re provident / littlewoods

terrig

My neighbour came round last night, on Friday she had a doorstep collection company come to her house concerning a debt she has with littlewoods catalogue, a debt that she went to the CAB with as due to her being hospitalised for a few weeks, and on sick since her catalogue debt of £25 p/w she was unable to pay, after attempting to contact littlewoods who refused to let het pay less, she had someone from the CAB advise her to send in a letter etc stating that she had took advice from an adviser and that all she can afford at the moment is £2 p/w as all she was in receipt of at the time was £65p/w sick pay, she did this and heard nothing , yet continued to send in the payment of £2p/w, then on Friday Provident came to her house stating that they had bought her debt from littlewoods and they were there to offer her a loan of £500 as she owes littlewoods £420, and told her she would be left with £80, then they told her that the loan would be repayable at the rate of £17.50 a week, and the total she would have to pay back is £910,00 she tried to contact littlewoods to whom she has heard nothing from since she lowered her weekly payment, but no joy, she also told the doorstep collector to go away, has anyone else heard of provident buying debts from littlewoods?

londonuk2008

yes Provident have bought a load of old debts and renamed them 'Fresh Start'. You did right telling them to go away.Are you still paying Littlewoods £2 a week?

If so I would pop over to the 'Sub prime board' - on the credit card forum as there is a few people who have been in similar positions who can advise better.

terrig

Thank you, will do that, yes she is still paying them the £2 a week, she had to tell them to go away, as she could no believe the interest rate she was being offered. Thanks again

I_know_my_ABC_and_my_CMYK

I would give national debt line a call or CCCS over this offer to take on more debt as it is against the rules set down by the OFT if you are on a payment plan due to debt. The doorstep collector had no right offering this loan as this will get your friend further into debt and not help her.
have a look at the debt relief order thread as this may help her
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1385275

but she should not allow any debt collection agency to bully her if £2 is all she can afford then that is all they are going to get.

Cumbrian_Male

I work for Provident.

Firstly the agent should NOT have offered her an interest bearing loan in this instance. Fresh Start is an offer to repay the outstanding account interest free. If she owed Littlewood £420 she should have had a letter to say that Provident would discount it by 10% so she should have been looking at £375 over either 25 weeks @ £15 or 50 weeks @ £7.50.

I despair that there are staff and agents out there who can't follow simple instructions.

Secondly Provident are appointed to collect on the original creditors behalf. You can pay in full or take out the Fresh Start interest free agreement. Only when you choose to sign the agreement does Provident buy the debt. You can tell them to go away if you choose, we are not becoming debt collectors in the traditional sense. We are offering to collect from those who wish to repay their debt, as the creditor won't have had a doorstep collection option from the previous DCA. Obviously the company hope you take an interest bearing product in the future but your under no obligation to do so.