Really annoyed

MrPolythene

One of the 'Debt Management' companies I am paying back have reduced me to tears. Basically I have £250 left in my bank account - thats it.. till the 28th - thing is they are due to take £250 out tomorrow. Leaving me with £0 - for 4 weeks. I'm really really scared - I'm going to speak to CAB in a few hours, but I feel an idiot just sitting at my desk crying. - Basically they refused to take a smaller payment for this month while I sort stuff out, i've paid them each month as I should, and I was told if I didn't find £250 in 7 days id be CCJ'ed

Broken_hearted

Hugs. how are they taking it, is it a debt with the bank or just a direct debit.

linniestorm

I'd take the £250 out of your account now. They can't take what isn't there.

Then perhaps continue to make some kind of token payment to them, even if its £5 per week or something.

Do speak to CAB today, but don't let them leave you with nothing!! Take it out if need be, you come first, not your DCA!!

lynzpower

could you take the money out of your account in cash now so they cant have it

I dont know enough about your situation though mate, but thats the first thing that springs to mind ?

Broken_hearted

If its a direct debit put a syop on it and take the money out of your account.Open an account with a bank not linked to any of your creditors. Well done on sorting out an appointment with CAB they should be able to help you futher.

skylight

Right, calm down and explain again - it doesn't quite make sense.

Have they demanded the £250 that you have left, or have they demanded and you paid £250 and they are due to take a further £250 tomorrow?

For which company is the debt management with and who are they? (Nosey!!)

Right. Deep breath. And again. Good.

1 - As mentioned above. Withdraw the £250 today. Go and do it now or in your lunch hour. BUT - you will be charged by your bank for a failed Direct Debit (Is it a direct debit or have you paid them using your debit card??)

2 - If a Direct Debit, then cancel it TODAY or NOW even with your bank. It may be too late to stop any transaction going through for tomorrow thought.

3 - Write to the debt management. Tell them to remove ALL contact numbers for you as is your right under the data protection act and to only contact you in writing. Also write to them making an offer of payment you can afford and send the payment with it. See the National Debtline website at the top of this page to get template letters about payments and stopping interest etc.
4 - If they phone you again, do not get into a conversation with them. They are trained to get money out of you - not to be nice. They do not care - its just a job to them. Tell them to put it in writing only and HANG UP STRAIGHT AWAY. Should take about 6 seconds of your time. They will call back a lot - keep doing this, it only costs them time and money - not you.

5 - Write again to them to complain about harrassment and the OFT guidelines and if they continue you will make a complaint.

6 - You must keep up the payments. As long as you do that the WORST they can do is contact you to pay more.


Do not let them get you down like this. Its only money. They cannot legally do anything to you as long as you are paying. And the WORST they can do is issue a CCJ - which will take a long time, by the way, and unlikely unless you are a persistant non-payer - as they have to pay upfront fees to take you to court. Okay, these are added onto your debt BUT a judge will stop all charges and interest immediately and will only make you pay what you can afford. Therefore it is not in their best financial interest to do that.

Lastly - BIG HUG!!!!

linniestorm

charlotte664 wrote:

1 - As mentioned above. Withdraw the £250 today. Go and do it now or in your lunch hour. BUT - you will be charged by your bank for a failed Direct Debit (Is it a direct debit or have you paid them using your debit card??)

And if/when you do get charged, I'd go into the bank and explain the situation. That you had an arrangement you've been keeping up with (and they'll see that from your payment history hopefully) and now they've moved the goalposts. You withdrew the money to make sure you could meet all your other obligations for the month, and so you wouldn't be bouncing in and out of an unauthorised overdraft.

They could help you in this instance by removing the charge as a gesture of goodwill, and you'd also like to cancel the direct debit so you can pay them a reasonable amount by another method in future. Hopefully you'll get somewhere, this has happened to me in other circumstances in the past and I found by going in being open and friendly with the staff (I picked a smiley/helpful one as well!) it did wonders. And its one less thing for you to worry about, after all you can only try.

skylight

You are right - perhaps the bank will remove the charge as a goodwill geasture, but there is no obligation for them to do so. You can but try and the worst they can say is no.

The OP doesn't mention its the bank to whom he/she owes the money - just a "debt management" company. (Unless there is a thread I haven't read yet!!) so its not clear who has moved the goalposts.

linniestorm

charlotte664 wrote:

You are right - perhaps the bank will remove the charge as a goodwill geasture, but there is no obligation for them to do so. You can but try and the worst they can say is no.

Yep, you're quite right. I think it'll probably depend on the mood of the staff really, but it would be one less thing to worry about if they said yes.

charlotte664 wrote:

The OP doesn't mention its the bank to whom he/she owes the money - just a "debt management" company. (Unless there is a thread I haven't read yet!!) so its not clear who has moved the goalposts.

Yeah could probably do with the ins and out to explain it properly, just meant that as a bit of a catch-all to get the point across to the bank without going into the minutae. But important points made I think, the ins and outs of it might help get the OP more targeted advice!

MrPolythene

Right - to clarify - Its coming out by Direct Debit - I can probably stop the DD no probs. I have paid £250 for over a year now, without fail - the only fails were when smile.co.uk somehow 'froze' the Direct Debit. I did metion to the DMC that I would stop the direct debit and he said i'd then get 7 days and then they'd work towards a CCJ.

MrP

MrPolythene

I've cancelled the Direct Debit - I'm feeling all tough now

K x