Such a long way...

melwright

Hi all,

Been on DMP for about 4yrs now. At LBM had £75838 debt - eek!:eek:
It's now down to £38693, which is much better, but still a long way to go, looking at Dec 2015 to be DF.

Anyway, the majority of our creditors have been really good, stopping if not reducing the interest payments which helps considerably. We've paid off 6 creditors in total.

But I feel that I'm running out of steam and there's no light at the end of the tunnel....also, one of the 'big' creditors moved our balance to Asset Link Capital, from our DMP we pay them £201 per month, they charge us between £140-160 interest - per month!! What? :mad: I'm sure I've called them before and they said there's nothing they can do..is there anything else I can do as we will be about 500 before that debt gets paid off. Is it worth asking CCCS to contact them as well?

Sorry just need to offload and have a bit of advice from you lovely people on here.

Tixy

Well done on clearing so much of your debt so far.

I think its worth writing to them to ask them to reconsider freezing interest - and if they say no then try again in a few months or try if they will reduce the interest.

There is a letter template from national debtline which you could adapt to fit

1 High Street,
Newtown,
Kent
R21 4RH
October 11, 2011

The Loan Company
Company House,
Church Street,
Newtown,
Kent,
R1 7HG

Dear Sir/Madam

Account No: 4563210025897412

Thank you for your letter of DD-MM-YYYY concerning the above account. We are sorry that you feel unable to suspend interest charges on the above account. The majority of our other creditors have agreed to the offer of payment and agreed to suspend any interest charges still accruing. They have accepted that to continue to charge interest would not assist us in our present financial difficulties, and can only serve to increase our total
debt.

As you are aware, we have already paid considerable sums in interest to our account. If interest charges continue, the monthly instalments we are paying will not even cover that interest. Also, the cooperation of our other creditors who have agreed to freeze interest already would be put at risk.

We would therefore be grateful if you would reconsider your decision not to freeze the interest. This would mean that the monthly payments we make would actually reduce the balance outstanding to your company.

We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

Mr A N Other

melwright

Thanks Tixy, that's great, will certainly try that. x

Hovel_lady

Just wanted to say well done on clearing so much debt :T
Can't offer any advice other than echo what Tixy has suggested.

Look forward to seeing you on the Debt Free Roll of Honour

melwright

Thanks Hovel lady, the roll of honour seems a mighty way off at the moment...

Hovel_lady

I understand but December 2015 isn't that far away really - you'll get there :T
(I say this being the world's most impatient person )

eyeopener2

If you get no joy why not complain to the Finacial Ombudsman. After all, what have you got to lose?

melwright

Hi,

Thanks to Tixy, I sent off an e-mail with all the bits & pieces in, just got a reply from Link Financial, which has obviously been copied & pasted from somewhere: Interest is being charged in line with the terms of the original credit agreement. You will not be charged any more interest than you would have paid under the original agreement.
If we were to suspend interest then someone who had defaulted on their loan account would effectively benefit over a good paying customer, which would in itself, be unfair. We trust that we have clarified matters for you.

Boo! but worth a try. Based on the amount owed £15300, the amount we pay pm £201 & the amount of interest they are charging £160pm (on average). It's going to take us over 31 years to pay this off and I'll be in my 70's by then!

They did mention to Dh on the phone the other day, that they would be happy to look at a F&F. We are not currently in the position to offer anything more than about a tenner! However, if we scrimp, save & sell a bit more to work to get a lump sum together - what do you think we could realistically offer as a F&F?

Link Financial is the DCA - does anyone have any experience in F&F with them?

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks.

Mx

sickasachip13

I don't really have any advice Melwright but I absolutely take my hat off to you for clearing so much date - it's really amazing.

The situation with the interest being charged must be really disheartening, as is their response! I would definitely talk to CCCS about it, I remember on the CCCS thread (the sticky at the top of this page - talk to a debt advisor, or similar) they said to someone that if % kept being charged then to talk to them about it. I daresay all they can do is ask, but it's worth a try.

I would also write to them. Don't take that email as the end of it - you don't know what numpty gets paid to cut and paste stuff into their responses. Write to them, talk to the Financial Ombudsman, talk to CCCS.

You've done so well, don't let these greedy b uggers get you down, time to take them on mate!

best of luck

SAAC13

dancingfairy

I think I'd go to the ombudsman because:
1) they've had 4 years of interst out of you already.
2) x,y,z companies have accepted so why won't they?
3) it's not in the spirit of 'treating customers fairly' - how is it fair to charge that much interest relative to the amount you can afford to pay each month?
4) it's in effect pressurising you to pay more than you can afford (in order to reduce the interest - which you obviously can't afford) which is against OFT guidelines etc.
It's worth a shot anyway.
df

melwright

Thanks SAAC13 & Dancing Fairy! I have followed it up in writing as I did suspect someone is just sitting there copying & pasting the response, there wasn't even a salutation at the top or sign off at the bottom of the e-mail - how rude!

Anyway, should the worst case happen i.e. - situation stays the same, I think we are going to try and attempt to do a sort of reverse snowball. As they are the only company we are paying interest to, we're going to try somehow to get a lump sum together to offer as f&f over the coming months (hopefully) or years to get it shifted. In my head it seems the sensible thing to do, then the money that's normally allocated to that from CCCS (£201) will be snowballed out to the smaller and no interest debts. Does that make sense?!

Even DH is getting on board and has canx one of his dd's to go towards it each month, it's payday today, so we have the first £20 towards it!