What happens when I cant pay?

Iwanttobefree

Part of an email to Lowell

Thanks for getting back to me.

Creation told me in their letters that they sold their accounts to you, not that you were managing them on their behalf?

Lowells response

Good Afternoon,

Thanks for your email.

We did purchase the Creation accounts, however we have now returned them to Creation so you should contact them directly about this and they will be able to help you further.

So they can buy then change their mind?

Iwanttobefree

An update for you. I've heard nothing since July. Today I received two letters.

First: Lowell saying

We placed your account on hold to give you some time due to your circumstances.

We'd now like to get an update on your circumstances so we can discuss affordable repayment...

I have responded, again asking for them to write it off and again explaining that nothing at all has changed and nothing is likely to for the foreseeable future (ie years), and requesting if it hasn't be passed over already, that it is passed to their specialist support team.

Second: From Link writing off my wife's £3,761 Barclaycard debt

We thank you for the information presented to our specialist support Team to assist with reviewing your circumstances.

As a result of the information provided we have made a commercial decision to no longer pursue the balance of this account.

As this is a discretionary decision by our business, we would point out that the entry on your Credit File in respect of this account will remain registered for a period of six years from the date of default.

We hope that you will find this a suitable resolution to our situation .....

Up until today, all the debts written off were in my name, this is the first in my wifes name and it takes our debts down from £28, 377.40 in February to £13,704.17

Many thanks for all the advice

Iwanttobefree

Another email today

Dear xxx

Intrum Reference: xxxxxxxxx

Original Creditor: JD Williams & Company Limited

Outstanding Balance: £439.15


We write to you regarding the above account and further to your email we received on 22 August 2018. We sincerely apologise for our delay in responding to you, this was due to a clerical error.


We appreciate that this may be a difficult time for you. We have reviewed your request to write off the outstanding balance and although we are unable to do this, what we have done is placed your account on a long term hold. This hold will be reviewed on a 12 month basis and if your circumstances have not improved, we will extend this by a further 12 months. This review process will be on an on-going basis. If we are unable to contact you after the 12 month hold, we would kindly ask you to please provide us with details of a third party who you are prepared to authorise for us to discuss matters with.


Should you have any questions regarding the above, please do not hesitate to contact us.


We appreciate your assistance in this matter.


Yours sincerely

xxx
Customer Care Officer

Iwanttobefree

After what feels like 100s of emails to and from Lowell, and me being stressed, my (wife's) last email to them said:

Dear Sir/Madam


Today I received a letter dates 25th September 2018 from you saying you placed my account on hold to give me some time due to my circumstances, and that you would like an update so you can discuss repayments with me.


I'm sorry, but as I have been telling you since I first contacted you, NOTHING will change. Everything is exactly the same as it has been for months. My income and outgoings are exactly the same (maybe a few £ less due to rising bills).


If it hasn't already been passed, may I request this is past to your specialist support team as I have zero way of making even a token payment for the foreseeable future (ie years) .


I received a letter from Link Financial this week saying "We thank you for the information presented to our specialist support team to assist in reviewing your circumstances. As a result of the information provided, we have made a commercial decision to no longer pursue the balance of this account......"


They have had exactly the same information you have had, their debt was from Barclays (in my name, not my husbands) and was for £3,761


The reason I'm telling you this is that it is an unnecessary stress to receive letters every few months as it will always be the same response. If anything my situation will get worse not better due to stress affecting my health.


I would rather you take me to court etc so I can show them I have zero funds due to my husbands health rather than me having to do this every few months. I have also been advised that creditors are under pressure from the FCA to treat debtors sympathetically and that it can be argued, compared to how other creditors are treating both me and my husband (writing the debts off due to our circumstances), any creditor who doesn't, isn't .


I don't like getting out of money I owe, this is only due to my husbands health, and explaining the situation and requesting the debt is written off is what I have been advised to do after seeking professional help.


I was also advised to say and do the following should the situations arise.


1) If a creditor was unable to accept your request for closure, what have you been advised to do ?


Answer : Ask the creditor to write off the debt again.


