Capital One CC giving me big hassles

High&Dry

Hi guys, I really could do with some helpful advice on my current situation with my Capital One Credit Card.

I lost my job last year just before Christmas last year which as many can appreciate i'm sure the worse time especially when you have children.

Subsequently I ran into debt with my 2 credit cards Barclaycard and Capital One.

So in January a friend of mine recommended a Debt Management Company called Sterling Green. <<Website>>. They have a 15% debt management fee which I was o.k with and don't mind paying as long as they could take the stress out of paying back my credits as I could only manage to pay the minimum payments back and was getting nowhere fast!

So they worked out my income & from February they took their first payment and said they would freeze my interest and take care of all my debters. They did warn me that my credirors would get nasty and boy was they right.

Barclaycard are pretty good and they accepted the deal for monthly repayments that my DMC agreed to pay.

Capital however has been a Royal pain in the butt and have generally been quite arsey about it. I have been getting phone calls from them every 7 days since February and every time I say the same thing "I'm with a DMC and they are dealing with my debts contact them".

Each time they tell me that my DMC have not sent them an Income and Expenditure form, so... I ring up my DMC and tell them this to which my DMC reply yes we have and this is Capital One's way of stalling to get as much interest out of you as possible. So then they say they will send it off again.

Seven days later I get the same phone call from Capital saying the same thing that they haven't received the Income and Expenditure form. So I ring up my DMC again and they say they will send it off again.

Now this has been going one since February and tonight was the last straw, I knew it was them as it was a withheld number so I picked up the phone and ended having a row with a rather stroppy representive of CO. He said they still haven't received the Income and Expenditure form and I said I have had enough of there silly games and stalling techniques.

They said that my account was going to default and that debt collectors will be round to my place in two weeks.

So I guess I need to get hold of my Debt Management fiirm.

What should I do acout this constant harrassment from CO & can the debt collectors legally break into my place?

Thanks for any help offered

southernscouser

First and foremost ditch the current 'debt management' company your with! They are taking 15% of your money that should be going to your creditors!

The CCCS and Payplan both don't charge a fee for doing the same thing (and they do the job properly) as they are both registered charities!

Their contact details are at the bottom of this thread.

Cancel your DD or standing order immediately that you have with those scumbags! :mad:

If you get anymore correspondence from any creditor tell them you are going to be dealing with either The CCCS or Payplan and from now on you only wish to be contacted in writing otherwise you will report them for harrassment!

adjoce

We are doing a DMP with through the cccs and Capital One were really nice to us. They frooze the interest as soon as I sent a letter informing them of our difficulties and they were the first to accept the reduced payment.
They may be a bit hacked off that your paying the DMC 15% management fees and then expect them to freeze the interest on your account.You can get the same advice for free from cccs or payplan. That 15% could take years off your expected Debtfree date.

stotfoldquery

Definately get rid of the DMC, do an income/expenditure form yourself and send it recorded delivery - then they can't argue!

caleo

I have only been making token payments to my creditors on the advise of the CCCS. Capital One were brilliant and the easiest to deal with. All interest and phone calls and letters stopped. Barclays, on the other hand have been awful! Never respond to letters etc, neither does Mercers (their in house DCA). Every month, I pay them £1, every month they charge me a late payment fee, and now, I have gone over the limit, a fee for being over my limit!!!!!

I have heard of so many people having problems with these so called DMP agencies, but why pay anything when there is free advice and DMP available!

I am sure that if Cap One have been approached correctly, they would have stopped the charges.

Caleo

High&Dry

Thank you so much for your responses everyone as I was at the end of my tether and it has been a very distressing time. Will be an easy matter of ditching my DMC or do they hold you to a 1 year contract?

Looks like I better read over the T&C's again.

sparkle84

Its worth mentioning again especially for people browsing the site creditors will not deal with fee paying DMC not because they think they are rip off merchants (which of course they are) but because they feel the fee you are paying them should be paying off the debt to your creditors. They will deal with payplan and cccs and you have much better chance of having interest and charges frozen by going through them.

High&Dry

@sparkle84

Thanks for the advice its really appreciated.

Update: I spoke to my DMC and they said that CO have been taking the payments that I have been paying to then via the DMC and as a result they cannot send anyone round to my place to collect on the debt.

I am going to check out my T&C's when I get home and see if I can get out of my current obligation to my TMC.

nuttyrockeress

If you are in any doubt of the paperwork recived by any of the companies(with you saying Cap One hadn't received the letters from the DMC), you can ask for copies of all correspondance - phone calls, statements, letters in etc from any company for £10.