Jacamo & Fashion World Accounts

[nicolee2931]

Trying to cut a long story short as much as possible.

 

Hubby has 2 accounts with Jacamo and Fashion World (both trading as JD Williams)

 

In September 2017, he entered into a payment arrangement due to illness which will ultimately end up killing him.

 

Payment arrangement kept to next payment not due until February, or so we thought.

 

This morning he gets a letter from Lowell informing him both accounts have been sold to them.

 

He has spoken to Jacamo and raised a complaint with them and they have confirmed they have not issued him with a default notice as they are understanding of his illness,

but a business decision was made to sell the accounts.

 

Now I know I am going to get shot down on this

but he made contact with Lowell to see what the hell was going on.

 

He passed them no information which could identify him,

he wanted to know why they are in possession of two sold accounts for which Default Notices were never issued.

 

JD Williams (Jacamo and Fashion World) admitted they didn't issue Default Notices, the telephone call for both conversations was recorded.

 

A copy of the terms and conditions for the credit account are below. Between the asterisks...

 

 

*********************************

 

 

Your Personal Account

 

How it works

 

Our most popular payment method is with a Personal Account. Every 28 days we will send you a statement and a payment slip by post. The terms applying to the credit we provide are detailed below

 

Your statement shows:

 

What items we've sent to you

The payments you've made during the period

Any outstanding balance

Your minimum payment

The date the minimum payment is due

What it costs

Credit Agreement Terms

This agreement provides an ongoing credit account on the terms set out below and has no fixed or minimum duration.

 

Credit Limit

 

We will set your credit limit from time to time and will give you notice of it in writing. You can draw credit by using your account to place orders through or with us to buy goods and services up to your credit limit. For more expensive purchases we reserve the right to limit the amount of the purchase that may be charged to your account.

 

Interest

 

Most customers get our standard interest rate which is 24.99% per annum variable. The APR (Annual Percentage Rate) is 24.9% variable. Your interest rate and APR may vary depending on your individual circumstances and are subject to status. We may also increase or vary the interest rates and charges payable under your Personal Account Agreement.

 

If you buy goods and services using your account and pay for them in full before the due date shown on your statement we will not charge interest on those items. If you choose not to pay in full before the due date, we will charge interest from the date we added the goods to your account. We will then calculate interest each period on the opening balance of your statement. This means that when we calculate interest we ignore any payments we receive during that period. If you buy and return an item and both transactions appear on the same statement, we will not charge interest for that purchase.

 

We may from time to time make available promotional interest rates. If we do, we will notify you of the applicable promotional rate and the period during which the promotional rate will apply. Purchases and transactions made during this period (the "€œPromotional Balance") will be charged at the promotional rate of interest. We will tell you about any special terms which will apply to the availability of the promotional rate. We will apply the standard rates of interest to any Promotional Balance before the end of the promotional period, if you do not make at least your minimum payment by the payment due date shown in your statement at any time during the promotional period. At the end of the promotional period, the Promotional Balance will transfer to your standard account balance and the standard rates of interest will apply to it.

 

We compound the interest (which means we charge interest on interest) and add it to the balance on your statement due date. This will make the annual percentage rate (APR) higher than you might expect from the figures above.

 

We may vary the interest rate (or other provisions of this agreement) giving you at least 21 days written notice - see condition 11.

 

Example: Total Amount Payable £450.44, APR 24.9% (variable)

 

We base these examples and APRs on the following six assumptions that the law requires us to make :

 

Your credit limit is £400.

You order £400 of goods and services from us immediately at the start of the agreement.

You repay the whole amount (including interest) in 12 equal monthly instalments.

The interest rate stays the same.

The agreement remains valid for the whole 12 month period.

Both of us meet all our obligations under the agreement.

The way our agreement works in practice is set out below.

 

Minimum payment

 

We will send you a statement every 28 days showing the minimum payment due and the payment due date. You must make at least the minimum payment unless nothing is due. Your minimum payment will initially be 4% of the total cash price of goods and services ordered using your account or £5, whichever is the greater. We re-calculate your minimum payment in the same way whenever you buy more goods or services, return goods to us or cancel any services. If your balance is less than £5 you must pay the balance. Your statement will show the exact amount of your minimum payment. Whenever we calculate your minimum payment or the interest to charge, we always round up to the nearest penny.

