Newbie!

escapefromdebt

Firstly hi!

Ive got 2 debts with catalouges, i got into trouble with them, charges upon charges. They told me the only way to clear was to change to 2 loans. This was ok to begin with, but missed a couple of payments, and u know how it goes. Now one wants £160+ to catch up and the other is a similar amount!

I CCA'd them, and they came back looking ok.

What I wana know is how can I get them to accept a lower payment

I could afford to pay them £10 on each account per month, but this would make no difference at all, as every month the minimum payment isnt made, they add £12, and an extra £12 when they feel like sending me an extra letter to kindly remind me of the fact! :mad:

I now know Im not to have phone contact with them, so I wont do that. Can someone help me, or have any ideas?

Please, and thanks.

GeorgeUK

I would reclaim the charges they have applied to the loan and also to the catalogue accounts. These were not covered by the recent bank test case and the OFT have never said that a £12 charge was a fair amount.

Check to see if you are paying payment protection insurance (PPI) on the loans and see if it was missold.
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/

The bottom line is that you can't pay more than you can afford so you may need to write making a repayment offer or trying to get help to do that from one of the free debt charities - CCCS or Payplan.

Tixy

Also you could consider writing to them to offer a £10 payment and asking them to freeze interest and charges. If you supply an income & expenditure account that shows this is all you can afford (and shows that you do not have an excessive lifestyle) then this should make them more likely to accept your repayment schedule.

Always do this in writing - you'll get nowhere with them on the phone as you have found out.

escapefromdebt

Thanks, how do I prove I was missold the PPI, i know im paying it, but I dont work, they understood that when I opened them. I couldnt make the payments and they wouldnt help, so i have paid it for nothing.

I honestly dont know how many charges are on the accounts, their would be a good £100/£150 on each id of thought. Can I request they send me details of all ive paid?

escapefromdebt

Tixy wrote: »

Also you could consider writing to them to offer a £10 payment and asking them to freeze interest and charges. If you supply an income & expenditure account that shows this is all you can afford (and shows that you do not have an excessive lifestyle) then this should make them more likely to accept your repayment schedule.

Always do this in writing - you'll get nowhere with them on the phone as you have found out.

I did this originally, they quite rudely, just ignored it and carried on sending the default notices and adding charges!

I will try resending one, but going on past experience, i wont hold out much hope.

dancingfairy

I would read up on guidelines (Financial Ombudsman or OFT) as I'm sure they're not allowed to make you have loans to clear credit cards - that's increasing your debt I would have thought as well.
It sounds like the PPI was missold as well.
I would put in a complaint to them and maybe take them to the Financial Ombudsman for selling you unsuitable products - ie the loan and misselling the PPI.
df

Tixy

Well I guess it might depend on what your income & expenditure shows. It might be worth posting your statement of affairs (SOA) up on here to see if people can 1) suggest ways you could save money, thereby meaning you can offer to pay more to the debts and 2) look for reasons why the companies did not accept your offer.
This is a statement of affairs calculator and posters here are really good at suggesting areas you could make cost savings - http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Depending on what, if any, other debts you have you could consider approaching one of the free advice organisations for advice see here - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=2077631

That said for any repayment plan it can take a little while and a bit of persistance to get your creditors to accept it. National debtline has a 'please reconsider freezing my interest' letter.

To look at PPI there is a seperate board on this forum which has a step by step guide. Regarding the recharges, again its another board on the forum. The step by step guide shows how to request a list of charges, although you have to pay to find out this info. Do you not still have copies of the statements from before they were changed to loans?