DCS contact via telephone - Anything to look out for ?

looby75

I think that is just about right, to the point but shows you won't be bullied and you know your rights.

waveydave

looby75 wrote:

I think that is just about right, to the point but shows you won't be bullied and you know your rights.

Thats exactly what im trying to put across

Cheers

Xbigman

Hi waveydave.

I'm concerned about two things.

You said you were sending everyone £5 and that smaller debts would be paid first. This sounds to me like a mistake. Creditors have a right to a fair payment, which means you should pay your creditors a pro rata amount of your available income (IE if you owe one company £200 and another £100 and you had £3 free income, then you should pay the £200 creditor £2 and the £100 creditor £1). Is this what you have done or is it really everyone £5?

Also, you say they are getting nothing. But once you make an offer you should start sending that amount regularly whether they accept or not.
If their solicitors see that no payment at all has been recieved they will be less willing to negotiate.

Lastly, attachements to your house are called charging orders. There is a whole procedure to wade through before it gets that far, but you should get them a pro rata payment ASAP to try to avoid, or at least slow down this process.
Regards



X

waveydave

Xbigman wrote:

Hi waveydave.

I'm concerned about two things.

You said you were sending everyone £5 and that smaller debts would be paid first. This sounds to me like a mistake. Creditors have a right to a fair payment, which means you should pay your creditors a pro rata amount of your available income (IE if you owe one company £200 and another £100 and you had £3 free income, then you should pay the £200 creditor £2 and the £100 creditor £1). Is this what you have done or is it really everyone £5?

Also, you say they are getting nothing. But once you make an offer you should start sending that amount regularly whether they accept or not.
If their solicitors see that no payment at all has been recieved they will be less willing to negotiate.

Lastly, attachements to your house are called charging orders. There is a whole procedure to wade through before it gets that far, but you should get them a pro rata payment ASAP to try to avoid, or at least slow down this process.
Regards



X

Cheers bigman,

at this point in time everyone has been offered a fiver. Rightly or wrongly i believe that this way it will enable me to

A - keep up EVERY payment
B - Offer more to the larger ones quicker

and i will know who gets what every month from where etc

The reason none of them have been paid in the past is because DCA 1 wants 13.26 a month, DCA2 wants 67.45 a month, DCA3 wants 41.00 a month and so on and so forth and i lose track ( and cant afford obviously)

essentially we worked out we had 18 creditors and £90.00 a month to split between those, and thats teh way ive done it. So far 11 have agreed and payment has commenced. Some are only for £100 ish but as i start work in a weeks time my wages will go directly onto paying the smaller ones off and therefore directing the £5 i spent on them to one of teh larger creditors.

I have sent a £5 cheque with the above letter so i have made the first move so too speak

as for the charging order, its not something that worries me a hell of a lot at this point in time. I would expect to be able to pay at LEAST the minimum monthly payment to 1st credit in 3 months time and the offer at the moment is really just an interim bridging payment - but unfortunatly they are too stubborn or stupid to listen to what im saying.

I may be naieve in my thinking but would a judge go for a charging order on a 160k house when i only owe £2400 and i am attempting to pay / make an arrangement and have allready come to agreememnts with several others. Im not trying to shirk responsobility of the debt - just trying to arrange a payment that i can afford and no i can make EVERY month

gargoyle

I am currently paying off a debt with 1st credit. The first time I called them they told me pretty similar to what you had, but they also asked about any dependents and whether I was married. When I questioned them on this they said it was to update their records - so I said well you called me Mrs **** so you work it out. Basically I offered them a set amount - they refused. I contacted BG about the bill to find out exactly how much it was to keep track of any charges. When 1st credit phoned me back they said they wouldn't accept any payment apart from in full. Few weeks went on, it was passed on to a solicitor. I contacted them again and got a nice lady who when I explained that was my offer - my final offer - and that I was prepared to go to court to fight them. They then backed down and accepted my offer. So keep fighting them, they're !!!!!!s but they know when they're in a corner.

waveydave

gargoyle wrote:

