DMP Mutual Support Thread (Part 6)

suze72

geoffmr1 wrote: »

Independant solicitors will negotiate, however they do on the whole seem to be less flexible than DCA's etc. The problem when it goes to solictors is that they usually look to secure the debt somehow (obviously depending on your circumstances & what assets you hold). Looking around online this firm seem to deal mostly with property deals rather than debt recovery, there doesn't seem to be much information about them going after debtors so that must be a good thing, usually you get a whole raft of information about how diabolical & underhand a solicitor is.

Thanks Geoffmr
When my OH phoned the solicitors last week he told them that we were hoping to add the debt to our DMP and the solicitor just asked if we could get CCCS to contact them with the details. I spoke to CCCS who said they will send payment proposals etc at the beginning of November so I emailed the solicitor to tell her this the other day but haven't had a reply so hoping they're ok with waiting that long.
I really want to avoid charging orders etc as our mortgage is joint with my mum and I would feel dreadful for her to be penalised for our lack of business sense!

Louise82_2

Hi all hope everyones keeping well, I started my dmp in May and think things seem to be eventually settling down. Have 13 creditors - i like to split them into groups 3 biggest creditors 3 big creditors , 3 middle creditors and 3 smaller creditors as in the amount of debt, the good news is the 3 biggest have accepted with no fuss and are all happy , 2 out of 3 of the big ones have accepted also with no fuss and also froze all interest, 2 out of 3 of the middle have accepted and froze interest and 2 out of 3 of the smaller have also accepted so that leaves me with 4 that havnt, 2 are the payday loan companies and dont think they are ever going to leave me alone, another is creation finance for flybe card and triton for my mint car, gona keep trying to get these sorted but at least everyone else seems happy.
What i really want to do now is sit down and start working out how i can reclaim some charges etc to get my balances down, I had ppi on one of my big cards - 5500 outstanding and always has had a balance similar to that from early 2006- would it be worth trying to reclaim - would it rock the boat too much, also have ppi on another 3 cards - may not be as much but would still be tidy enough amount, should i look into this?
Also whats the best way to start reclaiming charges? Do i have to write off to each creditor to get statements etc or can i just write to ask them to refund charges? Do they look at this unfavourabley as in they helpin me by freezing interest then im looking to claim money back from them.
Any help would be most appreciated

geoffmr1

suze72 wrote: »

Thanks Geoffmr
When my OH phoned the solicitors last week he told them that we were hoping to add the debt to our DMP and the solicitor just asked if we could get CCCS to contact them with the details. I spoke to CCCS who said they will send payment proposals etc at the beginning of November so I emailed the solicitor to tell her this the other day but haven't had a reply so hoping they're ok with waiting that long.
I really want to avoid charging orders etc as our mortgage is joint with my mum and I would feel dreadful for her to be penalised for our lack of business sense!

Hi Suze,

I cannot find anywhere online where someone has complained that this particular solicitor has gone for a charging order so that can only be positive. If you look up Weightmans Solicitors who came after me you'll see how many complaints are online regarding them (as I said previously they even boast on their website how successful they are at getting charging orders). I really wouldn't let it worry you at the moment (I know thats easier said than done), you may well find that they accept the DMP, after all there must be some decent solicitors out there.

geoffmr1

Louise82 wrote: »

Hi all hope everyones keeping well, I started my dmp in May and think things seem to be eventually settling down. Have 13 creditors - i like to split them into groups 3 biggest creditors 3 big creditors , 3 middle creditors and 3 smaller creditors as in the amount of debt, the good news is the 3 biggest have accepted with no fuss and are all happy , 2 out of 3 of the big ones have accepted also with no fuss and also froze all interest, 2 out of 3 of the middle have accepted and froze interest and 2 out of 3 of the smaller have also accepted so that leaves me with 4 that havnt, 2 are the payday loan companies and dont think they are ever going to leave me alone, another is creation finance for flybe card and triton for my mint car, gona keep trying to get these sorted but at least everyone else seems happy.
What i really want to do now is sit down and start working out how i can reclaim some charges etc to get my balances down, I had ppi on one of my big cards - 5500 outstanding and always has had a balance similar to that from early 2006- would it be worth trying to reclaim - would it rock the boat too much, also have ppi on another 3 cards - may not be as much but would still be tidy enough amount, should i look into this?
Also whats the best way to start reclaiming charges? Do i have to write off to each creditor to get statements etc or can i just write to ask them to refund charges? Do they look at this unfavourabley as in they helpin me by freezing interest then im looking to claim money back from them.
Any help would be most appreciated

Hi Louise,

I totally understand why people in our position get nervous about reclaiming charges and/or PPI especially when that partcular creditor has just accepted the DMP without fuss. However, don't ever forget that these financial institutions have actually ripped you off in the first place with these illegal charges & PPI miss-selling, which has probably contributed a large portion to the money you owe them now. I've reclaimed against most of my creditors & yet it's not affected the way they treat me, so it should be the same for you & anyone else.

