Paypal or Tesco Prepay cards

SneakySaving

All my CC debts have been passed onto collection agencies, They phone constantly. Yet i refuse to speak to them.

This is mainly due to MBNA who refused to stop interest when i was 1st taken ill unless i paid them a sum of money in excess of my sickpay.
Quite how i was going to do that did not help with my health so i completely ignored them.

Probably not the best plan of action but as yet nobody has taken me to court for the money i owe.


Now having learned my lesson, I do not want another credit based card ever again. Yesterday i got sent an email about a Paypal pre-paid credit card, This looked like a good alternative. When i read the information it says it may not be used where authorisation is not asked for. What does that mean?

Would it be any better than a Visa Electron card?

Is the Tesco card only available in Dollars or Euros's? Seems a bit steep having to put $100 on it at a time though.

Thanks

Saucepot

My advice would be to answer the phone and talk to your creditors. Seek advice from the citizens advice bureau. Don't wait for the baliffs.

riad_2

How about a Visa Debit card (Barclays/Lloyds TSB)?

smithja

The Paypal card is the cheapest, if you top-up using paypal for which you will need a bank account and probably a debit card. It can be paid for in other ways but that increases the price and I dont know what it is relative to other pre-paid cards on the market.

But I have yet to make a successful application. They are having problems with the website and it keep saying they cant identify me (or I have too many of their cards already). Have been told by the call centre it is a system problem and they are working on it.

Has anyone successfully applied for one?

SneakySaving

Saucepot wrote: »

My advice would be to answer the phone and talk to your creditors. Seek advice from the citizens advice bureau. Don't wait for the baliffs.

Do they not have to take me to court before they send the bailiffs in?


My wife will be worried if they can just come calling.


They phone constantly, i am still not working due to health problems.
Employment has been terminated. I have nothing to offer them and i know they will just stress me out again. demanding money that i cannot afford to pay them.

They phone with unknown and withheld numbers and do not leave messages.
Obviously the same people as they ring in blocks, 5 or 6 calls in the space of about 10 minutes then a break then they call again.

NickX

SneakySaving wrote: »

Do they not have to take me to court before they send the bailiffs in?

This is correct, only the courts have the right to send bailiffs to your home.

However, the court will be unlikely to do so provided they can see that you have been making some effort to repay the debts even if it is only a nominal amount.

It is not a good idea to ignore them and put your head in the sand, all you need to do is offer to pay them whatever you can afford, even if it is only £1 per week.

You have a right not to be harassed, and can request that all communications are kept in writing. If they do not adhere to this then you can report them to Trading Standards, the Office of Fair Trading, and\or the local police. They have no right to enter your premises.

However, I cannot stress how ignoring the issue is the wrong thing to do. The courts will not look favourably on this. You need to negotiate with them.

Speak to CAB (Citizens Advice Bureau) who will negotiate with your creditors on your behalf and have access to professional legal advice should it be required.

Good Luck.

SneakySaving

Part of the problem now is i do not know who i owe the money to.
They were all credit cards every letter i got had different names on them.

Embarrased now but this has gone on for 18 months. I have not spoken to anyone in that time. As i mentioned above phone rings at all hours, mostly withheld or unavailable numbers. I think they ring then wait a minute or so before ringing again on a different number hoping to catch me out or something?

I had to cancel some BT message service that i did not even know existed. They send spoken text messages to the home phone. These would call constantly until answered not amusing at midnight.

Thanks

NickX

That is definitely harassment and they can be reported for that.

But you need to respond to their demands for payment in some way, otherwise when it goes to court the judge is not going to look favourably on you.

My advice is to write back to each creditor in turn, request that all correspondence is in writing and that multiple phone calls will be reported to the authorities as abusive. Offer each creditor what you can, and provide them with a Statement of Affairs as evidence for the offer that you are making.

It might also be an idea to post on the DFW (Debt Free Wanabee) Board because there are many people there who have been through this and beaten their debts.

madtay

smithja wrote: »

The Paypal card is the cheapest, if you top-up using paypal for which you will need a bank account and probably a debit card. It can be paid for in other ways but that increases the price and I dont know what it is relative to other pre-paid cards on the market.

But I have yet to make a successful application. They are having problems with the website and it keep saying they cant identify me (or I have too many of their cards already). Have been told by the call centre it is a system problem and they are working on it.

Has anyone successfully applied for one?

I just applied for one in the last 20 minutes or so and it went through without problems. Do you have a 'confirmed' address in your paypal account and are you on the electoral role? I think this seems to be causing some issues for people trying to apply.

SneakySaving

madtay wrote: »

I just applied for one in the last 20 minutes or so and it went through without problems. Do you have a 'confirmed' address in your paypal account and are you on the electoral role? I think this seems to be causing some issues for people trying to apply.

I do have a paypal account and its verified. I have not applied for one as yet.

Trying to decide whether it would be worth getting? I do have a visa electron debit card (halifax)
Probably the only company i do not owe money to.

But from what i have read on here it seems they will close my account if i go bankrupt even if i owe them nothing. is that right?

smithja

madtay wrote: »

I just applied for one in the last 20 minutes or so and it went through without problems. Do you have a 'confirmed' address in your paypal account and are you on the electoral role? I think this seems to be causing some issues for people trying to apply.

Hi madtay

My Paypal account is not yet verified but should be today, I need to check my bank to see if the payments went in. I have been on the electoral roll for 3 years and I have 2 agreements with NatWest (an RBS Group company) so I cant see why they dont know who I am. It would not be such a problem if they gave you the option of sending off some ID but they dont.

Their call centre has said I am not the only one and there is a problem with their software. I live in a block of flats which could be affecting it but it does find my address ok. I know some else posted that it did not recongise their post code at all.

Will let you know if I manage to order it today.

Cheers

James