DMP & Mutual Support Thread - Part 10

Puzzcat

glitterunicorn wrote: »

Thanks for the response Puzz. I have signed up to Noddle (yet another brainwave from this thread!) but that didn't help unconfuse me as some of my PDLs are marked as settled and others have an AP.

I have requested defaults from the ones with AP markings and so far I only have one reponse from PDUK advising me to contact the Credit References Authority for more information. I'm waiting a few days to see if I get any other responses so I can tackle the CRA with them all in one go

I believe it is the creditors who have the power to change the report not the cra.
Puzz.x

glitterunicorn

That's what I thought but PDUK sent the below response

For information regarding how information is recorded on your credit file, please contact the Credit Reference Agencies directly. If they are unable to answer your query, please provide us with a screen shot of your credit file.

So I don't think I can pursue things further without contacting the CRA. They haven't posted anything for the last two months, is it usual for Noddle to be that far behind?

Sazzie23

glitterunicorn wrote: »

That's what I thought but PDUK sent the below response

For information regarding how information is recorded on your credit file, please contact the Credit Reference Agencies directly. If they are unable to answer your query, please provide us with a screen shot of your credit file.

So I don't think I can pursue things further without contacting the CRA. They haven't posted anything for the last two months, is it usual for Noddle to be that far behind?

Hi Glitter and welcome, well done for the big read too.

My credit accounts on noddle are usually updated every 2 to 3 months depending on creditor. I think I have one who updates every month but the rest are usually behind.

I think someone asked about getting a balance when online access is gone, I have 2 accounts that are no longer on line and don't send statements either. I update them from noddle or call them for a balance every now and again.

I also had someone random from America try to add me on linked in, I could only work out they were from a bank I'd never heard of so I guessed they were creditors in some form and didn't add them.

Oh what else did someone ask, oh yes, if an account gets handed over to a DcA , you can just keep paying as normal til they let you know to change, then update SC and your other payments will catch up eventually.

Glitter, re your mixed up balances, if you add them all up, do they come to the correct amount? If not, then it needs investigating. I'd probably try to do it myself as you know the ins and outs better than anyone. Just start one at a time so you don't get overwhelmed. Start with what should be an easy one, then work up to a more complex. You need to ask what account number they have and what balance and payments are shown. When you've figured out what's wrong, call SC or update them on the online contact thing and they'll get back to you.

Hope this helps a bit

schmalf

Puzzcat wrote: »

Hi Schmalf,


I had one too, still waiting for it to appear on noddle as a proper default.. hopefully next month.. No need to tell SC, its what BC should have done for me at least a long time ago...


Puzz. x

Hey Puzz thanks for the reply, wondered if you would be in the same situation as me, our dmp's do seem to mirror each other a bit. How odd are BC? Once the default is showing, I'm wondering if it will be worth trying to get them to backdate it - but not sure whether to rock the boat?

Hope everyone is doing OK and hi to all the new dmpers, don't worry its the best decision you will ever make!

Well I am now in the first month of my redundancy. I've now set up my own business (scary!!), doing the same thing as before and hopefully retaining some old customers along the way. Still unsure whether I will get my bank account, I've been panicking a bit about this. Gone with rbs as that's where my current account is and of course I have no debts with them - been open with them about the DMP so hoping to get on to their foundation account, which is a business account for people with poor credit. Bit concerned that BCs messing about might affect my application though. Hmmm. If I can't get it I will have to get a one card or cashplus account which is far from ideal, but no credit checking and at least I can get trading.

Love to you all
Schmalf xx

Puzzcat

schmalf wrote: »

Hey Puzz thanks for the reply, wondered if you would be in the same situation as me, our dmp's do seem to mirror each other a bit. How odd are BC? Once the default is showing, I'm wondering if it will be worth trying to get them to backdate it - but not sure whether to rock the boat?

Hope everyone is doing OK and hi to all the new dmpers, don't worry its the best decision you will ever make!

Well I am now in the first month of my redundancy. I've now set up my own business (scary!!), doing the same thing as before and hopefully retaining some old customers along the way. Still unsure whether I will get my bank account, I've been panicking a bit about this. Gone with rbs as that's where my current account is and of course I have no debts with them - been open with them about the DMP so hoping to get on to their foundation account, which is a business account for people with poor credit. Bit concerned that BCs messing about might affect my application though. Hmmm. If I can't get it I will have to get a one card or cashplus account which is far from ideal, but no credit checking and at least I can get trading.

Love to you all
Schmalf xx

Good Morning Schmalf..


Yes our dmp's are like twins.. I think we did start around the same time. I personally, assuming BC do actually default me won't rock boats to have it moved as my dmp is due to run for a good few years yet anyway.. They are still not charging me any interest hence I have not challenged the ap markers so far.. If they do start charging interest and don't default me I will be ready for battle...!!!


Good luck with the new bank account and business..


Love Puzz. x

Jono987

Hey everyone, i was wondering if anyone could please help me on this, i have just missed a call from halifax complaints team and i need to ring them back.

I sent off a template letter a couple of months ago as they continue to charge me interest at 25% on my DMP. I never had a reply so i sent another template letter, saying i would like to raise it as a complaint. Now that they are trying to get in touch im nervous and dont know what to say!

My Loan payment should be £371, however step change are paying them around £320. The interest is around £110 every month. Do you think i have any chance of getting them to lower it when i am only paying £50 less than the scheduled payments? I dont want to ring them back and be laughed at! Has anyone done similar with their creditors and what did you say to them?

