have i done right thin setting up direct debits to repay debts?

mrelephant_2

I owe @ £50k to 6 creditors and have been succeful in reducing the monthly repayments from @£850 @£350 with the interest frozen. I have been making these repayments for @ 18mths by cheque, however, 2 months ago i completely forgot to make the payments and recieved a letter from one of my creditors saying i had failed to make a payment and demanded i repay the full outstanding debt or face court action.

I phoned them and luckily was able to convince them it was a mistaken oversight and to prevent it happenning again asked if i could set up a D/D or standing order...They allowed a D/D to be set up, so i then thought i may as well do this with all my other creditors and after several calls,,,all my repayments are now set up in this way.

However, today i have just read a post on here about someone who was making payments through Blair Scott & Oliver, that BSO took £600 from an account they had, this has set off alarm bells in my head that maybe this could happen with one or more of my creditors now i am paying them all via D/D taking money from my bank account.

Have i done the right thin setting up D/D's? or should i cancel them and revert back to paying by Cheques?

Another reason i thought setting D/D's would be a good idea, was to give confidence to my creditors that i wouldnt fail to make future payments and may reduce the amount of hasstle i get from them asking for increased payments
Any thoughts?

onedayiwill

I don't know about making DDs to creditors, but perhaps you could organise Standing Orders instead?

With a Direct Debit, the company taking the money is in control of the payment (i.e. they request how much is paid, though they are supposed to give you warning if it changes from an agreed amount).

With a Standing Order, you are are in control of the payment. You say you want £200 per month (or whatever) to be paid to so-and-so. So-and-so cannot request the bank to pay more.

I pay my CC by standing order and my loan by DD with no problems. But I don't have any arrears or payment agreements etc.

Hope that is some help.

Donedoingdebt

I agree with onedayiwill, try & set up standing orders if possible as you are then in control of the amounts leaving your bank account, whereas you have less control with direct debits. I've been dealing with 5 DCAs for several years now & have always paid by S/O with no problem. If you bank online, it would only take a few minutes to convert your D/Ds to S/Os. I'm not even sure if your creditors would know what you've done, but if they're reputable then they shouldn't mind as long as they receive your agreed monthly payment.

mrelephant_2

Donedoingdebt

Thanks for that, i have just checked on my TSB Online bank account and yes i can set up S/O's but i would need the sort codes and account No's of my creditors to set up the S/O's, do you think they would be willing to give me this info if i rang them and told them i wanted to change from DD to S/O?

Bambywamby

Check on the back of your creditors statements.
Where there is the "how to pay section" it usually contains their sort code and bank account number for sending payments via internet banking.

X X

Donedoingdebt

mrelephant wrote: »

Donedoingdebt

Thanks for that, i have just checked on my TSB Online bank account and yes i can set up S/O's but i would need the sort codes and account No's of my creditors to set up the S/O's, do you think they would be willing to give me this info if i rang them and told them i wanted to change from DD to S/O?

As Bambywamby said, plus you may have these details already if you can bring up the details of the D/Ds that you already have. I don't see any reason why your creditors wouldn't tell you over the phone as at the end of the day, they're still getting a regular monthly payment. Perhaps they may ask why but as I said earlier, I had no problem at all.