Pinot's Potty debt free journey!!!

mummytogirls

Awww Mrs PG just having a little catch up and I am so sorry to hear about whats been going on.

Glad youre back and angry and get that case put together asap to the bank!! xx

hillside777

It's lovely to 'see' you again Mrs PG.

I am sorry to hear about all the things which have happened. If anyone can get through all this, then you're the person. Ever resilient, ever fighting and a lovely caring person for her family.

I look forward to reading your triumphs and to seeing the figure come down.

Don't forget to take some special time out for yourself and your family.
Take care.

PinotGrigio41

please-let-me-be-lucky wrote: »

Sounds more to me like you have found the plot not lost it! Good luck Xx

You just have point there !! x

Muser1

Glad to see you have some fight left! Good for you. Go kick some !!!! x

PinotGrigio41

kerri_dfw wrote: »

Good, angry is definitely good, it gets things done They always say through whatever of those different 7? stages that anger is the one you need to get to to move on forward Banks are barstewards and need to be fought. OH had a loan for £1.5k, then ran into problems so they made him take out another to cover that, then he ran into problems again and they made him take out another on top of that! So of £1.5k he ended up almost paying £10k to them, barstewards the lot of them.

Well done DD2 for the netball, that's a fantastic achievement and something she can use on her CV when applying for university of jobs later in life. Good luck to DD1, hope she's feeling better now, although from what you have written you have two bright buttons there so I'm sure she'll pass with flying colours.

Barstewards indeed Kerri and theres many more choice names where that one came from !!

I appreciate the need for bank charges to a degree, but am so angry that those in genuine difficulties of which the bank have been faced with a myriad of reasons for, still continue to charge or advise to consolidate into a loan . Money is such a scary thing, and with the possibility of not being able to pay our bills or feed our families, as we all know is terrifying , stressful and soul destroying, amongst other things. I was brought up to believe that if you had a problem speak to a Financial Institution as they are the experts and will give the correct advice, but for us it fell short. Prior to starting this diary and agreeing to the dreaded loan, I did speak to our Financial Advisor and Accountant about the possibility of a DMP and they looked completely aghast and we were steered well and truly away from that path. I honestly believe it was a stigma thing as well, of which if Im honest I probably had difficulty getting my head around, prior to taking the giant leap into DMP land. I dont think the Accountant nor Financial Advisor had enough information about how DMPs work to guide us properly. The advise from the FA at the time was to cash in our endowment policy to clear £36K debts, or else our signature would have been much higher. That said, yes those debts have gone....but we are left with £100K of our mortgage that is on interest only with no endowment policy against it. I haven't allowed myself to concern my head with how we repay that bit for now. I will deal with the other £235K first !!! Oh the life !

I can honestly hand on heart say the DMP though, is the best thing we have ever done though, , not without its hiccups...........but I do wish that the bank all those years ago had given some genuine advice, as at that time in 2005 the debts were much lower, and by now we would have probably been debt free rather than just beginning our battle. But....hey ho, onwards and upwards eh and as we know hindsight is a wonderful thing.

For anyone reading who has not had their LBM yet.........do not ever ever ever consolidate your debts with a loan......ever !!!

Lecture over, off to take DD2 to a party now. No rest for the wicked xxx

Oh and thankyou Kerri. DD2 cant wait for the netball tour, she gets to train with a "professional " apparently. No idea who, I cant name a professional basketball player for love nor money ! Putting it on her CV in the future is a great idea, it would never have crossed my mind . xx

PinotGrigio41

Muser1 wrote: »

Glad to see you have some fight left! Good for you. Go kick some !!!! x

Im off to do just that Muser, thankyou !!!

Actually I have some news since writing the epic above.........will save it for later though xxxx

Piquant_2

Angry is good at this moment in time. I got my bank charges refunded on a lot less proof than you have. I think you'll get them back. Dig your heels in and refuse to back down. There is masses of information on mse including how to go to the ombudsman, template letters and more.

