Kris

kib510

Anyone out there had any dealings with a company called First step finance? I'm currently on a DMP with payplan but First step are making claims that sound too good to be true(!) Any info would be appreciated, Thanks
Kris

Tixy

Hi Kib

What claims are they making? If its that they will wipe off your debt using little known legislation etc etc then these claims are indeed to good to be true and steer well clear of them - see this http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1733037

You can do the same the same thing they can do for just a few quid with help from this forum - which is request your CCA (consumer credit agreement) to see if its legally enforceable.
And its not possible to get your debt written off - although you may find some are unenforceable - this is not the same thing though. They wouldn't be able to take you to court but will still report to the credit reference agencies etc.

DarkConvict

Tixy raises the key point, that debt isn't wiped off, it can only be made unenforceable which means there is still a debt, and whilst under guidelines they should not pursue you for the remaining balance they probably will every now and again. The debt cannot be enforced in court by means of CCJ's and Charging Orders.
After 6 years the debt is statute barred, once again you still do owe the money to the day you die, but after 6 years the debt and any defaults will no longer be on your credit file and they shouldn't chase you if they know it is statute barred, so it would be like it hadn't existed... but it is still there.

kib510

thanks for the advise guys. It's a bloody nightmare at the moment. We owe £60k and the majority of it is due to a major rip off in Tenerife via time share and Barclays Partner Finance(there is a deal there somewhere). Its a long story !! :mad:

Tixy

Hi Kris

There may be some people on here who could offer advice on dealing with your debts or making savings in your outgoings to enable you to afford repayments (if you are currently struggling to meet the repayments agreed with Payplan).

If you do want advice -this is a handy thread to get you started http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=107280

kib510

Thanks Tixy,

The biggest issue at the moment is the Barclays partner finance loan for £35k. They refuse to stop interest , although they have reduced it to 0.5% per month. I'm just fearful that they'll bang a charging order on the property.

RAS

Is this secured debt or unsecured? And given you mention timeshare, covered by UK or Spanish law?

kib510

Hi RAS,

The loan is unsecured and is with Barclays Partner Finance.

The timeshare is governed under Spanish law. Initiallly the loan was a 6 month interest free credit card deal with Clydsdale Financial Services (signed in Spain).

It was then transfered to a loan with BPF in the uk after the 6 months came to a close.

The Sales pitch was that they would have resold the timeshare before the 6 months ended which clearly did not happen..

Charco_2

Have you any other debts? 35K to one company is an awful lot of money to have in a DMP!

kib510

Total of 65k.