Hello, advice sought

sporty1

wishface wrote: »

Apparently not.

Dont stress yourself, the same situation happened to me, i had a debt of 515 in may 08, became unemployed and new i couldnt keep up the payments , so i contacted the CCCS who gave me the sme advice as yourself, i kept sending the £1 token gesture and i still am, and yes every month they put on what they called a £12 late payment fee so my debt is now £580 and they passed it onto ther Debt collectors who are still barclaycard , they are called MERCERS , i have been sending them the ame £1 for the last 4 month and yes they dont like it and there tactics are terrible , the ring you at every opportunity no matter what you tell them they try to harrass you for more money that you havnt got.
I keep in regular conact with the CCCS and i have to say if you folow there advise i am sure everything will work out fine, Yes the charges they put on are annoying and raise your debt but you have no choice if you cant pay the right amount , hopefully they will find it in there heart, if they have one to understand and eventually stop the charges ( dont hold your breath), they are still putting the £12 on a month for me after 6 mths.
But regarding the cccs i find they are a great help i dont know what i would have done without there advise and assistance.

justruth

wishface wrote: »

The whole situation is utterly ridiculous. Why should the bank be allwed to profit from my inability to pay and then make it the responsibility of some scumbag debt collector? There are way too many ifs and ands in all of this. What if it does go to court? I can't deal with that at all. I'd rather top myself than go to court and be forced to pay what could well be more than I can afford. The system is absolutely immoral IMO.

Whoa take a breath and make a cuppa then step back and get to grips with what people are suggesting.

Worst case scenario!
It goes to court. Once at court the judge will rule that the £4 token payment you have been making will be the repayment. So you have a CCJ, 6 years after it is paid off it is off your credit file. In 6-7 years you will be older wiser and pleased that you made the £4 token payments!

All these charges you can contest. All you have to do is keep making the token payments of £4, keep details of all your dealings then go back and claim them. How satisfying will that be!

As for thugish brutes, offer them a brew through the window lol. It will have had to go through court first, where you will be making payments of £4 (the judge would certainly take into account the CCCS advice) and so long as you keep making those payments then the brutes need never appear!

In short, don't let the beggers get you down! You offered a £4 token paymet, all you have to do is keep making it. Yes it is frustrating to feel that your situation is getting worse not better but what you are in fact doing is securing yourself from further action.

As for the morality of the banks, No they don't care, yes they love making a profit from people who are struggling, but you can claim back the charges and you can control the situation. That is what the £4 is doing.

Incidently I strongly suggest keeping a log of every call including time and saving every letter. Assuming this does go to court, you can show that you have made reasonable effort to communicate with them and they have harassed you.

Most importantly, take a sip of that cuppa we made earlier and smile when you send the next £4 because we all know that REALLY pi$$es them offf!!!:D

wishface

Nigella wrote: »

Barclays are unfriendly in my experience, daily phone calls and no compassion. Go to CAB or speak to CCCS. Do a budget and an offer. It is annoying that you pay £4 and incur £20!! They may back down after a few payments.

I went Bankrupt as I couldn't cope anymore with the hassle.

That's what I'm saying; i have done all of this through the CCCS and still they say they aren't interested. It seems all i can do is make the payments and hope they do back down.

wishface

They just rang me today - and then proceeeded to ask me to confirm what they already know. Then when I told them this (after they again said we aren't going to freeze interest) they hang up. I really cannot deal with this. Is there nothing that can be done?

justruth

Write to them and request that all communication now be done in writing. Include the budget from CCCS and the advice of the token payments and that the new budget will be sent once you have it completed with the CCCS.

Next time they phone say thank you but I have requested that all correspondance be in writing, good day, then put the phone down. At least until you feel confident enough to take them on.

Dex

Hi Wishface,

I have no more advice than what has already been said and the advice people have given is really good, Im sure that this is the last thing you need right now but stay strong and don't let them get you down, follow the advice that you've been given by the CCCS and on here and whilst it may not always be plesant it will be ok. If you are already off work for stress please don't let this get to you so much, at the end of the day you have done what you can stick to your position and be strong, they are not worth getting upset about :grouphug:

wishface

Thanks for the replies, but it seems to me the CCCS aren't interested in helping people. They've sent me a bunch of amateur looking documents that the bank aren't ever going to take seriously. The bank asked me to provide a cccs assisted financial statement (whatever that is - they sent the last budget i sent from them back) and a list of creditors. What the cccs have prepared is a budget that looks like it was knocked up on a cheap pc with no reference or mention of any cccs details and no date (which was the problem last time), so Barcalsy won't accept it's from them at all. They sent me a creditors list which doesn't include the amount that myself and the cccs agreed i could pay; in fact it includes some wild sums for 'contractual payments' which I have no idea about.

This is getting ridiculous; I'm relying on the cccs to help me and they don't seem to care. They are more interested in mucking around with their system and needlessly changing things. Now they have sent me documentation that the bank wilt think I made up myself. Meanwhile both the Barclays and the CCCS seem to constantly misunderstand each other because each claims the other does things they don't.

10past6

wishface wrote: »

Meanwhile both the Barclays and the CCCS seem to constantly misunderstand each other

If you have a CCCS reference number, that's all you need.

Give it to Barclays and insist they contact CCCS direct.

You might like to remind Barclays that it's against OFT debt collection guidelines refusing to deal with CCCS direct:

2.8

c. refusing to deal with appointed or authorised third parties, such
as Citizens Advice Bureaux, independent advice centres or money
advisers

d. contacting debtors directly and bypassing their appointed representatives

wishface

That's great but I've found that asking barclays to do anything, let alone contact people, or telling them what they are allowed to do just gets me nowhere. They just laugh in my face; like we have any power to do anything about it.

Edit 2 add: the bank also specifically asked for an up to date budget and this one has no date on it whatsoever, even though that's specifically what the bank asked for. I can't keep sending stuff to barclays for them to send it back asking for things the cccs can't or won't provide.

justruth

So stop talking to them, just keep sending the token payments. If they call you repeat that they should talk to CCCS. If they write to you then send them what the CCCS has sent you. You have your reference number, just keep refering them to that.

If you haven't already done so, write to them with the reference number and state clearly that you want them to talk to CCCS direct. If they don't then go to OFT and make a complaint there.