Jacamo?

aloneinthedark

Hi Guys,

so I have an account with Jacamo, (Jacamo are responsible lenders).

I've had a few accounts with them, once about a year ago, £125 credit limit, I paid it off slowly then I lost my part time job & I couldn't pay it so it built up and built up and then I had a little win on the lotto, paid it off and they closed the account.

A couple of weeks after that I opened another account up with them (was easier to get the stuff on credit then it was to buy it out right).

This time they gave me a credit limit of £250, GREAT I thought, so I spent it, paid it back little by little and then all of a sudden they give me a credit limit of £1000 they didn't send me a letter saying "we would like to increase your limit to ££££, just boom £1000, I nearly died.

So there I am, unemployed other bills to pay and in need of clothes for interviews & gifts for xmas. so I spent every penny of it. It's been a couple of month since I last paid anything and the balance is now up to about -£400 with letters from their collection company requesting a payment.

what gets me is, how are jacamo a "responsible lender" if they don't do checks, if they don't send letters confirming they'd like to increase your limit and asking for proof of income or stuff like that.

I know I spent it, its my fault for spending over my means but where do I stand? could I speak to someone regarding them giving me credit when they should have done checks?

thanks

(((((((Also, don't judge. I don't judge you on your life / lifestyle )))))))

Tixy

Hi

It is quite usual that many lenders increase a credit limit based on past account conduct/behaviour without doing a new credit check or asking you to renew details of your financial circumstances. Many mainstream banks do it as well as catalogues (and some do only inform you by email/online messages etc).

If you are not in a position to repay it then I would write to the collection agency, set out that you are currently unable to afford repayments and only have benefit income (if that is still the case) and offer a token monthly payment until your circumstances improve and ask them to consider freezing interest & charges. If you can only afford £5 a month then just offer that amount.

It is far better to make a token payment rather than nothing as that reduces the chances of them taking further action and they will often agree to freeze interest on the debt so it doesn't increase further.

forgotmyname

You can blame them all you want. But as you say you spent it. You need more self control.

Pot and black kettles. I had issues some time back also. Using CC's way too much. Pay it all off each month. Then only some months, Then slowly the credit went up and the payments went down.
I only blame myself. This was back when they threw cards with silly limits at anyone that applied.

£9000 for my 1st card... I could understand if i was earning 90k a year but i wasnt.

All you can do is come to some arrangement to repay them. If your credit file is a total disaster then you could wait until they sell the debt on and make the debt collection company an offer.

They will have paid pennies in the £ for the debt so may accept less than the original lender. But by this time you maybe on the verger of harassment by them. I had calls and messages, Fake called and you were out cards the lot.

Been 8 years now and totally debt free. No more spending what i dont have.

I stood my ground on the offers, One guy laughed and said there was no way they would accept such a low offer. I said well if you dont agree to it by next Friday im filing for bankruptcy so you will get nothing at all.
He went quiet and they accepted my low offers.

I would have done it though. There was no other way out for me at the time.
Even bankruptcy has got more expensive though.

Thrugelmir

aloneinthedark wrote: »

I know I spent it, its my fault for spending over my means but where do I stand? could I speak to someone regarding them giving me credit when they should have done checks?

Banks make money by lending money. That's there business. Prior to defaulting you managed your account in a proper fashion. A credit limit of £250 isn't highly profitable for a lender. Hence the interest in limit.

Not giving you a lecture, but ultimately it was your decision. So you'll have to live with the consequences.

New rules don't take effect from April. I'm sure there'll be much teeth gnashing as responsibly and affordable lending is truly put under the spot light. Hopefully will stop cases such as yours. Where people get sucked in.

YorkshireBoy

What's done is done. There's no point looking for anyone else to blame. That blame lies fairly and squarely at your door I'm afraid.


What should be your main focus now is damage limitation.


On the one hand you have a few late/missed payments meaning your credit rating is dented for a few months, maybe a year or so.


