Unethical Lenders dont care about the law- Barclays

John_Bains

No one can tell what may happen in the future or how it may impact their ability to pay off a loan. Most people believe it will never happen to them. Weather you like to accept it or not, when taking out credit you need to consider all eventualities. A major part of this is to know how your lender may behave should the worst happen. Never believe that a larger lender will behave better then a smaller lender. This is especially true for both Barclays and the Halifax. In fact the worst dept collection agency around at the moment is Credit Solution. Any organisation that use this agency should be avoided at all cost. I won’t go into the details here but this is my experience and the experience of other people I have talked to who had debt with these organisations.
Barclays
Refused to enter any communications about my debt after I was mad disabled through no fault of my own. At the height of their harassment they called me four times a day and made the same threats of taking me to court. Barclays refused to communicate with Citizens Advice Bureau, PayPlan or the National debt line regarding my debt. They then sold the debt to Credit Solutions. Credit solutions rang me on a Monday, sent me a letter threatening debt collectors at my door the next day Tuesday sent me a threatening letter looking like a court order on Thursday. By Friday I talked to one of their agents who told be they would not send round ‘bailiffs’ to recover their debt but just some large friendly men. Despite being told I was disabled they said ‘it was not their problem” they were happy to make me homeless. If I dint pay the full amount in one go they would strip my house of all its belongings and recover the amount. I asked about my kidney dialyses machine they said that would be the first to go since it would raise a lot of money. When told I would complain to the OFT and FSA they were not worried in the slightest clearly they have done this kind of thing before. Any way you have been warned avoid loans from Barclays or any one that uses Credit Solutions as a debt collection agency. Other companies who use Credit Solutions

nPower, EDF, Centrica and Powergen,Barclays Bank,RBS,Clysdale bank
:money: :mad:

BrandNewDay

John_Bains wrote:

By Friday I talked to one of their agents who told be they would not send round ‘bailiffs’ to recover their debt but just some large friendly men. Despite being told I was disabled they said ‘it was not their problem” they were happy to make me homeless. If I dint pay the full amount in one go they would strip my house of all its belongings and recover the amount. I asked about my kidney dialyses machine they said that would be the first to go since it would raise a lot of money.

That may be the meanest thing I've ever heard a debt collector say, yet! (Well, the second meanest. A woman in America whose son committed suicide over his debts was harrassed for YEARS by collectors, one of whom told her, "You failed to raise a responsible adult. The least you could do is pay the debts he ran up.")

Talking to these people is a waste of time. I used not to know better and, years ago, got bullied a bit by one of them.

You *do* know that they can't really send bailiffs around, don't you? And, even if somebody DOES send bailiffs - which requires some sort of court order - you don't have to let them in.

The sad, ugly truth is that somewhere out there is a disabled person on dialysis who actually believed that they were going to be out on the street without medical care and so they borrowed money from a relative to pay the debt collectors off.

Don't pay them. Don't pay them a thing. Let them take you to court, and then let the judge settle things. Being taken to court isn't the end of the world, you know. No judge will stand for threats of taking dialysis machines, etc.

Astaroth

If you consider all eventualities surely you take out payment protection insurance?

Whilst I am sympathetic to your situation you obviously did turn down this option to protect yourself and as such have left yourself open to having to pay off the debt if the worst happened without support from others.

However, irrespective of that a debt collection agency cannot make the threats they have to you. Credit Solutions is a member of the CSA which have a code of practice that all members must follow which can be found here:
http://www.csa-uk.com/COP%20-%20CSA.htm

There is a contact telephone number and email address on the site too to complain about one of their members.

Thriftylady

Astaroth wrote:

If you consider all eventualities surely you take out payment protection insurance?

Whilst I am sympathetic to your situation you obviously did turn down this option to protect yourself and as such have left yourself open to having to pay off the debt if the worst happened without support from others.

I agree that we should all take responsibility for our own finances, but we don't know from his post what the OPs circumstances were at the time of the loan being taken out. There are loads of situations where this type of insurance wouldn't pay out anyway. I have seen it from the inside,and the proportion of claims that were ever paid out was shockingly low. Even people with seemingly clearcut claims (e.g. off work due to serious car accident, diagnosed with cancer out of the blue at a young age, made redundant with no warning) usually find that there is a loophole somewhere that prevents a payout. Along with the blatant misselling to people who wouldn't be covered anyway (e.g. self employed) surely this is why there has been so much recent adverse publicity about these insurance products....

Astaroth

Thriftylady wrote:

I have seen it from the inside,and the proportion of claims that were ever paid out was shockingly low

I can only talk from personal experience - my missus used to handle PPI claims - and I know the claims acceptance rate was in the region of 90% and that doesnt factor out those that were blatently "trying it on" (people who are unemployed when taking the loan out or those with long term pre-existing conditions and claiming on day 1 for the full term of the policy)

frepol

Astaroth wrote:

I can only talk from personal experience - my missus used to handle PPI claims - and I know the claims acceptance rate was in the region of 90%

Can we have the name of this company - sure as hell bucking the trend!

Thriftylady

Astaroth wrote:

I can only talk from personal experience - my missus used to handle PPI claims - and I know the claims acceptance rate was in the region of 90% and that doesnt factor out those that were blatently "trying it on" (people who are unemployed when taking the loan out or those with long term pre-existing conditions and claiming on day 1 for the full term of the policy)

I'm with you on that, I have zero tolerance for the trying it on brigade, as with everything in life its them that make it harder for the honest people and genuinely deserving cases.

Sounds like your missus employers were a bit more ethical than the ones where I worked, the pay out rate there was something like 8%, and I have to admit that I just assumed they were all the same. Lesson learnt, I will assume nothing!!

Company used to think it amazing that anyone would take one of these policies, yet it was (of course!) company policy to sell them automatically as part of the loan package (i.e. you had to specifically opt out of taking it, not opt in). Shocking!

On a different note, my OH tried to claim on one of these policies when he was made redundant, and the loan company, not unreasonably, required a form to be filled out by his employer stating that he had indeed been made redundant, had no prior knowledge of the cutbacks (which he didn't), wasn't sacked, all the usual stuff. Employer just refused, saying they took no responsibility for ex-employees finances and that was that. Have to say, that was pretty frustrating, as obviously you don't know when you take the policy what paperwork would be required, or how your employer would react to a request to fill it out, so its a bit of a minefield. I daresay many of the insurance companies are well aware that many employers behave like this but are pretty pleased about it as it works in their favour...

Voyager2002

Astaroth wrote:

If you consider all eventualities surely you take out payment protection insurance?

If you read experiences on this site, or take any interest in financial journalism, you will know that PPI generally fails to pay out when you need it most.

The most sensible procedure is to avoid debt if at all possible, and otherwise be very well-informed of your rights, including the laws that protect you from harrassment.

Tootsie_Roll

Voyager2002 wrote:

If you read experiences on this site, or take any interest in financial journalism, you will know that PPI generally fails to pay out when you need it most.

I'm with Astaroth on this one - my experience is that the claims are usually paid. I've had lots of conversations with people who have tried to claim but failed due to them not following the correct procedure - i.e. not bothering to sign on when claiming for unemployment or not getting thier doctor to sign when claiming for illness. Of the claims that were put through with the correct information (which we used to help with) most would be paid.

Astaroth

frepol wrote:

Can we have the name of this company - sure as hell bucking the trend!

It is one of the major UK banks

regularsaver1

I am with Astaroth on this one too - to protect again sudden events ppi is available