Payplan review by telephone only?

telecaster_fan

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum and seeking some advice.

I'm currently in a DMP with payplan. I had a message asking for me to contact them to arrange my annual review. As my circumstances hadn't changed much and that I'm not a confident person on the telephone, I sent them all my details in a letter, including a full breakdown of my income and expenditure and payslips, and confirmed that I had done so in a message to them using their website (so that they knew to expect my letter).

I have had this message back this morning:

Thank you for your message, but, unfortunately the Financial Conduct Authority expect us to discuss your income and expenditure by telephone, as it is important for us to review whether you have the right debt solution to meet your needs and it is not only our duty of care but also a regulatory requirement that we complete this.
Therefore, please call us on 08448552163 to book an appointment.

Is it really a regulatory requirement that I can only discuss my income and expenditure by telephone? I find this hard to believe as it assume that everyone has access to a telephone, what about those that are deaf or hard of hearing? Has anyone has anything similar from them? I will contact them by telephone if I must but the thought makes me so anxious

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you.

fermi

There is a requirement for them to review it, but I would ask them to quote the FCA regulations/requirement that require it to be done via telephone, as I don't see that anywhere...

See FCA rules: https://www.handbook.fca.org.uk/handbook/CONC/8/8.html

and that if they cannot provide clear reference to the FCA requirement for it via telephone, that you insist that they conduct it by the method most convenient and practical to yourself.

beckstar1975

I fought and fought with payplan over this, as a large part of my DMP was due to anxiety and talking one the phone really make things worse. Payplan wouldn't budge and just said that they would instead send last year's review back to the creditors again which would probably increase contact with them (which again is something I deeply fear) - EVEN THOUGH I was offering more money.

I gave up in the end and did it over the phone and it was OK, but not very nice as could only do it on a saturday morning whilst looking after the kids which is hardly good for stress levels.

Hope you have better luck than I!

Larac

Interesting - I am with Stepchange and for the last three years, my reviews have all been done on line. The only reason why I would need to ring them, is if I want to put a higher figure in, than is recommended in one of the budget categories - if this is the case then I would normally bump up one of the other categories to take this into account, to avoid the faff of a phone call.