Intrum Justitita won't stop ringing me!

orezeee

I got into a debt with Intrum Justitia over a year ago about €350, its to do with a little woods account. Anyways I was paying off a bit then completely forgot about them and now they are constantly sending threatening letters and literally plaging my phone with calls of a private number, they ring about 20 times a day even tho I ignore them. Also a few weeks ago what I assume was one of their employees was texting me of a normal number telling me to contact Intrum Justitia. Is what they are doing legal?I'm pretty much being harassed by them every day. They can f*** off if they think I'm paying them now.

weisses

You might "forgot"

The didn't

Just pay up and get on with your life

GrumpyMe

You should pay your debt but they are not allowed to harass you!
See http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money_and_tax/personal_finance/debt/debt_collection.html#l0909d

childsplay

How did you forget to pay them? If you owe it pay it. Your credit rating will be destroyed and you won't be able to get credit with anyone else if you don't.

Avatar MIA

They'd stop ringing if you answered them.

faceman

childsplay wrote: »

How did you forget to pay them? If you owe it pay it. Your credit rating will be destroyed and you won't be able to get credit with anyone else if you don't.

That's not true. The OP's credit rating won't be effected unless he/she is taken the court and the plaintiff is successful in securing a judgement. Assuming the plaintiff issues court proceedings.

nhunter100

faceman wrote:

That's not true. The OP's credit rating won't be effected unless he/she is taken the court and the plaintiff is successful in securing a judgement. Assuming the plaintiff issues court proceedings.

I don't know if Littlewoods is registered with the ICB, however any company which is reports missed payments to it. A court judgement makes no difference. You can check your credit rating by sending off the correct fee to the ICB and have any mistakes amended. But again a court judgement is not necessary to affect your credit rating.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

It is not harassment if they keep calling and you don't answer. It would be different if you answered 20 calls a day from them. Answer the phone.

Spocker

nhunter100 wrote: »

I don't know if Littlewoods is registered with the ICB, however any company which is reports missed payments to it. A court judgement makes no difference. You can check your credit rating by sending off the correct fee to the ICB and have any mistakes amended. But again a court judgement is not necessary to affect your credit rating.

Littlewoods are not a member of the ICB: http://www.icb.ie/membership.php

Flippyfloppy

I've just had a pretty identical situation. I just logged on to my little woods account and paid them directly. I answered intrium justitia a couple of days later, it was quite dodgy as they had my surname wrong, and then for data protection Needed my address & dob. Anyway it's all done now, try to pay little woods direct if you can.

pillphil

Flippyfloppy wrote: »

I've just had a pretty identical situation. I just logged on to my little woods account and paid them directly. I answered intrium justitia a couple of days later, it was quite dodgy as they had my surname wrong, and then for data protection Needed my address & dob. Anyway it's all done now, try to pay little woods direct if you can.

They rang me and demanded I tell them my name, dob etc. I told them that since they were ringing me, they should provide me with those details as I had no idea who was on the other end of the phone.

Funnily enough, they never rang back.

cursai

Intrum Justitita should make a thread about being ripped off.

faceman

nhunter100 wrote: »

I don't know if Littlewoods is registered with the ICB, however any company which is reports missed payments to it. A court judgement makes no difference. You can check your credit rating by sending off the correct fee to the ICB and have any mistakes amended. But again a court judgement is not necessary to affect your credit rating.

Someone already posted the ICB membership list. As you can see its restricted to banks and lending institutes.

So if you're not a member, only registered court judgements can affect an individual's credit rating over an unpaid debt.

There's a lot of misconceptions in Ireland about how crediting scoring and ratings work.

If you find a mistake with your credit rating with the ICB the institute who made the error have to fix it. The ICB don't.

Getting back to the OP, his/her credit rating isn't affected in this instance unless judgement is registered.

L1011

nhunter100 wrote: »

I don't know if Littlewoods is registered with the ICB, however any company which is reports missed payments to it. A court judgement makes no difference. You can check your credit rating by sending off the correct fee to the ICB and have any mistakes amended. But again a court judgement is not necessary to affect your credit rating.

Pretty much nobody except banks and credit untions affect ICB ratings.

Private ratings agencies exist, however. Experian/Equifax.

Guy:Incognito

faceman wrote: »

Someone already posted the ICB membership list. As you can see its restricted to banks and lending institutes.

So if you're not a member, only registered court judgements can affect an individual's credit rating over an unpaid debt.