On the other hand you have the option of trying to negotiate reduced payments, cutting of interest, etc (as suggested earlier). However, this will inevitably mean that you start to rack up some AP (arrangement to pay) markers on your credit file, and these will have a far longer lasting impact on your ability to gain credit.


The lesser of two evils is obviously the former, so can you borrow off family/close friends until you're back on your feet?

Twisted_Cherry

Jacamo are part of JD Williams, they have varying catalogues with different names.

They do increase credit limits rather rapidly...

I got into debt with them many years ago now. I was out of control with my finances and I spent whatever credit they gave me without thinking about being able to pay it back. By the time I went bankrupt I owned them over £4000.

I do recall being able to make arrangements with the debt department, and getting them to freeze the interest. They were incredibly helpful when I explained my situation.

I am building my credit up again now, 4 years since bankruptcy and I have an account with Simply Be now, but only have a credit limit of £500 and I have asked that they do not increase it further without asking me. Saying this I hardly use it!

Monkeyballs

Hi,

Sadly others who have posted are correct, they would have just looked at the fact that you have paid your debts previously and based their decision to increase the limit accordingly...

That said, did you get a letter to advise you of the increase? I believe that credit cards operators need to send a notice a week or two before advising of the increase giving you time to reject it (I'm assuming to remove the temptation of spending or accidentally going over your old limit)?

I don't want to get your hopes up because you could have just asked for the limit to be lowered if you were struggling to resist the temptation - just a question.

MB

Monkeyballs

Twisted_Cherry wrote: »

Jacamo are part of JD Williams, they have varying catalogues with different names.

They do increase credit limits rather rapidly...

I got into debt with them many years ago now. I was out of control with my finances and I spent whatever credit they gave me without thinking about being able to pay it back. By the time I went bankrupt I owned them over £4000.

I do recall being able to make arrangements with the debt department, and getting them to freeze the interest. They were incredibly helpful when I explained my situation.

I am building my credit up again now, 4 years since bankruptcy and I have an account with Simply Be now, but only have a credit limit of £500 and I have asked that they do not increase it further without asking me. Saying this I hardly use it!

Not sure if Very are a part of JD Williams? But I had an account with then which they increased from £300 to £800 even though I wasn't using it...

Then I started to really struggle with a gambling problem so bought flash things to sell...

I then went onto a DMP (Last June) and included my account in there but despite this, two months later I got a credit limit increase and vouchers for 20% of an iPad! I couldn't believe it... I phoned them up and asked them to reduce it but the guy on the phone tried to sell me bedding as it was on offer and we got chatting about my debt and offered to put me through to their accounts dept to look a potential credit limit increase!!! Completely baffled I just said "Errr... No thanks" and hung up - that is irresponsible lending...

MB

YorkshireBoy

Monkeyballs wrote: »

That said, did you get a letter to advise you of the increase? I believe that credit cards operators need to send a notice a week or two before advising of the increase giving you time to reject it (I'm assuming to remove the temptation of spending or accidentally going over your old limit)?

I'm not sure if these kinds of accounts fall under the same rules as those for normal credit cards, but these days credit card T&Cs clearly lay out your options for credit limit increases...ie, along the lines of "We may increase your credit limit automatically. If you would prefer for us not to increase your credit limit automatically, please let us know".


OP, perhaps you could check your T&Cs for similar wording?


On the subject of changes to your personal circumstances, many (all?) credit card providers say you should notify them of such changes. Is the same true of Jacamo? Again, the answer may lie in your T&Cs.

Twisted_Cherry

Monkeyballs wrote: »

Not sure if Very are a part of JD Williams? But I had an account with then which they increased from £300 to £800 even though I wasn't using it...

No Very is part of Littlewoods / Kay & Co - 'Shop Direct' - I use to work for them in Debt Collection a long time ago!

aloneinthedark

Appreciate everyones replies, I do appreciate that I should have had more self control in my spending and that I should go into a payment plan with them.

I didn't recieve a letter confirming an increase, just a straight up increase.

what gets me is they closed an account of mine after full payment, after about 6-8 month of being in the red, they allow me to open up another account and within a month upgrade it to £1000!!!