Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

jo.anne

I have a debt from Fashion World of approx. £350 which I fell into arrears with I have had the account frozen and payments reduced for a while now and have always paid the monthly repayment, the problem is I only get paid the same date every month but they want their payment every 28 days so I have been late quite a few times with the repayment and been charged £12 for this (but I have still made the monthly payment) They review my account every 6 months and have always asked for an increase which I have agreed to. They have just done another review and said I now owe £170 and they are putting my account back on interest bearing. I explained that I would still like the interest to be frozen as my financial situation is no different and I still can only pay every month on same date, they are not prepared to accept my payments at the same time every month and insist their repayment as to be every 28 days and if I don't meet that I will be charged a late fee. They have also said they cannot put my account on interest free and I will be charged the standard rate. I just feel I am trying my hardest and they are not helping me clear the debt. I currently repay £10.80 per month but I keep getting charged £12 late fee charges every other month. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

minimad1970

Do you know why I would've received a letter from Stepchange today saying that my Direct debit has been cancelled as of 26/05/2015? I've been making reduced payments for about 6 months and have had no other contact from you. Thanks.

Former_StepChange_Laura

minimad1970 wrote: »

Do you know why I would've received a letter from Stepchange today saying that my Direct debit has been cancelled as of 26/05/2015? I've been making reduced payments for about 6 months and have had no other contact from you. Thanks.

Hi there,

Thanks for your message. I’d suggest you give us a call on the number in your paperwork and have a chat with one of our advisors. They’ll have your notes to hand and will be able to discuss the cancellation of your Direct Debit in more detail.

Alternatively you could email correspondence.queries@stepchange.org with your client reference number, and they should also be able to help.

Kind regards,

Laura

adenufnow

If you have a CCJ and are paying what the court ordered you to do. Does the 6 years it falls of your credit file start from the day it was issued or the day you pay it off.

Former_StepChange_Rory

adenufnow wrote: »

If you have a CCJ and are paying what the court ordered you to do. Does the 6 years it falls of your credit file start from the day it was issued or the day you pay it off.

Hi there,

County court judgments will normally show on the register for six years from the date of judgment. You can read a bit more about this on the Trust Online website here.

Rory

DonnDraper

Hi,

I had a Natwest student account with a £500 interest free overdraft and a Natwest credit card whilst at university. I graduated in 2012 but I'm not sure if the account was converted to a graduate account or not, regardless, my overdraft was still interest free. Soon after graduating I moved abroad for further studies and then work. Upon my return I found my Natwest account had been closed but the credit card which was with that account is still open. Having checked my credit file, I have found that the account has been in default since October 2013 with a debt of some £1200. I had an overdraft of £500 of which maybe £100-£200 was used, it seems as though Natwest have put their own charges on constantly and racked the amount up then closed the account.

Natwest clearly advertise that their student and graduate accounts come with 3 years of interest free overdraft.

I don't know what I should do about this as on the phone they just don't seem to care and state that the debt has been passed on to another agency. I have absolutley no problem paying them back whatever amount I had actually used of the overdraft, but as I had no outgoings at all from the account I have no idea how it built up to £1200.

Any advice please on how to deal with this and have the defaults removed?

Thanks

StepChange_Jen

DonnDraper wrote: »

Hi,

I had a Natwest student account with a £500 interest free overdraft and a Natwest credit card whilst at university. I graduated in 2012 but I'm not sure if the account was converted to a graduate account or not, regardless, my overdraft was still interest free. Soon after graduating I moved abroad for further studies and then work. Upon my return I found my Natwest account had been closed but the credit card which was with that account is still open. Having checked my credit file, I have found that the account has been in default since October 2013 with a debt of some £1200. I had an overdraft of £500 of which maybe £100-£200 was used, it seems as though Natwest have put their own charges on constantly and racked the amount up then closed the account.

Natwest clearly advertise that their student and graduate accounts come with 3 years of interest free overdraft.

I don't know what I should do about this as on the phone they just don't seem to care and state that the debt has been passed on to another agency. I have absolutley no problem paying them back whatever amount I had actually used of the overdraft, but as I had no outgoings at all from the account I have no idea how it built up to £1200.

Any advice please on how to deal with this and have the defaults removed?

Thanks

Hi there,

Thanks for posting.

You mention you’ve already been in touch with your bank, but if you don’t know how or why the interest and charges on your account have been added it might be worth writing to them to request information about your account. We have a template letter you might find useful to do this here:

http://moneyawarecouk.c.presscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/StepChange-Debt-Charity-Right-to-information-request.pdf

Creditors are entitled to add interest and charges to a debt as agreed in the terms and conditions of the account when you took it out. If the fees you’ve been charged are [FONT=&quot]more than[/FONT] the amounts set out in your credit agreement then you could make a complaint in writing to your bank.