As for actually reclaiming charges, if you no longer have the statements then unfortunately you will need to write off for them enclosing the £10 fee. If thats the case you're best off actually sending an SAR request for all the information they hold on you because that means they have to supply a copy of the credit agreement (if there actually is one for a particular creditor, obviously you wouldn't get one for a bank account), also because you're asking for all the information you should get all the statements going back as far as they have rather than them just sending you the last 6 years worth. Although technically you can only reclaim for 6 years the ombudsman has been known to allow people to go back further if they can prove charges were put on.

tass

geoffmr1 wrote: »

Independant solicitors will negotiate, however they do on the whole seem to be less flexible than DCA's etc. The problem when it goes to solictors is that they usually look to secure the debt somehow (obviously depending on your circumstances & what assets you hold). Looking around online this firm seem to deal mostly with property deals rather than debt recovery, there doesn't seem to be much information about them going after debtors so that must be a good thing, usually you get a whole raft of information about how diabolical & underhand a solicitor is.[/QUO


I work for a firm of solicitors and our litigation department has a debt recovery department attached to them. The way the work is they are basiclly intermediaries for the creditor. They take their instructions at all stages and negotiate/correspond with the debtor. It might be that they will raise court action but that would be on the instructions of the creditor. I have to say the manager of that department is a nasty nasty piece of work. I would hate to be on the receiving end of her venom.

On the other hand First Credit instructed a firm of solicitors to act for them in our case (thank the lord they didn't come to the firm I work for- I would have been mortified) and any dealings we had with them were and still are very polite and courteous and we have no problems at all. They did go into court with our case but only got an instalment decree for the amount we were paying anyway. That then allowed them to register Letters of Inhibition on our property - I think that might be similar to a charging order in England. As long as we pay the instalments on time they won't be able to do anything else.

pinkpower

Things are still progressing - today I received a letter from CITI accepting the payments and freezing interest Although Egg have accepted for my loan with them, I got my latest statment yesterday which has interest and late charges attached

the_tooth_fairy

It was a good feeling today going into Justabank and seeing 11 OK's beside my list of creditor payouts.

At last the phone may stop ringing now they've all been paid!
Only damper is the 6k+ Halifax added on, thats quite a bit more time on our DMP.
No point complaining, tho. It will be interesting to see the next statements re: interest and charges.

Hope you are all well.
ttf

geoffmr1

tass wrote: »

I work for a firm of solicitors and our litigation department has a debt recovery department attached to them. The way the work is they are basiclly intermediaries for the creditor. They take their instructions at all stages and negotiate/correspond with the debtor. It might be that they will raise court action but that would be on the instructions of the creditor. I have to say the manager of that department is a nasty nasty piece of work. I would hate to be on the receiving end of her venom.

On the other hand First Credit instructed a firm of solicitors to act for them in our case (thank the lord they didn't come to the firm I work for- I would have been mortified) and any dealings we had with them were and still are very polite and courteous and we have no problems at all. They did go into court with our case but only got an instalment decree for the amount we were paying anyway. That then allowed them to register Letters of Inhibition on our property - I think that might be similar to a charging order in England. As long as we pay the instalments on time they won't be able to do anything else.

I don't doubt thats true in 99% of cases, I don't believe Weightmans were taking instruction from HFC regarding court action though. Infact a couple of months before our court date HFC sold the debt on to a company called Phoenix Recoveries. After a bit of digging about I found out that Phoenix were actually just another part of Weightmans (albeit based in Luxembourg), Weightmans had & always were working with their own agenda. I do feel sorry for anyone that has to deal with them because they truly are the scum of the earth.

suze72

Thanks Geoff and Tass for your advice. I shall be updating you all on our progress.

Mrs_Ryan

Just a quick question regarding Citi Cards - can anyone help me out here?

Im paying off an EasyJet Mastercard with an original limit of 750 that went up to about 875 due to charges. My latest statement came today and its now at 796 which is 46 over my credit limit. When I got the acceptance letter it said something about once it gets under or close to the original credit limit they will stop the plan and start adding charges again?
I dont have the original letter as I sent it to Kensington :doh: anyone any ideas if they are likely to do this? The payment they are getting is about the same as what the min payment actually was but there is no way I could afford to pay the min payment again on top of my DMP and everything else!