Natwest - Triton - AIC, advice needed please.

speeddial

Hi all, I am hoping some of you knowledgeable folk out there can give me some advice on the following.

I had a £2000 overdraft with Natwest last year, I strayed over my limit over a few months when I was struggling to keep up with outgoings, my basic pay had been cut and overtime had dried up leaving me with more going out than coming in.

Anyway, because I hadn't kept my account in order the Natwest cancelled my overdraft facility, which is fair enough it's all in the T & C's. It was right at the end of the month but I managed to halt my salary being paid in or I would have been left with nothing. Unfortunately, however, there was not enough time to change all my Direct Debits so I started to get hit with all these £25 fees and unauthorised overdraft fees and ultimately default fees.

At the end of it all I owed the Natwest £3580.69 which I couldn't pay, eventually Triton Debt Collection got in touch and we agreed a monthly payment of £60 (as part of a larger DMP) which I started in December 2009 until June 2010 when I got a letter from Allied International Credit (AIC) saying they were now chasing the debt. I wrote to them and explained I already had a payment plan with Triton and had regularly been paying them £60 per month as agreed. AIC advised that they were now pursuing the debt and that they wanted full payment of £3623.04!! This was now £42.35 more than when I first set up the payment plan with Triton, I had paid them 7 payments of £60 and was now £42.35 worse off.

I wrote to AIC asking for an explanation as to what was going on, why had Tritons payments not being taken into account, where had Tritons payments gone, and could they at least remove some of the charges that had been levied on the account. I got no reply and got another letter demanding full payment so I wrote back to set up a payment plan with them but again stressed that I would like the information I had asked for. I still got no reply and eventually phoned them, they advised me to contact Natwest directly.

I wrote to Natwest and asked them if they could explain why my balance had increased even though I had entered into a payment plan with Triton so they sent me a statement showing all my payments of £60 and then an interest payment levied by Natwest which averaged about £65 per month. Strangely interest is only applied when I have made a payment. My payments to Triton ceased in June 2010 and since then I have been in correspondence with AIC (I know I should make at least some token payment each month but wanted to use the withdrawal of payment to try and get the information from them that I required). In the time from June to October no interest has been levied, they also said they wouldn't remove the charges.

This debt is part of an overall debt of circa £30k which I have managed to set up a DMP with most other creditors, most of whom have been most helpful.

Anyway what I want to know is -

Can Natwest jump from one Debt Collector to another when you have an agreement in place and have kept to that agreement, I don't want to spend the next 6 months paying £60 to AIC to find its bumped to the next Debt Collector and I still owe the same or more?

Why have Natwest added interest to the account, I thought when the account was passed to Triton the interest etc would freeze and the balance would be payable to Triton over the life of the payment plan?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

sofababe

Unfortunately a DCA or OC do not have to freeze interest, even if you ask really nicely:(
Mine all did eventually but it took a while with some of them.
Once a DCA realise they're not going to make any money on a debt they will pass it on, either to another DCA or back to the OC who will then pass it to someone new.

speeddial

Hi Sofababe and thank-you for your reply.

It's strange they only applied interest when they were receiving payments and for the time from June till now have not added any interest. I'm worried I enter into another agreement with AIC and the interest starts again. AIC have agreed a £50 per month payment plan but it will be money down the drain if they add £65 interest every time I pay them £50.

I have had varied success with my other creditors.

Egg are freezing interest and charges on a 6 monthly basis, I have just agreed with them a further 6 months interest free.

ZOPA have agreed a reduced payment plan with a review in 6 months, no charges and minimal interest charges as the loan is extended, fair enough.

Vanquis first offered me a 50% settlement figure (without me even asking) but I didn't have the money unfortunately, I pay them £50 per month and they send me my statement with no interest or charges added.

Aqua have reduced interest to a minimal amount and are letting me pay £45 per month for 9 months followed by a further review.
Barclaycard haven't replied to any of my letters, I'm over my limit on both cards and am making minimum payments each month (all I can afford) but with the charges & interest my balance keeps on rising. I have asked them to freeze interest and charges for 3 months and cancel PPI to allow me to bring them back under their limit at which point the balance should reduce, it's been like this for circa 12 months.

First Trust Bank (overdraft and credit card) haven't officially said they will freeze interest payments, however I pay them £100 per month and check my online statements and no interest or charges are being applied, they no longer send me statements in post so hopefully I wont get nasty surprise some day with a statement and lots of interest charged!

HBOS have agreed a £50 payment plan with some minimal monthly interest being applied.

I had been servicing the debts nicely until I got caught up with a Pay Day loan lol, my God they are the scourge and I pity anyone who gets caught up in their spiral. At its worst I had 3 on the go with Poundstillpayday (£600 paying back £798), Paydayuk (£750 paying back £937.50 & Quickquid (£1300 paying back £1508) - Obviously having those 3 on the go meant I was continually going back to them and deferring (quickquid) in order to keep my head above water, I was paying over £500 a month in interest just to those 3 and not getting anywhere. I ended up having to miss a few payments elsewhere just to batter the pay day loan balances down. I should be clear of them by Jan next year, PTP and PDUK are paid off currently only quickquid on the go as they are the cheapest with my rewards discounts with them lol.

Word of warning to everyone - DO NOT TAKE OUT A PAY DAY LOAN UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, THEY WILL SUFFOCATE YOU!!

sofababe

Payday loans are the work of the devil! :mad:

When I was younger they were known as "loan sharks" and nowadays they even have tv adverts. The world's gone mad!!