Provident debt....please help??

supermum1988

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone is debt-busting happy this fine, rainy morning.

Here's my problem. I took out a loan with provident last year (I know, I know, I'm a true idiot) and everything was actually fine until I had a miscarriage in November and was off work for 8 weeks. I fell behind with payments and I'm still in arrears.
I cannot afford the weekly payments which are £22.75 and my agent is due to come on Tuesday to collect 4 weeks worth and I just don't have it. Every time my agent contacts me I feel pressured into making a promise of payment I know I cannot afford. I would really rather continue with an arrangement directly with head office and don't want someone turning up at my house unannounced. Has anyone ever experienced any trouble with Provident? I've recently had to cut my hours at work for my sanity and my income will be reduced as of next month.

Any recommendations on what I can do?

Thanks.

fatbelly

Once it gets to head office, Provi are pretty good.

It's easier if a third party writes to them, then they recall the debt from the local collector.

I guess you could do this yourself, but with debts of 11k+ (your sig) maybe you should be contacting Stepchange, Payplan CAB etc.

rising_from_the_ashes

Agree with Fatbelly


How much do you still owe?

I see you're doing the extra payment a week challenge (well done on the extra you've paid) - are you paying this to the Provident debt to get rid of it ASAP

If not, this might be an option

supermum1988

These EPs were last month and yes, some EPs went to Provident.

My situation is a bit complicated. I had an IVA back in 2012. All paid until the miscarriage. My IVA failed as I had no choice but to miss payments to cover mortgage and council tax and other bills. IP was informed however she was off having an op and no one covered my arrangement communication so it just looked as though I hadn't paid for no reason. I cant really look into another just yet as I have had no breakdown of where the payments went so I'm waiting on these. I had paid around £3.5k into the IVA so my total debt is actually somewhere in the region of £8k. My sig is just the original balances until I get the updated figures if that makes sense? Been a tough year all round. Ugh.

If I wrote to head office, would this stop the agent calling at my house? I have written th an email but think I may ring in the morning (obviously if they're open) and try set something in place with them.

fatbelly

OK, I understand better now.

Yes, get in touch with customer services at Bradford and confirm the arrangements back to them if they don't confirm them to you.

You might have to wait till Tuesday.

When your situation is stable, you might want to see which debts are still 'active' and consider a DMP.

supermum1988

Do you think I should contact the agent then? As she thinks I will be paying on Tuesday and if I cant get in touch until then, then she will still turn up? What do I say? Sorry for all the complications. Its all new again to me since for 2.5 years my debts were sorted by IVA company. Trying to get it all back on track again is proving to be quite difficult.

Vikipollard

Very sorry to hear the pain you have been through - people underestimate how long it can take to recover.


Not wishing to rain on your parade, but the £3500 you paid into your IVA will not necessarily all have been paid off the debt as your IP will have had fees which they deduct before distributing funds. Only saying this so it is less of a shock if you discover the balance is much higher than you thought.


Other than that, as others have said, you would be best placed to talk to one of the free debt charities to see what your options are.


Take care.

chanz4

Just be open, they are self employed and you would be wasting there fuel.

supermum1988

Yep, definitely a long, drawn out process. Emotionally, financially. No one warns you about that side of things.

I'm not expecting the full £3.5k to come off. This is why I have been using my original figures so as not to overestimate my efforts. Starting to wonder when I will get final figures through since it failed 3 months ago. Still listed as 'active' on my credit report too. Weird. All the debts included on my IVA have now dropped off my file too so cant check balances that way either.

Think I'm going to just get in touch with the agent, tell her not to come and contact head office ASAP to sort this mess out.

sourcrates

supermum1988 wrote: »

I cant really look into another just yet as I have had no breakdown of where the payments went so I'm waiting on these. I had paid around £3.5k into the IVA so my total debt is actually somewhere in the region of £8k. My sig is just the original balances until I get the updated figures if that makes sense? Been a tough year all round. Ugh.

Hi,
Not wishing to rub salt into your wounds, but I think most, if not all, of what you paid to your IVA, will of been swallowed up in your IP's fees.

In fact you may still owe them money.

As an example, in my IVA, over 6 years, my total debt was as below, for various reasons I repaid approx 16k in total, out of that my IP's fees were 9k, creditors had the rest shared between them.

I would be prepared for a shock If I was you !!!!

supermum1988

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,
Not wishing to rub salt into your wounds, but I think most, if not all, of what you paid to your IVA, will of been swallowed up in your IP's fees.

In fact you may still owe them money.

As an example, in my IVA, over 6 years, my total debt was as below, for various reasons I repaid approx 16k in total, out of that my IP's fees were 9k, creditors had the rest shared between them.

I would be prepared for a shock If I was you !!!!

Is this true? Even with the "free"/"not for profit" ones?

I have one balance (only because I phoned the original creditor) and the balance had reduced? Not a lot but it was a very small debt compared the larger ones that were included. Thank you though. In my head, the debts are still at the original balance. I hold no hope in it reducing at all. I'm working with the figures in my sig.