 

If you fail to make at least the minimum payment and we or someone acting for us have to remind you, you will be charged a reasonable administrative fee - currently £12, see condition 7. If we have to take further steps to recover the money,we may also recover the reasonable costs that we or any collection agency have in recovering it.

 

Missed payments

 

If you miss payments, this could have severe consequences and make getting credit more difficult for you. It could lead to us getting a court order (a judgement) against you. This may result in securing the debt against your house, which may be repossessed.

 

Withdrawing from the agreement

 

You have the right to withdraw from this agreement without giving a reason. Your right to do this starts on the day after the day the agreement is made (or the date we confirm your credit limit, if later) and continues for 14 days (the "Withdrawal Period"). To withdraw you must notify us that you intend to do so within the Withdrawal Period. You can do this by telephoning us on 0161 386 2226 or posting notice of your withdrawal to: Account Management Team, J D Williams & Company Ltd, 40 Lever Street, Manchester M1 1BB.

 

If you withdraw you must repay any credit that you used to buy goods and services from us without delay and no later than 30 days after giving us notice of withdrawal.

 

The additional terms set out below are incorporated in this agreement.

 

By entering into this Agreement, you consent to us sending communications and notices to you via any email address you provide to us from time to time. The emails will be sent in plain text and any attachments will be in PDF format.

 

ADDITIONAL TERMS

 

Parties This agreement is made between J D Williams & Company Ltd ('we' or 'us') and you, the customer.

Terminating the agreement We may terminate this agreement immediately if you break its terms, but we must first give you notice under the Consumer Credit Act 1974. We may also terminate the agreement on two months written notice. You can cancel the agreement at any time, free of charge, by giving us one month's notice. You can do this by writing to us and repaying your outstanding balance in full at the same time.

Suspending your credit We may suspend, restrict or terminate your right to credit at any time for any reason that we can justify as fair. If we do so, we will write to you to tell you before or immediately afterwards, unless the law says we do not have to - for example if doing so might stop the prevention of a crime.

 

Difficulty paying If you have difficulty making payments, you should contact us as soon as possible to discuss a payment arrangement. If you experience financial difficulties and have two or more J D Williams personal credit accounts we may, if you agree, join the accounts into one to make repayment easier.

 

How we use your payments We apply the payments we receive in the following order:

Payment of all administration charges shown on the latest and any previous statement.

Payment of all credit charges shown on the latest and any previous statement.

Payment of all payment protection insurance premiums shown on the latest and any previous statement.

 

Payment of the purchase price of all goods and services shown on any previous statement.

Payment of the purchase price of all goods and services shown on the latest statement.

 

Debiting your card; continuous payment authority Whenever you and we both agree, you authorise us to take payments due from you by debiting the card you provided at the time, which will allow us to draw the agreed payments directly from your bank account. This will work up to the date of any other payment arrangement you and we agree or until you cancel the arrangement (which you can do by contacting us). The amounts we will take in this way will be the minimum payment due from you, or the amounts we agree with you at the time if you are making reduced or alternative payments to pay off any arrears. We will let you know if we cannot take any agreed payment in this way. If your card issuer refuses payment, we will not request any further payments until we have spoken to you. We will never insist that you set up a continuous payment authority as a condition of us accepting lower or rescheduled repayments. We offer you a continuous payment authority as a payment choice. We will cancel the authority on request.

 

Fees and charges If you fail to make at least the minimum payment (including if any credit or debit card payment is rejected, any cheque you use is dishonoured, or a direct debit is not paid) and we or someone acting for us have to remind you, then we may make a reasonable administration charge. The current charge is £12.00 but this may change. We will give you reasonable notice of a change. If you make a payment via a Payzone or Post Office outlet using the barcode on your statement, we'll charge a £1 fee. If you use the giro slip when paying at the Post Office, we'll charge a fee of £2.75.

Payment arrears If you fail to make any payment when it is due, we can require you to pay the whole amount you owe us immediately after serving the notice required by law. If you fall into serious arrears we will consider making other arrangements with you.

