Help needed with Swift Credit baliffs

Lisalobe · 13 November 2017 at 2:52PM

Hi all

Looking for some help with Swift Credit. My fault initially as I got into debt with my council tax while my daughter was having heart surgeries (I kind of fell apart and lots of things took a back seat), I tried to sort it out directly with the council (hub) but they were totally unhelpful and passed my account to swift credit. Since the end of August I have been paying Swift £50 a week off this debt which is making me struggle but I have been paying it without default ever since. On Friday I came home to a bailiffs letter working on behalf of Swift adding £315.00 to my account for their visit!. How can they send a bailiff when I have been paying this debt off without defaulting?, any help or advice would be gratefully received!

StopIt · 13 November 2017 at 3:14PM

That'll be the enforcement fee + visit fee.

They should have contacted you that enforcement escalation was to commence. Alas, if you get to the stage of a CT debt being passed to bailiffs it can be escalated as you have already defaulted, regardless of any arrangement. However, that doesn't mean you cannot complain about your treatment, and you can ask for the debt to be passed back to the council. The fees however, are set by statute and are legal.

Contact the CAB for advice (Link in my signature). We have a couple of people here who have experience dealing with councils but each one varies and it'll be good to contact your local CAB as they'll know what your council are like to deal with and help accordingly.

National_Debtline · 13 November 2017 at 5:33PM

Hi Lisalobe

The combined fees should not exceed £310 to be precise, and £75 of that (the "compliance stage" fee) would have been chargeable as soon as the debt was initially passed to Swift by the council.

If there was a clear understanding in place from the start with Swift that they would be happy with £50 a week (ideally supported by something in writing), then yes, as StopIt suggests, you should certainly consider complaining about the addition of this latest fee.

I hope things have settled down as far as the health of your family members is concerned.

Dennis
@natdebtline

sourcrates · 13 November 2017 at 5:43PM

Definitely complain, as these private bailiff companies sail perilously close to the wind when it comes to what is, and what isn't, legal when charging these fee`s.

Herbie21 · 14 November 2017 at 12:38PM

Lisalobe wrote: »

Hi all

Since the end of August I have been paying Swift £50 a week off this debt which is making me struggle but I have been paying it without default ever since. On Friday I came home to a bailiffs letter working on behalf of Swift adding £315.00 to my account for their visit!.

How can they send a bailiff when I have been paying this debt off without defaulting?, any help or advice would be gratefully received!

I am assuming that the £50 per week is an amount that was agreed with Swift ? If so, did they specify a day of the week when payment must be made on?

Have you at any time defaulted on this payment arrangement?

Lisalobe · 15 November 2017 at 1:22PM

Hi all

Thanks you for posting replies, very grateful!, I have an email audit trail regarding the weekly £50 repayment which they have emailed back stating that I should carry on paying this to them which I do every Tuesday as laid out in the emails. The £75 compliance stage fee was added to the amount back in August so that was already included in the total I had to repay when I started, this £315 is purely the charge for the bailiff to attend which I really object to as I have not defaulted on this repayment at all?, and I received nothing at all to say that they were sending a bailiff?

Many thanks

Help needed with Swift Credit baliffs

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