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Hello all and thanks in advance for your help.
If a debt is sold on by a credit card company is it then the responsibilty of the new company to initiate CCJ proceedings - I assume that they have to follow this path or can they immediately apply for charging order or bankruptcy etc.
Many thanks

Hi,

I would think that once they own the debt they have to follow the same procedures as the original creditor.

Hopefully one of the professionals will be along to advise further.

If the debt is sold, so are the rights to recover the outstanding sum sold to the new company.

Quite often the debt purchasers are more aggressive when collecting and county court action may follow swiftly. They do even raise bankruptcy petitions which is highly unusual for a high street lender to do.

Must admit that we never had any problems like that with the companies our creditors sold the debts on to. It maybe because we were in a DMP at the time.

The Office of Fair Trading has recently warned a number of debt purchasers about their collection tactics. One was warned about sending out statutory demands while having no intention of issuing bankruptcy proceedings, another for contacting neighbours and others for other harrassment offences.

Maybe you are right Jan that they were getting money from your DMP so happily sat back and collected it. Other people who have not got a repayment plan in place should certainly by very wary and seek advice quickly.

I do agree Michael.

The scaremongering of some creditors has to be seen to be believed. I hope the OFT do something about it.

I was at a DETI conference yesterday at which one of the speakers was from the OFT. They are watching complaints carefully and have the powers to remove licences for the worst offenders. Maybe if debtors were more aware of their rights and complained to the OFT when these rights have been abused some of the more odious practices may stop.

I attach a link to the OFT guidance for debt collectors and people can see if they are being broken or not.

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/busine ... oft664.pdf

Thanks Michael, that's a most useful link.

We could probably do with a link to this on the site - perhaps admin could pick this one up.

Hi
I think there are many scare tactics used by debt collection agencies, wrong information given and a lack of empathy for genuine cases.
It would be good to see people seeking a genuine debt solution to be given an amnesty from calls etc.
Regards

I agree Andy.

Once you have started the ball rolling and have informed the creditors, then they shouldn't contact you unless your application fails.