Bankruptcy "ambulance chasers"

cinnabar

Today, 2 days after being made BR I received a letter from a company calling themselves "The Bankruptcy Protection Fund Ltd". They've obviously got my details from the Insolvency Register since my name appeared there yesterday. They're basically offering to cancel my bankruptcy and repay my creditor - service only available to homeowners (of which I am not one!).
Looking at their website it's quite obvious they're talking about remortgage and paying of your unsecured debts by securing them.

The more I come to learn about the credit industry, the more sick it makes me (and yes I know how that sounds coming from a bank employee - I've never been happy with it but I think it's time to find a new job!). These people are vultures IMO. Anyone esle received any letters like this after going BR?

Cinnabar

scaredwitless32

It.s awful how these companies 'prey' on vunerable people they way they do. I wonder how many take ups they actually get from BRs, I really cant see happening...i dunno?!
We havent gotten as far as BR yet, but others have posted about receiving letters of the same kind too.

Is there not some kind of 'junk mail' opt out register, a bit like the telepohone preference agency? If not there should be!!!!!!!! ( off to google lol)

fermi

Yep. I received this:



And posted about it here:

gratton20

I fully expect to get one of these letters soon, went BR on Monday and I see my name is now on the web site. Good really because now I can indulge in my fav sport of junk mail baiting. I simply use the ,inevitable, reply paid envelope, or better still NOT reply paid envelope and "forget" a stamp for it, and send them all the junk mail I have got from another company, pref nice and heavy! Their own junk goes to the next one that posts etc.

Well, it keeps me amused ... Maybe I should get out more!

Seriously though these swine are a menace and trageting vulnerable people who may well be unwise enough to take up the offers ... we all know its garbage but since they continue to send out stuff they must get a decent return with new customers.

The other wonderful thing is the Provi personal credit and similar ... 175 per cent interest ... wow, tough to resist that deal ... NOT!!!

I have learned my lesson and had help from this board ... how many more poor, (literally) mugs though are unaware and getting conned every day. I despair!

I am not missing the credit cards now, its early days I know, but ... at least I know if I spend its real money, no debt ... wonder why companies offer "Instant Credit" not "Instant Debt" same thing but probably doesnt get the punters so keen!

Enough of my ramblings .. night all!

missimaxo

Just to put another point of view accross (and I work for the OR NOT for any of these ambulance chasers!)

Some people who own their own houses are made bankrupt on a creditors petition - a lot of the time because they fail to deal effectively with their affairs eg. tax returns.

When they are made bankrupt they suddenly realise the implications with regards to their house - for some people they have a lot of equity in their house and not a lot of debt.

These so called ambulance chasers do have a place in the system... many of these people use them to apply for IVA's/ remortgages and get their bankruptcies annulled.

Yes I know they should have done a remortgage earlier - but trust me, many people just hide their heads in the sand and hope it will go away - they are then shocked when they are made bankrupt.

I am not advocating what BPF et al do, but for a large number of people (and more than 50% of annulments I do use one of these companies) these companies are offering them an effective way of saving the equity in their property and annulling the bankruptcy.

In my personal opinion I wish they wouldn't though as annulments take me ages to do and I have too many of them :rotfl:

fermi

Thanks missimaxo

Yes, I agree that these people do have their place. It's just a bit galling (and amusing) to find that even post bankruptcy, BR provides an avenue for junk mail and unsolicited marketing. You kind of think you will be excused that for a bit when you go BR, and it can be a bit of a surprise to find that even this isn't the case.:rolleyes:

Anyway, more food for the shredder.:D

cinnabar

missimaxo - I can see that there's a place for these companies in the situation you describe however at least in the letter Fermi received they're fairly straightforward about what they do - my letter is much more vague and the brochure on their website (in fact their entire site) is pretty vague about the process too - they say that after the annulment "you will have no unsecured debt". It seems obvious to me that's because it will have been secured on your property in some way but I don't know if it will be that obvious to everyone, especially people who've ignored their debts to a great extent. I'm sure they explain everything fully when you contact them but they make it sound too easy!

Likewise calling themselves Bankruptcy Protection Fund and saying in my letter that they've been set up to stop the increasing number of house repossessions, and on the site that they'll pay off your creditors, seems to imply that there's a special fund set up to help out bankrupts, which is obviously not the case. I appreciate they're supplying a service that many people will choose to use, but I just wish they'd be a bit more upfront about what it is they're doing.

rog2

Yep - we've all had them, Cinnabar. I received about a dozen, often with follow ups, about a month later, stating that they are sorry I did not choose their services and 'warning' me to be carefull of bogus offers.

floyd3197

[FONT=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]I received a similar mailing from a company called SLA. I googled the company/people involved and found this http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/172/172134_my_time_in_the_office_from_hell.html which I thought a little funny. Anyway my reply was thus.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]Dear John[/FONT]

I have in my possession a letter from you with the following title "Bankruptcy Solutions, Repair and Cancellation"

In it resides the following statement "...The Trustee's costs are un-capped and are difficult to appeal. A typical £30,000 bankruptcy debts can easily attract costs of at least £25,000 after only 12 months. This would leave you owing almost double the original amount or more."

Ignoring the very obvious sub-standard usage of our beautiful language, could you be so kind as to elaborate on what you mean by this?

In my opinion this worthless piece of junk mail I have received today has been designed in such a way to pray on an already vulnerable subset of the populous of which I very definitely do not belong.

Failing a satisfactory response from yourself, I shall be seeking further clarification from the kindly folks over at the FSA.

Kind Regards



[FONT=Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Sans-serif]PS How is Eilleen Roy these days?[/FONT]

PixiePie

I got one of those yesterday as well Cinn - we are BR buddies it would seem. I just chuckled at it and threw it in the bin as the thought of ever being able to buy property in this country is not very likely for me (have just had some rather bad news on teacher's wages you see, before I used to think we had a good wage. Now.....:rolleyes:.*sigh*).

MissMuppet

I got a letter today, quick off the mark or what... went straight in the shredder!