MINT & Barclaycard Mind Games - Advice Please

Gargoyle_2

I bit the bullet back in January, having lost my job last year, and contacted my debtors with the standard NDL letter and SOA, proposing a token payment until I get another job.

Capital One responded quite promptly and accepted my token payment plan of £1.00 for 6 months and were very cooperative about the whole thing.

However, MINT responded with several letters threatening me with a default notice, which has since been issued, and told me that they have received my proposed payment plan and that I will be contacted by their Debt Recovery Team to discuss it. Nothing since !!

Barclaycard responded, much later, saying that they could not accept my proposed plan and a default notice would be issued if I failed to pay. I replied to the letter stating that others had accepted my plan and asking them to reconsider, bearing in mind that this was the first problem I'd had in 28 years of being with them. No reply as yet !!!

My problem is that both of these providers are still sending statements, with interest mounting of course, seemingly ignoring the dialogue that I have been having with their respective management teams. Clearly they are attempting to increase my liability before taking further action. I have been making the token payments meanwhile.

Has anyone else had this happen to them ? Is this the normal MO for these two companies ? What should I do ??

Needless to say, I am getting more and more panicky as time goes on, and dreading both the Postman arriving or the phone ringing. I have admitted my responsibility for my debts, and have tried to do the right thing by contacting them before defaulting, but these people are really driving me further down.

Any advice would be very gratefully received, before I lose it completely.

Thanks Guys.

poppy52

Mint did something similar to me. I am on a DMP with Payplan - Mint kept writing and phoning and threatening all sorts. Finally they sent a letter saying they didn't accept my Payplan offer of £135 per month because they wanted £165 per month. Payplan asked again and then, after 4 months of hassle, they wrote and said that they would accept it even though it was a totally unsatisfactory offer! They are idiots.

System

Poppy

Did they cancel the extra accruing interest?

Lenny

poppy52

Yes, but for 6 months only. Not all my creditors have frozen interest yet - strangely Marks and Sparks loan has, but store card hasn't. Payplan say it can take several months of payments before they all settle down and realise that freezing interest might mean they have a realistic chance of getting paid. They wouldn't have if I went bankrupt - they would only 3 years of a proportion of my excess income whereas my DMP is for 5 years and takes all my excess income.

System

Thanks Poppy. I know from reading this website and the information in justabank, but egg sent me an email which by the way was very courteous, saying they would be passing it to their debt collectors and a defult notice and I know this is standard procedure but I was still shocked!! Cest la Gare eh!

mrsmess

yes we are having the same thing with barclaycard.Both myself and my partner had one. we worked out a payment with debt advisor and sent them off but barclaycard have refused the offer .they rang the other evening said 57.17 was not enough they wanted 217 or default would be issued we paid the 57.17 my other half told them take that or nothing and she cut him off the phone. so we are waiting to see what happens next

queenofthedump

yet they all state on the bills if your having trouble contact them - horrid lot

rkh001

Thanks everyone so far.

Do they really think that anybody WANTS to be in this situation !! I know that they have a right to expect repayment, but surely they must also accept that sometimes things go wrong. Bullying and misleading people into repaying money they haven't got amounts to demanding money with menaces, so much for the code of conduct !! I swear that I'll never have a credit card again, if this is how they do business.

I wonder how many people have 'topped' themselves as a result of the pressure applied by these 'humane and understanding' lenders. Maybe some enterprising TV journalist might consider researching it. This kind of thing can push seemingly ordinary people into desperate acts.

Any comments ?

Gargoyle_2

Well, I have the full set now. Egg have just written with a Default Notice, seemingly ignoring my SOA and letter and a phone call to them to discuss the matter.

All three, (MINT, B'Card & Egg) have ignored any efforts on my part to sort this out. What happens next ?

Does anybody know of a good letter that I could amend, which asks them to reconsider and accept the Token Payment originally offered in more formal language?

Surely there must be some 'words of wisdom' in the Consumer Credit Act to protect the Debtor when the Creditor fails to even consider their efforts to rectify the situation.

What will happen next ? Any advice gratefully received.

paul10mm

these companys are just so two faced they really do treat us all the same debt wise !!yet i had no problems with barcalys i owed them over £21,500 on two accounts they took the £1.00 a month i offered them with no problems or phone calls to be honest i got a bit of stick from mint i owed them £13,500 i still only paid them £1 no matter how much they complained and thats all they got i had bigger problems with others i owed money to mbna was the worst i owed them £5,000 and they chased me night and day were rude and drove me quite mad i told all my creditors from the outset i would go bankrupt and thats what i have had to do Funney think is mbna sold my debt on the 20th jan to another company they knew the date of my hearing yet they still sold the debt on Know for legal reasons mbna have had to refund the company they sold the debt to and write of the 5k!!!

freeclimber

Once you start falling behind on the minimum payments, most lenders will issue a default notice, even if you have a payment plan in place. This is part of the natural order of things, and they have to issue a default before they can take the matter any further, so it becomes a standard course of action. If you have addressed the problem, made them aware of the situation and are doing all you can to make some for of payment, I wouldn't worry too much about defaults. Think of it as your insurance against getting into debt in the future!

With regard to interest, they are not obliged to freeze this, and quite often it will still be added right up to the point the debt gets passed on to a collection agency. In some ways, passing to DCAs is in fact a favourable outcome, as at least then you have a chance of making a dent in the debt. I've become somewhat cycnical and feel that some of these companies continue to add charges and interest for as long as possible in an attempt to maximise their return on a dead account.

You may find you are stuck with the interest between now and freeze point (assuming they do eventually freeze it), although there is no harm in swamping them with letters explaining that it could make the difference between getting all their money and getting very little. Often they know that they will sell the debt on anyway, and will only get a proportion of the outstanding amount - hence, in my view, why they are trying to maximise the liability.

Charges are another matter, and I am claiming back all charges under a separate thingy (bank charges - illegal thread (can't find the link now)... and https://www.bankactiongroup.com)

You can only do what you can do. Eventually you harden to their demands and threats - oop, sorry, their pursuit of debts as is their right within OFT guidelines - until you realise one day that your telephone manner with them has changed from panic and outrage to calmly forceful and slightly bored. They soon give up at that point.

Oh, and there are terms in the OFT guidelines that relate to 'unfair practice' for creditors pursuing debtors, some of which relate to pressuring debtors to pay more than they can reasonably afford. Also included as unfair are unreasonble numbers of calls, calls at unsociable hours, refusing to deal with apponted third parties (ie CCCS, Payplan), and bypassing an appointed third party to try to deal direct with a debtor.

Ho hum. Think of it as contributing to the economy by keeping all those phone-drones in employment. In fact, it would be nice if Samanfuh in collections started by thanking us every time she called. Only manners, after all.