There's a lot of misconceptions in Ireland about how crediting scoring and ratings work.

If you find a mistake with your credit rating with the ICB the institute who made the error have to fix it. The ICB don't.

Getting back to the OP, his/her credit rating isn't affected in this instance unless judgement is registered.

Is the credit rating the be all and end all of what anyone, inc banks see about you though?

Say you had bad debt in the past but get a credit score sent out today and it shows nothing. Is that it back to a clean bill of health again? (albeit with no good rating as such, but also no bad one)

childsplay

Thanks for correcting me on the credit rating thing. I honestly did think it was the case that all unpaid debts effected it.

faceman

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Is the credit rating the be all and end all of what anyone, inc banks see about you though?

Say you had bad debt in the past but get a credit score sent out today and it shows nothing. Is that it back to a clean bill of health again? (albeit with no good rating as such, but also no bad one)

Yes and no. If you have had a judgement registered against then that info is in the public domain so you don't have to check with the ICB. Same goes for the new insolvency ratings under the new laws. (Which are far too penalising in my opinion)

However if you have no judgements against you then the ICB is one indication of creditworthiness. However it's not tied to a PPS number. Instead it cross references names with addresses that are provided.

Most private companies and utility companies don't bother with ICB checks. Instead they use scoring models to determine the risk of non payment. Factors such as your address (some counties are considered riskier than others!), occupation, homeowner/tenant etc can all be considered in applications for services.

That being said, it's not wise to flout a debt. Even a debt of a couple of hundred euro is worth pursuing legally in many cases.

If someone is on financial difficulty it's always worth talking to the company to try work something out.

pillphil

faceman wrote: »

Yes and no. If you have had a judgement registered against then that info is in the public domain so you don't have to check with the ICB. Same goes for the new insolvency ratings under the new laws. (Which are far too penalising in my opinion)

However if you have no judgements against you then the ICB is one indication of creditworthiness. However it's not tied to a PPS number. Instead it cross references names with addresses that are provided.

Most private companies and utility companies don't bother with ICB checks. Instead they use scoring models to determine the risk of non payment. Factors such as your address (some counties are considered riskier than others!), occupation, homeowner/tenant etc can all be considered in applications for services.

That being said, it's not wise to flout a debt. Even a debt of a couple of hundred euro is worth pursuing legally in many cases.

If someone is on financial difficulty it's always worth talking to the company to try work something out.

Come on, you can't just leave it at that.

starshine1234

Flippyfloppy wrote: »

I've just had a pretty identical situation. I just logged on to my little woods account and paid them directly. I answered intrium justitia a couple of days later, it was quite dodgy as they had my surname wrong, and then for data protection Needed my address & dob. Anyway it's all done now, try to pay little woods direct if you can.

pillphil wrote: »

They rang me and demanded I tell them my name, dob etc. I told them that since they were ringing me, they should provide me with those details as I had no idea who was on the other end of the phone.

Funnily enough, they never rang back.

I agree.
If random strangers ring you on the phone you shouldn't answer their questions. I refuse to answer personal questions even if I'm expecting a call from the company.

You should say to the company that if you asked the company whether or not you should reveal personal information to strangers who ring you on the phone claiming to be from their company what would be their answer?

They have no choice but to say that you should refuse to give your information unless you are certain you are dealing with the company. I'd suggest you can never be certain and therefore you should never engage with random calls.

A company would be able to verify that it is they who are calling but strangely enough companies seem unwilling to do this. For example, a credit card company could provide you with a secret codeword and they could use that codeword to prove it is them on the call. No company does this as far as I know.


So, in summary, if companies are going to be so arrogant and contemptous that they refuse to use secret codewords as I suggest then I'm not going to put my privacy and security at risk by providing personal information to strangers on the phone.

atticu

orezeee wrote: »

They can f*** off if they think I'm paying them now.

Why?

What makes you believe that you don't have to pay for goods that you received?

I am not having a go at you, I actually want to know why you feel that you don't have to pay them now.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

rawn

Sorry to bump an old thread but I can't find a definite answer to the question!

I have debt collectors ringing over LW debt (actually my brothers debt in my name, grrr family!). Anyways I have the money to fully pay off the debt now, so do I have to pay it to Interim or can I just pay LW directly?

Avatar MIA

rawn wrote: »

Sorry to bump an old thread but I can't find a definite answer to the question!