Thanks for any help!

teeni

i have had this will halifax , i started a dmp this month , the current accounts they have stopped interest and charges but the loan account they have said they will continue to add interest . I am paying them £151 about half of the monthly contractual payment. the interest added will be 228 so te debt will increase, they have said they will reconsider in 6 months but by then the debt will have risen by 500 plus interest on the extra debt. Would you rock the boat by contacting them ,Payplan say i need to ring them myself if i want it altered.

January2015

teeni wrote: »

i have had this will halifax , i started a dmp this month , the current accounts they have stopped interest and charges but the loan account they have said they will continue to add interest . I am paying them £151 about half of the monthly contractual payment. the interest added will be 228 so te debt will increase, they have said they will reconsider in 6 months but by then the debt will have risen by 500 plus interest on the extra debt. Would you rock the boat by contacting them ,Payplan say i need to ring them myself if i want it altered.

Write to Halifax and quote S.227 of The Lending Code (to which they subscribe). This states:

"Where possible, subscribers should have consistent policies for customers holding more than product type in terms of charges and interest concessions".

They are clearly treating the products they have supplied you with differently and therefore inconsistently.

Other useful bits of the Lending Code in my previous post....

January2015 wrote: »

Lending Code Section 224 states:

• Subscribers should consider reducing or stopping interest and charges when a customer evidences that they are in financial difficulties. Such reduction/suspension decision should be based upon an income and expenditure statement indicating that they are unable to make repayments sufficient to meet contractual terms. Where a customer is able to make only token payments, their debt should not increase as a result of interest and charges levied. The assessment should reflect the customer’s lack of ability to pay rather than the stage an account has reached in the arrears cycle or whether they are using free sources of debt advice. Where a firm declines to allow concessions, they should be prepared to explain why to the customer or their adviser if requested to do so.

The Lending Code states a token payment is "An offer of payment of a small amount, e.g. £1, made by a customer who has no surplus income available for their ‘non-priority’ creditors and whose circumstances have a realistic prospect of improving so that they will be able to resume full or increased payments".


My argument on this one has been that our DMP sees us through to retirement age and whilst we are making more than token £1 payments our payments are still not equivalent to the required amount for the account to be in order and therefore our payments still constitute a token payment (my logic being that anything less than the required minimum payment must be a token payment).

Section 225 states:

• It is inappropriate for interest and charges to continue to be taken where the result would be that the repayment period for the customer becomes excessive. In forming a judgement on what might be excessive, a subscriber should take into account the type of product and the individual circumstances of the borrower.

My argument on this one (the Hellifax OD) was that it was going to take more than 30 years to clear based on our token payments if they kept charging their daily fee. With no fees we could clear the debt by retirement age. I'm working on developing this argument into my complaint with BC re. interest charges. I need to be more awake when I do the figures, but if their interest is going to take us over the DMP period and into retirement then I think I would argue that makes the repayment period excessive - thinking cap needs to be firmly in place when I word my next missive to BC.

Section 227 states:

• Where possible, subscribers should have consistent policies for customers holding more than one product type in terms of charges and interest concessions.

My argument on this one was how can you agree our relationship has broken down and agree to default our OD but not our loans - you need to treat us consistently.

Edit: I should have said these were just the arguments I used based on my interpretation of bits of the Lending Code I thought applied to our individual circumstances and I do realise the arguments I made may not work for everyone (and indeed may not work for me with all of our creditors - but it did feel good to quote the code verbatim when some of them phoned us following our complaint letters - because different departments deal with complaints about different products even though it can be the same bank/creditor). I felt I knew more about it than the poor so and so's phoning me [IMG]file:///C:\Users\Heather\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.gif[/IMG]

January2015

Hello everyone - hope you are all keeping well.

We've have really annoying, intermittent internet problems over the last few days. Finally had an engineer visit today and he changed some part or other (looked like a little metal box that came out of the wall).

All fixed and I am back with some catching up to do.

Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend. Hope you all get some time off work, preferably the whole long weekend, and hoping the sun shines and the debt busting goes well for you all

Sazzie23

Jono987 wrote: »

Hey everyone, i was wondering if anyone could please help me on this, i have just missed a call from halifax complaints team and i need to ring them back.

I sent off a template letter a couple of months ago as they continue to charge me interest at 25% on my DMP. I never had a reply so i sent another template letter, saying i would like to raise it as a complaint. Now that they are trying to get in touch im nervous and dont know what to say!

My Loan payment should be £371, however step change are paying them around £320. The interest is around £110 every month. Do you think i have any chance of getting them to lower it when i am only paying £50 less than the scheduled payments? I dont want to ring them back and be laughed at! Has anyone done similar with their creditors and what did you say to them?

Thanks for any help!

Hi Jono

Good advice from January, I don't think they'd outright laugh at you but you might get the stupid ' we don't do it like that comments'. I know this might sound backwards but can you reduce your payment any by reworking your SC budget..I think you might find a better response if you get the payment down a bit more, although Teeni's % payment is alot less than yours and still having the same trouble. You can still put the money aside to repay later or make your life just a teensy bit more comfortable rather than wearing the hair shirt all the time.

I think you probably would be better having communications in writing with Helifax so I'd write and say that. If it helps to know, having dropped my payments recently I wrote to all the creditors and said don't call me and suddenly all my missed calls have stopped.