I am currently paying off a debt with 1st credit. The first time I called them they told me pretty similar to what you had, but they also asked about any dependents and whether I was married. When I questioned them on this they said it was to update their records - so I said well you called me Mrs **** so you work it out. Basically I offered them a set amount - they refused. I contacted BG about the bill to find out exactly how much it was to keep track of any charges. When 1st credit phoned me back they said they wouldn't accept any payment apart from in full. Few weeks went on, it was passed on to a solicitor. I contacted them again and got a nice lady who when I explained that was my offer - my final offer - and that I was prepared to go to court to fight them. They then backed down and accepted my offer. So keep fighting them, they're !!!!!!s but they know when they're in a corner.

NIce post and good to hear

thanks for the encouragement

waveydave

First Credit MAKE ME LAUGH :rotfl:

after sending them the last letter and after telling them previously only to contact me via letter guess what....

Midday today they PHONED again lol.

just to tell me that they had recieved the letter and they wouldnt accept my £5.00 a month to start off with.

I politely pointed out that i now considered thier phone calls as harrasment ( he disagreed obviously) and he told me that they do not write letters and will ONLY discuss via telephone.

I again pointed out that it was harrasment to continue calling me if they had nothing to add to the discussion and were mearly trying to harrass me into paying more than i could afford and then i hit him with

" could you give me a settlement figure please"

He replied yes, gave me the figure and then said " i will put that in teh post for you so you should get it tommorrow"

SO then you DO use letters - please do NOT phone me again and if you do ill be reporting you for harrasment under [insert applicable law]

and put the phone down.


Whi;lst im really happy to settle with those i can afford to and to arrange with those decent enough to act sensibly i would love to figh first credit as far as i can before giving them anything

The sage continues....... lol

waveydave

Well suprise suprise they are still "hassling me"

Daily phone calls which after going over the same ground every night i have now decided to answer , confirm details and then when they ask EXACTLY the same question i put the phone outside teh front door ( still on) whilst they talk to them selves.

Anyway - i wanna send them a letter regarding harrasment via teh telephone as they refuse to make contact by letter - so any pointers of what i need to put in it / say etc ?

Ta all

WD

JGWT8M

don't forget to actually pay them!
If you havn't you'd better do quickly, otherwise they'll say to the Judge that you offered but made no effort to pay which would go against you.

Send them a cheque for £5, and if they cash it, get a copy of it from the bank, send it recorded so that if they return it to you, there is a record of it being delivered.

Try this for a letter about calls, this got me the calls stopped within 48 hours (from MBNA and HBOS!) and a written apology within 5 days from both.

Dear Sir / Madam

With reference to the above account, as previously requested on the XXXXXXXX and on numerous occasions since, please address any correspendence to me regarding the account in writing.

Please stop immediately attempting to contact me by phone, the number of calls now being received (10 to 15 per day) are bordering on harrasement.

The numerous daily telephone calls from your company is causing undue distress to my Wife and Son.

As previously stated I am fully committed to resolving my financial circumstances in a beneficial manner for all parties involved, but your actions are not helping matters. I have recently sent you an informal debt management plan which I hope you can accept and freeze charges and interest as to help me resolve my issues.

I understand your company may use a dialer program to dial phone number automatically, therefore I will give you 3 working days from delivery of this letter to remove my number from your system, failure to do so will result in a complaint being registered with the Office of Fair Trading as it has now been nearly 3 months since I first requested this and nothing has yet been done.

I look forward to hearing from you within the next 7 days to confirm my request

remember to put COMPLAINT at the top of the letter

You should also seriously consider pro-rata offers to creditors, as if it one case goes to court they could argue the reason for issuing the summons was that your offers were not fair. The pro-rata system is the system the Courts will use as well, so best to get to know it now rather than after the CCS has been served on you.

waveydave

Thanks for that,

and so the first credit saga continues lol.

as for pro rata offers - ive recently paid off a load of debts leaving me slightly more to offer them so ill be sending the details of that with this letter.

WD