DMP Mutual Support Thread - Part 7

toots1607

Hi

I got very excited today, looked at my DMP plan on CCCS and noticed that it has dropped , not by much but it had drop. Now beliving its working and I also have claimed off my council for the damage to my car after hitting a pot hole. Dont think I will get much back, but if you dont try you dont get.

Cheers

jasperconran

update for me....well after my scare the other day from getting a intended court action letter from Blair Oliver and Scott I have calmed down a bit! Spoke to CCCS this morning and all our first payments have gone out to our creditors:j so thats good news.

I did phone BOS again today, and they still havent processed my OH's letter of authority for me to deal, the nice lady advised to call back next friday.

Barclaycard have now passed my account to Mercers, so I decided to be brave and call them. I was advised they had not received any paperwork. CCCS advised the paperwork was resent on the 5th January and again the payment is already on its way!!!! So the lady advised will put the account on hold etc.

So all in all, not to bad I guess, keeping my fingers crossed for no more bad letters!!!!

inamess_man

wow some good news today

captial one replied to my letter about the phone calls being to persistent. (thanks for the help with that)

they havent put me on a plan but have refunded £120 worth of charges and my account is now under my credit limit again

consider this is my seventh letter to them just shows persistents pays

finally they are all on board

sunfleur

Well done inamessman. It should give you peace of mind for a while knowing they are all singing from the same hymn sheet!

Sunfleur

inamess_man wrote: »

wow some good news today

captial one replied to my letter about the phone calls being to persistent. (thanks for the help with that)

they havent put me on a plan but have refunded £120 worth of charges and my account is now under my credit limit again

consider this is my seventh letter to them just shows persistents pays

finally they are all on board

the_tooth_fairy

mikon wrote: »

HELP HELP HELP

Came home to a letter from NEXT stating that my account will be transferred to a DCA mid February. I will be contacted by the company instructed to recover the balance on your account.

It then states the implication of a DCA getting involved are:

A Collector may call at your home
County Court proceedings may be taken against you which will involve charges being added to your debt.
A Default will be registered against your name preventing you from getting credit for years.

It then goes on to say you can avoid the above by calling us with your credit card details to make the required payment

Can I agree with all the other help you have had, and say I have had many dealings with Next also. Please don't worry about these Bully Boy tactics. When I first started shopping with Next, they opened a credit agreement that I didn't ask for, and I bet they did that with everyone else as well. Now 17 months into our DMP, I get at least one credit agreement every 3 months to sign and return (yeah, right, thanks to the advice on here!).
Basically, their greed has come back to bite them, and please don't quote me, I'm reasonably sure they now have to deal with the debt incurred fairly. Honestly, since we have been paying the monthly payments, they have been as quiet as a mouse, despite all their bluster, so just don't sign any agreements!

ttf

the_tooth_fairy

sunfleur wrote: »

When I spoke to the counsellor at CCCS she kept stating that they are on my side! She kept asking if we have enough to live on. By the time she had been adding things to our budget we didn't have the same amount of money we were paying. I said we wanted to keep paying the same amount for now so the counsellor took a few pounds off here or there so that we could keep paying what we wanted to pay. They will make sure you can eat and get to work and park. Don't be afraid of telling them you can't manage. They say 'you can't pay what you don't have'. Everything is going up and our wages are going down so of course we will all need to increase our budgets - especially if the mortgages go up later this year too. Creditors can't get the courts to order someone to pay what you haven't got. They will side with eating every time.

So go for it. I think all of us want to pay our debts off and we may feel guilty for lowering our payments but then we will put them up when we can. We are aiming to up our payments on our yearly anniversary at least by a little so we can see the years coming down. But if we have to reduce the payments to live then that is what we will do too.

Sunfleur xx

Hello again Sunfleur, it's great to hear how you are doing!
I really agree with your feelings about everything getting on top of you for a while. I remember posting about this last year, when I felt really swamped. and it seemed like this 'punishment?' would go on forever.
Dark days indeed.
Isn't amazing how you suddenly realise that:
a) This will not kill you, it only forces you to examine how you spend your money, though the dinners aren't great.
b) There is a good chance, that if you bite the bullet, you will be far better off than most of your friends and relatives, who still have their heads firmly in the sand, paying minimum amounts.
c) This process changes you (in some way) forever. Never again will you be the person who runs like Hell into M&S for a last minute Birthday present, that cost £10 more than you wanted to spend. Every pound is a prisoner, if I won the Lottery tomorrow, I know I would deal with the money differently.
It's really challenging sometimes, (especially when your OHs' last salary was 21/12/10!) but just think of the bleeding Rubbish we would all have bought over Christmas!!
That's the rant over now, normal service will be resumed shortly...

ttf

tass

Next instantly moved my account to DCA - think it was Roxburgh and they were easy to deal with and no bother whatsoever and when we offered f&f last year they accepted the first amount offered.

sunfleur

I had to laugh - they do this to us too. I laugh even harder every time I read these 'agreements' as they want us to pay 20p less than has actually been allocated to pay them LOL Every one has been 'filed' - not in the bin, although that is where they belong, but in our file so they can't suddenly produce one we have 'signed'! It's like a child playing a game so that they have the illusion of having 'power' over someone. I just sit back and kick my heels while I watch what is going on most of the time. It's quite entertaining.

