well l tried.. plus a bristow annoyance

timeless

some might remember a few months back l came for some advice and was given some good numbers to the national debtline and step change.

l attempted to get my parents to call step change, which my mother did do, we obtained a case number and had to gather the debt information together, which l managed to find eventually (l had not idea where to look, and it became apparent if l didnt look no one would), its pretty much three months on since that call, and finding all the information and despite my best efforts to help.. and constant reminding lm doubting if they will ever call which is annoying considering l turned the house upside down to find everything, only to find it where my mother already knew it was..... but l digress..

again lm getting somewhat confused and annoyed with Bristow, you see as l have mentioned in the other thread a while back each week l sort out the bills on my parents behalf (because they tend to forget or in some cases work nights meaning someone else has to sort out the payments each week) and lm noticing irregularities again.

namely l pay x amount but when l go to the payment history it ends up in some cases and x, y and z amount.. a good example of this is that last week we were down to double figures on one of our bristow accounts, normally we put over £56 per week (thats the lowest they would accept after visiting 5 months back, which annoyingly added another £300 to the debt which lm sure they have added to each of the accounts they have with them) however last week there was around £23 left to clear, last time l put more than was left on an account the money leftover l assumed would go onto the next debt but it just sort of disappeared (was around £15) so this time l decided to put over around £24/25 because each transaction has a 50p fee but when l checked earlier there was still £2.50 left to pay!!!

annoyingly that one payment has been split in three!!! or thats how its listed, its the same with the last few 3 months payments of £56 they dont show as one payment but 2 or 3 in some cases which l suspect we are being charged 50p transaction charges on each because it doesnt make any sense that paying £24/25 when £23 is still left still ends up with a couple of quid left.. (if that makes sense).

so my question is are debt collector companies allowed to split payments into more than one? granted if the other accounts were going down l wouldnt be saying anything however they arent so it doesnt make any sense to split payments as we have been paying one of the listed accounts off at a time. the one that should have cleared last week should have left us with 2, but lve had to make 2 payments today in order to clear £2.50 and another to start the second to last account off.

National_Debtline

Hi there,


Well payments shouldn't be split in this way, especially if you have clear reference numbers/ accounts that you can differentiate between. I would suggest that you get a copy of your bank statement and print off the breakdown of the accounts to show these odd transactions and make a complaint. Calculate exactly how much money you think you have 'lost' through these transactions and ask for it to be allocated to another debt. If they refuse then you can escalate the matter to CIVEA.


As far as the more long term options are concerned, you cannot force someone to take advice if they are not ready. But if you have details of all of the issues now, you can get advice on their behalf to try and guide them in the right direction. Good luck,


Laura
@natdebtline

timeless

l should add that theres no issue with regards to the bank.. that is to say if l pay £56 then they take 56.. the problem is what happens when it gets to bristow..

they have this sort of payment history page, however it only seems to remember the last 30 or so.. now before the new payments of £56 we were paying £30 per week which by the looks of it was going in as the full £30 however since the £56 payments started they havent been showing up as £56 but two payments along the lines of £49.50 and £5.90 (bare in mind lm not doing the math, just providing an example for the sake of this thread) even the payment last week which should have cleared the debt was split into two on their payment list page, however when you look at the payments going out from the bank (which l make manually each week) they go out as one lump sum.

National_Debtline

Hello again,

timeless wrote: »

even the payment last week which should have cleared the debt was split into two on their payment list page, however when you look at the payments going out from the bank (which l make manually each week) they go out as one lump sum.

So that is the key issue. Your bank statement verifies that you are making one lump sum payment and the bailiff office is splitting it when they receive it, and that wasn't what was agreed. You should complain and include copies of your paperwork to prove why this is a concern and ask them firstly for an explanation as to why they are doing this. And, secondly, when the money has been split there appear to be 'admin fees' that are affecting the balances reducing appropriately and you would like that money accounted for or refunded.


Good luck,


Laura
@natdebtline

timeless

the thing is the money all seems to be accounted for, its just for a long while £30 exactly was been paid in one lump sum (this was the agreed amount for a while), then since their recent visit (which added £300 to our last newest debt) which lm sure they did on purpose we had to make a new agreement.

since we agreed to pay £56 a week its started to be split between two payments, as in the lump sum leaves the bank account but when it reaches bristow it looks like 2, originally on the payment page it would note a 50p transaction fee, but this has been removed and seeing as our other accounts with them arent going down l fail to see why the payments are being split since the only reason l can see for splitting payments is to charge extra fees.