Payplan - has this ever happened to you?

pruney

We recently sent off a cheque for the estimated balance of our DMP with payplan and they told us we would probably need to pay a few extra £s as it is only an estimated balance.
I rang up one of my creditors yesterday because payplan had sent our normal monthly payment late and so they thought we had not paid and whilst on the phone I asked for the settlement amount. I was shocked to find it was £600 over what the estimated outstanding on the justabank site was.
However, after 15 mins of worrying, I was looking through my credit check which I've just had done to see when I took out that particular loan and noticed it tells you how much is outstanding. So I compared all the outstanding debts on the credit check to what is estimated on the justabank website and basically in total, the justabank website has overestimated our debt by approximately £5000.
Obviously I was giddy at the idea that we were going to get £5000 back so I rang the creditor who I have the biggest debt with as justabank said I owed them approx £4.5k still and they confirmed it was approx £1.5k, a monthly payment less than what was on my credit check.
I can't see why we wouldn't get the money back as the creditors should give the same settlement amount to payplan when they ring for them next week but I can't work out why payplan have it estimated so far over what we owe; any ideas anyone?
Has this happened to anyone else?
I'd be grateful to hear your payplan experiences.

desperatelyinthered

I am with Payplan and its my understanding that the balances on justabank were what you would have given them when you set up the DMP? they should just reduce each month everytime you pay.

I had to send my last statements and/or get an up-to-date balance from each creditor as this is the amount that is used when they agree payments.

Some of mine are slightly out (mainly because of extra charges added on after etc), but not by the amounts you state!

If I was you I would give Payplan a call and query it - may just be a mistake on their part.

Not sure about them charging you to get up-to-date balances either...

aimme13

i know that the justabank is purely, the balance of each account when you set it up minus ach monthly payement. The first few months interest is often being added so therefore the justabank is only a rough guide. I found this out from one of my credit cards, i still receive a monthly statement and i know it shows a couple of hundred ponds more than the justabank balance. I have aske payplan for a balance of all my accounts but they have yet to reply!........im going to get my credit report mow to see what its saying.

Still not sure how yours could be so far out??

pruney

I don't know either how it can be so much out. I did give them all the correct balances at the start, as did my creditors I believe. I paid £6k off the balance about 18 months ago and my outstanding reduced accordingly on justabank but I wonder if that has something to do with it.
To summarise roughly how my credit report differs from justabank balances, here is the difference in amounts between the two:
Egg loan - JB shows £1539.45, CR shows £1991 (payplan approx £450 under)
Lloyds TSB - JB shows £611.94, CR shows £855 (payplan approx £240 under)
MBNA - JB shows £1319.98, CR shows £1927.66 (payplan approx £600 under)
HSBC - JB shows £8417.67, CR shows £1809.90 (payplan approx £6,600 OVER)

I rang up HSBC to check what my outstanding debt with them was and what they said tallied with the credit report amounts, not payplan.
I also have debts with HFC but their outstanding amounts weren't on the credit report as they consolidated all into one interest free loan and put satisfied on my credit record.
I have been emailing payplan every 2 days since they contacted me two weeks ago to ask if I wanted to go for partial or full settlement but they have never come back to me. I can't ring from work so I left work early on Friday to come home and phone. After 20 minutes holding on the phone I finally got through to them and although they'd asked me my settlement preference, they'd not actually actioned it so the money had just been sat there for almost 2 weeks. Added to that, for some unknown reason they also distributed my monthly payment late and the reason I rang MBNA is because they had sent me a letter threatening to add all my charges and interest back on because I'd not kept to the agreement. Payplan apologised profusely and are contacting all creditors next week to explain about the delay and also request settlement amounts. Incidentally, I also asked MBNA if their settlement amount included the interest and charges which they'd previously removed and they said no.
After thinking we'd have to pay another £600, I sent a frantic email to them again to change my mind and ask for reduced settlement but now HSBC say we owe them so much less, I'm not so bothered because reduced settlement will have a worse effect on my credit rating which I'd rather avoid.
desperatelyinthered I didn't get charged for getting any balances, they were going to add my charges back on because paypal distributed my payment late.

System

Yep, same here, the balance on justabank is less that I actually owe, due to the interest charges that have been levied by the creditors until they agreed to freeze interest. I just keep emailing the balances to payplan through justabank. I did this last week and I note I havent had a confirmation of receipt from them (I think they must be having technical difficulties) so I will email them from my email account. Although my balance is only a couple of hundred pund out, not several thousands.

pruney

lennymfo wrote:

Yep, same here, the balance on justabank is less that I actually owe, due to the interest charges that have been levied by the creditors until they agreed to freeze interest. I just keep emailing the balances to payplan through justabank. I did this last week and I note I havent had a confirmation of receipt from them (I think they must be having technical difficulties) so I will email them from my email account. Although my balance is only a couple of hundred pund out, not several thousands.

Lennymfo my balance for some debts is less on justabank but for some is showing way over. Adding everything up and comparing against balances showing on my credit report and those confirmed by my creditors, justabank has me owing just over £5k more than my creditors say I do. Still can't understand why this is, am phoning payplan in the morning to see if this happens often and if there is something I am missing (although have checked many times so can't see what that might be).
Also, when I finally got through to them on Friday, the lady said that they were having problems with the computer system as they say they are available to take calls but the system won't put a call through to them. I'm going to ring first thing at 9am to try and be the first through. I shall post tomorrow to give an update.

badmark

I too am with Payplan, according the site I owe £77k but recently they said if I could come up with 17k that is all I would need to pay , I havnt got that either so it is a pointless excercise but having payed back £7k on a £5.5k loan for the past 15 years I wonder how proactive they are.! I still get loads of phone calls presumably so i cant use the old 6 year trick(not being contacted) and quite ofton I am told they havnt been paid the pro rata payment once recently the wrong payment was made to the wrong creditor come to think of it , why am I with them?

ald65

we are with Payplan and have had no problems to date, payments on time and Justabank amounts matching closely the actual amounts owed with creditors.

jonathon

I am with payplan according to them i owe capquest £1350,when capquest sent me an sd the debt was £815

DAJO_4

We have been with Payplan for about a year and have had to chase them on a number of occasions as they have not passed on our payments on time to our creditors even though we have a regular direct debut set up to payplan each month or give them our income/expenditure. They of course have been a help but sometimes need just a little nudge to keep on top of things.

busymum.com

My Partner and I have been with Payplan now for about 5 years or so. We have for some reason been passed through to there Portugese office, This creates a few problems. Firstly, can never get hold of them to speak to. Next there always seems to be a slight Language Barrier. Finally the time difference means that when we do finally get a call back it can be nearly 8pm!:mad:
We once spoke to the Citizens advice bureau for advice for debt managment and they began to tell us about payplan. When we told them that we were already with their Portugese office we were laughed at and told there was no such thing. We insisted there was and the man there found this so amusing that he wandered off to tell his colleagues there which completely wasted our time booked with him.
We have recently had letter to say that creditors are not receiving our payments. However when we speak to payplan they say they have sent it. We are seriously thinking of using another debt management company.