 

Buy now, pay later From time to time we may invite you to purchase goods and services with the option of deferring repayments in a buy now pay later deal for a specified period ("BNPL"). Under this option we charge interest from the purchase date and add it to your statement balance each period. You need not start paying for those purchases until the date we give you when we invite you to use BNPL. Your statement will show the exact amount of any minimum payment we still require. You are free to pay off the balance sooner if you wish. It will cost you more if you use this BNPL facility as we still apply interest. In some instances we may not charge interest on BNPL purchases. If so, we will let you know about this when we invite you to enter the scheme.

Allowing you not to make the minimum payment After giving you written notice, we may from time to time allow you (if you wish) not to pay the minimum payment shown on your statement for the period we specify. If we do this, we will continue to apply credit charges under this agreement.

 

Our right to vary the agreement We reserve the right to vary any part of this agreement (including the APR, interest rate(s), charges and regular minimum payment) at any time by giving you at least 21 days notice in writing. We may vary this agreement for the following reasons:

 

Changes in the cost of providing the service

Changes in the cost of funds or base rates

Changes to law, regulation, or other external factors that may affect you

Changes needed to operate our business in a profitable and prudent manner

Changes in the risk make-up of customers or the overall mix of fees and charges applied, or both

 

Communication You agree that we may communicate with you (unless otherwise required by law) by telephone, postal or electronic mail to the address details you have provided in this agreement or which you otherwise provide. If you change any of the address details (whether postal, email or telephone) that you have provided to us you must let us have the updated address as soon as practicable.

 

Legal matters If any part of the agreement is found to be legally invalid or unenforceable this shall not affect the rest of it, which shall remain in full force and effect. We may transfer all or any of your rights and duties under this agreement at any time to any body that holds the necessary authorisation. This will not affect your rights under this agreement including your legal rights.

The law of England and Wales governs this agreement which is subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English and Welsh Courts. All communications about this agreement must be in English. If you have a complaint about this agreement and we cannot resolve it to your satisfaction using our own internal complaints procedures, you may be able to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service for independent investigation.Their contact details are 0800 023 4567 complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk and the Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, London E14 9SR. Their website address is http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

We are supervised under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 by the Financial Conduct Authority of 25 The North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HS. (Authorisation No: 311618)

 

JD Williams & Company Limited, registered office, Griffin House, 40 Lever Street, Manchester M60 6ES. Registered in England No. 178367.

 

JD Williams & Company Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

 

YOU MAY PRINT OUT AND KEEP A PERMANENT COPY OF THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR YOUR REFERENCE BY CLICKING HERE

 

 

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So my question is what now? My husband has 2 debts which have been sold on without Default Notices. And inside the letters from Lowell, is confirmation from each company the debts have been sold.

 

He is worried scared of what is going to happen, and while he knows these companies are powerless. It won't stop them taking him to court or trying to destroy his credit file which is in quite good health.... It clearly states under the T & C they will issue a notice under the Consumer Credit Act.

 

Any advice most welcome.

[ericsbrother]

they would be powerless if they were acting as debt collectors,

they arent,

they now own the debt and are likely to take action to recover the money.

 

Why, because they paid about 6p in the pound for the debt so it is worth their while suing for the whole amount.

 

What you need to do is work out what the actual real debt is after all incorrectly added fees and charges have been taken off the amount they say has been accrued.

 

Also check to see if interest has been added to these fees as they are not part of a credit agreement so dont accrue interest.

 

Now, the company that owes you this will be JDW so reclaiming these fees etc will absolutely negate the small amount of money they have received for selling the debt on.

 

Howeve, it is more likely that these amounts can be removed from the total that Lowells will ask for and thus reduce their unholy gains.

 

As for failing to default,

this is a fairly new tactic they employ to try and kid people that the Statute Barred clock hasnt started yet so they can trash your credit record for longer and take their time taking civil action if it has been a while since you make any payment.

 

You will need to do a SAR to JDW for all of their records so you can do your sums before Lowells kick off.

