Lowell: what a letter means and what to do

A first letter from Lowell often arrives out of the blue, sometimes years after the original account went wrong. It is not a court document. You have time to check the debt is yours, ask for information and get free advice before you pay or agree anything. This guide covers England and Wales; court procedure is different in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Who are Lowell, and why are they contacting you?

Lowell’s letters come from two linked companies, both registered at Companies House with a registered office in Leeds:

• Lowell Portfolio I Ltd (company number 04857418) is the part of Lowell that buys debts. When it buys a debt, it becomes the legal owner.
• Lowell Financial Ltd (company number 04558936) is the part that contacts customers and collects payments for Lowell Portfolio I.

Lowell Financial Ltd has been authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority since 21 June 2017, firm reference number 730175. Its permissions include debt collecting, debt administration and exercising a lender’s rights under regulated credit agreements. Lowell Portfolio I Ltd’s own FCA registration (firm reference number 730071) has been marked “no longer authorised” since 18 August 2025, and the register records that Lowell Financial has accepted responsibility for its past regulated business.

Companies House shows both companies are owned by Metis Bidco Limited, a Lowell group holding company at the same Leeds address. The wider group says it operates in nine countries and also collects debts for other businesses, so check whether your letter says Lowell owns the debt or is collecting it for someone else. Lowell says it is a member of the Credit Services Association, the debt collection trade body, and follows its code of practice.

What kind of debts does Lowell buy?

Lowell says it buys debts from banks and lenders (loans, overdrafts and credit cards), energy and water suppliers, phone, broadband and TV providers, and catalogues and online shops. It has a page for customers whose Lloyds Banking Group accounts were sold to it, noting brands such as MBNA, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, so the original name may not be the one you expect.

Debt purchaser or debt collector: which is Lowell?

For most people who hear from Lowell, it is a debt purchaser: it owns the debt. That changes who you deal with.

For a regulated credit agreement, the law treats whoever the rights have passed to by assignment as the creditor, so your Consumer Credit Act rights now apply against Lowell.

What is a notice of assignment?

When a debt is sold, the sale only takes full legal effect once you have been given express notice of it in writing. That letter, usually called a notice of assignment, should name the debt and say it must now be paid to the new owner. Lowell says both it and the original creditor send one when a debt is sold.

A sale does not need your agreement: the law only requires that you are told in writing. Lowell says your rights do not change when your account is sold to it. If you are not sure the debt really was sold, ask the original company, using details from your own paperwork or its official website, to confirm who owns the account now.

Lowell Solicitors and Overdales

If a Lowell account goes to court, the legal work is done by a separate law firm in the Lowell group. Lowell names its solicitors as Overdales, authorised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority under SRA number 806769. You may also see older letters from Lowell Solicitors Limited. That company changed its name to Lowell Legal Limited in April 2024 and is now listed as dormant, and Overdales says it has taken over a number of cases Lowell Solicitors used to handle. Our guide to Overdales Solicitors covers its letters in detail.

Is the debt yours, and is the amount right?

Debts are often sold more than once, and details can go wrong. Check before you pay or admit anything.

1. Compare the letter with your own records: the original company, the account number, your address at the time and the balance.
2. Write to Lowell asking for the original creditor’s name, the original account number, the date the debt was sold to Lowell, the date of default and a breakdown of the balance. FCA rules say firms must give you information about the arrears and the balance. Our guide on how to ask a creditor to prove a debt has a step-by-step approach.
3. For a loan, credit card or other regulated credit agreement, you can ask Lowell, as the new creditor, for a copy of the agreement and a statement, by writing and paying £1. It has 12 working days to reply and cannot enforce the agreement while it fails to do so. Lowell says that if it cannot supply the agreement the debt is still owed but cannot be enforced in court until it can, and that for accounts that are not regulated credit agreements, or were current accounts, it sends statements instead.
4. Check your credit file with Experian, Equifax and TransUnion to see whether the account is listed and when it defaulted.
5. If the debt is old, check whether it could be statute-barred. In England and Wales most debts cannot be recovered through the courts once 6 years have passed from when the creditor could first sue, but a payment or signed written acknowledgement before then restarts the clock.

If you dispute the debt, say so in writing and give your reasons. Where a debt is disputed on valid grounds, or what appear to be valid grounds, the firm must suspend collection, investigate and tell you the outcome. It must not keep pursuing someone it knows, or believes, might not owe the money. If you tell it the debt is statute-barred, it must not keep demanding payment.

What can Lowell do, and what can it not do?

These limits come from the FCA’s debt collection rules in CONC 7, which cover credit debts such as loans and credit cards. For a debt that was never credit, such as some utility bills, the FCA rules may not apply, although the law against harassment still does.

Lowell also says it will not charge interest or admin fees while you work with it, and will not send enforcement officers or issue CCJs without first trying to work out a solution with you.

What should you do at each stage?

When the first letter or notice arrives

Read it, even if you cannot pay, check the details as above and reply in writing if anything is wrong. If you are getting debt advice, tell Lowell: a firm told that you, or someone helping you, is working out a repayment plan must pause active collection for a reasonable period. You can also ask to be contacted in writing only.

