HFC Bank / John Lewis

Anti-Micawber

Hi

We have been on a DMP with the CCCS for five years. In January of this year, our creditor John Lewis spoke to the CCCS to say the debt was going to be passed to HFC Bank. CCCS changed their details accordingly and payments to them have continued uninterrupted.

Now HFC are saying that some random months are missing, they did not receive the payments. They say they are not allowed to speak to the CCCS about it (eh?). The account is in my wife's name but they will not speak to me about it, even with her permission. They keep phoning and phoning and don't seem to be listening to a word we or the CCCS are saying to them. :mad:

Why would they start doing this? They have clearly received the payments. Each time they have phoned I have told the CCCS who have written to them at least twice to confirm all the details. I suspect they are trying it on, but it's so frustrating to be having all this again after five years of just paying the DMP and getting on with our lives.

Anyone else had similar problems with these people? Or any advice?

Thank you!

s

The_Moo

Sorry I can't help other than to bump this up... hope someone more useful than me will be able to help.

barbiedoll

Firstly, send them the "telephone hassle" letter here...

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=23624437&postcount=2

That will give you a bit of breathing space at least!

If they insist that payments have been missed (unlikely) then ask them for a full statement with a breakdown of dates of payments received and missed and compare it to your CCCS statements. You may find that they have randomly changed their payment date and your CCCS payments will show up as a "late" payment, for which they may try to charge you. Make sure that you ask for an up-to-date balance too, to see if it has reduced by the amount that you would expect. Remember, don't try to speak to them on the phone, they will lie and bully you if they get the chance, so don't even bother. (That's possibly why they want to speak to your wife only, they think women will back down sooner :mad:) There's absolutely no reason why they can't speak to CCCS, in your letter, state that you (your wife) have given CCCS the authority to speak to creditors on your behalf. Do not sign the letter, although they may send you an authorisation form, make sure that you or someone else signs your wife's name instead. It sounds as though they are just trying it on, so don't worry about it, just continue with your payments as usual. Good luck!

Anti-Micawber

Thanks so much, that's great! I will definitely use that letter now, after the calls stopping for a while after the CCCS said they had sorted things, they have started again. I've taken it up with John Lewis themselves, kind of half threatening to make a fuss on their very public twitter and facebook profiles, and they are now investigating too.

Many thanks