Struggling with debt? Ask a debt adviser a question

FloFlo

sourcrates wrote: »

Dont panic, ring them in the morning and they will sort it out, it will not be a problem honestly!!!

Thank you, I will do x

StepChange_Allen

AndyH_76 wrote: »

I have been paying off a debt with Lowell via B2 Legal since December 2015 (paid £1400 with £1237.81 outstanding)
I also found out that I am being made redundant and as such I asked if there was a final payment they would accept as I know that in a couple of months, I will have to revisit what I pay and make reduced payments and therefore spread it over a number of extra years.
the advisor came back and said they would accept a final figure of £992.25 to which I replied that would be out of the question. I said I could afford £400 and that I would pay that at the end of may.
the advisor said they would ask their client. I recieved the below back today

"Our Client is prepared to a settlement of £990.25 in settlement of the Balance Due. This sum must be paid in full no later than 1 May 2018.

Once the discounted payment has been received on time, your debt under account number 147880793 will be marked as partially satisfied on your credit file. This will bring this matter to a close and the Principal Balance will no longer be pursued.

If payment is not received on time, this will represent a material breach of this Agreement and this Agreement will be terminated automatically without notice. At such time, the discount applied to the Principal Balance will no longer apply and the full amount of the debt will become due and owing, with credit being provided for any sums previously received. Our Client will then pursue the full amount of the debt."

I cannot pay the £990.25 but reading this, I find it an intimidating response and I am now worried they are looking to take me to court in order to get this.

As I stated to them, I havent missed a payment and back in 2015, the "client" was prepared to accept a one off £1000. help!!!!

Hi Andy

Thanks for posting.

I can understand what you mean with this, but I think overall it's just a standard settlement offer letter because you've suggested you're interested in a settlement. However I see your point that you didn't offer this amount.

When sending a settlement offer, they have to state the amount they'll accept, that it'll be a partial settlement, that the offer is there for a limited period and that they can continue with collections action once the offer expires. I don't think the phrase about this being an agreement and if you don't pay it being a 'material breach of the agreement' is worded very well, because you've not actually agreed to pay this. However to me it's just jargon and doesn't mean anything as serious as it may sound.

They're no more likely to take court action now compared to before you discussed a settlement, but they could do at any time as your original agreement is no longer in place.

In reality, it's unlikely that settlement offers ever really expire; if you called up 2 weeks later and asked to settle for the same amount they'd probably agree to it. Having said that, creditors aren't obliged to offer a settlement figure at all.

All in all, I'd continue what you were doing before and let them know you decline the settlement offer as it's unaffordable as per your previous conversation.

I hope this helps.

Allen

StepChange_Allen

FloFlo wrote: »

Really worried, husband filled in stepchange review without telling me and has messed up the wages figures not sure how he's managed it but put in wrong figures and sent it. I only spotted it because they sent an email saying the amount would change - showing it going up by £771 a month. It won't allow me to change the review online, only by phoning and they are shut now - will they be able to change the figures if I phone them, so worried.

Hi FloFlo

Thanks for posting.

Yes, as sourcrates says, if you give us a call we can make any necessary adjustments to your budget to make sure your monthly payment is the right, affordable amount. Please don't worry, just get in touch and we'll sort it.

Best wishes

Allen

Webbo8

Hello!
I have received a letter from a debt management firm concerning payment for an item I ordered from Studio for the amount of £12.79 in June of last year.

I am well organised financially and do not miss payments so to receive this led me to investigate what went wrong here.
I would usually pay at time of order so I can only imagine that invoice was the only option.
I received the item but I’ve never received an invoice.

I am not a regular Studio customer however I had an account with them as I’d made an order with them 4 years earlier in 2013. So 2 orders in 5 years.

When I received this letter today, I logged into my account and saw that statements were being sent to me regularly which I couldn’t understand. I then saw that they have 2 addresses on file for me my ‘home’ address: and my ‘account’ address.

The delivery was correctly made to my ‘home’ address.

My problem here is that the statements for this item were being sent to my old address. I have tenants in this property and they did not send any of the statements to me. Which really is frustrating.

I have lived at my current address since 2015.

I have looked through my emails and I have never received a payment reminder by email either. Nor a call from Studio. In 2018 you would think that this would be a given. I’ve never known an online retailer that relies solely on post!

To receive this letter for an item costing £12 is disappointing. The item was for my wedding last summer which as you can understand was a very busy year for me!

Should Studio have made more effort to contact me?

Webbo8

I forgot to mention they are now asking for £50!

StepChange_Rachael

Hi

Thanks for your post and welcome to the forum.

I agree, you would have thought that Studio would have tried to contact you by further means than post to chase for the payment before they passed it to a collections agency. However, they aren't legally obliged to. A creditor only has to use one form of contact.

It is strange that they've not phoned you, it's more common that a creditor would receive complaints because of too much contact rather than not enough.

