DCA's a few hints and tips

[wooldra]

My account has recently been passed to a DCA from the bank to whom I have been paying regularly £160 per month for a number of years. Needless to say this was presented as a 'fait accompli', I received a letter from the bank and the DCA on the same day in the same day, the bank saying they were within their rights to do this without notice(which of course the are), the DCA offering an assurance that there would be no change to the terms and conditions (i.e. no interest or charges) attached to the repayment schedule.

 

As an aside, the DCA have issued a new account number and called it a 'loan account' a bit naughty to do in my opinion seeing as I have never had a loan account with the DCA.

 

I requested a full and final settlement amount from the DCA who only quoted the outstanding balance owed to the bank. I wrote again requesting a full and final settlement based on a factor related to what they had paid to accquire the debt, not on the 'notional value' assigned from the original creditor. They replied stating that they would only consider an offer base on me providing them with a full financial statement detailing, a complete breakdown of assets, income, shoe size (joke) etc., they also stated that if they were magnaminous to accept my offer, they would only mark my credit file as .partially satisfied'.

 

I have replied in the following manner

 

1). I have no intention of giving them details of my financial position

 

2). I made an assumption as to the value of what they accquired the debt for, and made a generous offer of a full and final settlement based on a multiple of what they accquired the debt for.

 

3). I have also stated that if they only mark the account as partially settled I want a statement in writing that the balance will not be passed on to another DCA for further attempts at collection.

 

I do not know what others on this forum think, but I believe the law should be changed such that any settlement with a DCA should bear a correlation to the amount paid for accquiring the debt rather than the 'assigned value' passed from the original lender. The DCA trade association will tell you that their members cannot tell their clients what they paid for a debt as this is 'commercially sensitive' information , that being the case then policing is required from OFT to achieve two aims

 

1). Protect the DCA industry such that good rather than excessive profits are made

 

2). Give clients a better change of clearing their debts

 

3). Divest the DCA business of the cowboys who only want ecessive profits rather than reasonable ones

[cerberusalert]

Well if they are claiming it's a loan a/c then it should be covered by CCA 1974. I would be tempted to bait them and ask then to provide a copy of the loan agreement.

[Bandit127]

Under the Law of Property Act 1926 they are legally entitled to pursue the full amount.

 

Sorry to be tough, but what they will settle for has no relevance whatsoever to what they paid. You need to get over this - it won't work.

 

As far as they are concerned you owe the full amount and they have an expectation to collect the full amount.

 

It is this expectation you need to work on.

 

As Cerberus advised, a CCA request should start the process of re-calibrating their expectations.

[wooldra]

Yes I am fully aware of their 'rights', but I see no reason not to campaign against for the future, if you were in any other business you would hardly say a mark of 300% can be justified, or would you? I am aware that it is possible to jump through the hoop of cca etc to check as to whether they possess an enforcable debt or not. Whatever, it does not excuse this shabby nasty business whatever the 'veneer' of legality or 'right' one puts on it

[Old Cogger]

The protection on Interest rates was taken away in the 1970s, max then was 48% if I remember rightly.