If you do decide to get in touch with your bank to make a complaint or request information about your account, we’d always suggest you keep copies of everything you send to them for your own records.

If you’re not happy with your bank’s response, the next step would be to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), who can look into the issue for you. Should that be the case, you can find out how to make a complaint to the FOS here: http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumer/complaints.htm

If you do need to repay the debt and you’re concerned about the impact this could have on your financial situation, this is something we’d be able to help you with. You can use our online debt advice tool, Debt Remedy. Debt Remedy will use information from your income, budget and debts and will recommend how best to deal with your debt. You can find it here:

http://www.stepchange.org/Debtremedy.aspx

I hope this helps,

If you’ve got any more questions please let us know.

Jen

StepChange_Jen

hard.to.pick.a.name wrote: »

HI,
I had a debt I didn't acknowledge and was coming up to 6 years of the default. Credit expert have now taken it upon them self's to contact the debt collection company about the default with out my knowledge or permission will this affect the limitation act which would make the debtstatute barred ?

Hi there,

Thanks for your message.

A debt becomes statute barred if you don’t acknowledge or make payments towards it for six years and if your creditor hasn’t taken court action to retrieve it during this time.

It shouldn’t matter that a third party has contacted the creditor about the debt. If the period of limitation isn’t up yet then there’s always the possibility the creditor could take action to retrieve the debt.

You can find out more about statute barred debts here:

http://moneyaware.co.uk/2013/10/statute-barred-debt/

If you believe the debt to be statute barred you can always use the template letter in the article above to inform your creditor that you believe that to be the case if they contact you about the debt.

However as a charity our stance is that if you recognise the debt as yours then we’d always encourage you to take steps to start paying it back.

If you do decide to deal with the debt and repaying it is something you’d struggle with (or if the creditor does use court action to retrieve it) we’d be able to help.

If you’d like help I’d suggest giving our Helpline a call, you can find out how to contact us here:

http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx

We’ll be able to help you put together a budget and recommend the best way for you to deal with the debt.

I hope this helps,

Jen
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StepChange_Jen

jo.anne wrote: »

I have a debt from Fashion World of approx. £350 which I fell into arrears with I have had the account frozen and payments reduced for a while now and have always paid the monthly repayment, the problem is I only get paid the same date every month but they want their payment every 28 days so I have been late quite a few times with the repayment and been charged £12 for this (but I have still made the monthly payment) They review my account every 6 months and have always asked for an increase which I have agreed to. They have just done another review and said I now owe £170 and they are putting my account back on interest bearing. I explained that I would still like the interest to be frozen as my financial situation is no different and I still can only pay every month on same date, they are not prepared to accept my payments at the same time every month and insist their repayment as to be every 28 days and if I don't meet that I will be charged a late fee. They have also said they cannot put my account on interest free and I will be charged the standard rate. I just feel I am trying my hardest and they are not helping me clear the debt. I currently repay £10.80 per month but I keep getting charged £12 late fee charges every other month. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi there,

Thanks for getting in touch.

I’m sorry to hear about this situation. It’s frustrating to make payments towards a debt only for extra charges to be added.

Adding charges to a debt in line with the agreement you have with them is something your creditors are entitled to do. Extra charges may be added if you miss payments or you’re late paying but your creditor can only add charges if they’re explained in your credit agreement.

In some situations, if you can prove to your creditor that you’re struggling financially, they may be willing to reduce the charges. Although, unfortunately, this isn’t guaranteed and their decision may depend on the amount you owe, how long you’ve been in arrears and how much you’re able to pay towards the debt.

If you’re struggling with your repayments you might find it beneficial to give our Helpline a call. We can help you put together a budget which you can use to show the creditor what you can afford to pay to your debts. Often creditors will acknowledge that you’ve taken steps to seek professional help, and creditors often trust that the budgets we put together are an accurate reflection of your circumstances.

It may also be that there’s a debt solution suited to your situation, if this is the case our Helpline advisors will be able to talk you through your options and advise on what your next steps should be.

You can find out how to get in touch with us here: http://www.stepchange.org/Contactus.aspx

I hope this helps but if you’ve got any more questions please let us know.

Jen

Florida15

Hi, hope you can help. We have been with stepchange (brill) for about a year and a half now, yesterday we received a letter from Barclaycard stating section 87.

They have up until now accepted our payment plan.

Do we need to do anything?

Thanks for any help given.