dealing with debt collectors

blackrovers

Hi i'm wondering about dealing with an issue i have.

I have a debt collecting crowd after me for an oustanding bill of less then 200euros. This bill came about cause someone in the (company) entered my bank details into their system wrong on three occasions thus locking themselves out of the direct debit i had set up with my credit card. Now there was always money in the account to pay for my bills so i don't really have a debt problem, if you know what i mean. I couldn't use my card as i was locked out due to the companies mistake. I rang them to ask them whats going on that someone locked me out of my account. It was denied by them and said everything was grand on their system.

I rang them a while later when i saw there was still no sign of them taking money out of my account plus i wanted to get to the bottom of the issue. Was told everything was grand on their system no problems to which i informed them that they might have trouble getting money out of my account as the bank had locked them out due to 3 forced attempts to enter my credit card. They informed me that they could see from the system that no such thing had happened.

So every month my bill would be outstanding, i ignored it because i tried to resolve it earlier. Than i received a call from the company to inform me my account was overdue, i asked them about why someone tried to take money out of my account with false details. Was told no such thing happened that the bank messed up. Rang the bank again was told not their problem then the company said oh ya the details were changed when i rang up!! I wouldn't have any need to change them because they haven't changed since i got my card. I informed them i would not be paying until i got an answer as to why someone did this.

It was past on to a debt collector who threatened taking me to court it never happened, then it was pasted on to another debt collecting crowd. Their threatening legal action and that i will have to pay for their legal fees. They also rang my place of work and left their details with the secretary as i wasn't their at the time, which i'm not too pleased about at all.

Now that the story is told.
I'm wondering what is the likely event of them taking me to court? And also should i get a solictor on to it and if so is it worth due to the amount of the outstanding fee, or is there any alternative to dealing with this?

Sorry for all the questions but i would love any advice or info anyone has to offer would be much appreciated.

P.S I also sent a letter to the company asking for all information on me in written and data form under the data protection act etc and i was told it would take 40days even though the debt collectors are threatening legal action in the mean time.

Run_to_da_hills

Best way to deal with them is to bombard them with confusion and obstruction so eventually it should keep the wolf away from the door.

Nody

Don't listen to Rtdh advice; first of all they can only go through civil court and chances of that are very close to nill due to cost.

Secondly; you do owe the company the debt so you can deal with that company over the debt most likely (depends on if they sold your debt or if they asked someone to try to get it though). Simply outline the problem in writing what happened and in an additional mail request full finromration according to the data protection act from them as well. The first will not quiet them most likely but the second will force them to hand over all information they have and you have the right to correct anything wrong iirc.

blackrovers

hey thanks for the advice. I'm worried though about this affecting my credit rating and could it?

Gamesnash.ie: Pat

A lot of this makes no sense. You're mentioning direct debits and credit cards in the one statement - a direct debit requiring your details would normally be processed against an actual bank account and not a credit card. The credit card being debited only requires your card number etc at the time. What details did they attempt to change according to your bank ??

Assuming it is a credit card either way ...

If your card issuer had decided to "lock" your card for them all you had to do was ask your card provider to lift the barring. You're on the phone to them telling them they may have trouble getting their payment processed and then you ignored the bills because you had already made an attempt to pay them. Now I agree that part of the problem may be their own fault but their system will not tell them that your bank has barred them from your card until the next time they attempt payment. When they did this and it was refused they sent you statements notifying you that the payment was not made but you chose to ignore them because you already told them about the barring ?

You were on the phone to your bank / card issuer so you knew that the card was still blocked and did not attempt to unblock it from what I can make out.

The point is that an agent working on your behalf ie your card issuer stopped the payment, you could have gotten this sorted out by asking your card issuer to lift the barring or at the very least offered an alternative payment method. They may have at one point wrongly stated that everything was ok but every subsequent statement was them telling you that it was not ok, that your payment wasn't received etc and you said not my fault I told you about this already !

