This website features
content already in the public domain concerning the conduct and practices
of specific offending debt collectors and debt purchasing companies.
This website is intended as a source of reference and help to people
who are already in the clutches of these firms or who fear that they
or their loved ones will be targeted by them. We have a "tell it
like it is" approach and will not be intimidated by debt collectors,
their agents, or the lawyers who work for them, usually on a "letterheads
for hire" basis.
This is a registry
of debt purchasing companies and "debt collector" companies
(debt collecting agencies or DCAs) in the United Kingdom who buy the
data of delinquent closed credit accounts from banks and other lenders
for pennies on the pound and then attempt to extort the full value of
the original debt from the borrower. The site also features agents and
associates of such companies, including solicitors and miscellaneous
legal practitioners. All have been found to have used unreasonable behaviour
and/or illegal methods in the pursuit of profit and without due regard
for the suffering of their victims.
Many debt collectors
and debt purchasing firms use such unlawful means on a daily basis.
Many are regularly featured in the various consumer websites which have
sprung up in recent years and which have helped spread the word about
DCA malpractice, much to the discomfort of the DCAs themselves.
The laws regarding
what DCAs are allowed to do are bizarre and, it seems, not subject to
logic. Even though bad debtor accounts have been closed and written
off by the original lender, and the insurance and tax breaks have been
taken to the benefit of the bank, the bad debt somehow comes to life
again in the hands of the Debt Purchaser (who has bought the data relating
to the closed accounts rather than the accounts themselves , as these
have been written off), and who then seems to get away with making your
life a living Hell and making a profit as well.
These bottom-feeders
of the insolvency world make a living buying and selling information
about debts of ordinary folk who have fallen on hard times, and then
harassing and bullying them for the full amount, sometimes to the point
of driving people to suicide, in order to turn a profit of 100s of percentage
points.
Astonishingly, this
practice is not illegal.
But you
are now empowered to use the law to your own advantage.
The 1974 Consumer
Credit Act (amended in 2006) made debts taken out before April 6th 2007
unenforceable (even by a court) if the original credit agreement did
not contain certain details, known as the "prescribed terms".
It is thought that
a large proportion of credit agreements drafted before this date do
not meet the stipulations as laid down in the Act, and that they are
therefore unenforceable. The very basis of their validity in law is
unsafe.
The great news for
people whose accounts have been bought by these debt purchasing companies
is that you are much more likely to be able to write
off these debts because the chances are very much higher
that the debt purchasing firms who bought them would not have in their
possession the original documentation. This is because they buy the
information about bad debts in job lots, often as simple printouts or
floppy disks which contain incomplete data sets.
So, never mind if
there are flaws in your contract: the chances are that the contract
won't exist at all!
You have found this
website possibly by searching for the name of the people who are currently
bullying you. Therefore, rejoice! You now have a huge advantage, and
there is a great likelihood that, now your "debt" is in the
hands of these clowns, they will not have the accompanying documentation
necessary in law to enforce its collection!
It should be made
clear that establishing that your account is unenforceable will not
make the debt disappear. It will probably remain on your credit file
for 6 years, unless the debt itself is proven to be in error or a factual
mistake. Only then can the debt be eliminated from your credit file.
It should also be
made clear that this website does not approve of people taking on debts
which they have no intention of paying back! Everyone is responsible
for the loans or other credit agreements that they voluntarily make,
and should ensure that they have budgeted to meet the repayments according
to the terms of such agreements. People should also ensure that they
are able to meet the obligations of rent, mortgage, utility bills and
council tax in addition to the debts which they have also taken on.
The point of this website is not to encourage profligacy, but to curb
the excesses of certain debt collectors and debt purchasing companies
(and their solicitors, if applicable), and to pursue those who would
wish to abuse the provisions of the law to make a quick profit.
Debt 'Write-Off' Service:
Start an Unenforceable Credit Agreement Claim
If you want to challenge
the debt collectors we can put you in touch with people experienced
in handling insolvency cases who will obtain and check your original
loan or credit card agreements.
