Newbie helping Mum, needs help please

koifish

(Sorry for originally posting in the wrong place)

Good afternoon everybody,

Please forgive me if I have posted in the wrong place, but I'm new and still finding my feet.

Basically, I'm trying to help my mum, who has got herself into a bit of a state with payday loans, lost her job, has had a bit of a breakdown and tried to commit suicide a couple of months ago

I am really worried about her and she in turn is worried about me taking this on as I'm currently doing my A levels at college. I think if she knows, I'm receiving advice this will help.

This all only came to light when she came out hospital an blurted everything out, She apparently been rolling over four payday loans and I have written to them all, asking them for all the details so we can try and sort her out.

I have had a response from one of them today, and they have sent the loan agreements and a form for me to fill in regarding my mums mental health. I'll deal with the form first - it is a Debt and mental health evidence form - It looks like it has been compiled by The money advice liaison group and Royal college of Psychiatrists - has anybody seen one of these before? Is it okay to fill in and send off? I obviously don't want to be sending my mums health information off willy-nilly. Any thoughts, greatly appreciated.

Also, this loan, was originally £854.00 but with interest charged since is now over £1900.00. I really don't understand how these loans work, so was wondering if somebody knows if these amounts of interest are right?

I hope I've made sense, and thank you in advance for any advice.
Koifish

freshstart11

Hello,

Im not much help here but I just wanted to say what a fantastic person you are - any parent would be so so proud to have a child like you!

What I can suggest would be to do an SOA this will show the companies how much money is available if any for a repayment plan.

Sadly the interest is correct on them (I should know) I had one go from 250 to 750!

Good luck with everything and I hope someone can help you and your mum

925pws

Hello and welcome to the boards.

I agree with the other poster you are doing a fantastic job helping your mum out. Hopefully she is getting the help she needs in terms of her mental health and wellbeing.

I think the best that you can do is phone either Payplan or the Counsumer Credit Counselling Service who offer a FREE debt advice service. They will be able to take you through everything but I guess the most pressing issue is have your mum open another bank account - one that isn't linked to these payday loans - and have her benefits paid in to that. This way with the help of the above companies you can help your mum set up and debt management plan (DMP) to pay them off a little at a time.

Please keep posting and asking questions and we will try and help but it would be better if you phoned the above mentioned companies.

The very best of luck with it.

jude47

Hi Koifish and welcome!

I agree with Freshstart, what a terrific person you are, and your mum must be so proud of you.

If you look on these forums, you'll see CCCS (Consumer Credit Counselling Service) mentioned as a source of advice and support. They're a debt advice charity and I know from personal experience, they have a specialist team to help people with mental health issues. Give them a ring and arrange an appointment with their Debt Advocacy Team, who will be able to help you deal with all of this for your mum. I'm sure they can help with the 'Debt & Mental Health Evidence' form filling as well. In my friend's case, as soon as he told creditors he was dealing with CCCS they backed off and gave him time to get things sorted out.

Good luck, Koifish, and keep posting so the brilliant people on here can support you.

Jude x

RAS

Hi

This is the link to the debt charities http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan?utm_source=forum&utm_medium=clicks&utm_campaign=resourcebar#help

Given the situation, mum may be best helped by contacting Christians against Poverty. They do home visits which might be easier for her.

If she has not already done it can you ask mum to open a new basic bank account with a company with whom she has not existing arrangments. It is important that all her income goes into an account that is safe from the payday Loan companies.

The Office of Fair Trading is investigating them at the moment and 90 percent of providers are coverwed by a new voluntary arrangement.

lucylong1

oh kofish, you sound somewhat the same as myself, i took the advice of people in here and rang today to get put on a dmp. please do try it , i also have payday loans and cccs sent me a letter to get any transactions of them stopped. please try not to let it worry you, i had many sleepless nights and still do, however your a great mum and will get through this.. lots of love lucy

koifish

Thank you all so much for your advice and kind words, not only have they lifted a great weight off my shoulders they've also put a smile on my mums face, which is a rare sight these days.

I'll have a look into the organisations you've mentioned and see what we can come up with.

My mum has already changed her bank account because the account fee Halifax was charging kept putting her overdrawn and her benefits getting swallowed up each week. So luckily, none of these payday people are managing to get any money whenever they feel like dipping in.

I will keep you updated on how we get on, but once again - Thank you all so much, it really is appreciated.

Koifish x

RAS

Good

Whilst you are about it, do either of you know about www.freecycle.com or www.freegle.co.uk - stuff for free?

And if things get really tough talk to the Trussell Trust - they do food banks and will give you three days supplies.

And suggest mum goes over to the Money Saving Old Style forum because they can stretch food and money a long way and Stardrops are dead cheap.

kerinat

hi koifish
I agree with the above messages. CCCS are brilliant. They are friendly too. I remember I was crying on the phone to them. They just told me to take my time and told me I had taken the biggest step just by phoning and starting to sort the mess out. They are very understanding and I feel very special people. Your mum must be very proud of you. Everything WILL be ok if you follow their advice. Keep us posted. We are all here for you. Good Luck to you both

chevalier

Please get your mum to write to halifax asking for the account fees to be refunded. They aren't allowed to take fees out of benefits money I believe as this money is to feed you etc.

Also if you get desparate the Salvation Army do food parcels too... Does your mum have a community mental health nurse looking after her? They might be able to help with the form?

Oneday77

Well done on helping your mum out, it can't be easy. One thing that would be very herlpful for both yourself and your mum is to write to all the debt companies. State that you want all correspondence to be done by mail and not by telephone. This will give you a record of what is going on and remove the stress of unwanted phone calls. As part of the letter, written as if your mum has sent it, explain what is going on don't give too much detail and state that your authorised to deal with any communications for her.

But as stated above speak to one of the debt charities. If you speak to any other debt management company do not pay a fee to any of them. If in doubt ask someone here. There is more information and help here than you could possibly imagine.

You will also have to arrange that your mum changes her bank account so somewhere not linked to the current lenders of account. The Co-op tends to be very good. This will prevent any money going into the account from being withdrawn via previous agreements i.e payday loan agreements.