Lowell group

[RoseA]

Hi everyone. This is literally my first time using a forum. Please be patient with me.

So on Monday I received a letter from lowell group saying they have bought my debt from my credit card company. I was on a payment agreement with them paying £1 a month as they had assessed I was eligible for it. So I was surprised.
I've read that because lowell bought my debt I'm not obligated to pay it. I would struggle to pay it as I don't work with 2 kids so we just have my husbands income. I would be ok to try pay off 20-40% through payments. Does anyone know where I can get a template letter or what process to follow? I don't want to be taken to court.

I did use the live chat for citizens advise and was told I'm not obligated to pay but that lowell could potentially take it further, like a ccj.

I'm at a loss. So stressed about this.

Any advise would be appreciated
Thanks

[Amethyst]

Re: Lowell group

Hi Rose

Try not to worry, Lowell can take quite a long time to get around to issuing court proceedings so you can try negotiating with them now if you are able/would rather not worry about future court proceedings.

How much approximately is the debt for?
Who is the original credit card held with ? ( eg. Capital One etc )
When about did you open the credit card account ?
How long approx have you been paying the £1 for, and was that arranged direct or through a DMP / CAB etc ?

First thing to do would be a CCA request ( don't worry we'll come back to that) to check Lowell have the right documents to enforce the debt in the first place..... then depending on that if you can make an offer of 40% payable over 12/18 months then that might be acceptable to them, but it MUST be affordable for you - you'll presumably already have an income expenditure sheet from previously that you could update to show how much is realistic ? You could though start your offer at 20% as it is likely that Lowell only paid 10-20% for the debt from the credit card company. Or if none of that is acceptable and your IE sheet still shows £1 token payments is all you can pay you could continue with that, although tbh, depending on the answers to above questions, I'd rather stop paying completely and give the debt chance to go statute barred ( in six years time - seems a long time off but Lowell can be a tad slow getting around to court action )

Try not to worry, there aren't hard and fast rules how to deal with these things so it's a case of working out what your best option might be and trying to engineer things to suit you.

Sharon
xxx

[RoseA]

Re: Lowell group

Hi Sharon,

Thanks so much for your reply!

Yes I would definitely like to avoid future court proceedings.

The debt is for £1679. It was a credit card with Aqua which I got approx 3 years ago. I paid it off in full last year, I think in March.
We had a terrible car and always needed fixing. Ended up using the credit card again.
We have 2 kids and I'm not working as childcare would be too expensive.

I have been paying the £1 for approx 6 months. That I paid by bank transfer every month.

I just worked out a budget plan, but it's not 100% as we are waiting for a new council tax bill for the coming year. I think though, that we could afford to pay off 20% over 12 months or 40% over 18 months. Depending what I can negotiate.

Thanks again for your advise. So it's the CCA first then a letter to negotiate?

[RoseA]

Re: Lowell group

Oh I forgot to say that I answered a call from Lowell today, this morning before I had decided what to do. The lady i spoke to just wanted to confirm how much I would be paying. I told her I had only received their letter on Monday so hadn't had time to calculate my budget. She wanted to do this over the phone but I told her I couldn't as I have both my kids with me, and at that point my 2 year old son came screaming through trying to get my attention and I said I would look at the online tool.

[RoseA]

Re: Lowell group

Hi, just wanted to know what my first step needs to be and do I need to do anything urgently? I had a call from lowell again today but didn't answer. Thanks for your help