gregory pennington - no good

shellbubs

i have around £10,000 of debt which is split between a loan, credit card & overdraft with 1 bank and a credit card with another bank. I have been on a debt management plan with Gregory Pennington for 4 years now and pay £208 a month (some of which is their fee though im not sure how much). I'm not happy with their service and have almost no contact with them. They have let agreements lapse with creditors and i am being hassled again as i now show as being in arrears again. I dont want to continue with Gregory Pennington, but have no idea where to start with taking control of things again and arranging my payment agreements myself. I cant afford to pay anymore than £210 a month. I have a thinkmoney bank account so once DD are set up payments wont be missed as the money is held automatically. Can anyone help me? I dont want to get depressed by my debt from dealing with the creditors again.

January2015

You don't need to pay for debt management. You can either do it yourself - following the instructions on the NEDCAB website - or contact Stepchange

atomic7431

Contact stepchange many people on here use them. We manage our own repayments through ceditors which can be a bit of a hassle at times but all they wanted from us was our budget and how much we thought we could pay and we just make monthly payments ourselves.

sourcrates

shellbubs wrote: »

I dont want to continue with Gregory Pennington, but have no idea where to start with taking control of things again and arranging my payment agreements myself..

Hi,

(1) cancel your payment to Greg.

(2) write and cancel your agreement with Greg.

(3) Contact Stepchange, get a free DMP up and running.

(4) Save creditors letters, and/or check your credit file, to find out what you owe, and to whom.

(5) written complaint to Greg for mismanagement of your agreement, and ask for refund of fees for talking you into agreeing a contract with a fee charging DMC.

fatbelly

Debt Management Plan fees

A management fee will be charged of 18.5% of your regular payment to the Debt Management Plan (DMP) (this could be every four weeks or monthly depending what suits you best and when you receive your regular income), and is subject to a minimum of £38.50 and a maximum of £90. This fee covers the month-to-month running of your DMP, including negotiating with your lenders, distributing payments and taking care of correspondence between you and your lenders.

This fee also covers our regular reviews of your circumstances - normally once every 12 months (or any other time your circumstances change). If your situation has changed and your ability to keep up with your debt management plan is affected, we can talk to your lenders about changing your payments accordingly.

So of £208 taken from you, they keep £38.50, pass on £169.50 and extend your debt free date by about 22%, compared to Stepchange, Payplan or d-i-y.

Odd how your percentage monthly fee turned out to be almost exactly the same as their minimum charge.

shellbubs

Thank you. The NEDCAB website is the first thkng i have seen with advice for moving from an existing DMP. I couldn't find anything like this on my local CAB page! I looked through my last GP statement and the figures are so out of date. Some of the debt balances havent been updated since Aug 2013 so i have had to some sums to work out approx how much i actually owe. Thanks for the advice

peteuk

We spent time with CCCS (now step change) and what they do is wonderful. Although we now manage the DPM ourselves I would say to anyone that they are the people to call first. Also most large finance companies will point you to them or CAB for advice.

Good luck with everything!

shellbubs

I dug out my last statement and they take £38.50 and charge £18.33 for an "income safeguard plan" which I knew nothing about and probably don't need. :mad: So only £151.17 of my monthly payment is actually going towards my debts. They are happily pocketing £56 every month. I will definitely be taking control of this myself from now on. Will make first contact this week. :T

sourcrates

shellbubs wrote: »

I dug out my last statement and they take £38.50 and charge £18.33 for an "income safeguard plan" which I knew nothing about and probably don't need. :mad: So only £151.17 of my monthly payment is actually going towards my debts. They are happily pocketing £56 every month. I will definitely be taking control of this myself from now on. Will make first contact this week. :T

Good for you !!


Your not the only one who didn't realise free alternatives existed.

Six years ago, my much more naïve, and younger self did precisely the same thing, until people on this forum said I was nuts for paying a company like this.

Lesson learned !!!

shellbubs

I sort of knew they existed, but wasn't sure how to go about moving away from GP. I went and saw a debt counsellor about 2 years ago, who had done loads to help my friend, but the only advice she gave me was to declare bankruptcy, which I really didn't want to do...so I just plodded along. But realising GP are taking a quarter of my payment each month and not even doing what they are paid for has frafrankly cheesed me off. Time to take the reigns again.
After doing some sums, its actually only about £8k I owe in total and by not paying GP I can offer everyone a bit more each month.

I am optimistic.

shellbubs

Thanks for everyone's advice. I have now cancelled my plan with GP and intend to claim a refund for the Income Safeguarding Payment they charged each month. (Around £850 over the 4 yrs) I am also closing the bank account they recommended me, which also charges £17.50 a month, and have opened a fee-free account elsewhere.