Gregory Pennington - Help

tomlin1982

Firstly, Hi all, never knew about these forums until I google'd trouble with Gregory Pennington and most of the results brought me here lol so anyway heres my problem.

In Feb 2004 I found myself in abit of a mess financially, owing around £12,000, I cant really remember how but somewhere along the line I got put in touch with Gregory Pennington Financial Management. After hearing all the talk I decided they sounded like just what I needed. After transfering my bank account over to them and giving them all the details of my creditors they advised me that the amount owed was just over £13,000 & would take 6 years to pay off with the amount I'd advised I was able to pay each month which was £170. After 6 months I moved back in with my parents & upped the payments to £250 & again in 2008to £275 but when I moved in with my partner in July '09 I dropped the payment back down to £170.

My 6 years was up in March '10 & after many calls to my Financial Manager I have today been advised that I still have 11 - 13 months left before all the debts will be paid off even though the Money Manager conceeded that they had recieved over £17,000 from myself & that over £13,000 of that had been paid to my creditors (If remember from the start after default payments & interest from month where I missed payments I was told I owed £13,000)

So what I'm wandering is what can I do to solve this situation because after todays conversation with them I feel at a low and absolutely robbed? :mad:

RAS

have you checked what fees GP are charging - I think it is 17.5%?

tomlin1982

A management fee of £20 and payment protection of £12 which I stopped today but even so from my reckoning and even the money manager couldnt argue that the debt should now be settled but isn't. The only thing she could come back with was "but haven't the totals come down lovely?"

RAS

Plainly a nuber of the creditors did not stop charging interest?

tomlin1982

RAS wrote: »

Plainly a nuber of the creditors did not stop charging interest?

I know this sounds abit simple but according to GP they did?

tomlin1982

Sorry to bump this back up but anybody got any ideas or been in a similar situation?

DarkConvict

Many paid debt management companies aren't fantastic, they are known to lie landing people with defaults, CCJs, Bailiffs. All because they said creditors stopped charging doesn't mean it was true, stupid i know, your paying for a 'service'.
National debtline/CCCS/CAB/PayPlan would have been better for you.

Anyway, the best you can do is ask for a copy of your account, if they refuse send them a SAR letter (costs £10) and force them to hand over all details. You can hopefully work it out from there.

Numpty_Monkey

Sory Tomlin, sounds like GP, have have had "your pants down"
They will have been taking their cut out of what you paid to them(as RAS says)
and 1 or more of your creditors haven't stopped charges or intrest

Do what DarkConvict suggests about the SAR, findout who you owe and dump Gregory Pennington like a hot brck

tomlin1982

I have a list of who I owe what to according to GP so how would I go about getting out of it? I also bank with them you see & its the only account I have?

RAS

Open a new basic bank account this weekend if possible - these do not require a credit check.

Read your GP terms and conditions and hgive them the required notice, then move your salary into your new bank account.

You may know what you currently owe your creditors but this is of little use.

What you need to know is how much has been taken from you account by GP, how much of that has gone to your creditors, how much has been taken by GP for fees and how much has been added to your debts by interest charges from the creditors. So you need full statements, not just the current situation.

It may be worth doing a full Subject Access Request as they have to produce everythign relating your account for the last 6 years.