Harrington Brooks & Norton finance

kayh85

Hi all,

Im struggling with debt. I had a DMP with Harrington Brooks, it started with me joining them from a referall company in may and paying them £400 (4 installments of £100) but at the time i thought it was helping me get out of debt anyhow in august i started paying harrington brooks and them taking £40 per month and they was telling me that they was sorting my debt and paying creditors.
But now im in a situation that im getting defaults put on 1 account and a lot of missed payments to creditors on the other 3 as nothing was getting paid from may to august and they never sorted any arrangement with my creditors when they the did start paying them in august.
Now ive decided to not stay with them as they aint helping me at all.
Ive been trying to get a loan today to consolidate all my debts and pay 1 long term loan off so at least id be paying some debt off instead of not even covering the interest.
I tried a loan for norton finance and they said no but they have suggested this plan with basically the same as DMP with them and told me that they will start paying creditors straight away and their fee is £26 a month. they do sound promising but i dont know if thats just them selling stuff or its a geniune plan.
Has anyone had and dealings with norton?
sorry for the long post, thought i would share my dealings of harrington brooks with you all and how they have made things from bad to worse with me.
Thanks Kay

saltnvinegar

kayh85 wrote: »

Hi all,

Im struggling with debt. I had a DMP with Harrington Brooks, it started with me joining them from a referall company in may and paying them £400 (4 installments of £100) but at the time i thought it was helping me get out of debt anyhow in august i started paying harrington brooks and them taking £40 per month and they was telling me that they was sorting my debt and paying creditors.
But now im in a situation that im getting defaults put on 1 account and a lot of missed payments to creditors on the other 3 as nothing was getting paid from may to august and they never sorted any arrangement with my creditors when they the did start paying them in august.
Now ive decided to not stay with them as they aint helping me at all.
Ive been trying to get a loan today to consolidate all my debts and pay 1 long term loan off so at least id be paying some debt off instead of not even covering the interest.
I tried a loan for norton finance and they said no but they have suggested this plan with basically the same as DMP with them and told me that they will start paying creditors straight away and their fee is £26 a month. they do sound promising but i dont know if thats just them selling stuff or its a geniune plan.
Has anyone had and dealings with norton?
sorry for the long post, thought i would share my dealings of harrington brooks with you all and how they have made things from bad to worse with me.
Thanks Kay

Hi Kay

First of all welcome to the MSE DFW forums!

I really feel for you as it would seem that you are making as much effort as you can, but unfortunately you have fallen prey to the blood sucking bottom feeding scumbags that take advantage of people when they are at their most vulnerable and need help.

What has happened is that HB have taken the first 3 months payments you made to them as their 'fee' before even dealing with your creditors. As you have found out, this only makes the situation worse.

I fear that, having fallen for one bunch of cowboys, you are about to start dealing with another. I mean this is the best possible way but you must take notice of the following:

STOP DEALING WITH DEBT MANAGEMENT COMPANIES WHO CHARGE YOU TO DO SOMETHING YOU CAN GET FOR FREE OR YOU CAN DO YOURSELF!!!!!!!!



I would recommend you speak to one of the FREE debt charities.

Have a read of this thread first as a good start:

Where to seek professional impartial advice about your debts

Speak to someone like the CCCS and not only is their service FREE but being impartial also means they will recommend what is right for you, not what makes them a commission (which is what the fee paying companies are interested in).

I would also have a read of this thread too:

Help for First Time Posters & SOA Calculator

The good news is you've now found the right place to come for advice and help. Stop listening to leeches like Harrington Brookes and Norton. They will keep you locked in debt for as long as they possibly can simply to make more money out of you.

Look forward to seeing you posting here in the future.

Best

SnV

dancingfairy

Hi Kay and welcome.
A couple of thoughts from me:
1) a dmp will result in defaults on your credit file no matter who manages it as you are not making the payments you agreed to when you took out the agreements (even if you are sticking to a reduced payment plan) - however this is not the be all and end all and frankly you don't need more credit at this point so a damaged credit score is not that important.
2) sadly despite the best intentions of many consolidation loans generally end up in one place - another consolidation loan and more trouble - thing is unless you take action on your overspending and are 100% determined never to get in this mess again it is all too easy for the balances to creep up on the credit cards again (and you've still got the loan) and people often come on here having consolidasted once, twice or even more. Also as your credit rating will now have been damaged you are even more unlikely to get credit than before so this is unlikely to be a realistic option for you.

Apart from that I would say go to the SOA calculator on the link Salt and Vinegar provided - fill that in thoroughly and it will help you when you get speak to one of the charities - it will make sure you haven't forgotten things like christmas or car repairs which pop up from time to time and can easily put a budget out unless you have budgetted for them each month.
Good Luck
df

Mrs_Ryan

They've done that to me as well :mad:

I cant use a free company (not enough debt) and neither am I able to manage it myself so i'm basically having to unravel it all myself...