SPECTRUM - anyone heard of them

severussnape

just been talking to my friend (finally off loaded) she has been going through the same as us, only she hadn't heard payplan or cccs. she is going with a company called spectrum, she is still getting post and phonecalls (even though it is a year since she started the dmp) has anyone heard or dealt with this company of course i have told her to ring payplan

cheers

bank_of_slate

Hi severus
After a quick web search I can only find an American debt company called Spectrum.
I'm sure you've already advised her that if she has to pay for their services, then don't touch them!
...Linda xx

PS. Get her posting on here!

in*the*red_6

Hi

Not sure how to post links to other threads but if you go to the top of this sheet, search this forum, and type in Spectrum it will bring up other threads on them. There is one by MrElephant which should be of interest.

HTH

fairylights_2

EEK! Look at this thread here :eek: run away!

black-saturn

The only spectrums I know where those ancient computers we all had in the 80's or one of those daft plastic car bike things.

Don't use any type of agency that you have to pay for. Tell her to come on this board or seek advice from the CAB.

Justicia

black-saturn wrote:

Tell her to come on this board or seek advice from the CAB.

Correction:

Tell her to come on this board and seek advice from the CAB.

severussnape

thanks to all of you for replying

i have already told her about this website and will probably handcuff her to the chair to read what you have wrote.

the thing is she is a year into an agreement with them will it be easy to switch to payplan or cccs

black-saturn

Justicia wrote:

Correction:

Tell her to come on this board and seek advice from the CAB.

Sorry

mrelephant_2

Hi

I posted a thread a few weeks ago about being with Spectrum, i was about 5mths down the line with them on a DMP, then i found this site and realise that the 17% fees they were charging was a rip off.

Firstly they took ages to get the DMP up and running and even after 5mths my creditors were still contacting me directly rather than going through Spectrum, so i thought why am i wasting my time using them, i may have well just stuck it out myself and paid the 17% fee charges directly to my creditors.

Just after the New Year i wrote to Spectrum and told them i no longer wished to use their services and cancelled my direct debit arrangement with them. I then rang Payplan who were very helpful and have just sent me an income/expenditure list based on the info i gave them and will be used either for setting up a DMP or Iva (still can't decide which to go for yet).

Please note; when i wrote to Spectrum i asked for them to send back all the paperwork and letters from my ceditors, and to my surprise i recieved it all this week along with a brief note wishing me all the best for the future, i was expecting a bill from them for work they had carried out, as in the small print of the agreement it does say you may be charged. But there was no mention of a further charge when they sent back all my documentation, i do hope this doues not drop on my doorstep in the near future when least expecting it.

But in a nutshell, i would highly recommend you tell your friend to ditch Spectrum and contact Payplan or any of the other free agencies recommended on this site.

Hope this has been of help.

mrelephant_2

This is a copy of the thread i posted a few weeks ago





13-01-2006, 2:06 AM
Replies: 1 in a conundrum
Views: 152 Posted By mrelephant
in a conundrum

Briefly, i am £61k in debt with loans and cards and have been paying my creditors £1 token payments for @ 5mths which Spectrum debt agency set up for me in August last year. I have since binned Spectrum off over xmas and have chosen to go it alone with advice and possible help from Payplan.

I spoke with payplan earlier this evening and the lady i spoke with was very helpful and gave me a number of options i could take.

She went through my expenditures very thoroughly and estimated i have between £300 - £350 available at the end of the month. she asked if i had this much available why was i only paying £1 token payments. So i explained that back in August this wasn't the case, at that point i only had £200 available (since had pay increase at work) so Spectrum said at that time i didn't have enough to set up an IVA as i would need @ £340, so what they did was fiddle my expenditure to show my outgoings greater than my incomings.

She wasn't to impressed by what they had done, but did agree there is room to exagerate your expenditure sheet so as not to leave you eatiing jam butties for the next few years.

Anyway, she said my ideal otion would be to go for an IVA, but once i explained i had a divorce settlement ongoing from which if all goes well i could receive up to £30k, she said in this circumstance it would probably be better not to go for an IVA just yet. Any money i get from the settlement could be used to try and negotiate reduced and final settlements with some of my creditors spread across the total debts, thus reducung what i have left owing, and then set up an IVA for the remainder.