 

So tell us how much is owed,

when the origianl agreement was signed and anything else relevant such as what was agreed in the payment agreement,

how long that was kept to etc

[dx100uk]

well its happened

 

probably the best they've not registered defaults as now lowells cant either.

use our debt collection library

and send them the one that states £x for xxmts.

 

then just do it

[CC48]

Exactly the same thing happened to me today as well with a JD Williams account ( SimplyBe )

 

I had an agreement to pay monthly and it says on my letter they sold my account in December without a default notice to me.

[nicolee2931]

He has pulled the CEO's email from CEOemail and sent a damning complaint email to the CEO of JDW, threatening to take his complaint to the FOS and passing on detailed evidence of his health condition which is a death sentence hanging over his head.

 

He said death can't come soon enough so Lowell get nothing, but said he will fight the good fight as long as he is here.

 

The bizarre thing was he didn't break his payment arrangement,

there is a payment due in 10 days time on the Jacamo account which the Direct Debit is still active on his online account,

 

and worse still his Fashion World account they took a Direct Debit on the day they sold his account,

 

the Directs Debit is still setup on that account also,

 

as is the Direct Debit's are still active on the 2 account which were not sold.

 

As he has 4 accounts in total, 2 which were sold and 2 remain in house.

 

So now in the mean time send JDW a SAR for all his accounts,

he might as well do it now,

he has 4 accounts,

should he send for all 4 accounts and if so will it be £10 for each account or £10 for all 4?

 

One interesting thing to note JDW could see his Withheld Number when he called into the call centre,

they have never had our new landline number which we changed just before xmas,

 

we have permanent 141 one the line and he tested it on his mobile before calling them and it came up Withheld on his mobile,

 

the agent said they could see his number when he refused to confirm his number,

the cheeky so and so even read it back on a call which was being recorded,

he said the number was absolutely never to be recorded or passed onto Lowell.

 

So what now,

should he argue the case with Lowell over the lack of a Default Notice keeping it all in writing,

 

he has it in a recorded call with JDW, one was never issued,

is it worth transcribing the whole 29 minute call in case he has his day in court?

 

Can a case even proceed with no Default Notice when an account has been sold, which I believe Lowell can't default him either?

 

And in the mean time wait for the SAR to come back and then raise hell with JDW with both a fee claim and a complaint to the FOS?

 

After seeing the post from @CC48 above this one, I bet there is a fair few more accounts JDW have just decided to sell onto Lowell.

 

Also is it also worth having a notice added to the Credit Reference Agencies that no default notice was ever issued,

 

and send them the transcript of the recorded call and evidence from the SAR that no default was ever issued just in case on is attempted to be registered later on.

 

Also is it worth asking for a signed copy of the Credit Agreement, or not worth it in this case?

 

@ericsbrother

The amount for the Jacamo account is £2414 & Fashion World £1347.

To be honest he is up to date on all his arrangements, even the ones that got sold on.

 

On the £2414 he pays £40.00 per month, and the £1347 he pays £20.00 per month.

He did miss Nov' 2017, but he was rushed into emergency surgery on his neck around the time the payment was due and I took my eye of the ball while he was in ICU kept in a coma to maintain his airway.

 

But the 1st of December 2017 I paid £120.00 on his online account which was more than enough to cover the missed payment and then they went on to take payment on the 5th December by Direct Debit of £80.00 in addition to the £120.00 I paid on the 1st December 2017,

 

no doubt the £80.00 consisted of the previous month of November 2017 which was missed and the current month of December 2017.

 

Then they pull a trick like this after depriving me of £200 3 weeks before xmas while hubby is in a coma for 5 weeks due to complications,

 

the consultants said if we are going to loose him its best he don't know how ill he is, hence the reason for keeping him in the coma.

 

Honestly I am so angry with what they have done.

[dx100uk]

you really need to tell him to calm down

 

theres no need to do any of that.....

 

so what they've sold the account

 

why is he SO bothered about 4 stupid cat account

they are lowlife credit.

 

its not as if you'll have to pay it when he;s gone.............mmmm

[dx100uk]

ONE sar is all that's needed PS

[nicolee2931]

its not as if you'll have to pay it when he;s gone.............mmmm

 

He even said that himself, he knows time is short, unless there is some miracle I can only hope for.

