link cannot prove any alleged debt by way of an agreement, then as far as I am concerned they can go and whistle into the wind.

 

Pillocks! I don't know whether to even bother writing back - what do you guys think?

 

Love SG x

[citizenB]

If this were me, then I would ignore them.

 

They say they can prove it because you were paying them a token payment. You paid this under duress (yes ?) . The only acceptable proof for any court action is a fully compliant agreement. So far they have been unable to provide this. You could write back and say.. So prove it !.

[emmaf01]

Link are so good they sent my OH proof the debt was statute barred with the letter saying they will go to the OC for a copy of the CCA!

[citizenB]

Link are so good they sent my OH proof the debt was statute barred with the letter saying they will go to the OC for a copy of the CCA!

 

NIce one:D

[spiritgirl59]

If this were me, then I would ignore them.

 

They say they can prove it because you were paying them a token payment. You paid this under duress (yes ?) . The only acceptable proof for any court action is a fully compliant agreement. So far they have been unable to provide this. You could write back and say.. So prove it !.

 

Yes CB, we were advised by the CAB to pay all the DCAs who were chasing us at that time a token £1 payment, but it turned out later once we got help from the CAG that several of the DCAs had no right to be chasing us at all as they had no proof we owed anything....!! Link falls into this category.

 

Emma that doesn't surprise me, they are complete plonkers!

 

Love SG x

[Ninge]

Wow i am not even sure where to start. Please feel free to email me on selina EDITED with any questions and i will try my best to answer them

Edited August 28, 2008 by MARTIN3030
Please observe site rules.

[emmaf01]

I think I'd rather you answered the questions in public, Ninge.

 

So why have Link been chasing my husband for a debt that has been statute barred for at least two years, from Links own paperwork? ANd why do Link's phone representatives try to trick me into giving them my husband's mobile number by pretending to be friend's of his?

 

Any answer?

[spiritgirl59]

I think I'd rather you answered the questions in public, Ninge.

 

Yes so would I, and I am sure the Moderators on here would echo our sentiments about this.

 

So why have Link been chasing my husband for a debt that has been statute barred for at least two years, from Links own paperwork? ANd why do Link's phone representatives try to trick me into giving them my husband's mobile number by pretending to be friend's of his?

 

Any answer?

 

Because in most cases their left hand doesn't know what their right hand is doing unfortunately for us Emma

 

 

In my case I have now written back to Link and told them yet again to go forth and multiply until they can provide a properly executed agreement

 

Love SG x

[MARTIN3030]

Yes absolutely.The forums serve as a means of discussion and learning-this can only be achieved in open discussion/answers.We do not encourage the use of PMs or emails - Theres no need to do it.

[Ninge]

Sorry i did not know of this rule i am not trying to trick anyone or get anyone into any trouble.

When was the last time your husband made a payment on thee account in question? Was this payment to link or the company that originally owned the account?

[Ninge]

As for pretending to be his friend it is a trick used by most intelligent DCA or others this is because they are trying not to give themselves up as the DCA?

If you have written to Link or any other company saying YOU ONCE DID owe money but it was out of statue then they will play this card as you acknowledging the debt and push for further action. To be honest they will stop at nothing to get this money back it is highly unlikely they are going to let it drop. The best advise for you if you are not going to pay this is not acknowledge the debt at all either verbally or written as they will continue till they get the money . It is hard i know but most people working for dca will stop at nothing to get there money it is after all there commission they are after mostly and then everything comes second. If you get a account officer who is being particular rude you feel then do not take the bait tell them that you want to sort this out but with there tone and aggression they will not be able to sort this out and get there PAYMENT PLAN. There payment plans are what count towards there commission.

and again i did not want to seem as though i was taking away from the discussion openly i just dont seem to get time to get on here often and i would like to help as much as i can.

If your debt is in realtion to GE MONEY then i will find it hard to help you as i think that alot of that work is done in another of the offices not the one i was previously working in

[Ninge]

The office of fair trading have been to vist many times and there is nothing to be done i am sorry

[emmaf01]

Misrepresentation- used by most intelligent DCAs- not intelligent enough in the age of caller display- and isn't that against the OFT guidelines?

 

Luckily enough we have never written to Link saying we acknowledge any debt, we asked them to prove there was a debt by producing a CCA. And they aren't getting a penny out of us for a statute barred debt from the last millenium!

 

And they can try ringing after a telephone harassment letter- it will go nicely towards the report for harassment.

 

Are you trying to tell me that a non-GE Money debt which is obviously statute barred is still seem as fair game to Link?

[Ninge]

Yes i believe so. It will only not be chased if someone will take the time to read your account details and look into your history of accounts and since they have proven not to be doing that so far i think the game of cat and chase will continue for a while.

[mr.ton]

Would you agree or disagree that DCA's have no authority to collect money off people without going to a county court?

[spiritgirl59]

Hiya Ninge,

 

If Link has no properly executed agreement under the Consumer Credit Act to prove an alleged debt, what right do you think they have to keep on harrassing me for payment?

 

Love SG x

[emmaf01]

Fortunately there will be no game of cat and mouse- they haven't yet produced an agreement, they have never had any payments from us, no acknowledgement and have written stating they bought the debt over six years ago.

