Very Catalogue Arrears

mac20011980

Hi all im new to this board, howeevr have been reading for a while now.

I have a relatively small debt (£925 in total) with Very catalogue, the account is in arrears to the sum of approximately £225. The account minimum payment has gone up and up and i havent been able to make a full payment.

I have been making token payments of £20 per month, however they are no saying i pay the full arrears or they will pass the debt to a debt management compnay.

I have approached CCCS who have adviced me at presentto offer very £1 per month, i feel i can afford slightly more than that so have made an offer to very of £25 per month and asked them to stop the interest and charges on the account.

Each reply from very is different, they have refused my offer of £25 per month twice now the first time saying they could set a payment plan of £51, the second time saying they could set a payment plan of £66. Neither of which i can afford.

I would be gratful of any advice in regards to this situation, i dont really want my debt passed to a debt collection agency, but as noted above i cant afford the £50 or £60 that they are asking for a month.

I am not refusing to pay this debt would just like some help from very to make the debt affordable. As they dont seem to be helping me in the situatuon i would be gratful if any of you helpful people could advise as to where i go know with this situation.

Many thanks

Dave, a "very" frustrated catalogue customer

System

mac20011980 wrote: »

Hi all im new to this board, howeevr have been reading for a while now.

I have a relatively small debt (£925 in total) with Very catalogue, the account is in arrears to the sum of approximately £225. The account minimum payment has gone up and up and i havent been able to make a full payment.

I have been making token payments of £20 per month, however they are no saying i pay the full arrears or they will pass the debt to a debt management compnay.

I have approached CCCS who have adviced me at presentto offer very £1 per month, i feel i can afford slightly more than that so have made an offer to very of £25 per month and asked them to stop the interest and charges on the account.

Each reply from very is different, they have refused my offer of £25 per month twice now the first time saying they could set a payment plan of £51, the second time saying they could set a payment plan of £66. Neither of which i can afford.

I would be gratful of any advice in regards to this situation, i dont really want my debt passed to a debt collection agency, but as noted above i cant afford the £50 or £60 that they are asking for a month.

I am not refusing to pay this debt would just like some help from very to make the debt affordable. As they dont seem to be helping me in the situatuon i would be gratful if any of you helpful people could advise as to where i go know with this situation.

Many thanks

Dave, a "very" frustrated catalogue customer

Hi Dave,

I’m a debt advisor for the CCCS and have come across your post. It can be really frustrating when a creditor doesn’t accept a reasonable payment offer. If you have received advice from us then it is always worth sending them a copy of your income and expenditure budget so they can understand your situation.

If you have done this and they still reject your offers then the best thing to do is to maintain the payment you feel you can afford anyway. It is always better send something to your debt every month, as this shows you are making an effort with the debt.

Usually we would only recommend a £1 payment if your budget shows there is virtually nothing spare for debts, so don’t feel you have to stick to your £25 offer if you can’t afford it.
If the debt is transferred to a debt collection agency then there is nothing to worry too much about, you will just need to arrange a payment with whoever takes over the account. This is just a part of the standard debt collection process, you can find more about it on this blog post: http://moneyaware.co.uk/creditoraction. Your income and expenditure budget would probably not be sent to a new debt collector, so it is best to send them a copy.

Hope this helps, if you want more specific advice there will be a number in your CCCS paperwork to call.

Mat

mac20011980

an update on my situation, it has been two or three days now going backwards and forwards, i am maintaining my offer of £25 to very as the maximum i can afford.

They keep writting back saying they wont go below £66, i have responded two or three times now telling them i cannot afford this and asking them to reconsider, as yet with no joy.

i have no choice but to continue to try and get them to except this lower amount, however i now fear the matter has gone to far and will be passed to their debt collection company.

If this is the case and the matter is passed to their debt collection, will they then accept a lower amount and put me onto a payment plan or would i be forced to pay the full amount.

Thanks

heather66

Threaten them with the FSO as you have gven them a resonable payment considering you could be offering them the min £1

my account balance was for around the same amount as yours and im only paying £5 and they eventually stopped interest and did refiund the £12 charges and a few months interest when i went through a DMP with CAB

the debt company they threaten you with is their own inhouse debt collection agaency NDR

SusieT

I would drop the offer to £1 a month and start to pay just the £1 they will soon be happy to get £5 and you can then save the other £20 and offer them a f&f at some point in the future when you have something over 25% of whatever the balance is at the time. If they do send it to a DCA offer them the £1 and see what happens, they all like tro try and bully you into paying more but if CCCS has said that you should only be paying £1 then they should think themselves lucky that you go up to £5 They will bluster and bully but once they get the money being paid into their account they will just try in 6 months or so to get more.
make sure you pay by standing order and not by debit card or direct debit as that way you are in total control of the payments.
Good luck with getting it paid off.

villarenter30

Phone them - i owed them £3900 and they basically wanted me to repay over 5 years at 140 a month - do the maths !!! I wrote a few times and got so frustrated that i phoned and basically said please stop the interest , all m other creditors have and basically said other creditors who were owed more were asking questions as to why very thought they could have a larger slice of the pie, and i made it clear i would not risk my dmp for them - girl i spoke to referred my case but i now pay 120 a month with no interest and the ac is coming down nicely, it is a struggle but worth it, for the no interest which on a very ac is crippling !!! try ringing them, it worked for me

mac20011980

Thats great thanks all for the advice, has anyone got a template letter that i could now send to them more or less telling them that i will be paying X, asking them to stop the interest and telling them that i will be passing to the FSO.

Thanks

HumptyDumpty

Hi,

I'm currently experiencing the same with Very and their infuriating so called non existent customer service. I've been a regular paying customer over numerous years and have cleared off at times all my balance in full on occasions.

However, last year I experienced a knock on effect over several months whereby I couldn't make a monthly payment as the funds were required more urgently elsewhere. This then rolled into 2 high payments needing to be paid the following month. Well with that being £400 approx I was clearly unable to catch up.

I'm now currently in arrears with them of £1,700 and paying a HEFTY £255 per month and have been for approx 9 mths now. It's taking it's toll and my arrears are still outstanding and my balance has only decreased by £5-600!!! Yes, you guessed it the majority if going on the INTEREST!!! £178 approx.

To think that I've paid out over £2,000 to them over the 9mths, I find is shocking and totally outrageous. I've told them how I'm struggling with the payments since day one and I've never any monies left each month - nothing.

I've asked if they'd freeze the interest just for 6mths to aid me in getting back to paying my usual monthly payments as was in the past. I've only ever had this 'hiccup', an easy resolve, yet they're adamant that they'd rather have me pay over the odds with no hope of ever getting on top of the debt and with the threat of them passing it onto a debt collector, to which I think I'm just going to tell them to do, as I presume I can pay a more manageable payment and that it'll actually bring down my balance altogether.

Any advice would be very much appreciated, as I really don't want to hand another £2,000 over to them and still have my arrears outstanding, yet my balance coming down by £70pm approx. It's outrageous and I'd of expected more help off them after being such a good customer for many years. If ever I get ontop of this I'll take great pleasure in closing my account with them altogether, as they've shown their true colours and it's nasty.