Credit Issues Limited

Serchers

Thanks LilacPixie, will read that up.

There were also two specific concerns I spotted on their website
(1) nothing we do in the process should affect your ability to apply for another credit card or loan with a different lender although we cannot guarantee how a particular lender / creditor may react
(2) So long as you maintain your minimum payments or stick to any formal arrangements you are in your credit rating should not be affected

talbot649

I've been recommended this company today so I thought I'd dig around a bit on the net. This thread came up and I have to say that it seems as though they have shot themselves in the foot by posting all those fabricated replies. The advisor who explained their process to me today said they have tried 20 cases to date and been successful in all 20, although there is clearly no evidence of that here.

I'm thinking now that I won't go near them, and that if their service proves reliable then Martin Lewis will probably shout about it on GMTV anyway and plenty of other service providers will crop up.

If they are successful however, it could be a potential threat to moot to a lender when requesting a sensible/reduced full and final offer?

theladyknows

Something seriously needs to be done with all the first time posters here. (shooting I prefer)
Though on a serious issue links and advice needs to be given to desperate people considering using these sites.
Is it cheaper to go to a solicitor direct?
Are they any examples of 'unenforcable contracts' or is it just a waste of time trying?
Kick out the spammers and let's help people who are been harrassed and bullied for debt they can no longer pay.

groping

Help !
I know a rep for this company and am on the verge of going for it!
Being the sceptical and cynical person that I am though, it does all seem to good to be true. I have £16k of credit card debt that would be applicable to this scenario.
I have been told that the most I can lose should I not be successful is £50 for administration. Should I win then, fees up to approx £1500 would apply.
Help!

LilacPixie

theladyknows wrote: »

Something seriously needs to be done with all the first time posters here. (shooting I prefer)
Though on a serious issue links and advice needs to be given to desperate people considering using these sites.
Is it cheaper to go to a solicitor direct?
Are they any examples of 'unenforcable contracts' or is it just a waste of time trying?
Kick out the spammers and let's help people who are been harrassed and bullied for debt they can no longer pay.

From my understanding you can actually do it yourself. There are a few posters on the DFW board and another website think its called consumer action group or something similar that will look over the Consumer credit agreement for free. It will cost £1 to request the agreement from each creditor.

I have seen examples of it working for people who are wanting to clear debts but cannot keep up the rates of payments required by the loan. I have equally seen a case where a claiment (who i belived has actually set up one of there companies) has tried to claim to a judge that the CCA received was unenforcable so they should no longer have to pay anything and they should receive att payments mad to that date back plus interest and they lost.

As I stated before if anyone is genuinly struggling with their credit comitments seek help for one of the debt charities such as CCCS or National Debtline. Contact the CAB but be aware they seem to be very overstreched so you may have a wait for an appointment or have to be at their offices first thing if they are a first come first served branch.

Our own Debt Free board is full of useful and non judgmental advice on what can be done and what options may be open but ofcourse you should always seek professional advice as well.

druss

Ok Heres what I know:-

I am a mortgage broker, I have been approached by credit issues to become a rep and researching as I will not take the decision to join them lightly, if I am to ring my existing clients about this then my reputation will be on the line.

The facts that I have found out are:-

They have only been trading actively for a few months gathering new cases, they do not have a direct sales force so have primarily approached brokers to act as representatives.

Brokers have a client base and the knowledge of credit to be able to answer queries etc.

There are legal cases that have set a precedent for claims to be made.

They have a pipeline of roughly 4500 cases, 68% of which have been deemed to have flaws within the credit agreements, 27% are awaiting paperwork from lenders/clients to be reviewed, only 5% of assesed contracts have been deemed enforceable as are without errors.


My view on the moral side is if you were given a mortgage contract showing the wrong interest rate or penalties you would expect compensation from the lender/broker involved, so why not persue the same rights for loans and credit cards?

Lenders have ignored morals when applying to courts for forced sales of people houses when they are seeking repayment of unsecured debts, publicised recently was a debt owed of £1000 and the lender was seeking the court to issue a forced sale agreement.

I have looked at the contract and it does clearly state that if the credit agreement is found to be enforceable then a refund is given of £400 from the initial payment of £450.

For a single loan or card the client potentially could lose £50 plus a further £11 for the data protection/file copy fees, total of £61.

They have had a single case won and the debt reduced, and are awaiting for court dates to be issued for hearings on the others which takes time.

From talking to the firm they expect the vast majority of cases to be settled out of court as the lenders do not want the court costs or the publicity any wins will attract.

