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Typically what happens is this. You owe Acme bank for a loan, credit card or car finance on which you defaulted. You defaulted not because you were feckless but because of a change of circumstances. You lost your job, or got sick or injured. You are a responsible person who likes to pay your debts. So you joined a Debt Management Plan which means that all the spare cash you have got, after essentials, is divided out between your creditors.
The problem with getting into debt is that even when you get back on an even keel, such as finding another job, you have got behind. You have continued to pay into the plan. But now Acme bank has got tired of waiting and has sold on your debt to Dirty Debt Collectors.
The first you know is that you get an aggressive letter from Dirty Debt demanding that you pay the full balance. Now Dirty Debt had bought your debt from Acme (along with thousands of others) for literally pence in the pound. You may have paid back, say £500 out of a £1,500 bank loan, and now think you owe £1,000. Wrong! In many cases Dirty Debt will ignore what you have already paid and try to collect more than what is "owing". This is because they add their own charges on.
these companies operate, quite literally, on the fringes of the law
Many of these companies operate, quite literally, on the fringes of the law. They buy up debts which are "statute barred" and still try to collect on them. Statute barred means that the debt is more than 6 years old during which the debtor has had no contact with the original client. The debt cannot then be enforced in court. However companies like Dirty Debt do not hesitate to send threatening and aggressive letters attempting to collect on such "old" debts.
Other underhand (and illegal) tricks they will try are trawling the Credit Reference Agencies to find the name and address of anyone who is paying into a Debt Management Plan. They will then send aggressive letters to attempt to collect on debts which the debtor has either paid off or is paying to another company. So it is possible for a hapless debtor to be paying the same debt to more than one company if they don't keep tabs.
Another dirty trick is to send out letters to someone with a similar name living in the same town as a debtor, or someone living at the same address. These companies also send out letters to neighbours or addressed to "the occupier" asking them to phone Rick or Carol. They will then attempt to gain information about whether a debtor is still living at the address or their current whereabouts if they have left.
In reality companies like Dirty Debt have very little power. They cannot come into your home and take your goods, your wages, or make you bankrupt. To do these things they need a court order. If they threaten you with court action you can challenge them to "prove the debt" which means that they have to provide certain documents regulated by the Consumer Credit Act. They will need to produce these documents if they take you to court. The problem is that Dirty Debt and companies like them very seldom have the required documents. They have to return to the original creditor to obtain them. And when the original creditor sold on the debt they often disposed of the original documents.
There are ways to challenge these ripoff merchants. Join the Consumer Action Group and find out how to fight back.
By: elrond
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Purely in the context in which I used the term, there is a lot wrong with it and they are brats.
"Do you have any understanding of how insulting the term "half caste" is?
Yes, and it was intended to be insulting, again, due to the context. All it is is the old term for what people like you now call mixed race. Same thing, different name.
"Finally, as someone who prides himself on his English skills, you may wish to learn how to spell half caste. It has an "e" at the end."
Thank you, you are correct. I do know how to spell half caste, it was a careless mistake, I hesitated over it for a second and pressed entre before correcting.
Is there something wrong in being mixed race? Why do you assume that a mixed race child is a brat?
Do you have any understanding of how insulting the term "half caste" is? Don't give me the usual trite rubbish about "political correctness" as it just what is trotted out by bigots and ill mannered louts when they have no genuine explanations.
Finally, as someone who prides himself on his English skills, you may wish to learn how to spell half caste. It has an "e" at the end.
I totally agree that people who take credit out and hide and avoid payment are the root of the problem, however not everyone who has dealings with debt collectors is like that and THAT is my point. And no matter what you say you have labelled all people who deal with debt collectors as "the detritus of society", a sweeping statement that heads your post. Get your head out of the clouds MikeP life isn't all black and white.
I don't read the Guardian, it's a Pinko rag, on a par with the average student magazine in terms of its politics.
Of course people who live in wealthy areas have debt, but it is usually properly managed and repaid on term. I'm talking about council house chavs in sink estates who sit on their bloated backsides watching daytime TV and producing halfcast brats every 10 months, live on benefits, have debts everywhere, and no intention of repaying them because they duck and dive. That is why debt collectors are sent in and resort to underhand methods. I have no sympathy for their victims.
As someone who comes from generations of hard working, decent manual workers I get a bit p*ssed off when someone looks down on what they like to think are people who are beneath them. A hard working honest person is beneath no one.
People who run up debts, and I appreciate that this can happen amongst the lower orders of society, usually compound their financial ineptitude by trying to hide away and refusing to answer calls and letters. It is at this point that debt collectors are called in, rather like vultures to clean up carrion.
People who run up debts and face their responsilibities in a mature way do not normally get handed over to debt collection agencies.
not in the money!