Disputes about debt collection can be a nightmare to navigate, especially when the debt in question is handed from company to company for collection.
By the time Anca Popoviciu opened a letter from Baycorp, it had been with four different companies and she’d already proved she was a fraud victim, not a dodgy debtor.
“I thought it was done. I thought it was over and I had sorted it,” Popoviciu said.
The new mum had fought to clear her name nearly two years ago.
“My limited knowledge about Baycorp is that they're way bigger and I'm going to have an even bigger fight on my hands now."
Her first fight had been with Genesis Energy and the company it sold her debt to, Southern Receivables, which in turn is part of another debt collection company, Collection House.
Apparently, she had a “bad debt” - a very overdue power bill - of $419.75 with Genesis Energy, but Popoviciu knew it couldn’t be hers. The account was seven years old and opened for a Rotorua address, when she lived on Kāpiti Coast.
“I had to go and prove that it wasn't me, so I had to file a police report. I then had to provide evidence of where I was living at the time.”
In early 2021, Southern Receivables accepted this must have been a fraud – a clear case of identity theft - but only verbally, over the phone.
What’s more, she had to present all that evidence again to Genesis Energy. She also asked how someone could have misused her name to open an account.
“They wouldn't tell me, and they never put anything in writing either.”
Harried and pregnant, she let it lie thinking the matter was resolved - after all that’s what two companies had now told her.
Eighteen months later she was forced to start over with Baycorp now chasing her for a debt that had come back to life.
Back on the phone, Southern Receivables admitted again to Popviciu that it looked like it hadn’t closed the file properly before it was on-sold to Baycorp, along with a parcel of other debts for collection.
“I basically begged the guy to please put this down into writing, please alert your team leaders,” she told Fair Go.
Baycorp escalated the matter when Fair Go called – and quickly apologised.
“The account was assigned to us in error. We have now closed the file,” says Amanda O’Neill from Credit Corp, Baycorp’s Australian owner.
Southern Receivables’ owner added: “Regrettably, due to human error the account was not closed correctly".
"This was despite being notified by the customer for which we apologise,” says Collection House NZ country manager Lance Crooks, who also sent Popoviciu a signed letter confirming the account was closed with no debt owed by her.
Genesis Energy says someone had misused a copy of Popviciu’s driver's licence to open the account which “came back from the external credit check agency with a top pass mark and no issues”, company spokesperson Chris Mirams said.
“Anca contacted us a number of times seeking confirmation the debt was retracted and what had been provided to open the account.
“We focused on the debt being retracted and not on the other information she had asked for. We’ll be apologising to her for that.”
Genesis has also offered to arrange a credit with the power company that Popviciu actually uses. She now considers this case closed.
For those who still doubt they owe a debt, it's important to remember you need to dispute it as soon as possible with the collection company and insist on written communication. You will need to prove your case but should only need to do that once.
The Financial Services Federation says depending on their structure, most debt collection agencies are required to be registered on the Financial Services Providers’ Register (FSPR).
“A requirement of that registration is that all these entities must belong to an independent government-approved disputes resolution scheme,” said Foundation executive director Lyn McMorran.
Whichever one the debt collector uses, it needs to say so prominently on the bill it has sent.
If a debt collector must belong to a scheme, it’ll be one of four official ones: the Banking Ombudsman Scheme, Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO), the Financial Services Complaints Ltd (FSCL) or Financial Dispute Resolution Service (FDR).
Contact information for disputes resolution schemes
Banking Ombudsman Scheme
0800 805 950 - help@bankomb.org.nz - www.bankomb.org.nz
Insurance & Financial Services Ombudsman (IFSO)
0800 888 202 - info@ifso.org.nz - www.ifso.nz
Financial Services Complaints Ltd (FSCL)
0800 347 257 - info@fscl.org.nz - www.fscl.org.nz
Financial Dispute Resolution Service (FDR)
0508 337 337 - enquiries@fdrs.org.nz - www.fdrs.org.nz
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