HELP - Compass Debt Counsellors - CREDITORS MEETING 30th March in Leicester

fermi

Slightly tangential, but....

http://www.stepchange.org/Mediacentre/Pressreleases/MoneyAdviceServicePartnership.aspx

sourcrates

It's high time the regulator took the bull by the horns and sorted the debt management industry out once and for all.
Debt management plans should be free, for everyone, funding should come from other sources, it's time to close this money pit loophole these companies exploit !!!!!

Even making them a regulated product and charging a small, means tested setup fee, bringing them into line with other debt remedies, is better than the current system of exploitation.

fermi

Letter to creditors and details of meetings.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mrlphzqexzcezp7/RMR_Letter_to_Creditors.PDF?dl=0

There is a meeting of Creditors on the 21st March in Leicester. ( see letter below/above ) There is a form that ALL creditors ( people who are owed money by Compass Debt Counsellors or RMR Financial Services ) should complete with details of the money owed. This needs to be returned to AABRS before the 20th March.

dancingfairy

sourcrates wrote: »

It's high time the regulator took the bull by the horns and sorted the debt management industry out once and for all.
Debt management plans should be free, for everyone, funding should come from other sources, it's time to close this money pit loophole these companies exploit !!!!!

Even making them a regulated product and charging a small, means tested setup fee, bringing them into line with other debt remedies, is better than the current system of exploitation.

I'm not sure it will ever happen but in my opinion they should be regulated. They should clearly state the costs up front, how much is passed on to creditors and when. Client money should either be completely ringfenced or there should be a mandatory insurance scheme with the fscs should the company go under.
Df

esmerellda

meg123.. wrote: »

hi as anybody been contacted by Abbey Solicitors,compass signed me up with these 3wks ago.
I have to pay the £250.00 a month for 12mths and i will be debt free. Not sure if this is a scam after Compass going bust and taking £6500.00 of my money plus i paid them £5000.00 for set up back in 2008.Please can some on help

Did you get any paperwork from Abbey ? Terms / Contract anything ? Do you know any more about the service you have signed up to ? what happens if you're not debt free after 12 months ? what if one of the lenders takes you to court ? do you get a refund ?

Abbey are a solicitors firm but they don't have a CCA licence... whether they need one or not is a little up in the air with recent arguments between FCA & SRA and it depends on the actual service they are offering and on what basis. There's no case law or reputation I can find regards them and CCA debt at all.

Personally I'd check the cancellation terms and speak with CAB/Stepchange/anyone before paying £3k to this company.




.

fermi

Was tweeted this last night.

Scary and very sad.

JimFromSurrey

i've struggled for 5 years, making monthly £220 payments to compass, i'm self employed and work from home but have a long standing back problem, which is how i got badly into debt in the first place ...

i had £8,000 or thereabouts in the kitty with compass, and was looking forward to making some full and final offers this year ...

now it seems all this is gone, my creditors are on my back already (looks like they are wasting no time jumping on those who were with compass) and i just feel like crying ... not the sort of thing a 48 year old breadline businessman should be doing

surely there should be some protection against this sort of thing?

esmerellda

Hi Jim,

So sorry to hear you've been caught up in this. It seems people's creditors were informed before customers - you should communicate with the lenders and arrange to keep your DMP going if that is what you want to do. Possibly get in touch with Stepchange - they are experienced at taking over failed firms DMPs or look at managing it your self - NedCab have a good guide to run your own self managed DMP https://nedcab.cabmoney.org.uk/debtremedy.asp. You should ask all your creditors for full statements of your account so you can take stock and work out exactly where things stand and how much has been going from Compass to your creditors.

If you've been in the DMP for five years there may be other things you can do but be very wary of any firms getting in touch with you and offering to write off your debts if you pay them the £220 a month for the next year.

Yes there should be protection, and savings accounts with DMP firms should be heavily regulated It is a market the FCA are looking at at the moment so hopefully some strengthening of regulation will take place, but as ever too slow to protect customers of this firm, or of a previous firm Bournes which went in similar circumstances.

Make sure you complete that form from AABRS and get it into them asap with your claim ( Fermi posted it http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5424617&page=2#34 )

sourcrates

These stories of people losses fills me with rage and anger, they really do.
Please do not entrust your money to companies like this, if they go belly up, you have absolutely no rights to any compensation whatsoever, its not like a bank, where your money (up to a certain level) is protected, there are no such safeguards with these people.

fermi

JimFromSurrey wrote: »

i've struggled for 5 years, making monthly £220 payments to compass, i'm self employed and work from home but have a long standing back problem, which is how i got badly into debt in the first place ...

i had £8,000 or thereabouts in the kitty with compass, and was looking forward to making some full and final offers this year ...

now it seems all this is gone, my creditors are on my back already (looks like they are wasting no time jumping on those who were with compass) and i just feel like crying ... not the sort of thing a 48 year old breadline businessman should be doing

surely there should be some protection against this sort of thing?

Really sorry to hear that.

Can't add much to what has already been said, apart from if you get contacting the free charitable advice agencies now, there WILL be a way through this for you.