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toffee_2
Posts: 61 Forumite
Hi i had a guy around toay from spectrum financial freedom and before i decide to give them some cash to act on my behalf i was wondering if anyone else has had any dealings with this firm.What i've got is dbts of nearly £20,000 and with myself been out of work now where starting to defult on them so i thought i'd get in touch with these guys and see if they can help me out.What they want is abou £300 a month for the first 3 months for there fees and then i start paying nearly £160 a month for them to dish out to the people i owe money to.So just wanting to see if anyone else has had dealings with these in the past or present.Maybe someone can advise me of somewhere better to go to.At the end of the day i need some help and i can se this is the only way.Thanks for looking and hopfully someone can give me some advice on what to do
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Hi,
This sounds like a total rip off to me, why dont you contact cccs or payplan which dont charge you anything and do exactly the same thing? Plus if your creditors are having to wait 3 months while you pay this spectrum firm they are going to add lots of interest. :rolleyes:I Hate Jobsworths!!!0 -
Don't waste money on them. As the last poster said, go with CCCS or Payplan - they are both free and will start paying your creditors straightaway. Creditors also prefer them. I'm with Payplan and they are very helpful, very experienced and every single penny I pay them goes straight to my creditors.0
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Ok thanks for the replys i've just rang payplan and these will ring me back tomorrow sometime.I've signed the paperwork for spectrum but no payments have been made to these.So i'll just wait now and see what payplan have to say tomorrow hopefully these can help me out bigtime0
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Like Poppy suggested, I would go to CCCS for your advice.
They are a registered charity. I went to them earlier this year, they listened to my situation, advised me in a non-judgmental way and dealt with some of my creditors for me.
Nine months later, I am happy I dealt with them. People like Spectrum charge you for services you can get for free.
Rip-offs IMO.
Best wishes
Martin0 -
Hi Toffee
I went the same route as you, i actually handed over some money too, 2 months worth and i doubt i shall see a penny of it back again..... what they tell you is that they can get things done that you cant yourself..... what i found whilst under there advicement was that..
1. they adviced me that as i didn't have enough to funds to pay my minimum payment then not to worry paying them at all, as i was entering into this agreement then any charges would be delt with later and it was totally fine..... now whilst this maybe true, let me tell you it's very annoying having your creditors calling you up asking whats going on and you don't have anything to tell them, they don't like it very much let me assure you.
2. they are very hard to get in contact with once you have signed up, this is both for you and your creditors. they do have a call back service where you leave your ref number and phone number, but i have never recived a call back from one of these yet.
3. I ended up booting them off the case in the end, i went to the national debtline website, they have lots of letter templates that you can use, including a personal budget that can be filled in with the help of acrobat reader.... if you send the letters in order then you can do the same as the big guy.... i am currently in negotiations with my creditors at the moment regarding repayment schemes and stopping interest and charges, it is a slow process and i think i may have hit a wall, so i have also gotten some help via CAB today and they are going to re-iterate what i have already told them, hopefully this way with the combined force of the CAB and myself we shall get this sorted out..... the main diffrence being.... The CAB is FREE!!!
personally i would steer clear of Spectrum as they are rip off merchants that don't deliver what they say will, and thats only in the set up stages, i'd hae to think what it would be like once they did get their butt into gear.
by the way..... your first £300 is spent sending a letter to all your creditors, and your second £300 is spent having a financial statement for you to check and ammend and well i never got to find out the third stage..... i have four creditors, you do not get a copy of all corrisbonce sent so i ended up paying £198 for the 3... yes 3 as i was dealing with one creditor myself...so £198 for 3 letters to be sent out.
i just did the same exact thing for 4 letters for £5.20 with recordered delivery.
Good Luck in what ever you choose
Carl0 -
Just repeating what everyone else has said! Don't go anywhere near them. Stick with Payplan. They are a registered charity so as people say won't charge you a penny. Everything you give them goes towards your debts. Also I hear the the lenders are more likely to be willing to deal with Payplan and CCCS as they know they aren't leaches like the rest of that scum.
Good luck.
SS0 -
Here here
The best advice anyone gave me was to call CCCS on 0800 138 1111
Changed my life for the better and for the good.
There are far too many people out there ready to make a quick buck out of the desperate. I had one firm quote me £3,000 plus VAT to handle my bancruptcy.
CCCS was free.
Good luck, and make sure you keep us all updated with your progress.There are many paths to tread to find true financial enlightenment, some of them are clear of obstacles, others have huge piles of doggie DooDoo in them in which one can easily tread. The journey is not made easier by the fact that the financial institutions blind fold us before we set out on our route.
Just to be clear, I am an IFA specialising in Mortgage Finance, any views expressed here are my personal opinions and are not to be construed as financial advice of any sort.If you like my comments please click the 'thanks' button0 -
ok been onto payplan 3 days ago and was told someone will be in touch but i'm still waiting for there call.Anyone no how long this takes or is it worth me ringing these again???0
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toffee wrote:ok been onto payplan 3 days ago and was told someone will be in touch but i'm still waiting for there call.Anyone no how long this takes or is it worth me ringing these again???
It won't hurt to ring them back. I get the impression they are always busy!0 -
Ok i rang payplan back and spoke to a guy who took some details from me.I was shocked to be told that they can't help me has i don't have enough money coming in for them to help me :eek: .The reason i rang these is because i no i don't have enough money coming in to pay out since i came out of work and now only have my partners money and our working family tax credits ect.They did tell me to write to all the companys i owe money to and explain my problems.Well i tried ringing these up weeks ago and had no joy from them so what else can i do now,has i've ran out of ideas
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