I have debt collectors ringing over LW debt (actually my brothers debt in my name, grrr family!). Anyways I have the money to fully pay off the debt now, so do I have to pay it to Interim or can I just pay LW directly?

I imagine your credit rating is as bad as it's going to get. If I were in your position I'd ring up and look to get a discount based on a final payment. Could offer them 50%. I would try IJ first.

CeilingFly

rawn wrote: »

Sorry to bump an old thread but I can't find a definite answer to the question!

I have debt collectors ringing over LW debt (actually my brothers debt in my name, grrr family!). Anyways I have the money to fully pay off the debt now, so do I have to pay it to Interim or can I just pay LW directly?

If its recent and you just got the letter, ring IJ immediately and pay it off and also explain it was a family member who used your name - they can add this to any notes on the account and hopefully it doesn't affect you.

Whilst they are not a member of the iCB, IJ do provide credit reports to some companies including utility / mobile phone / other goods credit providers (Littlewoods and the like)

They act as a debt collector on behalf of a company.

If the debt cannot be collected and the client company puts the debt into non-recoverable file, they may also then purchase the debt and try and then collect part of it - but a debt would need to be well over 12 months old for that situation and many attempts to collect on behalf of the owner of the debt having taken place.

rawn

It's recent enough, i think he stopped making the repayments only a few months ago, there's 2 accounts and both owe a total of 440 between them. He gave me the full amount to pay off, I'm just not sure if I go to lw or ij. No repayment plan needed, just pay all off in one go. I don't want to give them his name or anything, he went through a horrible experience and he's just coming out of it now and starting to fix things.

lawred2

childsplay wrote: »

How did you forget to pay them? If you owe it pay it. Your credit rating will be destroyed and you won't be able to get credit with anyone else if you don't.

it's best not to offer advice when you don't know what you are talking about

A strike against a person's credit record can only be done by financial institution or the courts. And those institutions must be members of the ICB.

Neither of which this shower of debt collectors are... They will have picked up this unpaid debt for about 1c in the euro and will try all bullying tactics available to get that back.

OP - don't be afraid of them. It's ALL bluster. Offer to settle for €100 with them. Or offer to enter into a monthly repayment of something hilariously small.

I'd also avoid buying things you can't afford. Nobody 'forgets' their debts.

Their behavior doesn't excuse yours.

CeilingFly

lawred2 wrote: »

it's best not to offer advice when you don't know what you are talking about

A strike against a person's credit record can only be done by financial institution or the courts. And those institutions must be members of the ICB.

Neither of which this shower of debt collectors are... They will have picked up this unpaid debt for about 1c in the euro and will try all bullying tactics available to get that back.
.

You should heed your own advice and not advise when you do not understand how these places work.

I engaged a similar company a while ago to chase some customers and know precisely how they work.

It is highly unlikely they have purchased the debt. That only comes at the end of the initial process.

Yes it can affect credit rating with any commercial company that uses them for credit reports. - People don't just get credit from banks.

So take heed of your own advice and don't proffer advice on something you don't know about

lawred2

CeilingFly wrote: »

You should heed your own advice and not advise when you do not understand how these places work.

I engaged a similar company a while ago to chase some customers and know precisely how they work.

It is highly unlikely they have purchased the debt. That only comes at the end of the initial process.

Yes it can affect credit rating with any commercial company that uses them for credit reports. - People don't just get credit from banks.

So take heed of your own advice and don't proffer advice on something you don't know about

They have no capabilities to affect anyone's credit rating without going through the courts.

I'm not sure what credit ratings you're on about

L1011

lawred2 wrote: »

They have no capabilities to affect anyone's credit rating without going through the courts.

I'm not sure what credit ratings you're on about

There is no such concept as a single credit rating. You are talking about the ICB one as if it is the only one. And ICB members don't need court orders.

Equifax and Experian trade in Ireland and are extensively used by mobile firms, hire purchase firms etc. These get credit data from a significantly wider range of sources than the ICB do (and yes, you will have given consent for the lender to submit data to them in the loan contract).

The state Central Credit Register also records data from various non-bank/credit union sources and will expand this in the future.

So while defaulting with Littlewoods or a phone company may not affect a mortgage application (and certainly didn't in the past) you may find it impossible to get a bill pay phone, be requested to pay hefty deposits on energy supply contracts, or bin contracts, or be refused direct debit payments for car insurance, or anything else involving a credit agreement.

lawred2

L1011 wrote: »

There is no such concept as a single credit rating. You are talking about the ICB one as if it is the only one. And ICB members don't need court orders.