 

No game there- and if they attempt to make my OH pay anything they will be reported to everyone on the list.

 

But thanks for confirming that Link don't bother to adhere to any guidelines or regulations.

[spike7x65x]

Oh man....I usually sit here reading but I cant resist typing....

 

Firstly, how dare anyone judge how any other person lives their life, they have no knowledge of their circumstances personal or otherwise. I personally had a divorce, ivf, premature baby, redundancy, depression...need I go on...

 

I previously felt a moral need to pay back my original lenders and to do the "correct" thing. However, I feel absolutely zero moral compulsion to pay back the whole grubby collection of bottom feeding DCAs who mostly operate above the law. Their letters are hysterically funny if you sit back and ignore them and realise they do nothing to enforce them. But the pain they cause to people who do get scared is unfathomable by these small minded jerks who work in these places.

 

Every single DCA and fake solicitor and real solicitor feed off other peoples problems. Link financial are total **** along with the rest of them.

 

As other people have said if the OL knew they could reclaim the debt they wouldnt sell it on. What a wonderful group of people running these companies must be whose business plan is based around extorting as much cash as possible from people having problems.

 

If the wonderful UK government took their fingers out of their..... and regulated the problem of consumer credit so that if you were in problems you went through a regulated DMP route there would not be this problem.

 

And finally, apologies for the rant, who is the cause of this mess, the consumer the banks of the government? In number 1 place, which these idiots who work for DCAs would be well advised to remember is the wonderful labour government and the idiot Brown who has based his entire economy around us the public spending more and more money in the shops to keep the economy going.

 

The government has wanted us to keep spending which has trickled down to the banks handing out credit left right and center and eventually comes down to us, who may borrow when times are good and then run into genuine problems in bad times.

 

To anyone who feels guilty, dont. If you feel like telling them to f&&k off then do so, their house of cars is falling down and the consumer is getting hit by the fallout but the only people to blame are the banks and government.

 

Anyway rant over, excellent board great information, but something needed to be said, and my advice would be a lot more simple, CCA the buggers and thats it, dont call them , negotiate, talk to them, write to them except with legal requests because most of the time they are full of hot air, most of which is contained within their "pre-litigation, pre-gas, pre-load of a** department!

 

Good luck everyone and dont let the Bas&&&&s grind you down!

[MAGDA]

Dear Big Dunc

As for naming someone David that was not what i was referring too someone in a earlier feed named someone in full name which i consider to be wrong.

Perhaps it can also be considered wrong that Link send 'postcards' out to people asking them to ring urgently, clearly displaying Links name and business address for all to see.

 

You are right that sometimes some things in people's life can go wrong as you have stated and i do feel sorry for these people and as an account officer i would have been willing to listen to these and try and understand them as best as i could.

I am sorry that David told you to sort your life out as this is wrong clearly from your point of view you are trying to sort the debt that you have out.

When i said that people were happy to spend the money i didn't mean to say they were all walking about in designer clothes or cars or such things. I meant that whatever the money was spent on people were happy to spend it and if you hadnt of used the card to start with for whatever reason then you wouldn't have to deal with companies like these.

 

Yes, if only we were all so sensible! Debt happens for many different reasons and most of the time almost "creeps" up on us, in a perfect world your comment might be valid.

 

What people learn from obtaining credit is you are not living within your means and that is a great lesson to learn and a hard one for many too. I am sure that people who end up clearing there debt become stronger people in the end too.

 

Mmmm. Perhaps the lesson here should be also that companies handing out credit should be a little more selective before granting these loans or credit cards to people who will quite obviously struggle to pay the money back

 

As for the payment slips ask Link for there account number and sort code and obtain a receipt for the payment and also remember the account reference on it and your payment will take 5 to 7 days to be credited to your account

 

You also state in an earlier post "what company wouldn't want to get their money back" or words to that effect. Well, what you appear to be forgetting is that Link actually 'buy' a lot of these debts for a pittance and then proceed to intimidate and bully people in order to recover the full amount.

 

As someone who has been on the receiving end on Link for a number of years now, I can say without hesitation that they are the most unpleasant and unhelpful company I have dealt with. I have spoken to a number of Link's employees at one point or another, and they are uniformly rude, aggressive and underhanded. There is absolutely no justification for this kind of behaviour, especially as they are often dealing with people who are elderly or suffering from stress or other health problems. But of course, the only thing that matters is getting their money back isn't it?

[Ninge]

This is business and people should remember that.

For whatever reason you have spent money you do morally owe the money back and if you can sleep with that on your mind then why shouldn't the account officer be able to do that to. You may think they use bullying tactics then you are avoiding paying your debt that is just as bad. Yes most credit companies were wrong for giving credit in the first place and thats why the country is in the problems it is in but that is another debate.

If you all have a great disliking for DCA link or others then pay the company who was originally owed to the money will get to the company who are owners or others eventually just remember to keep your proof.

As for the post cards does it say Link Financial or just link? If Just link in the big blue letters then that is not giving away your personal business away.

[ladybird17]

This site isn't about morals - it's about what lawful and unlawful.