Am I pushing my luck? Advice needed

Crown

Hi all, :wave:

As some of you may be aware I have been locked in negotiations with my creditors for three months doing my own style DMP and all of them have frozen my interest and charges. I have also been put on a long term repayment plan of £1.00 on each of my Halifax accounts (credit, overdraft & loan) meaning that in theory I only pay back £3.00 a month to this creditor.

My Debts with the Halifax alone stand at approx £23,000 so of course realistically it will take forever paying at this rate unless my circumstances dramatically change and although I am making changes and have taken on extra work it it is still going to take a fair few years to even make a dent it . :mad:

I have seriously been looking at reclaiming my bank charges although I'm concerned that if I do the Halifax may cancel the agreement that I have made with them and start charging me interest again and the interest alone was approx £110 a month :eek:

I think I would have around £800 in charges to reclaim but I am wondering if I should just settle for the long term arrangement or should I try also to claim my charges back on top of this?

Please do not mistake my intentions as I am not trying to get out of paying my debt and will try and pay back every penny. I know I have got a pretty good deal compared to some people although it did take a lot of time to sort out but part of me feels that as the bank charges are unlawful the refund could come of the balance.

The question is do you think I'm pushing my luck?

Your opinion greatly received

Littlered_3

Actually I want to do the same thing with Cahoot, so would be interested in the response!

newmum1

I dont reckon it would go in your favour, I think the banks would be quite funny about it, and they may cancel you payment plan on your debts, then you may end up worse off, although if you have any other banks that you could claim from then go for it.

Crown

newmum1 wrote: »

I dont reckon it would go in your favour, I think the banks would be quite funny about it, and they may cancel you payment plan on your debts, then you may end up worse off, although if you have any other banks that you could claim from then go for it.

Thats obviously what im worried about. the Halifax are my main creditor and I had never even been over my overdraft or missed payment until 18 Months ago after I was made redundant after years of being a bit of an wheeler dealer.

I dont really have any other bank charges to reclaim.

CLAPTON

i'ld look at it this way

if you reclaim your 800 now, your debt reduces from 23,000 to 22,200 .... but maybe ..well who knows but interest starts to be added again..

or now later if they start adding interest you could reclaim your charges

Sea78

HI

I am on a DMP but my payments are higher - I'm going for bank charges with one of my creditors who hasn't accpeted the DMP (rejected before claim started). I think it's a personal choice. If they changed their mind about allowing the DMP - if you told the judge all the info and stated you wanted the charges to go off the debt, would this change things?

it's a difficult decision. I know I would probably go for the charges, but I think it's whether you think it's worth a risk really..I'm sure you'll have more opinions given though.

Sea xx

Crown

Thanks for the replies so far.

Im feeling 50/50 at the moment about it. Even if they started the interest again I couldnt afford to pay it so will fall deeper into debt. I just dont like to think that I coulld reduce my figures!

In_Search_Of_Me

simple way is to look how much the interest they would charge if it started up again! Personally I woudnt claim the charges! Ok so its money you could get back but at the cost of a DMP you've set up & the emotional benefots of not having to worry would outweigh the 800 for me....hope you resolve it, it is a tricky one!

tomterm8

I wouldn't do it yet. If / when you can repay the rest of the loan in full, I'd do it.

liz105

I wouldnt do it. If they started charging you interest again you would be back to square one after 7 1/2 months.

At the moment I make it 638 years to pay off your debt, in realistic terms £800 is not going to make any difference.

You need to keep them sweet. Dont ask for the charges back. Also, they could argue with the judge if they actually did turn up. a payment plan will not go in your favour. They could actually win. Then you'd be getting interest and NO charges back.

Crown

Thanks for the replies.

I think I will put my reclaiming my bank charges on hold and concentrate on reducing the debt. I guess your right in that I can still reclaim at a later date if I want too.

Cheers