Sainsbury's bank haven't stopped the interest in 4 years!

honory

Hi all and I hope this is in the right place!
We contacted the CCCS and went on a DMP in 2004 when my husband was made redundant. Since then all our debts bar 2 have been repaid and the last two are Lloyds (1% interest and balance something like £4,000) and Sainsburys.
Sainsburys have never stopped the interest and for the first two years didn't even acknowledge the fact that we were with the CCCS - probably the CCCS's fault in a way as they were sending the payments to Blair Oliver Scott and yet our account was not in collections - still we paid every month and not only received interest charges but late fee charges of £12 a month because the payment was out by two days. :eek:
The CCCS send regular statements which are ignored and I get so upset when I speak to Sainsburys that I can't face another phonecall. I have asked for statements so I can reclaim my charges (to make a small impact in the debt) but just wondered whether there was any time frame within which a company should refer the debt to a debt collector and the interest be frozen.
The lady at CCCS said I could write a letter to Sainsburys saying that I was going to refer the problem I had to the financial ombudsman because as fast as I pay the interest and late fee charges get applied and the debt increases. She said that she thought there were rules governing the way that debts could be handled and this is obviously not helping us clear the debt!
Any advice would be gratefully received :T - I am sure Sainsbury's are not just being unhelpful to me!

stapeley

Have you ever requested a copy of your Consumer Credit Agreement ? In many case these are not available , you could then negotiate a more suitable payment arrangement

GeorgeUK

Did you request copies of statements? They may write saying they will charge about £5 per statement. You don't want copies of statements - you want to see your transaction history. This will be laid out differently to a statement but will still have all the details. You just need to do a subject access request (SAR).

honory

Thanks for your suggestions.
I requested the statements using Martin's template letter and enclosed the requisite £10.
I don't have the terms and conditions so cannot tell you what they say - stupidI know I should have paid more attention!
What I really need help on is the fact that they keep charging interest on a debt which is with the CCCS and hence the debt is not going down - because the amount I pay does not cover the interest and £12 late charge.
Are there any rules that govern a bank's behaviour? Is the Financial Ombudsman worth a go? Have other people had such treatment from Sainsbury's Bank? 4years' worth of interest on a £6,000 debt is a lot of money!:mad:
Hope someone can help even if they only tell me that there is no other option than to keep on paying!:eek:

Dewberry

Have you ever put a complaint in writing to Sainsburys Bank? If not then i would put a letter in writing asking them to send you an written acknowledgement and enclose a copy of their complaints procedure which should detail how long you have to give them to resolve your complaint and also where to go if you are not satisfied with their response. i would always send the letter recorded so that you know when it has been recived and they can't "lose" it or claim "they haven't recieved it". Good luck, putting it in writing always seems to work better than telephone calls.

coolcait

Hiya

You're not in Scotland by any chance?

If you are, you could try to get onto the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS). If you're accepted, your creditors HAVE to freeze interest: www.moneyscotland.gov.uk

honory

No unfortunately not in Scotland - but do such rules apply in England?
I think I shall write a letter - nothng to lose after all,
Thanksfor the help so far

GeorgeUK

In England, I believe it is at the discretion of each individual company. You may already have sent this letter, but thought i'd post it.
http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/temp/4620_41091.pdf

honory

Thanks George - have tried to access this link but no luck. Can you suggest another way to view the letter? Via the National Debtline?

GeorgeUK

Neither can i now
(seems to be something to do with the "temp" part of the ND site)

Dear Sir/Madam

Account No: 4563210025897412

Thank you for your letter of 01-01-2002 concerning the above account. We are sorry that you feel unable to suspend interest charges on the above account. The majority of 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 our present financial difficulties, and can only serve to increase our total
debt.

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

We would therefore be grateful if you would reconsider your decision not to freeze the interest. This would mean that the monthly payments we make would actually reduce the balance outstanding to your company.

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

Yours faithfully

You would need to edit it a bit and i'd definately mention that you have been on a DMP with CCCS since 2004. Hope it helps.