has any one used payplan before?

kazd

I work within a collections dept, we recommend; Payplan, CCCS. National Debtline and CAB - Why?
Because they are free.

Please don't use the companies that charge you, they are no better than the free ones in fact they are worse because they are taking money that you could be using towards your debt. Remember just because you sign up with a DMC does not mean the creditor will stop trying to contact you.

debtinfo

altough in an IVA they are not free (all IVA's charge), but are non profitmaking

FoggyBrain_2

At the end of the day the borrower pays whatever is calculated as disposable income into the IVA "pot". From that pot comes the dividend to the creditors and the IP fees (including Payplans). So, from the borrowers point of view there is no difference. My IP gets 15% (which was set by the creditors at the Meeting). I imagine Payplan get much the same amount "donated" by the creditors from the pot too. So, from the IP's / creditors point of view there is still no difference.

The ones to avoid are those that charge lump sums "up front" (and possibly do not then deliver).

hollyivy12

Hello,

I have posted before about Payplan as my parner has had many problems since he let them set up a DMP for him. Unfortunately it took a few years to get our heads around what exactly was going on. He would not have bothered with them given the same situation again. They paid some of the creditors late sometimes giving him additional charges for late payment to his accounts and then told him to contact them directly about it when it was Payplans fault. Basically all they do is set up a direct debit to the creditors which i could have done myself. They cannot even guarentee that the interest or charges will be stopped and you are still contacted by the creditors anyway so i cannot see why they are praised atal.

Although they state that they do not charge for their services and so are getting good publicity for stating this, they definately do! They are gaining fees by pushing insurances onto the people who contact them for help and are at their most vulnerable. The main one as in my partners case was the Cover My Payments which he did not need as he alrealy had PPI's in place which they never even asked him about. He has since cancelled the policy when all this dawned on us and has asked for the £800 back that he paid into it, but Payplan claim incredibly that this is not an insurance so they do not have to pay it back as with a mis-sold ppi. They state it is a scheme... they have obviously found a loop hole and somehow are still getting away with this, but isnt it against the OFT's guidelines to abuse their position as a dept management company to sell insurance? For this reason alone they are worse than the banks!

I am sorry but it really makes me angry! Surely other people have realised what they are up to by now and that they are not such do gooders but are no different than any company out to make money!

:mad:

Charco_2

Kazd - CAB do not offer debt solutions, and infact will only refer a client on again to another firm (for IVAs this is Grant Thornton I believe). National Debtline, do they refer the work onwards?
CCCS refer to their sister company CCCSVA - a fee earning IVA company and Payplan have their own IPs to earn their fees!

There is no such thing as a free IVA company, and in my opinion this is because the industry is too tightly regulated and it is not so easy to make a pretence of how your fees are earned. DMPs (that you seem to be mistakenly talking about here) are unregulated and so there are no impediments - with the co-operation of the banks - to dressing your fee structure up as "free". That is all by-the-by however.

Basically though, you refer to companies, who then re-refer the work.


Debtinfo - I have no interest in naming the company I work for, nor however is it a state secret. Furthermore it is no secret that I work in insolvency.

I object to your accusation that I have sniped for commercial gain. I also object to your accusation:
"Additionally you have mentioned on many occasions that you object to part of pay plan's T&C's but have yet to provide any evidence (unless i have missed it)."
Very clumsy of you to have phrased it in such a manner - a fishing expedition I suspect!
I have not on "many occasions..." - off hand I can think of possibly three in more recent times. Once here, and on the other two I went on to fully explain my concern – I even left one of them open ended hoping for a response or further explanation from a certain company rep but none was forthcoming! So I would say you HAVE missed it since I have outlined exactly my objection… or perhaps you willfully missed it or infact have not read my "snipes" but are merely generalising.

FYI – my main objection is to a windfall clause in their IVAs which allows for an extra 25% charge to be levied against the debtor. The debtor most likely doesn’t know to object to such a clause and the creditors don’t care to object because it only comes in to play when the creditors have been paid in full!
I have twice questioned this and had no response! If it is untrue then surely it should be refuted and I will apologise immediately – it is not my intention to mislead anyone. If it is true then it is an example of excessive greed and profiteering! I would love to hear a justification for it.

I entirely agree with you though that “it is unfair to be constantly bashing other firms”. I have recommended and praised a number of firms on here, many/mostly with no affiliation or association to me. One or two even that I would have cause to dislike but I cannot fault their work!

The reason I do not expressly reveal the company I work for is because I am not here in an official capacity or as a representative of that company. I am sure some of the posters on here already know who that company is but I prefer not to make that connection.

The vast majority of my input on here is constructive and helpful (I like to think anyway). The bulk of it is concerned with people who are already in IVAs and are worried about changes in circumstances or that their IP may not treating them fairly – there could be no possible commercial gain to offering this support to a stranger!

The_barber

thanks to every one for their input, does any one know of a good company to use? i have not read a bad report yet on melanie giles? i've not checked out grant thorton yet? still considering pay plan as i have already given them my info! but not signed anything yet.
thanks again to every one

Charco_2

Well you know my stance on payplan ha ha, and it would be foolish to stick with them simply because they have some of your Info. If you're happy with them, of course go with them but God forbid you'd suddenly inherit or win a lump sum of money only to have to hand it all over to excessive fees! (and that's just one reason why I dont like them but I'll not continue to beat my drum about it).

A good company could from a standing start now could still draft a proposal for you in more or less the same time it would take PP and to be honest even if it took longer a week or two isn't going to amount to hill of beans difference when compared to the next five years!

The best advice i can give you is to go with a company you feel you can trust and are happy to speak to - you are entering a five year relationship wth them!

Melanie Giles is considered to be very good on the whole. I think FavDaughter used her and had her creditors meeting yesterday. GT are also very good - CAB recommend them anyway!

You could have a look on "IVA . com" and "IVA . co . uk" where you can read reviews and speak to experts.

judojub

The_barber wrote: »

thanks to every one for their input, does any one know of a good company to use? i have not read a bad report yet on melanie giles? i've not checked out grant thorton yet? still considering pay plan as i have already given them my info! but not signed anything yet.
thanks again to every one

Hi Barber.
We are using Grant Thornton and like you we are in the early stages of sorting an IVA (fingers crossed). So far, I have found them to be really helpful, very understanding and reassuring, they have rang whenever they said they would and have very quickly replied to any queries that I have had (and that has been a few):o. They appear to be quite on the ball with things!!

debtinfo

Charco

I agree that most of your comments are helpfull and you have helped many people on here and i do not want to argue with you but as i say you have not shown any evidence of what you say payplan are doing, it is simply hearsay which i do not believe should be perpetuated if you are not willing to back it up with evidence

Charco_2

Well it's hard to know exactly what evidence you want me to post here!?

It's either true or it's not and if it's not I'll happily retract the comments. I am content that I have seen this more than once so there is some substance to it... If payplan tell me to re-check my facts I shall!

When someone comes along here asking for a heads up, should I remain silent about pitfalls I may or may not know about?
If your brother told you it was slippery outside, then your mother said she was going out for a walk, might it cross your mind to mention that you heard it was slippy and she should be careful?

If the radio said there's a bear on the loose in your area would you warn your neighbours to be careful even if you hadn't seen the bear?

This is a public forum and while the right to free speech is not absolute, I do post here in good faith.