Or have I interpeted this all wrong ?

gogo

Gamenash.ie is right, its sounds to me like you were paying the bill via your credit card, the compnay entered your details incorrectly and the credit card company put a block on your card as a security measure thinking maybe somebody was attempting fraudlent transactions on your card (which was the right thing to do by the way).
All you had to do was contact the credit card company and ask them to life the block, instead you kept phoning the company which you owe money too,
instead of just getting the block lifted yourself. The compnay wouldnt have been able to remove the block anyway -as security measures, mean only you would have the autorisation to do that
At the end of the day you owe the money, why pay for a solicitor when they are clearly in the right to demand payment for services/goods you got?

gogo

Sorry, forgot, it depends on what company you are dealing with if it affects your credit rating or not.
Although most companies do list in stubbs gazette now when legal action is taken against you.

Bob Z

Did they true to defraud you or was is it a genuine mistake?

GreeBo

maybe Im missing something but there isnt much point in the OP getting the ban lifted if the company are entering the wrong data each time in the request? Surely that will just block the card again?

If the company tells the OP that they have the correct details on file and he confirms that they are correct then there is a break down on the companies side. If the details are incorrect, then correct them, pay the balance and happy days.

gogo

True Greebo,it sounds as if things have gone a bit farther than that tho, (most credit card declines/mistakes are just due to typos anyway), at this stage if I were the op I'd just get the block lifted, withdraw the cash and post a draft/cheque - which instead of saying "I'll resolve it later" he should have done long before there was a debt collection agency on his back.

blackrovers

Hey guys cheers for the replies, i see where your coming from.

I did actually tell the bank to lift the ban and that this companies was ok to take money out of my account. But my problem was when i asked the company about how this happened they said everything was grand on their system for almost 2-3weeks so i left it after explaining everthing to them and i informed them that they might have problems withdrawing money because of them being locked out. Then when they came looking for the money they said it was me that rang them and that i gave them new credit card details over the phone to use which i wouldn't of done because my details haven't changed since i got it.

So am i right in withholding pay to find out what happened especially after being told i gave them new credit card details over the phone which i never did?!

I don't mind paying the money i just wanted to find out what went wrong!

jor el

blackrovers wrote: »

So am i right in withholding pay

No, you have to pay what's owed. Granted, you are trying to do this, and the company is seemingly not able to process a simple credit card transaction (is this BT Ireland?) which isn't your fault, but you should maybe consider an alternate payment method (Billpay, direct debit from a bank account).

I would ignore the debit collector completely, and only deal with the company directly, as it is them who you owe the money to. Debt collectors have no standing.

blackrovers

i'm no longer with these people and there a telecommuntications crowd. I wanted to stay with them but i was very quickly disconnected and then almost straight away i was then sent a letter from debt collectors. To me it seemed like they didn't want to admit fault or neglience and wanted to steam roll me to pay without them having to explain what went wrong.

jor el

blackrovers wrote: »

i'm no longer with these people and there a telecommuntications crowd.

In the highly likely event that this is BT Ireland you're talking about, here's how to solve the problem. Since they apparently have your correct credit card details, you should ask them why they their accounts people unable to enter a 16 digit number into a billing system?

blackrovers

hey the company is o2 so do you reckon your tactic for bt would work?

redroisin

What exactly can debt collectors take if you dont have the money? A friend of mine told me they will take your horse and dogs is this true???

Elessar

If by debt collector you mean the county Sheriff, with a court order, then yes, they can take anything they want from your property.

If by debt collector you mean anyone claiming to be a debt collector working for a debt collection company, then they can't take sh*t. They have no legal powers and have no right to step foot on your property without your permission.

MarkR

Am I missing a reason why you're not paying? You are getting black marks on your credit rating for no good reason. Pay the money if you have it. If you don't, make arrangements with who you owe. Unless you don't plan on getting credit of any sort for the next 5 years...

foggy_lad

MarkR wrote: »

Am I missing a reason why you're not paying? You are getting black marks on your credit rating for no good reason. Pay the money if you have it. If you don't, make arrangements with who you owe. Unless you don't plan on getting credit of any sort for the next 5 years...

you will only get "black marks" if you are taken to court and a judgement made against you

pennywise

Blackrovers, I am presuming you owe the money but held off paying due to the cc/dd issues. I can see why you would hold off paying however at this stage you need to pay to prevent the debt collectors taking you to court and getting a judgement against you. If they get a judgement that will go on your credit record and stay there for 5 yrs ( I think) after you clear the bill.