 

I think he want's some fun with these lowlife's, he is more bothered about me and the harassment and lifetime of eternity they will hound our mailbox with once he has gone.

 

I suppose he is at least doing some good while he is here, if not himself, but for others that these lowlifes lay on the vulnerable.

[ericsbrother]

cancel the DD's now.

 

As the debts have bee sold on JDW are getting money they are not owed.

 

Also,

may seem callous but do you know the difference between a deceased person's estate and their chattels?

 

estate,

is money in bank,

shares and stocks,

property (not shared property where it is owned as a tenency in common)

certain works of art, certain " collections" (such as a number of vintage cars or a collection of rare books for example)

and jewellery of significance.

 

Chattels is

all his furniture,

clothing,

car and anything else he owns that is not covered by the "collections" bit of his estate

so a coin collection worth say £15k and gathered over time is not part of his estate.

 

Liability for Capital Gians Tax wil determine whether an item is a chattel or not

so buy a Ming vase a year ago for £50k and if it doubles in value then yes it is estate.

 

No debtor has call on anything that is not valued as part of his estate

there are certain bills that claim precedence,

you pay for your own funeral for example.

 

If he has no estate after working out the above then they cant get a penny.

Any estate worth less than £350k goes to you automatically

so again they dont get a penny if they try to claim after his death.

[nicolee2931]

Yes I get what you mean,

there is nothing creditors could lay claim to.

 

We don't own property,

well we did at one point but the house was sold to the local authority under mortgage rescue about 3 years ago.

 

As my husbands illness meant he had to give up work we decided keeping the mortgage going was impossible,

so the local authority own the property now.

 

But he has sent the complaint across to the Chief Executive now see await what happens,

he has has also sent a SAR off to see what comes back.

 

What is the process of claiming the fees back and can they can be claimed back legally,

is there a spreadsheet what works out the interest which has been added to the accounts?

 

There probably isn't a lot of fees as he never missed payments, only the change in his health caused a blip.

 

Are they entitled to actually refund the fees to me or offset them on the accounts.

 

However in a call my husband made to JDW this morning there is an awful lot of customers who have had their account off loaded to Lowell,

 

JDW tried to assure me I wasn't the only one,

the indication was there is 1000s of poorly performing accounts which have been offloaded.

[ericsbrother]

yes there is,

you need to read a bunch of other threads in this section to get an idea of what you have been charged.

 

You will need to calculate how much in fees and also how much interest has been added and then let them know you are after them for the money.

 

They are likely to deduct them from any outstanding monies as they are entitled to

but make sure you work out all of the fees etc for all accounts

and get them presented separately rather than bundle them together

 

as any monies refundable on sold on accounts cant generally be added to a different debt

unless you agree to it and TBH I wouldnt as they then lose twice!

[dx100uk]

https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?330996-Latest-Spreadsheets-PPI-Claims-and-Charges-Claims-Dec-2011

 

cisheet

[nicolee2931]

Well an update,

JDW have now sent the other 2 accounts out of the 4 which hubby had with JDW off to Lowell,

even after a complaint going in prior and a promise the 2 in house accounts would not be sold.

 

He has sent off a SAR to JDW for the 4 accounts and see what comes back,

 

I'm guessing he puts in a claim for the charges to wipe out any amounts they have sold the amounts on cheaply to bring as much pain as possible to JDW.

 

I'm guessing JDW owe hubby rather than passing this amount on to Lowell,

as Lowell are claiming they own the debt outright,

so in that sense hubby gets the money back in his pocket from JDW.

 

Also anyone finding themselves in my hubby's position be absolutely prepared to have all your accounts sold to Lowell, even if any arrangement you have with JDW to kept up to date.

They are sending up to date accounts with arrangements on them to Lowell claiming its a business decision.

 

Its wrong and there is something definitely not above board going on.

[dx100uk]

no its all quite std practice sadly.

 

I doubt you'll see any of the charges money and nor will lowells

but the spreadsheets correctly done

will most certainly make lowells think twice before issuing a claimform if they are that way minded

dx