DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

Hopelessly_Hopeful

thehistorygirl wrote: »

Not posted for a long while, but am now nearly a year into my DMP with Payplan. Most of my creditors have accepted my payments all except Barclaycard. Having read back through the thread it would seem that they are notorious for being particularly difficult. Anyway, I had my monthly statement today and I am incensed with them. Not only have they applied a late payment charge, which I am totally at a loss to understand why as the Payplan payment goes out at the same time every month, they have received it and not charged before. My payplan payment leaves my account on the 20th, but looking back at my statement it seems that in Nov, Payplan didn't receive it until the 25th. The BC payment is due on the 31st so I am assuming that it was late being paid by Payplan. They have also started charging interest again, the b*****ds! Not sure who to get angry with first - Payplan for the late payment or BC for the £12 charge. I also wonder if its worth writing a snotty letter complaining about the interest and threatening the FOC? The debt with BC was less than £300, now its back up to £340.

phoenixx wrote: »

I am in same position as you thg. Barclaycard debt going up on DMP despite phone calls; letters; SC contact etc. They are, in my opinion, profiting from those in financial difficulty. Not entirely sure why they are getting away with it.

SC (and I imagine other DMP providers) always pay creditors on 25th and creditors know this! They should not be slapping late payment charges on your account. It is shameless profiteering.

Morning

I would challenge it in writing. State you hope to resolve it without the need for contact with FOS. Give them a date in 1 months time by when you will contact FOS. Explain thanks for support and ask them to reduce and refund interest. Also point out the stress and challenges of unexpected charges which is unfair for someone they know is having financial difficulties and is communicating and committed to paying the debt back. If you dont get satisfaction after the 30 days has past give FOS a telephone call (they prefer this methods of contact)

Hope that helps

HHx

spot3

thehistorygirl wrote: »

Not posted for a long while, but am now nearly a year into my DMP with Payplan. Most of my creditors have accepted my payments all except Barclaycard. Having read back through the thread it would seem that they are notorious for being particularly difficult. Anyway, I had my monthly statement today and I am incensed with them. Not only have they applied a late payment charge, which I am totally at a loss to understand why as the Payplan payment goes out at the same time every month, they have received it and not charged before. My payplan payment leaves my account on the 20th, but looking back at my statement it seems that in Nov, Payplan didn't receive it until the 25th. The BC payment is due on the 31st so I am assuming that it was late being paid by Payplan. They have also started charging interest again, the b*****ds! Not sure who to get angry with first - Payplan for the late payment or BC for the £12 charge. I also wonder if its worth writing a snotty letter complaining about the interest and threatening the FOC? The debt with BC was less than £300, now its back up to £340.

This happened to me, the arrangement had expired (which can happen after a year or 6 months) so they had reverted to original payment date etc. All I had to do was phone BC, they froze interest and charges and asked me to get Stepchange to send them a new payment proposal, which I did. All sorted.

I've had good results from phoning and explaining with BC, worth a try before writing letters.

pinnit2014

When i was on my DMP with CCCS, Barclaycard were exactly the same - having been told the payment date as per the agreement with CCCS they kept adding on late payment fees even though they agreed to the reduced amount.

My own experience was that CCCS were pretty useless in following this up, so I made contact with Barclaycard myself - some letters, calls and 6 month later they finally stopped adding these charges but they wouldn't reimburse me sadly.

Sazzie23

Morning everyone,

It would seem from the above that Barclaycard are 'having a moment', might I suggest that anyone having trouble with them contacts their DMP provider SC etc and also Barclaycard both by phone and in writing. Maybe someone in a higher place can make them see sense - presumably they are trying to recoup one of their fines by getting us to pay it ....... Really brings them up in my estimation (not).

Rooster01

Hi, from the moment Stepchange send documentation to creditors, how long in general does it take them to acknowledge and reply? I know each creditor is different but just wanting to know when I should expect to hear from them. Also does it generally settle down after a couple of months?

sentientpoet

Just on the Barclaycard thing, they have consistently added interest at one rate or another to my account while I've been on the DMP (which started in 2006) - I'm paying them at £50 per month and when I spoke to them in November they said they were adding interest at 1% per month. Was about to argue the toss but I'm looking to clear the balance in the next couple of weeks so let it lie.

However, on Wednesday last week (3 December) I sent a letter of complaint about marking my credit files with ongoing AP markers when it should actually have defaulted in 2006, and a member of the customer relations team called me on Friday (quick response!) apologising and saying they would remove the Barclaycard info from all three CRAs - and would also knock £100 off the outstanding balance as a goodwill gesture.

So they do have the ability to listen and act - guess you have to be persistent and, in the case of interest, it seems the standard way of getting it frozen is to reduce payments to absolute minimum. They also require any agreement to be confirmed at least every 12 months, and it seems that as soon as that 12-month period is up they auto-send a standard statement/bill with min payment plus arrears, hence why you might suddenly get a demand for way more than the agreed repayment. That was my experience, anyway. I called them, they confirmed they'd continue with the same payments as previously agreed and they reset the account accordingly.

Puzzcat

Rooster01 wrote: »

Hi, from the moment Stepchange send documentation to creditors, how long in general does it take them to acknowledge and reply? I know each creditor is different but just wanting to know when I should expect to hear from them. Also does it generally settle down after a couple of months?

You probably won't hear from all your creditors, as they don't let us know if they have accepted or not...all settles in a month or two.
Puzz.x

schmalf

Thanks everyone for your replies Re Barclaycard. Does sound like they are having a bit of a moment! I suppose a lot of us started our DMPs around this time - with Christmas coming and having no money to pay for it, so lots of us are in the same "12 month" plan thing? Anyhow I will be calling them today so I'll let you know how I get on. What is so annoying is how they seem to treat everyone differently!
schmalf xxx

pinnit2014

Good luck! As i said, I bombarded them with calls/letters so it was possibly my borderline harassment of a Financial Institution (nice to turn the tables on them) that led to the desired result. Let us know how you get on.

Ellieseleven

sentientpoet wrote: »

Just on the Barclaycard thing, they have consistently added interest at one rate or another to my account while I've been on the DMP (which started in 2006) - I'm paying them at £50 per month and when I spoke to them in November they said they were adding interest at 1% per month. Was about to argue the toss but I'm looking to clear the balance in the next couple of weeks so let it lie.

However, on Wednesday last week (3 December) I sent a letter of complaint about marking my credit files with ongoing AP markers when it should actually have defaulted in 2006, and a member of the customer relations team called me on Friday (quick response!) apologising and saying they would remove the Barclaycard info from all three CRAs - and would also knock £100 off the outstanding balance as a goodwill gesture.

So they do have the ability to listen and act - guess you have to be persistent and, in the case of interest, it seems the standard way of getting it frozen is to reduce payments to absolute minimum. They also require any agreement to be confirmed at least every 12 months, and it seems that as soon as that 12-month period is up they auto-send a standard statement/bill with min payment plus arrears, hence why you might suddenly get a demand for way more than the agreed repayment. That was my experience, anyway. I called them, they confirmed they'd continue with the same payments as previously agreed and they reset the account accordingly.

I have AP markers on my credit file from BC from 2010 but I have shied away from challenging this as currently there is no interest being applied but I am close to minimum payment and afraid that if I start challenging them that they will reintroduce interest.

Is it worth asking for the AP markers to be removed and a default applied instead or is it likely to prompt them to start applying interest again?