Confused about Bank of Scotland Recoveries Team and letters I have

crazyshady

No, I can't even if I wanted to. The card hasn't been used for about 5 years now. I haven't asked about a final settlement offer and I didn't know you could do that and I have no idea what I could even offer.


I don't know how to work out the minimum payment. If it was going to be what this arrears is, £20.61 then I may be happy enough to continue paying £60 a month, so I'm covering the interest and my minimum payment and also giving them £40 extra.

I would prefer to avoid this default notice if I can but again, I went a year happily paying £60 a month and not being charged any interest, I don't understand why after a year this is an issue. Why didn't they do this last year? Why didn't the person on the phone just say to me, don't pay anything for 65 days, let it go to default and that's that? I don't know if the person I spoke to 2 months ago gave me the right advice. I did what I was told to do a year, any time I notice interest being charge, phone them and get it removed because I'm in a long term agreement with no time limit, no minimum payment, I pay what I can, it was me that said to them I am happy to pay £60 per month. And the person I spoke to last night said many times that I'm in a long term agreement and the reason I am getting this default notice is because I never made a minimum payment. If he read the long term agreement it should say I don't have to pay any minimum payment ever again, my long term agreement is I can no longer use the card, they did an expenses check with me, they know I can't pay anymore than £60 a month, they agreed to freeze the interest until the balance is cleared, there is no minimum payment, I am meant to pay what I can per month and I never missed a payment for the entire year.


I just get the feeling that this is their error. The person that told me not to pay anything for 65 days has caused their system to send this letter. If I'm wrong and a default notice was always on the cards for me then why wait a year to give me it? Why not do it right off the bat last year when I phoned? Why not say to me then and there, don't bother paying £60 a month, just pay nothing for 65 days, we'll send it to recoveries and collections and give you a default notice and that's it? Why wait a year to do it?

crazyshady

sourcrates wrote: »

Hi,


You appear to be going around in circles here, and from what you have said, the situation is ongoing, has been for some time, and its taking up every waking moment, and you appear to be worrying yourself sick over it.


I would say STOP, just stop what your doing, take a deep breath, you are getting tangled up in collections dept protocol, and not getting anywhere.


Best advice is to stop paying this debt, allow the account to progress through collections (as most do) and let it get sold on, all interest and charges will then cease.

This can take a good few months, even longer sometimes, save up the money you would of paid to the debt, and then when the new owner gets in touch with you, you will be in a better position to make a settlement offer to them, or affordable monthly payments, interest free of course.


Forget your credit file, for your own piece of mind you need to re-take control of what is happening here, and to just do nothing for the time being seems like the best approach for you.

It has been going on for a while but the last year has been so stress free because I was so happy that the bank was allowing me to pay off my balance interest free. I didn't know what a default notice was, I didn't know it stays on your credit file for 6 years. I was just so happy they had done me this favour of letting me pay it off interest free to get the debt cleared. All interest and charges have ceased, the last few months of statement have showed no interest or charges again.....yet the letter says I am £20.61 in arrears.

I can only pay £60 per month. I think what is getting me worked up about this is on the default notice warning it says if the account allows, they can go into any other accounts you have with them and take money from them to reduce the balance so not only am I worred about my credit file for 6 years, I'm worried they will just go right into my debit card account and just take every penny from it. The person I spoke to last night says this wouldn't happen "as per your agreement" but I was also told last year I would never be charged interest again and would be allowed to clear the balance. How do I know what to believe now.

Dobbibill

Are you paying it on the 21st every month? This could be late as above you have said payment due dates approx 16th to 19th.

Can you see late payment fees being added each month? (these would fall under default charges normally £12 a time).


Your minimum payment may be different to the one I've quoted off the website so do make sure you check your paperwork.



I think the ultimate decision on how you make your next move would depend on what you find on your CR.

crazyshady

Yes I always paid on the 21st of every month and I said that to them on the phone originally. I know the statements show dates earlier but the also show minimum payments. They said to me on the phone last year and I had to confirm on the phone that I would be paying £60 on the 21st of every month. There was never any mention of me paying on different days or reading the statements. There was also no minimum payment, I was told to pay what I could every month but it was me that told them I would like guarantee that I can pay £60 a month and at that time of the phone call it just so happened that the date that month it had to be paid by was the 21st so it made it easy just to say I'll continue on the 21st every month with £60.

It says for June my account is inactive and there has been no activity so I can't view anything. It does say on the page.

£ 1,358.37 Current balance

£Nil Available credit (Credit limit £5,200.00)
£1,358.37 Balance on last statement
£47.77 Outstanding minimum payment due (inc. any
missed payments) by 19 July 2018

The last statement therefore is May. In April I paid £60 on the 21st. I was also charged £26 interest. I then noticed the same thing had happened in February so it was just over £50. They refunded that the following month. So the woman said in April, don't pay anything for 65 days but they ended up refunding £52 so that £52 shows as a CR on the statement for May and it says.....next months' estimated interest £0.00. No interest again. No late fees. So by the 18th of June I still had no interest being added. So it seems there is no interest being charged again.


So for May, there was no late fees or charges or interest, for June I can't see anything because it says account inactive.


There is no mention of late fees. The only charges made were April's statement. and it doesn't specify what it is. It says new transactions, fees and charges - £26.72. And it also says next months estimated interest - £26.01. Those were refunded the following month by the bank themselves.

crazyshady

I was thinking of doing a balance transfer as I have a Barclaycard credit card which has nothing owed on it but it says there are no offers for me at the moment and you're not allowed more than one credit card with them. It does say you can balance transfer up to 36 months interest free. It was worth a try.

crazyshady

I did the Eligibility checker and it says pre approved for Capital One balance card 0% for 6 months and Halifax and Llloyds are 7/10 chance of approval. I am with the Bank of Scotland, I don't know if I would even be allowed to have a Halifax card since they are pretty much same bank here in Scotland. 7/10 chance is still a risk but at 24 and 32 months that would be ideal to let me clear the balance off interest free.

[Deleted User]

You could apply for a balance transfer card.

But you won’t know what limit you’ll get until you accept and open the account

crazyshady

The eligibility checker says it is based on a £1,200 limit. I don't know is that what they offer you or can they offer you lower? I'm not far off of that so if it was possible for me to get a card for even 24 months, I could have it cleared in 22 months. I'm scared to even apply because it says I have a 7/10 chance and it also shows up on your credit report. So I'm wary but I believe things happen for a reason.

I can't apply for the Halifax card because I am with the Bank of Scotland so it would need to be the Lloyds card. I don't think they are associated with either Halifax or Bank Of Scotland?


I have a £1000 credit limit with Barclaycard but it is a credit building card so there's nothing on it. I only ever had maybe £20 or so on it to pay for shopping and then cleared it alongside paying off the Bank of Scotland card to try and build my credit. So I'm on the wrong card anyway, I wouldn't be allowed a balance transfer on it.


If I could get this Lloyds card with a £1,200 limit for 24 months interest free I'd be jumping up and down right now because I know It would be cleared before the 24 months is up and also would avoid a default notice and avoid anything happening to my credit report. A 7/10 chance? I just don't know. I need to stay positive though.

[Deleted User]

The £1200 figure is used everywhere as a representative example.

It makes it easier to divide a figure over 12 months.

It is NOT an indicator of the limit you will get

crazyshady

As an example, what kind of limit do you think they would give?