You could obtain the information from the lender and proceed on your own, but do you know which parts of the contract are flawed? If the lender sends the wrong or part information in return will you spot it?

If you were buying a property you could do the legal work yourself and then have you solicitor rubber stamp it, but would you want to?

As far as I can tell they are providing a service to do this for you, if your comfortable doing this yourself then great, but I think the vast majority of people (including myself as a humble mortgage broker) are not experts in consumer credit law and I for one would want someone who is fighting for me, even if I do have to pay them.

In my case I'm watching this space, I do not think it's a con and will be viewing their future results with interest. I will then take a view to approach my clients.

Regards

MadetoStick

Google "Credit Issues Blog". Below lists their blog comments on the first case where they have had a debt totally written off.....

"Credit Issues claim further success

Credit Issues are delighted to announce the success of a new case, resulting in the full write off of the client’s debt.

The client’s original loan was with Barclays, the debt being later sold to the recovery company Intrum Justitia.

At the time of application the total debt outstanding was £2961.87. The case entered processing at Credit Issues on the 1st October 2008, with first communication to Intrum sent on the same day. A response dated 16th October stated that Intrum were unable to provide the information requested as required by the Consumer Credit Act. Credit Issues’ lawyers therefore proceeded to obtain a full balance write off for the client.
Further update with client comment will follow.

This is excellent news and testament to the hard work and operational structure that exists only at Credit Issues."

_Andy_

Spam then, basically. Times must be hard.

druss

Lol its great to see everyone being so sceptical :-}

From the digging around ive been doing (please see my previous post) there is some confusion about the various claim routes.

I have put them in ease of what I consider to be DIY complaints.

1 PPI - Payment protection Insurance

Many loans were sold with ppi, in many cases fraudulently especially to those who had no way of even being able to make a succesful claim.

2 Unfair credit agreements - Following from CAB website.

you have been charged interest at an exceptionally high rate
the creditor gave you wrong or misleading information, or didn’t give you enough information when you were deciding whether to take out the loan
the creditor failed to make a proper assessment of whether the loan was suitable for you
the creditor didn’t fully take into account how your age, experience, physical or mental health would affect your ability to enter into a credit agreement or to keep up with payments.

You go to court and appeal to a judge that you should not have been lent the money, again you can do this yourself, personally I wouldnt, I would want a solicitor to help. This is done on a case by case basis.

3 Unenforceable agreements

This is where the lender has made mistakes in the original credit agreement, or even just not kept the original. There seems to be many flaws in the lenders credit agreements some will make the agreement unenforceable some allow negotiation with the lender to reduce a proportion of your debt.

This appears to have gone to the house of lords and the answer was that any 'fatal' errors will result in the lender being forced to wipe off the debt.

If you have the know how do it yourself, but most people will not know what to look for and understanably the solicitors/claims companies are reluctant to reveal all as they do not want to cut themselves out of the loop.

I think the biggest problem is that because all of this is so new that a lot of people have got confused with what is unenforceable and what is unfair, the general perception is that they are one in the same.

You may find the following link interesting, its a podcast from a BBC radio 4 program discussing the above with a solicitor of a claims company (not creditissues) and representative of another consumer website who appears to have fallen into the same trap.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours/ram/2008_29_mon_05.ram

The solicitor states his case well but I would agree with the other guy, do NOT stop paying your loan until you have had advice from a solicitor or agreement from your lender to do so.

There are companies who will charge no fee upfront but will take a hefty percentage of each case won.

There are companies who will take minimal money upfront, review your agreement and then leave you to do the rest.

And there are other companies who charge some upfront (some rebate if review shows lender has done everything ok, WARNING some wont) and some on success of a claim.

There is no right or wrong, you need to balance

1 your level of confidence in doing it yourself

2 The amount outstanding on loans/cards (the more you owe the higher the cost of a percentage win)

3 A fixed final fee

4 The upfront fee involved and if there is a refund if no claim is to be made.

This will differ depending on your circumstances.


Regards All

D :-)

annieadvisor

well said standupguy. a person can do this for free in the same way they can negotiate payments of their debts without paying an agency to do it for them. in my experience most of these companies are scum preying on already desperate and vulnerable people and taking a big chunk of their money.

anyone can request a copy of an agreement and pay £1 - if the company cannot produce this within 12 days they cannot take further action. however this relates to agreements prior to April 07 - agreements after this date are subject to different legislation

get proper advice and dont be tempted into a get out for free blag