Equifax and Experian trade in Ireland and are extensively used by mobile firms, hire purchase firms etc. These get credit data from a significantly wider range of sources than the ICB do (and yes, you will have given consent for the lender to submit data to them in the loan contract).

The state Central Credit Register also records data from various non-bank/credit union sources and will expand this in the future.

Neither littlewoods nor IJ are ICB members

That and also recently the CCR are ultimately the only credit records that matter. Not too many people are overly concerned about credit scoring agencies for mobile phone contracts or store credit when discussing their credit record.

L1011

lawred2 wrote: »

Neither littlewoods nor IJ are ICB members

And as I said, that isn't the only credit rating.

CeilingFly

lawred2 wrote: »

They have no capabilities to affect anyone's credit rating without going through the courts.

I'm not sure what credit ratings you're on about

I use a credit checking service. They'll run the usual court judgement checks. They'll also run a check on their own files.
If someone I'm looking for a report on has had their debt from another client of the credit checking company transferred to the credit checking company, it results in the person being flagged.

No specific details are given, but a flagged person would suggest that you become more careful.

Almost every commercial company that supplies goods or services on credit will use such a service and with only two such services here that I know of, you'll find refusals for simple things such as post pay mobile service, utility bills and online stores that sell on credit (though at 40% interest, that is no bad thing)


As I said, its not just financial companies providing credit

L1011

lawred2 wrote: »

Not too many people are overly concerned about credit scoring agencies for mobile phone contracts or store credit when discussing their credit record.

When you find you're being turned down for direct debit for life insurance for that mortgage you did get, it becomes a problem.

snowcat

CeilingFly wrote: »

You should heed your own advice and not advise when you do not understand how these places work.

I engaged a similar company a while ago to chase some customers and know precisely how they work.

It is highly unlikely they have purchased the debt. That only comes at the end of the initial process.

Yes it can affect credit rating with any commercial company that uses them for credit reports. - People don't just get credit from banks.

So take heed of your own advice and don't proffer advice on something you don't know about

Ceilingfly is correct.

snowcat

L1011 wrote: »

And as I said, that isn't the only credit rating.

Every business and client have a credit rating between themselves. The only important one in Ireland is the icb for general lending and that is the one used by banks and credit unions. Utilties etc are not on this. A judgement MIGHT get you on this. which is the only way for a utility to pursue a debt.

lawred2

L1011 wrote: »

When you find you're being turned down for direct debit for life insurance for that mortgage you did get, it becomes a problem.

I get car insurance is annual and a direct debit allows you to repay that premium in 10-12 installments..

So are you saying that a life insurance policy over 30 years is purchased upfront? I doubt it.

Where is the credit facility?

L1011

lawred2 wrote: »

I get car insurance is annual and a direct debit allows you to repay that premium in 10-12 installments..

So are you saying that a life insurance policy over 30 years is purchased upfront? I doubt it.

Where is the credit facility?

You show up as a credit risk on an insurers system and you aren't going to be offered a reducing-term insurance premium as a result. The legal costs of even succesfully defending a claim by the bank you've assigned the policy to if you stop paying and then die would make it not worth it. And insurers do use the third party credit reference agencies

Basically - yes, not paying a HP agreement can make your life difficult and there is no single concept of a "credit record" like you claimed.

rawn

rawn wrote:

I have debt collectors ringing over LW debt (actually my brothers debt in my name, grrr family!). Anyways I have the money to fully pay off the debt now, so do I have to pay it to Interim or can I just pay LW directly?

If anyone else is looking for an answer to this question...

I payed the full amount owed a few days ago directly to LW online, and I haven't had a single call from IJ since. I wasn't sure if IJ and LW would still have any communication but it seems they do.

Now, how do I close my LW account

CeilingFly

rawn wrote: »

If anyone else is looking for an answer to this question...

I payed the full amount owed a few days ago directly to LW online, and I haven't had a single call from IJ since. I wasn't sure if IJ and LW would still have any communication but it seems they do.

Now, how do I close my LW account

Of course they have communication - the debt collection is simply outsourced to IJ. Its one of the services IJ provide amongst others and it would be very much interlinked with the company they are supplying the service to.

Another service IJ have is they purchase obsolete debt (yours was not an obsolete debt) and in that situation they own the debt.


As for closing the account - under gdpr rules you can have all details deleted except those required for specific purposes such as accounting/tax purposes