Sunfleur

the_tooth_fairy wrote: »

mikon wrote: »

HELP HELP HELP

Can I agree with all the other help you have had, and say I have had many dealings with Next also. Please don't worry about these Bully Boy tactics. When I first started shopping with Next, they opened a credit agreement that I didn't ask for, and I bet they did that with everyone else as well. Now 17 months into our DMP, I get at least one credit agreement every 3 months to sign and return (yeah, right, thanks to the advice on here!).
Basically, their greed has come back to bite them, and please don't quote me, I'm reasonably sure they now have to deal with the debt incurred fairly. Honestly, since we have been paying the monthly payments, they have been as quiet as a mouse, despite all their bluster, so just don't sign any agreements!

ttf

mikon

Hi everyone,

Following on from my bit of a wobble and your support I am now back up and fighting. I have spent the last few hours reading up about unenforceable action and CCA.

Here is where I stand.

I took an account out with Next online and did not sign any Consumer Credit Agreement. Now some months ago NEXT sent me a Credit Agreement and asked me to sign this and I of course ignored them. Obviously their Debt Collection Team thought we need to get a signed agreement. Now if they sell this debt by law they have to inform the buyer of the Debtors details. Now if I have not signed a CA then they are breaching Data Protection by sharing my data with a 3rd Party.

I am now going to write to NEXT to ask them to send me a copy of the original CCA and see what they come up with. Without the CCA my understanding is that they cannot charge me interest or standing charges. If NEXT fail to provide me with a certified true copy of the disputed credit agreement and statements for the account, NEXT will have failed to meet it's obligations under the legislation contained within section 77 (1) and section 78 (1) of the Consumer Credit Act 1974.

77 Duty to give information to debtor under fixed-sum agreement

(4) If the creditor under an agreement fails to comply with subsection (1) -
a) he is not entitled , while the default continues, to enforce the agreement and -
b) if the default continues for one month he commits an offence.

78 Duty to give information to debtor under running-account credit agreement
a) state of account, and
b) the amount, if any, currently payable under the agreement by the debtor to the creditor

(6) If the creditor under an agreement fails to comply with subsection (1) -
a) he is not entitled , while the default continues, to enforce the agreement and -
b) if the default continues for one month he commits an offence.

I understand by failing to provide me with the documentation, I requested NEXT has committed a criminal act. I am now of the opinion that you are unfit to hold a Consumer Credit Licence as determined by the fitness test outlined in the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (section 25).

25 Licence to be a fit person
(2) a) contravened any provision made by or under this Act, or by or under other enactment regulating the provision of credit to individuals or other transactions with individuals.
d) engaged in business practices appearing to the Director to be deceitful or oppressive, or otherwise unfair or improper (whether lawful or not)

As you are aware, a credit agreement that is not properly documented and signed by the customer is totally unenforceable under the Credit Consumer Act 1974 and therefore is a complete defence to any court claim that is issued.

I will update you on the response of both breaching the Data Protection Act and the CCA.

If anyone has anything they can add please feel free to post a reply.

Lets Rock & Roll with NEXT.

CommitedToChange

nothing to add except a good luck :T

I have filled in my forms with CCCS and after a slight fiddling of my incomings and outgoings - nothing I can't do - I'm not THAT daft, just reducing groceries etc, it suggested a DMP so I have said I want to do that and they replied by saying they would contact me shortly - Yay :beer:

I didn't include my next debt as its barely £50 and I'm going to pay for it with my ebay money - getting at least £200 on sunday :T so that will pay for next to go - account closed and my allotment fees for the year, something I really want to keep as it will help me with food and keep me sane.

I'm also going to stick with my taste radar as this gives me £20 to spend on fresh fruit and veggies each month - a very helpful addition to the grocery budget. Since I cook everything from scratch I can live very well on £50 a month - so my allowance of £100 will easily stretch to other stuff that might crop up during the month.

Sigh, rambling again. Thanks for listening and all your support - have a nice weekend everyone.