2) If you have been advised to offer a token repayment, please confirm this would be the case with your account.


Answer : My budget is in deficit each month, no payments are possible.


3) Have your local Citizens advice Bureau informed you of any insolvency options?


Answer : The only insolvency option for my circumstances would be an IVA, but with no disposable income, this is not possible.


Please forward this to your specialist support team, and while if I get more letters etc I will reply, I'm simply going to send this email again as nothing will have changed.


I don't mean to sound awkward or rude, my apologies if it sounds that way, you have no idea of the stress I'm currently under and I'm almost at breaking point.


Yours Faithfully

Yesterday my wife received the following email from them

Good morning XXXXX,

Thank you for your email. After reviewing the information provided your account has been passed to me, I work in the specialist team who deal specifically with customers who are facing difficulties.

I have listed your account details below for your convenience:

Account Number xxxxxxxxxx

Original Client Shop Direct

Original Client Reference xxxxxxxxx

Current Balance £944.62


Thank you for providing me with this update on your circumstances, I am sorry to learn of the difficulties you continue to be facing.

I am sorry to learn of how the letters we sent made you feel, this was not our intention.

I would like to advise that after reviewing the details you have provided I have put your account forward for closure.

As this will be done as a gesture of good will no update will be made to your credit file.

A letter will be sent to you to confirm when this has been done.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me using the details provided below.

Kind Regards

Iwanttobefree

Iwanttobefree wrote: »

Second: From Link writing off my wife's £3,761 Barclaycard debt

Up until today, all the debts written off were in my name, this is the first in my wifes name and it takes our debts down from £28, 377.40 in February to £13,704.17

Many thanks for all the advice

Wife got a letter from Barclays today, saying quote

Refund relating to your Barclay Card Number xxxxxx

We are writing to tell you that you will receive a refund on the above account.

Following a recent review of our operating procedures we have identified that for customers who had fallen behind in their payments, we did not always meet our expected standards for assessing customers circumstances or engaging with them.

Please accept our apologies for this.

As a consequence we may not have offered you the support most appropriate to your financial situation. To address this we will refund te interest and default fees applied to the account during the period in which we may not have provided the service we should have.

We will not look further into your case and provide further deserved redress unless you contact us regarding any other circumstances or losses in relation to this. .............

As your account has been transferred to Link Financial Outsourcing we have asked them to reduce your outstanding balance by the total refund due of £320.06. To find out your latest balance you can contact them on ......

Of course, I'm not expecting a single penny from them, and am more than grateful they wrote the debt off. But technically, if they've written the debt off and then at a later date Barclays then refund my wife £320, technically it could be argued my wife should get the £320.

The situation made me smile, but again I'm not expecting the refund at all.

Honeylife

Scanned through most of this quickly.

I do hope you have applied for PIP. The CAB can help you fill in an application and see if there are any other benefits you may be entitled to. When you go for the interview/test be prepared for absolutely ridiculous questions and tests. If you then get a letter saying NO, please APPEAL immediately. This may all take time but it will be backdated so the sooner you apply the better. Keep all your medical letters/emails.

Iwanttobefree

Honeylife wrote: »

Scanned through most of this quickly.

I do hope you have applied for PIP. The CAB can help you fill in an application and see if there are any other benefits you may be entitled to. When you go for the interview/test be prepared for absolutely ridiculous questions and tests. If you then get a letter saying NO, please APPEAL immediately. This may all take time but it will be backdated so the sooner you apply the better. Keep all your medical letters/emails.

Thanks, sorry for the late reply, only just seen this.

The DWP have worn me down to the point where I feel (although I have a lovely wife supporting me) I would rather be homeless and living on the street than go through all that stress again with another benefit.

That might sound a stupid thing to say, but appealing my ESA made me much much iller (I suffer from mental health issues as well as physical), some of the comments on this forum added to that too as they simply didn't understand what I was trying to explain (my fault, I was going around in circles etc but I still say a 3 yr old could tell by my forum ramblings at the time, that I wasn't in a right frame of mind).

Both I and my wife have said when people suggest applying for PiP that we would rather be skint than face that again (my wife is more against applying for anything else than I am).

