Reducing my debt repayments?

barbiedoll

I have 4 creditors on my DMP, 3 of which have (finally) stopped interest and charges, thanks to template letters from here. My biggest debt is an unsecured loan with Northern Rock. I obtained all the paperwork (SAR) and am currently claiming back £800 of PPI payments, sent the letter yesterday. There are also £330 in charges for late payments, none of which were missed, all payments were up to date by the time we went onto the DMP, can I claim these back? Can I use the letter for reclaiming credit card charges? Also, although they were fine about the reduced payments, they just state that the interest will be added onto the end of the loan, is that because the interest is a fixed amount? Is there anyway I can get it reduced or stopped at all, it's going to take us forever to pay if off otherwise. Any help in reducing this debt a bit more quickly, will be gratefully received!

DarkConvict

If they applied late payment charges even though the contractual min payment was made yes it can be reclaimed, but do not forget if you miss one months payment, you need to repay that month + the following month to bring you out of arrears. Was this a mistake you ever made and failed to clear any arrears outstanding on a previous months' repayment.

For advice on the reclaim - use this forum - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=102

You have no legal powers to stop interest, its all goodwill of the company. And once an agreement is defaulted its all pretty much goodwill as they could just slap it with a CCJ from a court. As such its not uncommon for creditors to freeze interest, and then when the balance is cleared they add it on at the end. This is a shock to many people who do not realise and believe the account is cleared, instead they get landed with several months if not years more payments to cover the interest they would have otherwise paid. But sadly as above, it is all goodwill from the bank if they actual stop interest rather than just freeze it.

barbiedoll

Yes, that's what I thought. We did catch up on all repayments, they were mostly late because we were over our overdraft limit for a couple of days at the end of the month. When we moved the payment date (for which they charged us £30!) we were ok. I may try to appeal to their better nature but I don't want to rock the boat too much, will be happy just to get charges and PPI refunded to be honest. Thanks for the link to the letters!