Scare Tactics and Disinformation by Lenders on Debt
Friday, July 3rd, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed
An increasing number of consumers are realising that you can challenge legally unenforceable debts.A company called Credit Issues has done just that with £1.5 million of consumer debt this year alone. They’ve proved successfully that a contract which breaches the terms and requirements of Consumer Credit Act 1974 is not enforceable by the lender or the Court.People who may have been capable of supporting the credit card or loan commitments they made only a few months ago may now face difficulties because of redundancy or a reduction in household income.Circumstances which are entirely beyond their control and for which they are blameless!So more people are exploring this entirely legitimate means of challenging and reducing their total debt.
Lenders are naturally concerned about this rising tide of consumer awareness of just how the Consumer Credit Act 1974 can be used to the benefit of hard pressed consumers and numerous stories, articles and spoilers have begun appearing in the press suggesting that the approach is untried, unproven and not worth pursuing. Many suggest that challenging debt in this way is similar to the position on reclaiming bank charges. Following a spate of banks refunding customer’s charges, thanks largely to a campaign by Martin Lewis, OFT intervention has merely put everything on hold for the time being.
Using the Consumer Credit Act 1974 section 78(1) and the mechanism of requesting “true copies” of the original credit agreement is not remotely similar to the position on bank charges. The issue to be decided on bank charges is not necessarily their validity, but rather whether the amount charged is ‘fair and reasonable’.That demands a subjective judgement based on an opinion of what is “fair and reasonable”.
In the case of challenging personal loan or credit card and store card debt using the “true copy” approach, an identified breach of the terms and requirements of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 is a matter of objective and legal fact.No opinion or subjective judgement is necessary.Your agreement is either in breach of the Act (in which case it is unenforceable) or it is not.And if it isn’t, Credit issues will advise you of that fact and won’t waste your time and money by pursuing a case that has no chance of success in the courts.
So don’t believe the lender’s scare stories, sanguine advice and sheer propaganda. The requesting “true copies” approach works because the lenders know that they cannot argue against the fact that they are in default when they do not provide a copy of the agreement.With no documentation forthcoming, a positive outcome for Credit Issues’ clients challenging the complete balance (whether they are being pursued by the original lender or a debt collection agency) is highly likely.If the documentation does arrive, it often turns out to be simply a copy of an original application form. This in itself does not constitute a credit agreement, it simply confirms that you applied for such a credit agreement. So the situation is entirely as above and again a successful outcome is highly likely.
Even if the requested “true copy” of the agreement does arrive, that doesn’t mean that the chances of challenging the debt have gone. Credit Issues negotiated a reduction of over 75% to a major Visa credit card balance when the client’s agreement was found to have incorrectly stated the APR.Indeed in a very recent case the lender caved in on the steps of the court just before a scheduled hearing and the Credit Issues client walked away from the entire debt and any negative information on his credit file was to be removed. The judge also instructed that the claimant to pay the client’s costs in the action, so his court costs were paid as well!
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