Is this harrassment?

GarethK

Hi people, some advice please.

For some time i have recieved phone calls, during working hours, evenings and weekends from my ex-bank, Lloyds TSB.

I have contacted them by letter to make an offer of payment as per a budget plan supplied by CAB, i think we have come to some arrangement now (albeit a ten year one) but up until this point, i would have phone calls followed by messages usually by someone with very poor english, sometimes getting my name wrong completely, which would then have an automated message to contact them regarding ' a personal business matter'.

As far as i am concerned, i have kept them informed by letter and this constant barrage of phone calls, up to 8 a day, as late as 8.45pm and even on Sundays!!! is harrassment.

Am i in rights to say i only wish to discuss any matters by post only? As i said before, the phone calls have virtually stopped, weirdly after a lovely understanding lady spoke to me and said the minimum they could accept from me for my outstanding loan and account, which i then put in writing.

The second company is MBNA. They have so far refused to stop the interest growing on my CC, and will not accept my offer of payment which is not unreasonable (EGG card's third party company willingly accepted £10 a month on a 4k debt), saying they want £48 a month over 5 years to pay the debt off which i simply cannot afford right now. I have made a better offer (only possible by cancelling the insurance on my 2nd car) and have written to them explaining my circumstances.

I am being threatened with court action, and that this will be inevitable if i do not agree to pay them this £48 a month. The guy dealing with it called Richard, calls me on 2 mobile numbers to catch me out (which i've saved on my mobile), as the final straw, i got a text message today because my voicemail is turned off, saying ' Gareth, are u going to call me and sort this out'? which to me comes across as being very unprofessional for a start!

If i have made an offer to pay which is not unreasonable considering my finances and budget, can they take further action? I have so far been happy with the proposal by Lloyds TSB and by EGG, but have heard nothing from my other card, Cahoot, the last letter i sent to them was back in Feb...

Any help and comments?

Gareth

beanielou

In short your creditors can take further action.
You can write & say you will only deal with them by post.
HTH

GarethK

beanielou wrote: »

In short your creditors can take further action.
You can write & say you will only deal with them by post.
HTH

I know it was meant to be short, but could you or anyone else elaborate on 'further action'?

Sooty0404

Hi Gareth

Welcome to the world of Debt Collection. If you have made reasonable offers of payment then sooner or later they will be accepted.
As well as the offer you should write to each company enclosing an Income & expenditure report which shows your monthly disposable income and proves your offer is reasonable.
These companies know that if you were to produce this in Court the Court would accept it -and so will they, eventually.
I have just, finally, got all my credit card companies to accept my payment plan and although it has taken a year I have never once stepped onto the Court steps in spite of all their threats. You just have to stay firm on this one and make sure you pay what you have offered each month even if they haven't accepted it formally.

GarethK

HI Sooty,

Well as part of the CAB rescue pack it involved filling in a budget plan and sending it to all the creditors which was done in Feb. Still to hear from some, its only Lloyds and MBNA that have been a PIA, the rest i've not heard from (Cahoot, First National)

Many thanks for your post.

dips47

hi all

just to say i am on DMP with Payplan and most creditors have accepted the offers , but the only creditor will not accept the offer is MBNA they are a pain in the butt ,as it stands they call us nearly everyday ,now we know the number,i just ignore their calls,but do get a lot of threating letters as espected. also in the letter saying some one will call on the door step.
i am just ignoring as i am paying them what i can afford,as payplans said to me before just hang in there wait till they sell the debt.

craftingqueen_2

Hi Gareth,

Just letting you know we are in the same boat,there is a lot of people on here to help and give support.

My main creditor is LLoyds and they have been a totally pain in the a*** for me to.


Good luck let us know how you get on.

craftingqueen

my_two_cents

Sorry this might be a bit late, but next time they contact you, inform them you would report them to their trading board if they contact you more than ONCE a week.

Next step is to send them an income/expenditure plan via recorded delivery or with proof of postage and inform them that £10 per calender month is all you can afford to spare, enclose a cheque or set up a standing order for whatever amount it is you can spare monthly and make sure you stick to these like glue.

They don't like going to court as it is too expensive and would not have a leg to stand on as long as you have the proof to show that you have been making regular repayment regardless of what the repayment amount is.

my_two_cents

It was the threat of reporting Barclays Bank, Lloyds TSB, Nationwide, Npower, to their trades body that got them off my back.

Had a second call from one of them, challenged the lady that they had already called that week, she looked at the file and apologised for calling.
The funniest thing is that I don't have the faintest idea who these trade bodies are or what planet they are from, but it works all the time.

Once, I had a call from lloyds TSB, the guy said he wanted a payment of £65 there and then, I told him he would have to dip his hands into my pocket to get that, that all I could offer was £20 per month, he refused, saying it was either £65 or a CCJ.

I told him to go ahead with the CCJ and told him that no one remembers the second man that went on the moon, he was like pardon, I lied to him that I already had a CCJ from another company, so a second one would not make a dent on anything. His next statement was "so when can you start paying the £20 per month", and my response was that "as a credit card debt is a non-priority debt, all I can offer is £5 per month", The poor guy had no choice but to accept it.