If the credit agreement
does not contain certain terms (or, more likely, the DPC cannot produce
the original documentation) then that means that it falls foul of the
provisions of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and its amendments.
This applies
to any of the following types of credit agreement (not just credit cards):
Credit Cards
Secured and Unsecured Loans
Store Cards
Car Loans/Finance (up to £25,000 each)
Hire Purchase agreements
If you have any
such credit agreements (loans, credit cards, car finance or store cards,
etc.) dating before April 2007 the law allows you to start
an unenforceable
credit agreement application.
We are compliant
with the CAN-SPAM Act. We will not pass your name or any other details
to third parties apart from the specialist solicitor who will need to
know these details in order to help you.
All correspondence
is confidential.
DPC Registry
is registered and regulated under the Data Protection Act.
Reg. No. Z1620707 and licenced by the Office of Fair Trading. Consumer
Credit Licence No. 633327.
An
IVA Is A Different Instrument But CAN Be Used
Please note that
the debt write-off service described above is not a
debt management plan or an IVA, where the debt is written off over 5
years. To write off credit card debt is a response to the law which
says that lenders offering loans without proper documentation cannot
enforce recovery of the debt resulting from them.
However, we are
also affiliated to excellent independent IVA and debt management specialists,
if that should be more suitable to your own circumstances. To apply
for an IVA go to the Best
Debt Consolidation IVA site.
In Scotland the
equivalent solution is the Protected
Trust Deed which is a legally binding instrument designed to clear
all personal debt within three years.
There are special
qualifying circumstances for both IVAs and PTDs; people are not automatically
eligible for these and everyone has to go through an application process
to see that they are suitable for each particular plan. More details
are available at these respective websites.
For business insolvency,
and for people who are self-employed owners of small businesses, we
recommend the CVL Help website,
which is a portal of themed sites related to business insolvency. This
includes help for sole traders and partnerships as well as limited companies,
SMEs and larger corporations.
We can also put
you in touch with highly competitive loan providers, if you really can
afford to get yourself into more debt, but we do not recommend these
so-called debt consolidation loans because they don't actually get people
out of debt at all. Instead we recommend reducing your existing debt,
or writing it off altogether by one or more of the above means. Only
take out another loan if you really can afford the repayments. That
way reducing the overall monthly payments makes sense. Don't do it just
for short term gains; that is a recipe for disaster.
Extending
the Scope of This Site to Debt Reform
Debt reform is a
huge subject and it is not possible to go into any great detail about
it here. But just reading the above information about what the law allows
debt collectors to get away with will be enough to convince most people
that the laws on debt need overhauling and reforming, and that these
new laws need to be enforced with vigour. To this aim we have set up
the Debt Reform website
which will seek to widen the debate and abolish the present Dickensian
structures of the punitive debt profiteering sector, which is about
as unjust as the law in the UK can get.
The Future
of DPCs
This site, in spite
of appearances to the contrary, does not propose the abolishment of
the debt purchasing industry by law. Everyone is entitled to earn a
living, and to health, happiness and a quiet life (although not many
DPCs believe in giving their victims a quiet life). However, what would
kill the DPC industry completely would be if the banks were compelled
not to sell on details of dead debts which they had already written
off. But no such legislation exists, and banks are still allowed to
sell the details of things which no longer exist, by way of making an
extra bit of cash on top of the compensation insurance that they receive
when debts go bad and also the tax breaks when they write off such debts
at close of year.
As usual, the banks
seems to have the legislators where they want them. I've heard no breath
of such a law even being considered.
Also, I can think
of no other case in which something which ceases to exist becomes ready
material for the second hand market!
The other thing
that would kill this nefarious trade would be if sufficient numbers
of people were to realise that the DPCs have no powers. If less than
15% of people paid the money then it would not be worth the DPCs' time
at all - they would simply not be able to turn a profit, because 15
percent would be about the same as what they paid for the dead debt
plus their operating costs.
That is the real
purpose of this website: to spread the word. If enough people know about
this then that would be one injustice less that this world has to endure.