Cashing in your endowment was not good advice and I think you should look into getting whoever advised it to pay out what it would be worth if you had carried on paying into it. I think you will do very well on this. They will argue back at first, do not be put off. You have a genuine case, stick with it and try not to put it off until later. Once the letter is sent you can run the claim along side the bank charges. It will be worth it in the long run.

*Robin*

PinotGrigio41 wrote: »

Dear Sirs,

Works as specified by yourself, repair 2 blowing injectors in cylinders 2 & 3 and stop the engine from cutting out.

As you have been made aware your vehicle has had repairs completed and has been ready for collection since 01 / 10 / 2013, you have made no contact or made no effort to pay or collect the vehicle.

I therefore must inform you as from today the 04/11/2013 the vehicle will be subject to a daily storage charge pf £5.00 per day until collection. If however the vehicle is not collected within six weeks of the date shown above 04/11/2013, the vehicle will be sold to clear the outstanding debt and any balance will be forwarded to yourselves.

I await your response. "

The letter was not dated, not actually made out to us, ie no name or address. It was Exactly as is written above but on their headed paper. It was accompanied by an invoice, at a slightly reduced amount of £922. Their letter clearly states that the work as specified by us was for two injectors, yet the invoice bills us for 5. I am assuming they will use the "and stop the engine cutting out" as their argument, but the two injectors being replaced would have done this.

Interesting letter. How detailed is the invoice (ie. does it separate each task)?

Think I'd present myself at the secretary's desk, wanting a copy of the work-sheet pdq. Then inform her/him that the final bill is in dispute because more work has been done than you authorised. If the letter is correct in saying you haven't been in touch since they sent out their invoice, then to be fair they deserve an explanation and apology for that.

Good luck. :cool:

PinotGrigio41

*Robin* wrote: »

Interesting letter. How detailed is the invoice (ie. does it separate each task)?

Think I'd present myself at the secretary's desk, wanting a copy of the work-sheet pdq. Then inform her/him that the final bill is in dispute because more work has been done than you authorised. If the letter is correct in saying you haven't been in touch since they sent out their invoice, then to be fair they deserve an explanation and apology for that.

Good luck. :cool:

Thanks Robin.

We have been in touch with them since the work was done in numerous phone calls , but the first invoice we have actually ever seen was the one sent yesterday.

The car was ready to collect the day after my dad passed away and needless to say there were far more important things to be dealing with at that time. All of this they were aware of.

But ..........my news that I mentioned earlier, is that we have received another letter from them today, with another invoice, of which they have finally accepted our offer of payment . It is £200 more than our original maximum budget for the job, but £700 less than the amount they asked us for.

So.......we have won and are happy. :j:j

Now we need to find time to go and collect the vehicle as .it isn't close by and get it up for sale. :D xxx

PinotGrigio41

Piquant wrote: »

Angry is good at this moment in time. I got my bank charges refunded on a lot less proof than you have. I think you'll get them back. Dig your heels in and refuse to back down. There is masses of information on mse including how to go to the ombudsman, template letters and more.

Cashing in your endowment was not good advice and I think you should look into getting whoever advised it to pay out what it would be worth if you had carried on paying into it. I think you will do very well on this. They will argue back at first, do not be put off. You have a genuine case, stick with it and try not to put it off until later. Once the letter is sent you can run the claim along side the bank charges. It will be worth it in the long run.

Thanks Piq.

We knew cashing in the endowment wasn't good advice at the time , but we were in such a pickle that we felt that we had absolutely no other option. I could argue the case, but I think I would feel bad as hes actually a really nice man, but he did have the whole story with nothing left out, complete with me a snivelling wreck in the corner , and that was the best he could come up with at the time as we had not a penny to our name. A few months down the line was when the bank got involved on the loan, of which I called him for advise on their proposals also and again he felt the loan was the best solution.

Its crazy as we knew all along we were doing the wrong thing but were so stressed and exhausted by it all, we just jumped in with two feet.

We are getting there now though albeit slowly and I am sure it will come out in the wash.

Right, I am off to tackle the mountainous ironing pile......byee for now xxxx