have i made a mistake signing up with a debt management co

mrelephant_2

Can anyone advise me what to do. I am ' £60k in debt, recently divoreced and rent my home.

I do not have any savings or capital other than a possible settlement figure to come from my marraige which could be anything from zero to £30k depending on how good my solicitor is at getting a settlement hence why at this stage i have not chosen to go down the bankruptancy road.

In August this year the debts, wory and hassle from my creditors was getting on top of me and i turned to a company called 'Spectrum Financial Solutions' to help. with their help i put together a financial statement that shows i have more money going out than coming in and am currently in proceedings of trying to arrange repayments of £1 per month to my creditors on an 'informal arrangement' plan to a time whereby i can afford setting up an IVA plan.

Does anyone have experience with 'Spectrum' if so i have made the right choice. I have been thinking of cancelling their services as i am now wondering if in the long run i will be worse off financially and negotiating with my creditors direct.

Has anyone got any suggestions?

poppy52

Avoid them! Why not go to CCCS or Payplan which are free debt management companies?

Annie_Fanny

Why avoid them?

sparkle84

They will charge you for what payplan or cccs will do for nothing - also they advertise writing off up to 95% of your debt - rubbish they can't do that they can help you set up an IVA which might write off 30/40% of your debt but you will have to pay IP fees of several thousand - call cccs https://www.cccs.co.uk and see what they have to say - never deal with debt management companies which advertise on TV or on the net

poppy52

Some creditors will only deal with organisations like Payplan or CCCS because they are free to debtors. They reason that any excess money you have could be going towards paying off your debts rather than lining the pockets of a profit making company. This helps you and helps them because they get paid off more quickly. I'm with Payplan and several creditors have told me they wouldn't accept me if I had gone with one of the paying companies.

carolrhart

This company are a bunch of cowboys! They will promise you they'll get your creditors off your back, but they won't - I was still getting hassled by mine - Spectrum lost all my paperwork! You can never get through to them on the phone, and when you do, the person you need to speak to is always on holiday or in a meeting. They never call you back either. I am currently trying to get a refund of £270 back from them ( I had made an initial payment on an Informal Arrangement, but then switched to a Trust Deed, and they promised to give my my Informal Payment back) - this has been ongoing since August. I thought I was getting somewhere when they asked me to fax them a refund request letter, but lo and behold the person who's dealing with it is never in the office.

In short, they don't deliver what they promise and are only after your money.

We really wish we'd gone with someone free - our case is now with an Insolvency Practitioner, but we could have gone to them straight away instead of giving Spectrum over £2000 in fees - we were desperate and just wanted someone to help us.