If you can pay something

Work out a budget first, so you know what is left after rent or mortgage, council tax, energy and food. Those priority bills come before a debt like this one. The firm must consider a reasonable offer and explain clearly if it refuses. If it agrees to a reduced settlement, get the agreement in writing before you pay.

Paying does not wipe the account from your credit file. Lowell says a default stays for six years from the date of default whether or not you pay, and that the account is marked “satisfied” if you pay in full or “partially satisfied” if you settle at a discount. It updates the credit reference agencies monthly.

If you cannot pay

Do not ignore it. Tell Lowell you are getting free debt advice, and get it. An adviser can check whether the debt is enforceable, help with an offer, or talk through a formal solution.

If you get a Letter of Claim

A Letter of Claim is the formal warning a business must send before suing an individual. For a Lowell account it will usually come from Overdales, with an information sheet, a reply form and a financial statement.

• You have 30 days from the date on the letter to send back the reply form, where you can dispute the debt, ask for documents, offer payments or say you are getting debt advice.
• If you say you are getting debt advice, the creditor should not start court action until at least 30 days after it receives your reply form.
• If you agree a repayment plan, it should not start court action while you keep to it.

If a court claim form arrives

A claim form means court action has started, usually through Money Claim Online. Respond by the date on it. You can pay, admit the debt and offer instalments, or defend all or part of it, and if you are not paying in full you can ask for another 14 days. Our guide to a Money Claim Online claim form goes through each option. Lowell says that once an account goes through the legal process, fees, charges and interest may be added to the balance.

If you get a County Court Judgment

Ignoring a claim usually leads to judgment. A county court judgment (CCJ) is removed from the register if you pay it in full within one calendar month; otherwise it stays for 6 years from the judgment date, marked satisfied once paid. If a judgment is not paid as ordered, Lowell says its solicitors may take enforcement action, including enforcement agents (bailiffs). Judgments on regulated consumer credit agreements can only be enforced in the County Court. Other routes include an attachment of earnings order or a charging order on property you own.

How do debt solutions affect Lowell?

Lowell is an unsecured creditor like any other, so the usual options apply:

• Breathing Space: creditors cannot contact you about included debts, add interest or charges, or take enforcement action, for up to 60 days (England and Wales only).
• A debt management plan: one monthly payment shared between creditors. It is informal, so creditors do not have to agree, freeze interest or stop action.
• An IVA: a legally binding agreement under the Insolvency Act 1986. Creditors bound by it cannot take further action to recover the debts included in it. Protocol IVAs usually last 5 or 6 years, fees come out of your payments, and it usually stays on your credit file for 6 years from the start. If a debt in your IVA is sold to Lowell, tell your insolvency practitioner. See does an IVA stop debt collectors?
• A debt relief order: for debts under £50,000, less than £75 a month spare, assets under £2,000 and a vehicle worth less than £4,000. Creditors cannot pursue listed debts during the order without the court’s permission.
• Bankruptcy: after a bankruptcy order, creditors owed debts in the bankruptcy have no remedy against your property or you personally for those debts.

Each option has costs, conditions and long-term effects, and none suits everyone. The debt solutions comparison sets them side by side. IVAs, debt relief orders and Breathing Space are not available in Scotland.

How do you complain about Lowell?

1. Complain to Lowell first, using the complaints form on its website or the details on your paperwork. Say what happened, with dates, and what you want done. Lowell says it aims to send a final response within 8 weeks.
2. For a credit debt, if you are unhappy with the final response, or 8 weeks have passed, you can take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. You normally have 6 months from the final response.
3. If your complaint is about something Overdales has done, complain to Overdales. Serious conduct concerns about a solicitor can also go to the SRA.

Harassing someone with payment demands calculated to cause alarm, distress or humiliation, or falsely claiming official authority to collect a debt, can be a criminal offence. Our guide to dealing with debt collectors explains your wider rights.

Is this letter, call or email really from Lowell?

Lowell warns that fraudsters pretend to collect payments for it, including scam emails that list several debt companies at once in the hope that one is familiar.

• Genuine letters name the original creditor and give a Lowell reference number.
• Lowell says it does not email customers asking them to sign documents electronically, and does not ask for bank details over the phone unless you called it.
• If a call seems suspicious, hang up and ring back using the number on your letter or Lowell’s official website, not the number that called you. Lowell Financial Ltd is also on the FCA register (firm reference number 730175).
• Be wary of any message that rushes or threatens you, or asks you to pay into an account you do not recognise.

What to do next

1. Check the letter against your records and write to Lowell asking for anything you need, including the original creditor and a breakdown of the balance.
2. If you cannot pay, tell Lowell you are getting debt advice, so collection pauses while you work out a plan.
3. Get free, impartial debt advice from MoneyHelper, StepChange, Citizens Advice or National Debtline. See where to get free debt advice.
4. If a Letter of Claim or court claim arrives, note the deadline and reply in time. Keep copies of everything.