DMP - Early settlement and the hidden fees

bridgemant

I'm not sure if anyone on here can help me but I'm getting no where by myself, so here goes..

I instructed Immediate Financial to help me get out of debt back in August last year. I had 5 creditors and the total amount owing to them was somewhere in the region of £13000.

Immediate Financial charge a set up fee for their service (it's usually your first 2 or 3 monthly payments) that they hold on to. Then the rest of your plan, they distribute your money to your creditors proportionally and keep 17.62% of your monthly payment as their fee.

I know this is a con in itself, but at the time I felt I had no choice.

True enough, they have stopped the majority of contact from my creditors during this time, however, I have no idea what is actually being paid to my creditors each month as I have no record/statements with this information on. They've failed to send me anything.

I recently lost my best friend in a car accident and she has left me a substantial sum of money. I called IF on the day my cheque arrived to tell them that I would be using the money to pay off my debts and they said they would get onto my creditors right away to get settlement figures for me and would let me know when this was received.

They've come back to me with 3/5 settlement figures.

My biggest Debt was with Barclays and, I was told, my balance was £7,900. IF told me that Barclays would accept £4404 as a full and final settlement of this debt! Delighted, I reached for my debit card and made the payment to them over the phone.

Yesterday, almost 1 week after I made the payment to IF for Barclays, I get a letter from Barclays saying that they will settle my debt for £3000 as per my offer.

I called IF to ask where my other £1404 was. They then said that this money was for their fee. WHAT FEE?? I wasn't aware that I would have to pay an early settlement fee to them, it's not stated in the contract T's & C's or on their website or anywhere? They then told me they charge 17.65% of the full balance as their fee if I settle early!!

As it happens, even if this was supposed to happen, they've got their figures wrong and have overcharged me. But in my opinion, they shouldn't charge me any early settlement fees without my knowledge, should they?

I'm so upset and scared today because I don't think my money has gone to my creditors yet, there's another 2 debts still to be paid but I haven't paid IF for these yet. I have no receipts from them , no statements and no idea what will happen to my friends money that they have already taken.

I have written a letter of complaint to their company outlining my utter disgust at the underhand tactics used to extort money from me at this most difficult time and will be taking my complaint to the FOS if they can't help me but I just wondered if anyone thinks this is unacceptable and can offer me any futher advice on my next moves please?

RAS

How much notice do you need to pay this load of sharks?

Give notice and then do the F&fs yourself.

bridgemant

Their contract T's & C's says you can cancel your plan by giving them 60 days notice in writing.

I can't do the final settlements myself now, they've got my money...

RAS

bridgemant wrote: »

Their contract T's & C's says you can cancel your plan by giving them 60 days notice in writing.

I can't do the final settlements myself now, they've got my money...

All you money????????

Or just enough to pay Barclays?

bridgemant

They originally asked me to send in all my money so they could do the settlements for me then refund any money that was left.

I refused to do this and said I would only pay what was needed for the settlements as they came in.

To date, they have taken money for 3 of my 5 debts. There are 2 remaining which they say will cost me £934 to pay off (including their fee). This amount is more than I owe on these 2 debts without any discount, this is why I haven't paid them yet.

bridgemant

Had a phonecall last night from IF.

An apology from the client officer who I've been dealing with for over charging on the Barclays fee.

I told her that I was still not satisfied as I'm still not convinced I should pay any fee to them when they haven't told me a fee was due or explained exactly what costs are involved and my options regarding this.

My client officer says she will go back through my recorded phone calls and find out if they did discuss the fees with me (I know they didn't), and if not, she will speak to her Manager to see what can be done.

Please keep fingers crossed that they sort this out and I get back some, if not all, of my £2000 they have stolen as a fee without my knowledge.

plum44_2

Oh dear this is a disastrous tale- all of this could have been done for free.

If only you had done a bit of research first. I'm sorry but you have been completely shafted from start to finish.

Good Luck and I hope you will have a happy resolution to all this and enjoy being debt free permanently.

awayinchina

OK as they have over charged on a fee they have broken the terms and conditions therefore you might be within your rights to cancel and get the full cheque back from them. Also, send a formal email complaint outline they have over charged which is a breach in their own terms and conditions and you should get a full refund for the cheque you sent them. Also, copy the complaint to OFT and FSA.
As they have broken terms and conditions end of contract also the lack of statements another possible breach of contract!
good luck

awayinchina

go on equifax sign up or noddle get a free credit report and you will find the DCA on the report! then just call the DCA and offer 20% to start with (do not accept more than 28-35%) they will settle

bridgemant

Still not resolved I'm afraid

I've written a very strongly worded letter complaining to IF about everything I mentioned above and asking for some kind of evidence that this "fee" is due etc.

So far, they've not managed to provide any evidence that I have been told about their fees before they took the money from me.

They have admitted that they've overcharged me on at least one of my settlements (even though this is only about £60 but still..)

They've also said that I wouldn't have got the reductions that were offered if I'd gone to my creditors direct?!

I argue that I wasn't given that choice and that in order to charge ANY fee, they must clarify this in their contract, verbal or otherwise, which they've failed to do.

On threatening to take this matter up with the FOS, They have offered to refund my overpayment and give me back the fee on my smallest debt (a measly £195 of the £2300 they are charging in total).

They still haven't given me anything in writing about how much my debts were actually settled for and on calling my creditors myself, I've found that only 1 of them has actually been paid to date. The other 2 say they don't know anything about an early settlement... that's a worry!

IF were supposed to e-mail me last night with all the info and details I have asked them for, including their offer to re-imberse some of my money. I'm still waiting....

Seriously, not sure how much more of this I can take :mad:

bridgemant

Finally Over!!

After a long winded battle with Immediate Financial, I have finally won.

They tried all sorts of techniques to get me to back off and not take my complaint to the FOS but, with lots of courage, I did not back down, or accept lower offers, and they've given in to my demand for a FULL refund of the fees they stole from me.

Yep. For once in my life, I have taken on someone bigger than me and come out on top.

Many thanks to the people who use MSE to post about their own experiences, without whom I would not have known what to do in this situation. :beer: