DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

Good Morning fellow lovely forumites.

Well my DMP has been running vey smoothly since I started it back in June 2014.

Today I received a lovely letter from the Hellifax stating "we wanted to tell you that your current planned overdraft will come to an end on 24th April.........you will need to ensure that your account is back in a credit balance to avoid charges of £5 a day".

After being on hold for about 35 minutes I spoke to someone who had no idea about DMP's or SC. So I tried again and spoke to an equally 'not with it' customer services employee.

What should my next step be? An official complaint, a standard letter? They know about my situation but are just being difficult.

Any help would be greatly appreciated x

neiljmuk wrote: »

The 'Finance Management Department' at Lloyds have had a swift reply in relation to their unbelievable "call us" letter. I've shoved a copy straight through the letterbox of my local branch too and advised them to copy and pass on copies to all departments. Will give it a month max and see what happens.

If Lloyds are kicked in to touch it could be a quiet ride for the rest of the year because I'll do a yearly review with SC in December then think about going self managed next March and taking a more aggressive aproach to those that have not defaulted me by then (at a hunch that will be 5 or 6 of the 10)

Really like the idea of putting a letter into the local branch, least they can't deny receiving it and hopefully an actual person will read it and send it to the correct recipient to action.

FuzzyDF wrote: »

Good Morning fellow lovely forumites.

Well my DMP has been running vey smoothly since I started it back in June 2014.

Today I received a lovely letter from the Hellifax stating "we wanted to tell you that your current planned overdraft will come to an end on 24th April.........you will need to ensure that your account is back in a credit balance to avoid charges of £5 a day".

After being on hold for about 35 minutes I spoke to someone who had no idea about DMP's or SC. So I tried again and spoke to an equally 'not with it' customer services employee.

What should my next step be? An official complaint, a standard letter? They know about my situation but are just being difficult.

Any help would be greatly appreciated x

Rather than calling or writing to the details on this latest letter, I think I'd start with previous contact details if you have any, or if not try ringing up and asking to be out through to the collections department and get their address.

After that a standard I'm on a DMP with SC letter plus a copy of the latest letter and send it to whoever you have an address for, give it a couple of weeks, then write a complaint, with a you're not helping me letter.

Probably better terminology or solutions available but all I can come up with, still half asleep:o

Ali80 wrote: »

First payment to SC made today! Yay! Finally up and running.

All interest/charges stopped except Next who although having frozen activity on my account, have amazingly charged me £4 for their Spring/Summer catalogue that was left on my doorstep last week..........and of course BC, who are charging me 6.9%, which would add 3 months to my DFD. I couldn't really face doing anything about BC in the set-up phase but want to tackle it now. I don't want to go self-managed just yet so is it best to write and ask them politely in the first instance? Where do I go from there?

Well done to everyone plodding along with their DMP, nice to see everybody at different stages with lots of advice. Am especially pleased for TTFTM, really inspiring!

You need a complaint letter to BC, just ask if you need the template, then follow up with FOS if you don't get the response that you want.

TTFTM x

Ali80 wrote: »

Thanks. Where can I find the template? I've probably seen it on here somewhere but would appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction!

Use something like this and adapt it for your situation and your creditor(s):


Them

Dear Sir/Madam

Complaint re: [Creditor name] account No: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Thank you for your letter/statement concerning the above account. I am sorry that you feel unable to suspend interest/charges on the above account.

As you are aware, I/we am/are in a DMP with XXXXXXXX, reference number XXXXXXXX. The majority of my/our other creditors have agreed to the offer of payment and agreed to suspend any interest charges still accruing. They have accepted that to continue to charge interest would not assist us in my/our present financial difficulties, and can only serve to increase my/our total debt.

I/we have already paid considerable sums in interest to my/our account. If interest charges continue, the monthly instalments I/we am/are paying will not even cover that interest. Also, the cooperation of my/our other creditors who have agreed to freeze interest already would be put at risk.

I am aware that XXXXXXX subscribes to the Lending Code which states that lenders will consider reducing or suspending interest and charges if these would cause the debt to increase or lead to the repayment term becoming too extended. I would therefore be grateful if you would reconsider your decision not to freeze the interest. This would mean that the monthly payments I/we make would actually reduce the balance outstanding to your company.

Please consider this letter as a complaint about the interest charges you are continuing to apply to my account. I would like to see these stopped immediately and previous interest charges refunded.

If you are unable to help me with this issue, I will have no alternative but to take this case to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

You