My suggestion would be to call the debt collectors and tell them you have a complaint with 02 and will try deal with them directly to sort the issue. (depending on the debt collectors response - put this in writing/email) Maybe agree to call them back after calling 02 - might seem excessive however its your credit rating. Then call 02 and ask to speak to the supervisor or manager there. Go through the issues and see where you get.

The other option is to let the debt collectors take you to court and you could contest it, but not sure if this would be worth the cost.

MarkR

foggy_lad wrote: »

you will only get "black marks" if you are taken to court and a judgement made against you

Really? Wasn't too sure about the specifics, but the citizens information website says that the banks all share info on credit / loan payments, and share them out as requested.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/money-and-tax/personal-finance/loans-and-credit/irish_credit_bureau

redroisin

I didnt know we had county sheriffs in Ireland?? So would the debt collector have to bring a law enforcer with them to take stuff?

Elessar

redroisin wrote: »

I didnt know we had county sheriffs in Ireland?? So would the debt collector have to bring a law enforcer with them to take stuff?

I will repeat: The only people in the republic of Ireland legally allowed to forcibly take your property are county sheriffs (or registrars outside dublin and cork). And they can only be used with a court order. To use the sheriff, a creditor must take your to court and win. Arrangements will then be made for you to pay your creditors, if you don't after a certain amount of time they can get a court order and request the sheriff to come and take assets from you. This will then be sold on and that money used to pay your creditors.

No debt collection agencies have any powers whatsoever within the state. All they can do is take you to court, where, very often, the matter is settled with an offer to pay somehow (over time maybe). Sheriffs and only sheriffs, with a court order, can seize your assets.

redroisin

Thanks Ellessar:)

jor el

MarkR wrote: »

Really? Wasn't too sure about the specifics, but the citizens information website says that the banks all share info on credit / loan payments, and share them out as requested.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/money-and-tax/personal-finance/loans-and-credit/irish_credit_bureau

Banks share information using credit agencies, but debt collectors are not banks, nor do they have access to credit agencies, nor can they effect your credit rating with such agencies.

foggy_lad

jor el wrote: »

Banks share information using credit agencies, but debt collectors are not banks, nor do they have access to credit agencies, nor can they effect your credit rating with such agencies.

so if you have a bad debt with a mobile or broadband company your bank will not know about it but if you buy something on HP using a finance company(as most stores use) and default on any payments it will be marked on your credit history as late or missed payments

redroisin

What happens if the debt collector is a u.k one, can they come over here to collect on a u.k debt?

jor el

foggy_lad wrote: »

so if you have a bad debt with a mobile or broadband company your bank will not know about it but if you buy something on HP using a finance company(as most stores use) and default on any payments it will be marked on your credit history as late or missed payments

If the finance is arranged through a regulated financial provider, then yes, they can influence your credit rating. It would be the financial provider that does this though, and not the debt collector, and a missed payment would probably be on your record long before the debt is passed to a collector.

redroisin wrote: »

What happens if the debt collector is a u.k one, can they come over here to collect on a u.k debt?

A UK debt collector has no more power than an Irish one. i.e. none.

Moojuice

Guys,

Need a bit of official info on Debt Collectors. My old land lord is threatening getting debt collectors on to me. However, I have followed procedure all the way through, regardless he should be going through the PRTB. I am worried that the debt collectors will affect my credit rating. All indications are that they cannot and wont but is there any concrete evidence of this? Anyone I can contact (tried the ICB)? Thanks.

jhegarty

Moojuice wrote: »

Guys,

Need a bit of official info on Debt Collectors. My old land lord is threatening getting debt collectors on to me. However, I have followed procedure all the way through, regardless he should be going through the PRTB. I am worried that the debt collectors will affect my credit rating. All indications are that they cannot and wont but is there any concrete evidence of this? Anyone I can contact (tried the ICB)? Thanks.

Your landlord can't affect your credit rating.

jor el

Do you owe money? If so, pay it.

As said, a debt collector is just a guy with a car, he has no power to do anything. If you're taken to court, that's a different affair all together.