So they've won. I'm another statistic that isn't on benefit anymore, at the same time I have just had a form signed by my GP to allow me to claim my pension before I'm 55 as I won't ever be working again due to my health.

I did appeal all the way in my ESA claim and have just won the upper tribunal appeal, hence am waiting for another tribunal date. But based on the last one, I am going with 100% expectation of not passing it, and at that point I'm simply giving up. It's now been going on two years.

Iwanttobefree

Well we've done very well with our debts thanks to the great advice on this forum.

Only ones we have left are:

Creation Finance £5,471
Creation Finance £4,084
Vanquis £2,320
J D Williams £441
Argos £442

I don't think J D Wiliams and Argos are going to budge, I suppose their thinking is it's such a small amount, that there's always going to be the chance of getting that sort of money together or being able to pay it off. both have put the accounts on hold for a while (one for a year)

I'm still arguing with Vanquis, their biggest problem is getting the right person to read what I write.

For example their specialist support department sent my wife an email with a ref number on (as the subject) saying to respond with her date of birth so they can continue talking to her.

She does this, hears nothing.

She gives them a nudge a month later, nothing.

She then has a bit of a very polite rant at them telling them how stressful hearing nothing is etc and pleading with them to get back.

All of these emails were replies/forwards of the original email Vanquis sent her.

The last reply from them last week (bearing in mind they already have her date of birth in the email chain they replied to, and it was their own ref number) was, quote (in full)

Hi,

Thank you for your email. This number is not registered with us. So that I can help you today, please reply with your full name, date of birth and post code.

The Vanquis Team

So she supplied that and asked for it to also be passed over to the complaints team (every one of her emails also asked to make sure it was passed to the specialist support team).

They are driving us nuts.

Creation, they simply wont budge. We supplied them with proof that others had written her debts off etc, my GPs letter stating I wasn't likely to ever work again etc and explained in detail that they could put it on hold for 2 years and nothing would change, we included my wifes tax bills from the previous 2 years to show her salary wasn't likely to rise much, and any rise would be used up with increased bills etc etc etc.

And again asked them to write off the debts and pointed out what was recommended earlier in this thread about creditors treating us fairly and how as the others had written off the debts etc.

Got their response today, here it is in full.

Account Numbers: xxxxxxxxxxxx / xxxxxxxxxx


Thank you for your recent email regarding the above Creation accounts and thank you for the comprehensive information supplied. As you are aware both of the above accounts are on hold without payment until 06/04/2019, at which time we will carry out a review. Six monthly reviews are company policy but we can relate to some information already supplied to reduce any further stress to be felt by yourself. Your request to write off the accounts has been declined and we will continue to hold the accounts.

We understand that other organisations have taken a different action to ourselves but we are unable to comment on their actions and can only apply our own policies.

Should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us on 0808 164 0001 or through the above email address.



xxx xxxx

Customer Support Specialist Team

January2015

Well done of the debt write offs. From other people on the forum it is clear that Creation are a right pain in posterior !!! Just let them review every six months and keep putting the account on hold. Don't stress over it.

Regarding ESA and PIP - I can so relate to your feelings on this. However, it is definitely worth persevering. Take a deep breath and perhaps try again in a month or so. I admit they don't make it easy. The flipping great book you get to fill in just to start the claim is bad enough, then the assessment by people who are (I'm sure) put in place to deny your claim - however, if you have good medical professionals behind you (and your GP sounds great) then you should get through eventually and be awarded the PIP. It makes a world of difference. I have recently supported a neighbour through this horrendous process and we both wanted to give up many times. It tooks almost six months before she was finally awarded PIP.

Once again - well done on your progress, and do keep us updated.

fatbelly

Back in February I wrote

If you can't pay them then it's no big deal. You could ask them to write the debt off (but they probably won't). You could pay them £1 a month for the next 1000 years (but there is no advantage to you in doing that) or you could leave the problem to them.

You've done better than I expected in getting write-offs but you are now left with the awkward squad.

It may be time just to turn your back on them and let them work through their standard letters. Just have a folder that you put them into.