Confused over e-mail from Payplan!

Wannabefree1

I've just made my initial payment to Payplan and so far Lloyds and Halifax have accepted. Barclaycard's decision is currently pending. So I contact Payplan to ask them what Lloyds and Halifax's decision was over all the interest and charges. I know it's not guaranteed to freeze them but I'm at least hoping they reduce enough that my payments into the plan actually reduce the debt. I know for a fact my lloyds card will increase by 20 quid a month if things stay as they are.

First email I had back from my case officer said she'd email them for me as they hadn't confirmed and let me know. Later I've had another email saying my plans been transferred to the DMP support team now it's set up. Also that if they receive any communication on interest charges they'll let me know however I'll probably have to contact the creditors myself or check my statements.

So far I've written to all my creditors twice. Asked for a period of grace whilst I got a plan in place. Have never received a reply from any of them (or the return on my marriage certificate!) and they have continued to charge interest, apply charges and phone me a couple of times a day chasing payments. All whilst processing the token payments that were included but seemingly ignoring me!

I thought that Payplan would deal with asking for interest to be frozen/reduced to a level allowing my debt to be decreased for me? Is that not the point of me using somebody who knows what they are doing and know the law and what I can/can't ask for?

The previous lady had seemed really helpful but now I'm wondering (following on from the dismissive response) what the heck I've let myself in for.

So what do I do now?? Write to the creditors and be ignored again? Press Payplan to contact them? Give up and hide

I'm really grateful for any advice.

Standingtall

Hi there:)

I am also with Payplan and am 3 months into my DMP. I shall address your points seperately and based only on my experience.

Firstly, once my DMP was set up I was the passed on, about a month later, to a support team. Interestingly they both have Spanish sounding names but this may be just coincidence. They apparently now look after me now everything is in place and nay teething problems are over.

Now I got letters from all of my creditors stating that they accepted my plan. I took this to mean that they were also freezing interest and charges:rotfl: silly me:mad: it just meant they were accepting my reduced payments:o

Luckily in fact most of them had accepted and on re reading the letters I realised I am not so daft after all. However Santander overdraft went I £160 in two months due to charges:mad:

I went on the Payplan plus site to see what support might be available before contacting my advisor, as I had read on these forums that often they will stop charges if you harass them constantly with letters quoting various guidelines etc. I found on Payplan plus a section with letters for your creditors. You click on the creditor you want, letter template and then prints it out in PDF:T. Fabulous:T. Just remember not to sign!

Hey presto, got a letter from Santander yesterday stating they were refunding £160 and stopping charges for life of DMP:j

I hope this helps you move forward. I did contact Payplan whist I was doing this and my advisor stated that they include a letter with every payment asking creditors to freeze interest etc. I suspect these nevere get read.

Wannabefree1

Thank you so much. I was never told the creditors would write to me to accept the plan. Equally when I enquired about whatto do if interest and charges continued to increase my debt I was just answered that there is no obligation for them to reduce or freeze. Which I knew, but knowing there is letters I can send to harass the creditors would have been more useful!

Perhaps my advisor was just having a bad day :S

Standingtall

Wannabefree1 wrote: »

Thank you so much. I was never told the creditors would write to me to accept the plan. Equally when I enquired about whatto do if interest and charges continued to increase my debt I was just answered that there is no obligation for them to reduce or freeze. Which I knew, but knowing there is letters I can send to harass the creditors would have been more useful!

Perhaps my advisor was just having a bad day :S

Lol, yeah well I have had much better advice from here on the forums than from Payplan. Having said that, I feel Payplan have given me an ideal 'framework' within which to work. They were also there to lean on at the beginning. They also give credence to my DMP, so that my creditors trust that they have accepted my financial status and therefore they must too.

I certainly would rather do my DMP through Payplan than on my own. However I shall attemp F&fs myself at some later stage, I think.

These forums though are my real support:T

Bettingmad

Wannabefree1 wrote: »

I've just made my initial payment to Payplan and so far Lloyds and Halifax have accepted. Barclaycard's decision is currently pending. So I contact Payplan to ask them what Lloyds and Halifax's decision was over all the interest and charges. I know it's not guaranteed to freeze them but I'm at least hoping they reduce enough that my payments into the plan actually reduce the debt. I know for a fact my lloyds card will increase by 20 quid a month if things stay as they are.

First email I had back from my case officer said she'd email them for me as they hadn't confirmed and let me know. Later I've had another email saying my plans been transferred to the DMP support team now it's set up. Also that if they receive any communication on interest charges they'll let me know however I'll probably have to contact the creditors myself or check my statements.

So far I've written to all my creditors twice. Asked for a period of grace whilst I got a plan in place. Have never received a reply from any of them (or the return on my marriage certificate!) and they have continued to charge interest, apply charges and phone me a couple of times a day chasing payments. All whilst processing the token payments that were included but seemingly ignoring me!

I thought that Payplan would deal with asking for interest to be frozen/reduced to a level allowing my debt to be decreased for me? Is that not the point of me using somebody who knows what they are doing and know the law and what I can/can't ask for?

The previous lady had seemed really helpful but now I'm wondering (following on from the dismissive response) what the heck I've let myself in for.

So what do I do now?? Write to the creditors and be ignored again? Press Payplan to contact them? Give up and hide

I'm really grateful for any advice.

I think I can explain why interest is still being added, I am also withj Payplan and my creditors also continued to add full interest initially. This is due to Payplan not sending out your SOA to creditors until they take your first full payment.I made three token payments therefore full interest charges were added for the three months and only stopped when the SOA was sent with my first proper payment. I clarified the position with each creditor and they confirmed to me that they did not have to take regard to the Lending Code about the debt not increasing whilst making token payments unless it is evidenced by a SOA.
This is the only niggle I have had from using Payplan, if they has sent my SOA to each creditor at the start whilst I was making token payments my overall debt would not have increased by cira £1k. Incidentally only Barclaycard did not make any interest charges whilst I made token payments but are now the only ones now charging me interest at 5.9%.
I really should write to each creditior to ask them to refund the initial interest charges retrospectively after having my SOA.
Sorry if I have rambled.

Wannabefree1

Not rambled at all. Thanks for the heads up! Maybe this explains why they've decided not to reply to my first letter!

Do you think it's worth trying to get back the interest and charged from the point I first contacted them to tell them I was approaching Payplan to set up a DMP? I'm not adversed to plaguing them with letters - get my own back! Lol!