Wipeout Studio Catalogue Charges

finshe

Hi i have had a catalogue account with studio since 2004.

I have not ordered anything for nearly 2 years but still paying over 150 per month with over 60 in charges.

Outstanding Balance over =£1000.00
Next minimum payment Nov over =£150

I want to stop the charges and if possible get past charges refunded, until about 12 months ago i was also being charged PPI.
Please can you help.

Fonz_2

You could settle the balance if there's one outstanding?

finshe

Thanks for the quick reply Fonz, the outstanding balance over £1000.00
i just dont have that kind of money and i bet the majority of this balance is due to the charges being paid before the balance gets paid.

If i could get the charges which have been added over the years removed i think i could clear the remainder.

My next minimum payment over £150 has to be paid by in november and if i dont pay by then they say they have no alternative but to pass the account to a debt collection company to recover the full amount(i get this on every months statement).

Fonz_2

Theres a lot of advice on here about claiming bank charges but I'm not clued up enough to know how this applies here.

Someone will be along shortly who knows more

finshe

Thanks for your input Fonz, i forgot to mention in my last post that i only
got next months due bill yesterday so that gives me all of 8 working days to get a letter off or make the minimum payment again.

Tixy

Look at this board for information on reclaiming charges - it will take you longer than 8days to sort it out and get any possible money reclaimed so I'd recommend you make the next payment as usual -
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=102

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/credit-card-charges

finshe

It looks like your right Tixy, i will have to pay theres nothing i can do in time before the due date. I will start again on the 6th it will give me a bit more time to find out what my first move should be?

Do i ask them to reduce payment and freeze all charges or send a cca request etc.

finshe

Update:
I couldnt just sit back and pay the next minimum payment, so i gave
Studio a ring explaining i will only be paying a token payment of £25 per month as i'm struggling to find the monthly minimum payment and that i was un-happy with the charges which have been applied to my account.

The lady in the credit services department at first said she had no knowledge of the PPI charges but soon found that i had indeed been paying for PPI until i phoned up and cancelled last year. She told me there has been a total of 12 default charges and no information was given on the service charges.

When i asked her if the account will be passed to a debt collector as it states on the statement if payment is not received, she replied saying
that i was mistaken and that it only states that they MAY pass it on(it clearly states WILL on my statement).

They said they will send me a financial statement of the account plus a
income/expence statement for me to fill in. Should i print my name on the
statement when sending it in or sign it(other threads suggest some companies may frauduently use the signature in some way).

Tixy

Yes, if you are thinking of doing a CCA request (which is probably a good idea) then print rather than sign or sign but draw horizontal lines through it (so that it could not be scanned in and used on a mocked up CCA).

I would then work through the reclaim step by step guide which I think includes a letter asking for full details of all the charges that have been applied.

Sometimes its useful to post up a statement of affairs on here for people to see before you send off your I&E to a creditor. That way we may spot if there is something you are spending a lot on (luxuries etc) that they would disallow when working out what you can afford to repay.

There is a link here - http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html
It can be useful to do this anyway as some members on here are really good at spotting if you may be paying too much for anything or have ideas on how you can make savings.

Tixy

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1868507
This is a link to a guide on CCA requests if you decide to do that as well as reclaim your charges.

finshe

The SOA link will come in handy thanks Tixy.

I think i will send a CCA Request along with the SOA. I have read in a few threads that asking for the CCA will automatically put the account into
dispute? is this correct.