NDR help please

KInderEggMeg

Hi,

I'm currently in debt with Very catalogue for £1425.63 due to being made redundant whilst being pregnant and struggling to get back on my feet.

I have had my debt passed over to NDR which I understand is Very's in house collection team. I have offered to pay them £120 a month which is the maximum I can afford but it has been declined. They want £193 every 28 days. Obviously the amount that I owe is going up each month as they keep adding on charges. They sent me a default notice last month asking for the full amount by the 13th of April. I tried to log into the NDR website and was met with a message that said my account was no longer serviced by them and I should contact the catalogue. Upon emailing Very they have responded with the unhelpful news that my account is with NDR so they can't help me unless I want to pay them the £193 every 28 days. Which I can't do.

So I'm at a bit of a loss now. I have since had another statement from Very telling me how much I owe but no further mention of the default notice. I'm reluctant to give them the £120 I can afford without a real repayment plan in place as their charges each month will mean I am never out of debt with them. I am also aware that I can't just not pay them for much longer.

What should I do? Sorry for rambling on! Any help very much appreciated, thank you

Tixy

Even if a creditor does't say they will accept a level of repayment they often will take no further action if you keep making payments

I would definitely make sure you are making a payment each month at a rate you can afford (even if its it only a token payment).

Not making any payment increases the chance of them taking court action against you.

How did you make the offer of £120 a month? in writing or by telephone? If in writing did you ask them to consider freezing interest and charges?
You may find that they will agree to freeze interest once they have issued a default notice.

KInderEggMeg

It was via email, I don't have a phone at the moment and even if I did I wouldn't be able to afford to pay the premium rate phone number they have.

Should I ask to have interest frozen even without a repayment plan in place?

Tixy

I would never phone them.

I would write to them (paper/mail) setting out how much you can afford to pay and asking them to consider freezing interest and stating that your first payment will be made on X date (if you have bank details or otherwise asking for their bank details so that you can set upa a standing order .
Template letters you could use/adapt can be found on the national debtline wesbite.

sourcrates

When you deal with NDR payments, you are effectively dealing with very, as you know, they are one and the same.

They will want a similar amount of money as very did, I think on average, they reduce your payments by about 10 to 20%, which isn't enough for most people.

You could continue to deal with them, or, if you ignore them for a while, they will sell your debt on, Lowell usually pick up a lot of delinquent shop direct accounts, and they will be a lot easier to deal with, and will accept lower payments, it's up to you really.

KInderEggMeg

Any idea how long roughly it takes NDR to sell debt on? I can't decide what course of action would be best and I'm afraid of court proceedings but equally I don't want to throw money at NDR (even though I can no longer log on to their website so not sure even who to pay!) and have their charges continue if they refuse to freeze interest.

sourcrates

KInderEggMeg wrote: »

Any idea how long roughly it takes NDR to sell debt on? I can't decide what course of action would be best and I'm afraid of court proceedings but equally I don't want to throw money at NDR (even though I can no longer log on to their website so not sure even who to pay!) and have their charges continue if they refuse to freeze interest.

They won't go to court, unless it's a very large amount of money, normal practice is to sell on after approx 3/6 months of non payment, although it could be six months or more, lenders don't normally take court action on debts like this, it would be to costly and time consuming, they sell on to the debt collection industry who deal with things like that.

Tixy

Are you still not working?
If so then I'd probably just offer token payments of say £5 a month, rather than £120.
Which is likely to trigger them to sell it on relatively quickly.

happy_bunny_2

Only way to get a response from NDR is to submit a complaint in writing. Complain that they are refusing a reasonable offer of payment and its all you can afford. Tell them that unless they treat you fairly, you will be escalating your complaint to the FOS. Include a monthly payment offer that you can easily afford, say £50 per month.

I presume its a recent account, i.e. not a pre-April 2007 one?

Are they charging interest?

They sold mine pretty quick to Crapquest, but only after I made complaints, SARs, CCA requests.