Feeling low and needing advice on reducing payments

d11wtq

OK PayPlan didn't call me, they've just sent me an email saying that based on the information they have they believe I should be able to just contact my creditors informally and request reduced payments. They've sent me some information packs on how to do this so I'll have a read over them.

I do feel a bit better today because it appears that Egg are happy to take £120 in arrears+charges and put me back onto my £12 a month minimum payment which I've set a DD up for. That info is from the website though so I should call them to confirm. That just leaves me to face the halifax and see what they want from me these are the ones I fear the most from what I've read they are horrible to people on the phone.

Once I have the debts back on track and don't have the direct pressure from the creditors I can look at making bigger payments on the higher APR debts with the piece of mind that I'm not in trouble with them

/me goes off to read these info packs with a coffee. *cough* working, *cough*

ceegee

You certainly seem more happy/positive now than you did when you first posted! Excellent! :j

That bloke who cadges a lift off you should make a contribution to your petrol costs at least........damned cheek.......I once worked with someone like that.......they are just getting a free ride (literally ) and it ain't fair on you.

d11wtq

ceegee wrote:

That bloke who cadges a lift off you should make a contribution to your petrol costs at least........damned cheek.......I once worked with someone like that.......they are just getting a free ride (literally ) and it ain't fair on you.

Hehe... i'll keep a tin in the glove box and rattle it every couple of days Seriously though you're right, it is cheeky.

d11wtq

Finally got around to calling the Halifax!!

Upshot: I'm £400 in arrears on a card with a £500 limit.
Agreement made: Paid £38 on phone to keep them sweet, agreed a DD of £50 per month on remainder.

No clue about this though: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=154456

d11wtq

Dad just texted me again. Halifax have just phoned him (again!!). I've literally spoken to them half an hour ago, and even told them that that number is not my number. We made an arrangement that they would not phone me providing I pay the amounts I asked and I paid them on the phone. !!!!!! is going on? I'm starting to get a bit upset now... why are they pestering my parents and my parents neighbours?

lynzpower

Is there any chance this could be a different debt than the one you know of with the Halifax? Just this behaviour seems bailiff -style, and that usually means you cant arrange to pay it off through tiher normal call centre routes, you usually get directed to the baliffs mobile phone themselves and make payments to the bailiffs direct.

d11wtq

Well I just called them again. The girl told me that "it's an automated calling system" and she told me that they would "change this now". So hopefully that's that. They still say they wouldn't have called the neighbours house... AFAIK the only debts I have are the ones I have listed in my sig. :-\

beanielou

Good luck on managing your debts d11wtg.
Can you tell me what a managed loan is as I dont know-havent heard of that before

lynzpower

whata AFAIK?
glad this seems to be getting sorted :-)

d11wtq

beanielou wrote:

Good luck on managing your debts d11wtg.
Can you tell me what a managed loan is as I dont know-havent heard of that before

Managed Loan. Yeah, I admit, I never heard of it when the polite man at HSBC offered it to me. I'll tell you a little story

2004... I had debts... just as big as now only I wasn't working. Couldn't keep up with payments on my student overdraft (HSBC) and also wasn't paying bills on my HSBC Visa.

The bank called... told me I was wrecking my credit rating and running up lots of charges though missed payments. I told him about the fact I'm not working and he was at least sympathetic. He told me that he could take my Visa, transfer the balance onto a "Managed Loan" and also clear my student overdraft onto this too. He explained that the interest on this would be much less than I was paying on the overdraft and the credit card. The downside... they would remove the facility for me to have an overdraft, and I also had to swap my Switch card for a Solo card. The minimum payment on a loan of £2500 was £35 per month and providing I paid it off and kept on top of it they'd give me my facilities back again. I've done this but belive me the interest in not low. I pay approx £20 interest each month on something I transfer £35 a month into. Ouch! It's gonna take forever to clear if I don't make token payments.

the other problem now... I'm working, I'm on 22,000 a year. They still won't give me a switch card instead of my solo card. The guy says I need to keep going like I am for another year and make extra payments in addition to the minimum ones. It also looks awful on your credit rating so I'm told. Bottom line... if you get offered this as a solution to debt think very hard about it... only do it if you're utterly desperate... I'm sure speaking to PayPlan would have been a better idea if I'd heard of them at the time.

lynzpower wrote:

whata AFAIK?
glad this seems to be getting sorted :-)

AFAIK == As Far As I know

Thanks guys