Link Financial: Are They Bailiffs, and Do You Have to Pay?

The car finance point, first

If your agreement was hire purchase, conditional sale or PCP, the usual ways a car is financed, then the finance company, not you, owns the vehicle until the agreement ends. That sounds bad, and in one respect it is: they have a route to recover the car that an ordinary lender does not have.

But it comes with a condition that works strongly in your favour.

Under section 90 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, once you have paid one third or more of the total price, the goods become "protected". At that point the creditor "is not entitled to recover possession of the goods from the debtor except on an order of the court".

In plain terms: once you have paid a third, nobody can simply come and take the car. They must go to court first, and you get the chance to be heard and to propose a way of paying.

Three things worth knowing about that:

• The total price includes interest, fees and any deposit, not just the cash price of the car. Work out the third from the total payable figure on the agreement.

• Giving consent removes the protection. If you voluntarily hand the vehicle over, no court order is needed. Be careful about agreeing to a collection on the phone.

• It does not apply to a personal loan used to buy a car. There the car is already yours, so there is nothing to repossess, the debt is an ordinary unsecured one.

If you are close to the one-third point, that arithmetic is worth doing before you agree to anything.

Who they are

Link has been operating since 1998 and says it has dealt with more than four million people. The group services consumer, small-business and leasing credit across a number of European countries, and its UK customer operation is at Brecon House, Caerphilly Business Park, Caerphilly CF83 3GQ.

It publishes 0333 014 5145, written on its own site as 03330 145 145, which is the same number. An 03 number is charged at the standard landline rate and comes out of inclusive mobile minutes, so it is not premium rate despite the unfamiliar prefix. Lines are open 8am to 6pm.

Link appears in the members' directory of the Finance & Leasing Association, which is the trade body for motor and asset finance rather than for general debt collection, consistent with the specialism above.

Check the company number on your own letter

Letters in this group can arrive under more than one name, and the registers now let us be precise about which entity is which.

Link Financial Outsourcing Limited is the FCA-authorised entity, and it is the one whose conduct the FCA rules bind and whose complaints the Financial Ombudsman Service will consider. A search of the FCA register for "Link Financial" alone does not return Link Financial Limited, which is why the position looks confusing from the outside.

Other companies in the group appear on the register too, including Link Financial Management Limited (03646550) and Link Financial Partners LLP (OC419927).

What to do with that. Take the company name and number printed on your own letter and look it up free at Companies House, and check any FRN quoted against the FCA register. If a letter quotes no company number at all, that is itself worth questioning. That is the reliable check, and it is the right habit for any collection letter, the details in the letter should match a real registered company.

One other thing that causes needless worry: their website is at a .eu address rather than .co.uk. That is a group-wide domain reflecting their European operations, not a sign of anything irregular.

Do they buy the debt or collect it?

Both, depending on the account, and your letter should make clear which.

Where Link has bought the debt, they are the creditor. You should have received a Notice of Assignment telling you ownership had transferred. They can then sue in their own name, and, because they bought at a discount, a reduced full-and-final settlement can still be profitable for them, so it is genuinely worth asking.

Where Link is servicing an account for the original lender, that lender still owns it. You can deal with them directly instead if you prefer, and they may take the account back.

Will Link Financial send bailiffs?

Not directly, and not at this stage. A debt collection company has no enforcement powers at all, it cannot enter your home, take goods, clamp a vehicle or add enforcement fees.

What can eventually happen is that a creditor goes to court, obtains a judgment, and enforces that judgment. Enforcement agents only become involved after that, and only under a warrant or writ. The route and the fees are set out below.

The exception is the car itself, and it works differently from bailiff enforcement: repossession under a hire purchase or conditional sale agreement is about the finance company recovering its own property, and once you have paid a third it needs a court order to do it.

How old is the debt?

Because Link buys accounts that have often been in default for some time, the age of the debt is worth establishing before you respond.

Under section 5 of the Limitation Act 1980, most unsecured consumer debts cannot be enforced through the courts more than six years after the last payment or written acknowledgement, provided no claim was issued in that window. Making a payment, or acknowledging the debt in writing, restarts that clock, which is why it is worth working out where you stand before replying to a letter about an old account.

Motor finance agreements are treated as ordinary contracts for this purpose, so the same six-year period applies to the money side of the debt.

Two guides are worth reading alongside this one: statute-barred debt, for the six-year rule and what restarts it, and bailiffs and debt collectors, for the powers a collection agency does not have. For the general position see what debt collectors can and cannot do.

Before you pay

Ask for the agreement and a statement of account. For a regulated credit agreement you can request a copy of the executed agreement, and if it cannot be produced the debt is unenforceable through the courts for as long as that remains the case.

On a motor finance account, ask specifically for a breakdown showing the total price, everything paid to date, and the resulting percentage. That single figure decides whether the vehicle is protected, and it is the number most worth having in writing.

If you cannot pay

Offer what is genuinely sustainable after rent, food, heating and travel. Link, like most purchasers, accepts long instalment arrangements, and a modest arrangement that holds is worth more than a large one that collapses.

If a car is involved, say early if you need it for work, for a disability, or for caring responsibilities. That is directly relevant to how the account is handled and to what a court would consider.

Complaining

Complain to Link first and allow eight weeks. If it is unresolved, the Financial Ombudsman Service will review it free of charge, the route for FCA-regulated firms, and a different one from the Enforcement Conduct Board, which covers bailiffs.

Grounds worth raising include pressing a debt you have formally disputed, failing to produce the agreement when asked, contact frequent enough to amount to harassment, ignoring evidence of vulnerability, or attempting to recover a vehicle without a court order where a third has been paid.

Free advice is available from Citizens Advice, StepChange and National Debtline. If a car is at risk, or you are not sure whether a Link account is still enforceable, we can help you work out where you stand before you agree to anything.