Fee Paying Debt Companies......

indebt2009 · 21 November 2009 at 5:00PM

Does anyone use a free paying company like
Gregory pennington, Debt Free Helpline, or Baines and Earnst?

Why would someone go to a fee paying company other than the free ones like National debtline or CCCS... Is it the service or the fact that you may have to wait a couple of weeks?
Which ones are the best ones to go or charity.. or fee paying..

Thanks

bikerboi87 · 21 November 2009 at 5:03PM

while i'm not an expert, going from what i've seen here, the virtually unanimous opinion is go with the free ones

DarkConvict · 21 November 2009 at 5:05PM

The only reason is speed, the free helplines often have waiting lists, maybe upto 4 weeks to get you onto an advisor for something like an IVA etc. Not everyone is willing to wait.

Personally i would use a free one, for the sole reason is you want to pay off your debts, not spend that money on someone to help deal with it, if the advice is free elsewhere.

indebt2009 · 21 November 2009 at 5:07PM

ive got £33,000 debt and i just cant wait any longer.. surely you have to pay IP fees for an IVA if its a charity or not.... Is that true?

crapwithcash82 · 21 November 2009 at 5:08PM

I foolishly went with a fee paying company when I had my semi-lightbulb moment back in 2007. Mainly because I couldn't get another consolidation loan and my details were passed to Debt Free Helpline (DFH), who then called me and were very helpful. At the time, I had no idea that this site existed or that there were free debt charities that could have helped, plus I had just had our daughter and wasn't really in money mode. I still maintain that had I found this site back then I would have been in a much better financial situation than I am in now.

However, I stopped using DFH this year when I realised that I was paying them £308 to pay my creditors and the total that they paid the creditors only came to £246 :O I wrote them a firm letter, gave them the 30 days notice and contacted my creditors directly and advised them that I would be taking back control of my accounts myself.

I've never had any hassle with any creditors, since taking back contorl of my accounts myself, they accept my monthly payments which now come straight from my bank account instead of through a 3rd (rip off) party.

I would defiantely avoid these fee charging companies at all costs.....

Tixy · 21 November 2009 at 5:16PM

In the case of an IVA its true that high fees are charged no matter who you approach, for that reason its always worth getting advice from a couple of different places (including at least one from this recommended list - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan#help.) as there is a lot of money to be made from IVAs and they are only truly suitable for a small number of people its not something to rush in to.

For DMPs the free organisations (not all are charities) do not charge a fee. The most common reason people end up with fee paying DMPs is that they don't know there is an alternative.

Treacle1983 · 22 November 2009 at 12:30AM

I went with gregory pennington for over a year.
it was about £47 a month for their fee's and managed bank account.

I was able to let them take over all my post and calls from creditors and negotiate on my behalf.

They managed to totally wipeout a £900 phone bill with vodaphone in one call - my ex had run it up and as I couldn't get the phone off him to return it to them to cancel the account - they kept adding charges etc..

It took a lot of my stress away and was well worth the money.

I had a named person that dealt with everything and was always easy to get hold of.

I am now almost debt free and managing the last few debts myself - they are all interest free thanks to greg penn.

I have also kept the managed bank account which costs about £8 a month as it is fab - Money goes in account A - they hold all my d/d's and bill money and put whats left into account B. And no more bank charges ever.

unhappy_with_ecar · 22 November 2009 at 2:19AM

Many people tackle problems themselves and seek advice through CAB, National debtline and of course this site. I deal with people's debts on a professional basis and yes I charge a fee.
What's right for one person is not necessarily right for someone else. Some people do very well with the free support and others do equally well with paid help.
As treacle says, there can be benefits from paid help. All of my clients are able to speak directly to me at anytime they need to. I speak directly to their creditors and negotiate on their behalf. Under the OFT guidelines their creditors are not allowed to speak to them personally once I am involved and therefore it takes away the stress. They can forward their post to me and I deal with that. And of course the creditors approach with me is very different to the way they might speak to the debtor directly as they are fully aware that I know the rules and what they can and can't do. Indeed most companies will have specific departments that deal with debt companies. And of course I know from experience how different creditors will respond which leaves me in a better position to negotiate the right deal for my client.
Often the removal of stress and the calls and letters stopping is enough in itself for people to seek private help.

I think they key though to paid help is who you get that help from. There are some very good private debt companies out there, sadly though there are too many that will just try and push you down the route of an IVA because they can make more money from you that way, when often and IVA is the last thing you need.

Tixy · 22 November 2009 at 2:31AM

unhappy_with_ecar wrote: »

Many people tackle problems themselves and seek advice through CAB, National debtline and of course this site. I deal with people's debts on a professional basis and yes I charge a fee.
What's right for one person is not necessarily right for someone else. Some people do very well with the free support and others do equally well with paid help.
As treacle says, there can be benefits from paid help. All of my clients are able to speak directly to me at anytime they need to. I speak directly to their creditors and negotiate on their behalf. Under the OFT guidelines their creditors are not allowed to speak to them personally once I am involved and therefore it takes away the stress. They can forward their post to me and I deal with that. And of course the creditors approach with me is very different to the way they might speak to the debtor directly as they are fully aware that I know the rules and what they can and can't do. Indeed most companies will have specific departments that deal with debt companies. And of course I know from experience how different creditors will respond which leaves me in a better position to negotiate the right deal for my client.
Often the removal of stress and the calls and letters stopping is enough in itself for people to seek private help.

I think they key though to paid help is who you get that help from. There are some very good private debt companies out there, sadly though there are too many that will just try and push you down the route of an IVA because they can make more money from you that way, when often and IVA is the last thing you need.

The no-fee DMP organisations will also do all this for you and without the customer having a proportion of their repayment taken as fees and not distributed to creditors. So with a no-fee DMP your creditors all get slightly more each month and therefore you become debt free quicker.

DarkConvict · 22 November 2009 at 2:43AM

At the end of the day, the no-fee companies are charities not businesses, the main difference is been a charity they don't charge for their effort.

Sure, it is worth paying for the service (within reasonable limits as some are over the top) but the charities are more than happy to do what they do at not cost to the customer.

Mrs_Ryan · 22 November 2009 at 11:29PM

Im with Kensington - their fee isnt as bad as some. I tried all the so-called debt charities and none of them wanted to know, all they said was that with sufficient surplus income to pay my creditors (14 of them) on paper, and no outgoings, why I was asking for help as to them it seemed I could pay my bills... but I couldnt, that was the whole point!
I realise that the free debt charities are really good for some people, and I directed OH's mate towards Payplan who have helped him out, but in my case it wasnt an option. I used to work in 3PDM liason for Capital One so I was well aware of the alternatives, but to me there wasnt really an alternative. They didnt try and push me into an IVA (in my case it isnt really suitable anyway) and talked me through everything, even when I was hesitant. I know there are some real bad guy fee-charging DMP companies out there... but not all of them are!

Fee Paying Debt Companies......

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free