Opos: what a letter means and what to do

A letter from Opos is a request to pay, not a court document. Opos is collecting for someone else, so the first job is to work out which company it is acting for and whether that company’s bill or account is right. You have time to check, ask questions and get free advice.

Who are Opos, and why are they contacting you?

The company is Opos Limited, registered in Scotland under company number SC338837. It was incorporated on 4 March 2008, is active, and has its registered office in Dumbarton, near Glasgow. Companies House lists one individual as its person with significant control, rather than a parent group.

Opos has been authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority since 28 April 2016, firm reference number 693817. Its permissions are debt collecting and debt administration, and it cannot hold client money. Unlike debt buyers such as Lowell or Cabot, it does not hold permission to exercise a lender’s rights under credit agreements.

Opos describes itself as a credit management company providing debt collection and business process outsourcing to clients in the banking, utility, telecoms and retail finance sectors, from its service centre in West Dunbartonshire. It says it is a member of the Credit Services Association, the debt collection trade body, and of the Money Advice Liaison Group.

Who is Opos collecting for?

Opos’s customer website says that if you have had a letter from it, “we have been instructed to act on behalf of our client” to resolve the account you have with that client. In other words, you normally still owe the original company, and Opos is its agent. The letter should name the client. Anyone collecting a credit debt must explain who they work for and why they are in touch.

Some debt buyers also use Opos. PRA Group, for example, lists Opos Limited among the companies it may appoint to help manage its accounts. In that case the debt is owned by the buyer, and our guide to PRA Group explains how that works.

Does the type of debt matter?

Yes. Many Opos accounts are household bills rather than credit.

The FCA’s debt collecting activity covers debts due under credit agreements. Energy arrears are a priority debt because of what the supplier can do if they are not paid. Our guide to gas, electricity and water debt explains your rights with suppliers.

Is the debt yours, and is the amount right?

Check before you pay or admit anything.

1. Find the client’s name and your original account number on the letter, and compare them with your own bills or statements.
2. Ask Opos in writing, or through its customer website, for the name of the client, the account number, a breakdown of the balance and, for a bill, copies of the invoices it is based on. See how to ask a creditor to prove a debt.
3. For a regulated credit agreement, ask the creditor that owns the debt for a copy of the agreement and a statement, with a £1 fee. It has 12 working days to reply and cannot enforce the agreement while it fails to do so.
4. Check your credit file with Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.
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. In Scotland, most debts are wiped out after 5 years without court action, a payment or a written acknowledgement.

How to dispute an Opos account

Opos’s customer website has a “raise a dispute” option. The reasons it lists include that the balance was already paid to the client, a payment plan is already in place with the client, the client has not provided a copy of the invoice, meter readings were wrong or estimated, and not recognising the account because of fraud. Opos says that after reviewing a dispute it may reopen the account, close it and return it to the client, or put it on hold while the client looks into it.

Put your dispute in writing and keep a copy. For a credit debt, where there are valid grounds, or what appear to be, the firm must suspend collection, investigate and tell you the outcome. If the problem is with the original bill, raise it with the client company as well.

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

For credit debts these limits come from the FCA’s CONC 7 rules. Whatever the debt, harassing someone with demands designed to cause alarm, distress or humiliation, or falsely claiming official authority to collect, can be a criminal offence in England and Wales.

Court action is for the company that owns the debt to decide. In England and Wales it should first send a Letter of Claim giving you 30 days to reply, and saying you are getting debt advice should hold off court action for at least 30 days after it receives your reply. Bailiffs could only become involved after the owner gets a court judgment and asks the court to enforce it.

What should you do at each stage?

When the letter arrives

Read it and identify the client. If the debt is right and you can pay, you can arrange a plan through Opos. If you are getting debt advice, tell Opos: a firm collecting a credit debt that is told you, or an adviser, are working out a repayment plan must pause active collection for a reasonable period.

If you want to make an offer

Work out a budget first. Opos’s customer website lets you complete an income and expenditure form and propose a payment plan, and it refers to the Standard Financial Statement, the budget format used across the debt advice sector. Put priority bills first. Get any agreed plan or settlement in writing.

If you are in a vulnerable situation

If illness, disability, bereavement or another difficulty affects how you deal with the debt, tell Opos. Its customer website has a way to register a vulnerability.

If you get court papers

If a Letter of Claim or court claim arrives from the client or its solicitors, respond by the deadline. You can ask for another 14 days to respond to a claim if you are not paying in full. A county court judgment stays on the register for 6 years unless you pay it in full within one calendar month.

If you live in Scotland

Opos is based in Scotland and collects across the UK. Scottish court procedure and enforcement are different: see our guides to debt solutions in Scotland and what sheriff officers can do.

How do debt solutions affect Opos?

Because Opos collects for its client, any debt solution applies to the client’s debt:

• Breathing Space pauses contact, interest, charges and enforcement on included debts for up to 60 days (England and Wales only).
• A debt management plan is informal, so creditors do not have to agree, freeze interest or stop action.
• An IVA is 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.
• A debt relief order is for debts under £50,000, less than £75 a month spare, assets under £2,000 and a vehicle worth less than £4,000.
• In bankruptcy, creditors owed debts in the bankruptcy have no remedy against your property or you personally for those debts.

IVAs, debt relief orders and Breathing Space are not available in Scotland. The debt solutions comparison sets the options side by side.

How do you complain about Opos?

1. Use the complaints option on Opos’s customer website, or write using the details on your letter. You can say whether your complaint is about Opos or about its client. Opos says it acknowledges complaints that meet FCA criteria within 5 days and aims to send a final response within 4 weeks.
2. For a credit debt, if you are unhappy with the final response, or 8 weeks have passed, you can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service. You normally have 6 months from the final response.
3. Complain to the client company as well, especially if the problem is with the original bill.

Our guide to dealing with debt collectors explains your wider rights.

Is this letter really from Opos?

• A genuine letter names the client and gives an Opos reference, which you need to log in to its customer website.
• Use the contact details on your letter, Opos’s official website or the FCA register (firm reference number 693817). Do not rely on numbers or links in unexpected texts or emails.
• If unsure, ask the client company, using details you already trust, whether it passed your account to Opos.

What to do next

1. Identify the client and check the bill or account against your own records.
2. Dispute anything wrong in writing, or through Opos’s website, and keep copies.
3. Get free, impartial debt advice from MoneyHelper, StepChange, Citizens Advice or National Debtline. See where to get free debt advice.
4. If you get a Letter of Claim or court papers, reply by the deadline.