# How To Deal With Debt Collectors?



## Alwyn (26 Jul 2011)

I received a letter in the post today from a collections agency.  The contents of the letter scared the living daylights out of my wife.  They said  - they would have a third party pay us a personal visit if we did not pay up within 24 hours. 

How has anybody else dealt with a knock on the door from these type of people?


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## chris20051 (26 Jul 2011)

Hi,

Do you know who the death collection agency is? or more details about the letter and whats it for?  Collection agencys have no legal powers, if they knock tell them to sling there hook or you will be calling the Guards for trespassing on private property then set the dog on them?, most of these letters are scare tactics, some letters are not even real.

best of luck
Chris


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## Alwyn (26 Jul 2011)

Thanks Chris.  They are BCW.  The debt was with BOS for in and around 10K.  I am still paying money off the loan each month but just not enough, so they sold it on to BCW.

They also mentioned that they had been given the authority to pursue legal proceedings.


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## csirl (26 Jul 2011)

chris20051 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Do you know who the death collection agency is? or more details about the letter and whats it for? Collection agencys have no legal powers, if they knock tell them to sling there hook or you will be calling the Guards for trespassing on private property then set the dog on them?, most of these letters are scare tactics, some letters are not even real.
> 
> ...


 
Agree - debt collection agencies have no status or powers in Ireland. All they can do is make a friendly request to you to pay the money - same as any other citizen can do. You are well within your rights to refuse them permission to be on your property/call to your door and you can ask the Guards to remove them if necessary.


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## demoivre (26 Jul 2011)

Boomtobust said:


> I received a letter in the post today from a collections agency.  The contents of the letter scared the living daylights out of my wife.  They said  - they would have a third party pay us a personal visit if we did not pay up within 24 hours.



Information in this thread might be useful to you.


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## bullworth (26 Jul 2011)

If they won't go away, I'd point a video camera on them as I politely told them to leave and never return while the guards were on the way.  In my case a regular camera with a video function.


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## Kev (26 Jul 2011)

These thugs buy debts in bulk for peanuts, but they never get the actual agreement that you made with the original lender and as a result they trying to extort money from you, so ignore them. If you want to, you could write to them stating that you do not own them anything also send the letter by recorded delivery and get a signature for delivery of it. 

If they keep sending you letter tell them that you will report them for harassment and will be getting the Garda involved for trying to extort money from you.  Also this is very important do not sign the letter as these guys are known to make up a false credit agreement and forge your signature on it.  How old is the debt and when was the last time you made a payment on it.


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## iscritto (26 Jul 2011)

Ok hold on a minute here ...... OP is making payments to BOI but not enough to stop them selling on the debt.  As Kev said they debt collectors buy the debt but at a very large discount. So use this to reduce the amount you have to pay. 
Not all debt collectors are "thugs". 
Call them and make an arrangement with them to pay the same amt each month you paid BOI but ask if you do this for say 12 months will they reduce your balance by a few 100... etc Or could you get the money together to clear this debt in say 12 months and then ask if they would take a lump sum to clear the loan. Remember they would not have paid BOI  10k for your loan so for them to make a profit they do not need to collect 10k.


Other option; Tell them to stop calling/contacting/writing etc and continue to pay BOI.


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## partnership (26 Jul 2011)

If the debt has been sold on then you need to stop paying the BOI - wait until they bring you to court and then offer the same amount each month.


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## Kev (27 Jul 2011)

iscritto said:


> Ok hold on a minute here ...... OP is making payments to BOI but not enough to stop them selling on the debt.  As Kev said they debt collectors buy the debt but at a very large discount. So use this to reduce the amount you have to pay.
> Not all debt collectors are "thugs".
> Call them and make an arrangement with them to pay the same amt each month you paid BOI but ask if you do this for say 12 months will they reduce your balance by a few 100... etc Or could you get the money together to clear this debt in say 12 months and then ask if they would take a lump sum to clear the loan. Remember they would not have paid BOI  10k for your loan so for them to make a profit they do not need to collect 10k.
> 
> Other option; Tell them to stop calling/contacting/writing etc and continue to pay BOI.


 
First of all find out if they actually purchased the debt have they purchased the Agreement made by the OP and BoI and got the correct terms on it.   

If not they do not purchase the debt.  

If the OP has not made any payments within the last 5 years in Ireland and I think it is 6 years in UK then the debt is statue barred. 

Also do not phone them, if they send out threatening letters like the OP said then they are not nice people!

If they keep hounding you send them a letter,  as I mentioned above in my post, asking them to produce the evidence that they own the debt.  Do not put your usual signature on any correspondence that you send them just print your name.

If they have purchased the debt then you can make arrangments to pay them what you have been paying BoI.  If they want this to be increased then let them take you to court for it.

If these guys knock on your door do not let them in tell them that you will call the garda if they do not leave as they are trespassing.

Link should bring up something on BCW you will have to register to post on the website.


http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?310750-Debt-over-6-years-and-still-paying


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## onlineprint (27 Jul 2011)

BCW are a pain, they have been ringing me on private number for about 6 weeks, similar story to op but a closed account for closed down business, they will try their best to get you to agree some kind of repayment over the phone, I believe their calls are recorded so be careful what you say, do not agree to any payments, my figure was for 625 euro and it got reduced to 450 yesterday in a letter.


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## chris20051 (27 Jul 2011)

BCW look at this link, they are advertising for people to work for them? [broken link removed]


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## PaddyBloggit (27 Jul 2011)

More here about them:

[broken link removed]


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## Loir128 (18 Apr 2016)

I know this is an of post but I've been getting rang constantly by this company as I owe littlewoods €70 which I had written to them about and explainedbthat I wasn't in a position to pay and would when I had the money and now I have bcw ringing a good bit later. I do want to pay littlewoods but I don't want to give it to bcw as I don't trust them and I don't want to have any dealings with them. I've been ignoring the calls and I haven't gotten letters as I've changed address. If I don't pay the debt and keep ignoring them will they leave me alone. I take it if i pay littlewoods they will keep ringing and I don't want to deal with them as I said. Can they bring me to court or find out my new address? Like is it worth it over €70 or should I change my number. Anyone any thoughts if the thread is still open and anyone reading it would be much appreciated for any input.


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## cremeegg (19 Apr 2016)

Loir128 said:


> If I don't pay the debt and keep ignoring them will they leave me alone.



Yes 



Loir128 said:


> Can they bring me to court or find out my new address? Like is it worth it over €70



They can bring you to court, but is is certainly not worth it for €70.

Next time they call get the callers name. Tell them that if they call you again you will report them to the guards. then forget about it.


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## mickeyg (19 Apr 2016)

Let's say you have in the past made the assumption that a debt was purchased by one of these debt collection agencies from a credit Card company and now you have an agreement with that agency to pay
an amount each month is it too late then to request evidence from them that they did in fact purchase the Loan and discontinue the monthly payments until such time as that evidence is provided??
Or is the fact that the payments are being made a tacit acceptance of the debt now being due to the agency??


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## Palerider (19 Apr 2016)

There are the can't pay and the I won't ever pay people out there,  Collection agents are necessary, if we all paid our legitimate debt interest rates would be lower and credit easily accessed from everyone in our society, they are not thugs but a necessary part of our credit cycle, I think the UK are much better at this than we are, debt follows you, we need a credit rating system like in the Stares where people in the main value and protect their credit.


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