Replies from creditors

continualdiamond

How long does it take to hear back from creditors?

My fiancee became unemployed 2 weeks ago this coming Friday. Last week we sent off letters to our bank and barclays saying we couldn't afford our repayments due to him loosing his job and would they freeze interest and accept no repayments until he was in work again.

We haven't heard anything yet and was just wondering how long do we wait? Basically my loan will be debited from the bank on the 28th and while money will cover it now it will make the middle of the month difficult. Also my fiancees monthly payment on his 1st credit card is due the end of the month as well.

Do we ring them?

Broken_hearted

I would ring them as you are going to hit trouble soon. Barclays froze interest for three months and reduced payments after one phone call.

Donedoingdebt

Do you have payment protection insurance on the loan & credit card?

livinginhope

I wouldn't expect a reply within the month,they normally take about that long.You could try ringing them,but they don't always listen.Make sure you cancel any direct debits,as even if you phone them and they tell you they won't take a payment,they will :mad:
Hope your fiance finds a new job soon,it's a very worrying time for you both :grouphug:
LIH

continualdiamond

Credit cards are in fiancee names and yes both payment protection, loan is in my name with payment protection, so because i am not unemployed can't do anything so to speak about my loan.

When fiancee became unemployed i posted about the payment protection and most people said they wouldn't pay out because he was sacked, though the reason for the saking wasn't anything bad, ie stealing or misconduct etc.

Am i ok to cancel my loan direct debt? Wouldn't i be in trouble from the bank for doing that? I could cancel it right now as i have internet banking..

fatbelly

Agree with livinginhope above - give them four weeks then send reminders.

Sounds to me like you will need new bank accounts unconnected to your debts to protect your income for essential (priority) expenditure.

They won't let you cancel d/ds for their loans - which is why you need the new accounts

continualdiamond

All we wanna do is freeze interest on 1 loan, 1 overdraft and 2 credit cards and stop payments until my fiancee has a job again.

I cant be doing with opening new bank account and changing my job details to get my wage put into. Its bad enough having 1 joint account and making sure my wage covers essential direct debts (home ins, car ins etc), let alone having to transfer money in time if i opened a new account to cover those direct debts.

My loan and 1 credit cards is with our bank anyway, surely they could arrange something. Im a bit stuck now to get to the bank about my loan as i work 8:30am - 5pm and i get 30mins for lunch at which i work in a school and need to stay on premises incase im needed.....

madduck

I know that changing banks seems like a hastle, but do you realise that your bank has the right to offset any money in your account to cover payments on your debts. That means that if they don't accept your proposal to freeze payments, they can raid your account for money to pay the debts that you owe them. Do you want to take that risk?

When you wrote to them to ask them to freeze payments, did you include details of your income/expenditure? If not, they might ask for that before they make any decisions. Are you in a position where you could make even token payments to your creditors - even if it was just £1 per month - might make them more receptive?

You might also want to consider contacting one of the charities who provide free and impartial advice on debt - CCCS, Payplan, CAB, etc. There are links to them at the top of this page.

fatbelly

continualdiamond wrote:

All we wanna do is freeze interest on 1 loan, 1 overdraft and 2 credit cards and stop payments until my fiancee has a job again.

I cant be doing with opening new bank account .....surely they could arrange something

All you need is a friendly, caring, sympathetic, understanding bank manager.

Er ... best of luck!

continualdiamond

Well we had a bit of luck today, fiancees bank connected credit card has been sorted, no payments this month until payment protection is being paid by the insurance company, takes a mth to sort out, so they said.

Yes i included a budget sheet when i sent off the letters, so they could see where my wage was going and how in fact we have non left for anything else, but just living, we can't afford to put any away per mth for bills or treats and they can clearly see that.

If they bank did offset any money, it wouldn't go far, it would keep going over the overdraft limit. Now i know banks have the right to do this, as you said, but why would they?

It states to contact them first when you have finanical troubles and we have, where not at the point of being in trouble, ie no payments missed yet, but we know it will happen if we didn't do something about it now. So isn't it in the banks best interest to come to an agreement with customers, especially as where not ignoring it and waiting till where overdrawn and missing payments etc.

continualdiamond

Oh also a lot of people said we should approach the creditors ourselves rather than do a DMP first as that way my fiancee (fingers crossed) wont be out of work too long and if a DMP is needed when he's back in work, to go down that line then..