Getting sorted ..... at last!

sparklygem

Hi everyone

Have been lurking here for a week or so I'd like to say a BIG THANKS for all the helpful comments I have read on the board. It really helps to know that I'm not the only one in debt although I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

Been having problems for a while but finally made an appointment and saw someone at CAB at end of last year. Am now a money client and they've written to my creditors and are waiting to hear from all of them to see if they will accept the suggested payments based on my income/expenditure.

Now that's what I'm having a problem with!!! Have kept getting letters and phone calls from some companies as if they haven't had a letter of authority from the CAB:

1) A catalogue company wrote saying I'd ignored them trying to contact me, was now in danger of having their legal dept chase me and added a further £17.50 admin charge. When I phoned CAB was told that company had written to them suspending my credit for 28 days!! So why send me the letter?

2) A "bank" with whom I have a flexible loan aka credit card have phoned me persistently. When I finally gave up ignoring their calls and answered they told me they had received nothing from the CAB (wrote to them over 2 weeks previously) and "we may have not opened a backlog of post". Pointed out to them that cheque payments are given 7 days to process so surely they open and deal with post within a week of receiving it? Phoned CAB and they faxed another copy of the letter.

Then called me next day and tried to pressurise me into making a small payment (which I couldn't do this month) and said CAB should not have advised me to pay nothing until payment plan in place. explained to woman had asked them not to contact me via phone anymore and agreed would halt things fro 28 days.

3) A debt collection agency (RBS cc) called me to say my payments were in arrears and again said hadn't received anything from CAB. So again have to call CAb tomorrow and ask them to fax a copy to the company.

Find this all a bit strange ....... anyone else experienced anything like this? Are companies being purposely awkward to try and get some money from me. It's strange that all the letters were dated within a day of each other ..... call me suspicious but it seemed as if they had received some correspondence and thought they would try contacting me?

My debts are as follows:

£17250 bank loan (with PPI which I believe I was mistakenly sold as was
working for an agency at the time)
£5200 Flexible loan/cc

£1020 cc 2 (only got it cos bank wouldn't temporarily increase my OD by £50
....... they suggested I get one of their cards instead!)

£3250 debt collection agency (cc debt)

£250 catalogue

£1500 store card (been my only spending for last year)

£250 mobile phone arrears

£881 council tax arrears

£29,601 TOTAL

My council tax arrears are priority and have a payment plan in place.

Have made a speadsheet of my planned expenditure (with a set amount to put aside for those things which don't come up every month) and pay day on Tuesday so looking forward to starting to pay off my debts and keeping to my budget (should not be difficult as have been in this situation and on a tight budget for a while)

:j

sparklygem

Realised I missed my OD of £499 so .......

TOTAL DEBT £30,100

Xbigman

This is completely normal behaviour from creditors, The letters and calls are computer generated and will just keep coming for a while. Just keep giving them your CAB ref number and try to develop a thick skin. Some companies are worse than others, just read through these forums to see the ones who keep getting mentioned. I say you should develop a thick skin because all your original creditors will pass the debts on to debt collectors eventually and you will have to go through this process more than once. Likewise telling them you only communicate by letter takes a while to get through to some of these companies. Best advice is to change your phone number and send everything recorded delivery or registered post.

PPI. If your were agency then you were mis sold it. Get onto them and try to cancel on the grounds of miss selling. This too can be hard going. If you look on the loans board there are lots of threads about it. Main thing, don't give up. It can be cancelled if you push hard enough.
Regards



X

fatbelly

sparklygem wrote:

Are companies being purposely awkward to try and get some money from me. ?

Yes!

But well done on your part for getting to grips with your debts. Incidentally, don't panic when the default notices start coming through. It's just standard wording and companies will send them before passing debts to departments/collectors who can accept your offer.

Have you got a new bank account now?

sparklygem

Yes! Have new bank account ...... with just a cash card! Just a bit worried in case pay goes into old one tomorrow ...... work said I'd missed the deadline by a couple of days but they faxed my details to payroll and phoned them. was told it should be OK so fingers crossed otherwise Im stuffed cos have to make first payment on my council tax on Weds. :eek:

sparklygem

Just found out that my pay has gone into my new account! What a huge relief!! :T

A happy bunny now!!!

:j

tattooed_lady

Yay Sparklygem!

I'm glad your pay went in the right account, it's such a pain when you're changing accounts isn't it?