If the old address was listed as your billing address this might be why the statements were sent to your old address but the item was delivered to your current address.

I'd suggest contacting Studio to explain the situation, if any charges have been added then hopefully they'd be willing to deduct these. I'd also suggest making a formal complain if it can't be resolved with the initial phone call.


Thanks
Rachael

Webbo8 wrote: »

Hello!
I have received a letter from a debt management firm concerning payment for an item I ordered from Studio for the amount of £12.79 in June of last year.

I am well organised financially and do not miss payments so to receive this led me to investigate what went wrong here.
I would usually pay at time of order so I can only imagine that invoice was the only option.
I received the item but I!!!8217;ve never received an invoice.

I am not a regular Studio customer however I had an account with them as I!!!8217;d made an order with them 4 years earlier in 2013. So 2 orders in 5 years.

When I received this letter today, I logged into my account and saw that statements were being sent to me regularly which I couldn!!!8217;t understand. I then saw that they have 2 addresses on file for me my !!!8216;home!!!8217; address: and my !!!8216;account!!!8217; address.

The delivery was correctly made to my !!!8216;home!!!8217; address.

My problem here is that the statements for this item were being sent to my old address. I have tenants in this property and they did not send any of the statements to me. Which really is frustrating.

I have lived at my current address since 2015.

I have looked through my emails and I have never received a payment reminder by email either. Nor a call from Studio. In 2018 you would think that this would be a given. I!!!8217;ve never known an online retailer that relies solely on post!

To receive this letter for an item costing £12 is disappointing. The item was for my wedding last summer which as you can understand was a very busy year for me!

Should Studio have made more effort to contact me?

Draggon

Hello, hoping someone can offer some advice.
We (wife and I) are around £26,000 in debt with a mortgage on top of that.
We both have 2 young children who are now at school and in 2013 & 2014 (wife then me) went part time from our full time jobs, only down to 4 days instead of 5, each.
This, we did not budget or plan for (I know wrong thing to do) but it was the best thing we could do at the time for our children to help with childcare costs and actually spend time with them.

Anyway long story short we wracked up debt.

All of the £26000 is currently on 5 credit cards all on 0% which we move around when the deal ends. So far this has worked as the debt was higher.

Our current mortgage fixed rate (2.84%) does not end until May 2020 and if we get out of the deal now we will have to pay £5000 for the privilege

I think we are doing the right/best thing we can at the moment by shifting the debt around the 0% deals but my main worry is that come 2020 and we are in the actual middle/start of the Brexit fiasco the good Mortgage deals will be gone.

We are now both back to almost full time salaries now which are ok and so hopefully we can start clearing the debt...I hope.

My real question is....is it worth pursuing a good mortgage deal now, paying the £5000 get out fee and consolidating our debt into the new mortgage? We have equity and have worked out we would be asking for around 76% LTV.
I know that using a mortgage to clear debt is a no no, but i am just worried about mortgage rates going sky high and still having a massive debt hanging over us...at least in one place it looks/feels better. We think we can afford to lower our term as well if we did.

To give you a better idea, our house is now worth around £280000, (zoopla estimate) and we would need £215000 to consolidate mortgage and debt) the current mortgages deals say monthly payment is around £1000 and our current outgoings for mortgage and debt are around £1200 pm so we could clear debt, reduce term and save £200 per month if we did.

At least that is what I can figure.

I appreciate that our position is better than most but I am getting worried about the future.

Hope someone can offer advice...even if I don't like it.
Many thanks
Steve

PETRA798

Hi all
Stepchange have been in touch to say that my TPP is coming to an end (nearly a year old), and that I need to contact them as I told them I hoped our circumstances would have changed by now (they haven't), and they need to look at other debt solutions. I assume this means going onto a DMP, but tbh we don't have any spare income, and are still struggling. Any ideas what the minimum payment Stepchange will accept into a DMP is? I don't feel confident going it alone at the moment as I feel Stepchange have a bit of clout with the lenders and DCAs. Most of the debt have now defaulted and gone to DCAs, just 2 x Barclaycards and another credit card hanging on.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thank you

NeverendingDMP

Hi all. I was just wondering if there is a formula for how stepchange work out who gets what % of a DMP payment. I'm considering self managing but wouldn't know how to divide the money up if my income changed or one of the debts was paid off. Thanks all

James1981t

Hi there im new on here not sure if I’m writing in the right place. I’m 80k in debt and I own my house but has no equity in it. I live in it with my partner and 2 year old daughter. I’ve been out of work for last two months but have used my savings up to pay the debts each month. I’m behind on a few now but starting work in two weeks time. I’ll be bringing home 4000 a month if I enter an IVA how much would I be expecting to pay a month all my out goings add up to around 3500. But wat can I include on my break down of outgoings my partner does not work as she looks after our daughter and I give her money. Please help I’m all over the place