Spectrum

ash1_2 · 10 January 2006 at 12:10PM

Does anyone have any experince with Spectrum - a company that cherge people to help them through an IVA?

I'll explain our story.

My girlfriend built up debts of aprox £25000 before we met!

She tried to get help with Spectrum. They charged her £1100 and told her to stop paying her creditors and they would help through an IVA. This was six months ago! She has sent registered letter to them which they have received and not responded to. They do not call her back when promised and they have only contacted one creditor, which happens to be the lowest one!

She has now realised that Spectrum are a con and they are not actually doing anything for her. As she is now in danger of geting CCJ's

We rang all the crdidtors last night told them the story and we have agreed new payment terms with all of them at a managable monthly amount. So she has avoided CCJ by the skin of her teeth.

It took us 5 phone calls but has taken Spectrum 6 months to do nothing.

Does anyone know what chance she has off getting her £1100 back and how we should go about it?

mrelephant_2 · 10 January 2006 at 1:20PM

Dear ash1

I too have had a similar experience with Spectrum and have come to realise that they are a waste of time and last month chose to terminate my contract with them and go it alone with the help from Payplan who do not make any charges.

I am £60k in debt and was panicking in August last year, stupidly when i look back i chose to seek the help from Spectrum who promised that all my worries would be put to rest if i took out a DMP with them as at that time i could not afford an IVA nor was Bankrutacy an option.

They did contact all my creditors and agree £1token payments but that wasnt until i'd parted with @ £750 in charge fees and took them almost 4 mths to set up, which resulted in 4mths of me receiving continued phone calls and letters from my creditors saying they had not received payments or confirmation from Spectrum that a DMP was in place. Admittedly by the end of December i finally received confirmation that everything had been set up but i now realise that Spectrum hadn't done anything i couldn't have done myself, saving me 4mths of constant hassle and over £750 in fees, which when i look back could have been 750 £1 payments to my creditors.

At the end of December when the penny finally dropped after discovering this site and listeneing to the advice from others on here, I have now written to Spectrum to advise them i no longer wish to use there sercives and spoken to Payplan who are contacting me later this week to advice me of the best option to take regarding making repayments to my creditors.

How long it will take for Spectrum to respond to my cancellation i do not know, but no doubt they will expect some sort of additional payment for the services they have provided so far (in the contractual agreement with them, it states thta any cancellation may result in charges being made for work carried out). If anyone is or has been in the same situation i would like to hear how they went on.

So i suggest you bin Spectrum off and speak to Payplan or CCCS for free help. As to wether you will be able to get your money back i dont know, but if you or anyone else can advise on this matter i would love to hear from you as i too would like to know if i could claim my money back to for theoir poor service.

Derek.

fuzzgun19 · 10 January 2006 at 3:26PM

Take a look at this thread i was watching -

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=118802

I think its doubtfull you will get your money back.

ash1_2 · 10 January 2006 at 3:43PM

Thanks for that thread fuzz. Very helpful. I'll print it of and pass it to my girlfriend as she still has hope that spectrum will come back to her!!

At least i got her to speak to her creditiors last night that might have just saved the CCJ's

ash1_2 · 10 January 2006 at 3:46PM

Derek,

Im going to go all out to get my girlfriends £1100 back as these vultures should not be allowed to get away with it.

If you personal message me we can swap email addresses and keep in touch. Perhaps use each other cases to back ourselves up.

Has anyone else given them money and got nothing in return?

Ash.

Claireybella · 14 March 2006 at 7:25PM

Hi

SPECTRUM :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

I signed up with the very persuasive Spectrum salesman last October and paid them 3 installments of £389.66, stupidly yes I know but I was very desparate and it sounded so good.

4 months later I could never get hold of the advisors and they never called me back. My creditors were still contacting me. My boyfriend found out about what I had done and was sickened by the fact that I had paid them over £1,000 for nothing basically ! I then found out that Payplan did exactly the same for free. So I cancelled with Spectrum and they were fine but when I said I wanted my money back which the "salesman" said was for admin and legal fees they said no way. What I can't get as well is the fact that they did nothing until they got the 3rd payment from me. Also my creditors had never heard of them, funny that.

Anyway, to cut a short story long haha I am now still trying to get even half my money back and have gone to BBC's Watchdog about them. I'm hoping something can be done about them and please if you have had the same experience please please complain as well. The more the better.

I am very happy with how Payplan are dealing with my finances and it's all completely free !

Kind regards
Claire.

P.S. When I eventually got through to one of the advisors at Spectrum about Lloyds kept hassling me and sending me threatening letters she just explained what to do if a bailiff turned up. Thanks for that advice ! They make me so angry. :mad:

lynzpower · 14 March 2006 at 7:41PM

Can you guys not approach Trading Standards or OFt to get your money back ? Just a thought, I dont really know anything about them

Claireybella · 14 March 2006 at 7:43PM

Yeah they will be next on my list if Watchdog are not successful.

lynzpower · 14 March 2006 at 7:49PM

The OFT need to know about this company so they can close it down. I wonder how many unsuspecting poor folk have been unlucky enough to lose money to them ?

Claireybella · 14 March 2006 at 8:49PM

Yes I agree. I know of a few on another debt forum that were taken in by these cowboys.

The sad thing is I have been told that legally they is nothing that can be done.

Anyway, once I hear some more I will post........... :beer:

lynzpower · 14 March 2006 at 10:18PM

Isnt it shocking more cant be done

Do let us know what happens

Spectrum

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