Wherediditallgo’s ‘path to enlightenment’ bankruptcy diary

wherediditallgo

Thanks for that. One of my friends does massage therapies, so I'll ask her for some info. I won't try the massage just yet because of the hospital's advice, but if it gets really bad I won't have anything to lose.

wherediditallgo

12 June - Got a letter from the OR confirming receipt of my signed IPA. They've given me details of the agent who's got to deal with collecting the money from me, so now I've got to wait for them to contact me & set up the arrangements. It took me a few evenings to sort out the BR forms before going to court, but it's taken nearly 3 months since going BR to get this far. I can't wait for these people to contact me - I really want to start paying & get this last bit of money admin sorted out asap. I don't know if you pay by direct debit or what. I know they're supposed to contact me, but if I haven't heard anything by the end of this month I'm going to ring them.

wherediditallgo

13 June - Got the letter from the OR's agent today - they didn't waste any time! Loads of ways to pay them, so basically there's no real excuse for not paying on time or at all. Rang to confirm receipt of the letter - the man was very nice on the phone & said they allow 7 days for payments to clear, & it's OK if the payment comes through a couple of days late. It might be OK with him, but it's not OK with me - I've had enough stress with this without then paying them late. My first payment was due for the end of June, but I didn't want to taking any chances that I might forget or be late with it, so I paid it today to get it out of the way. I'll add them to my budgeting spreadsheet, so that I pay them in good time each month - might look good to the OR.

I'm so glad it's all underway now. It was the last thing I had to sort out. Now I can breathe again.

tigerfeet2006

:T That's excellent news. Sit down and have a glass of wine tonight in celebration. :beer: (I know, I know not a glass of wine but you get the idea.)

wherediditallgo

If only - I can't have alcohol on my medication, so I made do with some apple juice & a bit of tiramisu. It was homemade from the restaurant up the road, & was absolutely delicious.

tigerfeet2006

No worries. Apple juice sounds good to me and it's only one step down from cider lol!! Tiramisu is my favourite too. Unfortunatly I am not allowed it at the moment so I am sat here drooling in jealousy.

wherediditallgo

14 June - For *&%£!"+@#d^*'s sake! Is there some kind of stupid test that you have to FAIL before you're deemed stupid enough to work for Lloyds TSB??????? I was declared BR on 29 March, & the OR informed them of this in April. I got a statements from them in April advising that I hadn't made my payment, & I called them the same day to confirm my BR details. They confirmed that they had already been informed of me going BR, so wouldn't be contacting me again. Presumably, that assurance is why the planks sent me another letter in May saying they hadn't received payment. :rolleyes: Once again, I get on the phone, go through the same spiel & get the same assurances. I reminded them that they are not supposed to contact me once they have been informed that I am BR, & warned them that if there was any further discrepancies in the handling of the account I would be reporting them to the Financial Ombudsman.

Fast forward to today. I got my bank statement, & it shows the divvies took 135 bleeding pounds out of my account as a payment to credit card services in May, making me almost £100 overdrawn! I rang the bank, & found out another £60 went winging their way today, so now that account is about £160 overdrawn !!! :mad: I couldn't speak, I was so mad. Eventually, I called the credit card department, who once again confirmed that they'd known I was BR in April, & could offer no explanation for them continuing to take money from my account - I told the woman it happened because they were inefficient. She apologised & said they would refund the money in 7-10 days. I put her right on that score, & told her I'd be speaking to the branch about it because if the money wasn't in my account for Monday morning I'd be putting in a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman. When I spoke to the branch, they claimed they didn't know I was BR (I wrote to them & asked if I was still OK to use the account, as I was BR, but let's put that to one side for now). Now they know, I can't use the chequebook or overdraft, & they'll issue me with a cashpoint card so that the account just operates as a basic one from now on.

I've told them that (a) the overdraft is now their problem - I wasn't overdrawn before they allowed the credit card payments to go through, so I'm not responsible for however big the overdraft gets through their inefficiency, (b) they have obligations to the Official Receiver just as I have, so to take money they weren't entitled to was theft in my book & I wasn't waiting 7-10 days to get it back, & (c) if I walked into the branch & took money that wasn't mine, they & the law would call it theft, & this is no different as far as I'm concerned. The bint said they needed me to send them a copy of my BR order. I told her that, as they seemed to have not done much with my previous correspondence, I wasn't going to send it to them as I was under no legal obligation to do so, so she took the details over the phone. She couldn't explain why I was sent a letter that I received on 23 May saying I could still use the account when I had advised them I'd gone BR in March - I'd like to see them explain that to the OR & the Financial Ombudsman. She's going to ring me tomorrow to let me know whether the refund can be made quicker - on their head be it if it isn't. What also gets me is that the money wasn't taken by direct debit. It seems that, because I cancelled the direct debit, someone manually input the details & took the money from my current account that way!! :mad: The Financial Ombudsman will be very interested in that kind of practice.

The only saving grace is that I had cancelled all my direct debits prior to going BR, the account wasn't overdrawn & it's not my main account. If I was dependent on that account for day-to-day living, I'd be really stuffed because there's next to no money left in that account now thanks to their stupidity. :mad:

Two things are guaranteed to happen on Monday. One, a letter of complaint will be posted to the Financial Ombudsman. Two, I'll be sending my charges claim in to Lloyds TSB - I've only got part-way through doing it & it's already past the £500 mark.

ClaireLR

I can't get my head round it, you told them you had gone BR, you cancelled the DD, and STILL someone manually takes the money anyway????

Talk about taking the proverbial ****

I hate Lloyds TSB anyway, they re my only creditor that is STILL applying interest to my accounts a year after the start of my debt management plan and the amount of hassle I get from them is unbelievable.

I hope the OR wipes the floor with them! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

wherediditallgo

So do I - I can't believe their stupidity! When I got the first letter, I rang because I assumed the OR hadn't told them yet, but they said they'd been informed in the previous couple of days. Fair enough - that was about mid-April, & I could see that they might not have heard in time to stop the letter going out. But then I got another letter about a month later. I couldn't have done more than I've done - I've rung them 3 times, & by their own admission the OR informed them before I made my first call. For me to telephone to explain about going BR & ask if I could still use the account, send a letter confirming the conversation, get a letter back saying yes I can still use it & then have this nonsense to deal with is ridiculous. I've been with them a lot of years, but if me putting in the complaint & claiming back my charges means they close the account I really don't care.

I'm not going to let them to get away with it - supposing that money had been to feed children, pay my rent or keep the gas/electricity connected? There was less than £40 in the account originally, & I left it there as a safety net because I knew I wouldn't be using the £200 overdraft facility. For them to put me in a position where I'm so overdrawn, purely because they've taken money they know they're not legally entitled to is taking brass neck to extremes. I've played everything straight with them, & they've gone in for devious practices to get my money.

gilltill

WDIT - Firstly congrads for what you have a achieved in such difficult circumstances. I know you have all your statements from Lloyds TSB but I would request a S.A.R ensuring that transcripts of all conversations are included. Failure to produce these and i would report them to the ICO for data protection act 1998 violation. Power to the people.

Gilly x