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Zombie debt from 2008
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Hi,
Long story short, I signed up for a home training course in 2008 when I was 18. I got the materials and didn't think they were sufficient for the price of the course, or that they were even able to teach me what I needed to pass the qualifications (It was the CompTIA A+ Certification) because they weren't official resources, just rehashed books.
At the time they said I could return the materials within 14 days of receipt of all books. I tried and they used a loop-hole to keep me in the contract. So I refused to pay after a few months because I wasn't doing anything with the course, just paying this company money.
The original company re-sold the debt a few times since then after a few threatening phone calls and letters, but I've been paying a company called AllPay for over 2 years or more now, I'm not even sure anymore. It's only £7 a month, but there's no indication of this debt on my credit report, the original company doesn't offer this course anymore, and I've not heard any information about what I've paid / or left to pay (or what interest if any they've added on the original amount) since the original agreement I'd pay £7 per month for them to stop harassing me.
What would the consequences be if I cancelled the direct debit and let the company contact me? The last time they called before the agreement they offered me a one-off payment offer, which I rejected. Is it worthy asking for a small payment offer?
I'm just thinking it's a waste of money that I'm not even sure is "going anywhere".
Long story short, I signed up for a home training course in 2008 when I was 18. I got the materials and didn't think they were sufficient for the price of the course, or that they were even able to teach me what I needed to pass the qualifications (It was the CompTIA A+ Certification) because they weren't official resources, just rehashed books.
At the time they said I could return the materials within 14 days of receipt of all books. I tried and they used a loop-hole to keep me in the contract. So I refused to pay after a few months because I wasn't doing anything with the course, just paying this company money.
The original company re-sold the debt a few times since then after a few threatening phone calls and letters, but I've been paying a company called AllPay for over 2 years or more now, I'm not even sure anymore. It's only £7 a month, but there's no indication of this debt on my credit report, the original company doesn't offer this course anymore, and I've not heard any information about what I've paid / or left to pay (or what interest if any they've added on the original amount) since the original agreement I'd pay £7 per month for them to stop harassing me.
What would the consequences be if I cancelled the direct debit and let the company contact me? The last time they called before the agreement they offered me a one-off payment offer, which I rejected. Is it worthy asking for a small payment offer?
I'm just thinking it's a waste of money that I'm not even sure is "going anywhere".
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Comments
I think this is a very good question as I am sure lots of people face this problem and it's not always easy to know what to do.
However I am not sure what the answer is. You could try contacting StepChange. They offer free debt advice. Their website ishttp://www.stepchange.org/Howwecanhelpyou/Debtadvice.aspx
I hope you can get this resolved soon.
:-)
This particular type of situation was, unfortunately, usually a scam designed to get people to part with cash. The companies were genuine but part of their business model was to get people tied into deals that were useless.
If you stop paying the company can do very little. They can potentially record it as a default on your credit file, or they can seek to recover the money through court. If that happened it would be for the court to decide if you actually owed the money. They may threaten all sorts of weird and wonderful nasties, but they have very little real power unless they get a court order.
There are ways to argue the toss on debts like this (a few significant issues spring immediately to my mind), but you'll need someone who knows what they're doing. If you can manage it, I'd recommend you get to your nearest Citizens Advice Bureau in this case, as the specialist debt advisers there tend to be a bit more, er, "argumentative" than the advisers at StepChange are able to be.
As everyone has said, your best advice is to speak to the CAB or StepChange to make sure you get 100% correct advice, however as I work in the finance sector I wanted to just quickly give a couple of pointers.
Do you have contact details for AllPay? If so I would contact them and ask for your account status - it's pretty terrible that they haven't given you any update in a couple of years. Just cancelling the direct debit can be risky, just because it may trigger different action their end.
I agree that it is fairly unlikely they would look to go to court to recover the money at this stage, however it is very much possible. I feel your bigger risk though is that they record a default on your credit file, which would stay there for 6 years and affect your chances of getting future credit pretty severely. You say it's not on there now, but there are multiple credit reference agencies, so make sure you've checked all of them - the big three are Experian, Equifax and CallCredit - because a debt doesn't have to be reported to all of them. Also, they could still add the default on now, even if they haven't reported anything previously. You would then have to challenge this.
So, in conclusion, do get some more advice, but also if you have any way of contacting AllPay I would recommend speaking to them before making any changes.
Good luck!
As everyone has said, your best advice is to speak to the CAB or StepChange to make sure you get 100% correct advice, however as I work in the finance sector I wanted to just quickly give a couple of pointers.
Do you have contact details for AllPay? If so I would contact them and ask for your account status - it's pretty terrible that they haven't given you any update in a couple of years. Just cancelling the direct debit can be risky, just because it may trigger different action their end.
I agree that it is fairly unlikely they would look to go to court to recover the money at this stage, however it is very much possible. I feel your bigger risk though is that they record a default on your credit file, which would stay there for 6 years and affect your chances of getting future credit pretty severely. You say it's not on there now, but there are multiple credit reference agencies, so make sure you've checked all of them - the big three are Experian, Equifax and CallCredit - because a debt doesn't have to be reported to all of them. Also, they could still add the default on now, even if they haven't reported anything previously. You would then have to challenge this.
So, in conclusion, do get some more advice, but also if you have any way of contacting AllPay I would recommend speaking to them before making any changes.
Good luck!
I've checked Experian, Equifax and CallCredit, no mention of the debt on my credit file. It's what made me question if I should still bother paying it.