gah debt collection
- Thread starter Abraxaz1
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 8 Mar 2007
- Posts
- 10,938
Explain?
I've had 3 debts (amounting to over £3,500 grand) from my Uni days and I've lost count of the amount of times over the years I was told a debt collector was calling. They never showed up, ever.
They try harassing you for a few months, then you get a letter from a different firm after the previous one gave up and sold it on.
As long as you make no contact with them, after 10 years you can apply for the debt to become 'Statue Barred'. This means the debt still exist but the debt collectors can not contact you or make any effort to get you to pay it.
That's the situation with me. I'll pay it off one day (when I earn a decent wage) but for me it was the principle (I was a young naive 18 year olf who asked the bank for a £50 overdraft and ended up being given a £3,000 credit card).
Soldato
- Joined
- 8 Mar 2007
- Posts
- 10,938
Because that's cheap and everyone can afford it.
Soldato
- Joined
- 14 Dec 2005
- Posts
- 12,488
- Location
- Bath
And the advice your solicitor gave when you instructed him regarding ending the gym contract was?
The debt becomes statue barred after 6 years of no payment or contact. The debt DOES still exist and a collection agency can do everything in there power to collect on the debt however they CAN NOT take any legal action.
I would argue the gym terminated the contract by failing to provide a satisfactory service.
I'm not sure which is more inappropriate, "hurrr it's a contract" or "hurrr spend a fortune on a solicitor over a solicitor over a relatively piddly sum".
I'd go into the gym and try to sort it out with them at first instance and, if appropriate, make them an offer of settlement.
I'd go into the gym and try to sort it out with them at first instance and, if appropriate, make them an offer of settlement.
This is a good point.
Given that it's a gym membership and now it's been allocated to a DCA, chances are there will be a settlement figure available on the debt. Call the DCA to find this out and if there is a settlement figure, make sure you haggle.
Why, do gym contracts normally state a maximum acceptable wait time for equipment?
Like I've already said before, you could seek advice from an organisation such as the Citizens Advice Bureau who can provide advice from a legal standpoint.
I don't understand why people are seeing this as so convoluted. If you have a genuine reason to leave a gym or a complaint about a service, you do everything you can to highlight that and cause a stink. Doing nothing about it and then just refusing to pay is not the correct course of action.
This seems the most logical response in the thread so far.
This is something I deal with quite regularly (own my own gym with 12/24mth contracts).
You'd be amazed at the **** people come up with trying to get out of something they don't want to pay for anymore.
Is it not beyond that now though....
If its been given over to a debt collection agency they also expect to be paid, so they are now controlling the debt. Of course you could still arrange a pay schedule with them.
There are two types, a collection agency buys the debt and chases after it (I've found this rare with the ones I've worked with). OR, the collection agency works on your behalf and gets a % of the collection with an additional start up fee. The gym could easily cancel the debt collection if he settled in the facility (if they used the usual routes).
A friend of mine is currently being hassled by a debt agency through no fault of their own and has been told they will be blacklisted and so on. If someone is blacklisted can their name be cleared once the matter has been cleared up by the companies that made the error?