My DMP - one creditor (Creation) just won't play ball, any advice?

mj999

I've had a DMP in place for the previous 2 and a half years. I owed approximately £30k and agreed to pay over £500 p/m to share out amongst approximately 8 creditors. Most creditors either reduced the interest or froze it, except for one credit card company that continued to add regular interest. Now 2 years into the plan that same creditor has also started to add monthly default fees which combined with the interest are greater than my monthly payment of £120. This particular debt of approximately £7k is therefore rising. The credit card is/was a Flybe credit card which is run by Creation Finance. My DMP is managed by Payplan who continue to be unsuccessful in resolving this issue.

I'm not keen on pursuing the IVA route if at all possible as I fear that I'll be expected to live on even less than I do now. I work my socks off in a very stressful job despite being in poor health. I've never missed a payment with my DMP and had hoped that by now I would be almost half way through paying off the total debt - but instead it seems that there is no end in sight. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Lensman_2

Send them a CCA request.

In the time that they have to respond, research a CCA request so that you will know if their response is compliant.

Once you have a copy of the agreement and statement of account via your request, (assuming it is compliant) submit a SAR.

Use this to make sure all charges they have applied are fair. Look in to reclaiming any unfair charges. Google "unfair credit card charges".

I am pretty sure that you can knock some corners off them by doing this and (hopefully) you will get them to fall in line.

Sadly, none of the charities give this sort of advice - probably because they are paid for by the creditors.

stupid-fool

I'm sorry but I can't offer any advice, but rather I'm asking for your help. I am just starting off with a DMP and one of my creditors is Creation for my FlyBe credit card.

For me, alarm bells have already rung when I called them a couple of weeks after everyone else had acknowledged the letters from StepChange to be told that they knew nothing of my DMP - even though I'd also written to them.

Please would you help me by keeping this thread going with your progress as it might help me and others in the future.

Good Luck

fermi

Also take a look at their obligations under the lending code, in which they should not continue to charge interest etc that would extend the time need to repay the debt to an unreasonable long time. That the debt is increasing is very unreasonable on those definitions.

People here have had success taking such complaints to the FOS, or at least starting that procedure off anyway.

stupid-fool

I don't think they subscribe to the Lending Code

stupid-fool

But around 50% of complaints to the Financial Ombudsman regarding credit are resolved in the consumers favour.

fermi

stupid-fool wrote: »

I don't think they subscribe to the Lending Code

They subscribe to the FLA lending code I think that states.

We will consider reducing or stopping interest and charges if you can show us you are in financial difficulties and unable to meet the repayments on your loan. Interest and charges will not continue to be taken if this would lead to the repayment period becoming excessive taking into account the type of loan and your circumstances. We will base our decision on your lack of ability to repay and if we do not allow concessions we will explain why if you ask us to.

stupid-fool

Ahh thanks, I hadn't realised there were so many different lending codes

Time_to_face_the_music

mj999 wrote: »

I've had a DMP in place for the previous 2 and a half years. I owed approximately £30k and agreed to pay over £500 p/m to share out amongst approximately 8 creditors. Most creditors either reduced the interest or froze it, except for one credit card company that continued to add regular interest. Now 2 years into the plan that same creditor has also started to add monthly default fees which combined with the interest are greater than my monthly payment of £120. This particular debt of approximately £7k is therefore rising. The credit card is/was a Flybe credit card which is run by Creation Finance. My DMP is managed by Payplan who continue to be unsuccessful in resolving this issue.

I'm not keen on pursuing the IVA route if at all possible as I fear that I'll be expected to live on even less than I do now. I work my socks off in a very stressful job despite being in poor health. I've never missed a payment with my DMP and had hoped that by now I would be almost half way through paying off the total debt - but instead it seems that there is no end in sight. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

CCCS/StepChange are very good at managingg our DMPs but they don't fight for interest to be stopped, they ask once and that is it. We have to fight this ourselves.

http://www.ombudsman-complaints-data.org.uk/

FOS have taken on and won cases against Creation so it's definitely worth a go. Just make sure you have made a complaint directly to Creation first then take it to the FOS if they don't resolve it to your satisfaction.

Good luck and please let us know how you get on.

mj999

I'll certainly commence the complaints procedure and then the Ombudsman. In my experience (2 1/2 years into my DMP) Creation Finance have been the most difficult and expensive of all my creditors. Also at the beginning they were the most rude / aggressive on the telephone. Whenever I have (unsuccessfully) attempted to request that my DMP agency negotiates a reduction in interest or even more recently to accept the DMP I usually receive a standard response from the DMP agency along the lines of, "Creation finance do not operate like other creditors....".

According to my DMP my outstanding balance with Creation Finance should now be in the region of £4,000 after making consistent monthly payments via my DMP yet my statements from Creation are showing that I owe over £7,000 due to the interest and charges they are applying on a monthly basis!

dfwsometimesoon

I initially had major reservations regarding Creation...They are my main Creditor in excess of £15k ... started DMP with Payplan in June... to start with as I have a lot of accounts with them there was a lot of mix up re payments going to wrong accounts etc... constant calls from Belfast re credit cards even tho stated on payplan website plan had been accepted... Belfast who deal with Credit cards had no knowledge payplan involvement !!

Anyway eventually got hold of the telephone number for the Hardship Team 0800 652 4320 who were absolutely fantastic... actually asked me why I was calling them direct as they had payplan down for all correspondence!! All charges and interest were frozen there and then.. all calls have completely stopped apparently Belfast who deal with credit cards are unable to see the Birmingham (where hardship is based) screens hence why the constant calls etc.. dunno whether this is correct or not its what they said tho and since speaking with the hardship team all has stopped. Maybe an idea to give them a call in my experience they were fantastic and really couldnt do enough. Good luck