What happens when I cant pay?

Iwanttobefree

fatbelly wrote: »

Back in February I wrote



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.

Many thanks.

Vanquis are the ones causing a real hassle. I complained to them but they didn't uphold my complaint, mind you their response was about different things than I complained about.

With no disrespect meant to anyone who works there, I seem to be dealing with a bunch of idiots.

I send them an email explaining in detail why we have negative money each month.

They reply asking me to provide DOB to prove who I am *which they have done a few times).

I do this, 2 months later they say I need to probe who I am, can I provide DOB.

This goes on forever. They are now texting too.

I've repeated myself time and time again, yet it appears from their responses, they aren't reading any.

Lately they are contacting me more and more.

All these emails (and they aren't all of them) are from their specialist support team

them 30 Jan 2019

Hi xxxxx, This is the Specialist Support Team at Vanquis Bank. Thank you for your recent communication regarding your current circumstances. For Data Protection reasons, if you could kindly respond back with your DOB, we will then be able to discuss how we can support you or arrange a suitable time to call. Many thanks.xxxxxxx - Specialist Support Vanquis Bank

Me 30 Jan 2019

As I have responded numerous times to these emails, my date of birth is xxxxxxx and I will not discuss over the phone.

Sorry for the tone, but I've lost count on the amount of these emails from you asking for my date of birth and the same responses I have given you.

Them 4th Feb 2019

Thank you for your recent email. As previously discussed, and addressed in your previous complaint; we would not be looking at a write off of the debt and if you are unable to maintain the £1 a month arrangement then we recommend you contacting a non-fee paying debt management agency for independent financial advice. Step Change Debt Charity and National Debt Line provide advice and support free of charge. I’ve outlined their contact information below:

me 4th Feb 2019

I was initially with Stepchange but as I had a negative amount, there was nothing they could do, and on advice I started running the DMP myself.

I have sort independent advice from numerous places, and they have all said that I don't have enough money to pay anything.

Many thanks

Them 6th Feb 2019

Thank you, Have they not advised you to look into alternative options?

Me 6th Feb 2019

They said that due to circumstances, no alternative options are viable

Them today 8th Feb 2019

Thank you for your email. We can offer you an arrangement for £1.00 per month where the interest is frozen throughout and your account will close at the end of this agreement. This arrangement will be reported to the Credit Bureaux which will show on your credit file. Are you happy for me to set this up?The Vanquis Team

I'm about to scream




All these emails below are the ones I sent to their complaints department in one email

Me, 10th October 2018

I wrote to you earlier in the year explaining the situation I'm in due to my husbands health, and him not being able to work (and not likely to work for a long time, if ever)

You then passed it over to Moorcroft.

Moorcroft then informed me they had passed it back to you around the 11th July 2018.

I don't appear to have heard anything since?

In my initial letter to you I requested you close the accounts due to my outgoings being £50 more than my income, without any of my creditors being paid.

The other creditors are all in the process of closing the accounts,

We are in a very very stressful situation, and either getting letters every couple of months, or not hearing anything and expecting a letter out of the blue, is adding unnecessary stress to both of us.


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 me (writing the debts off due to our circumstances), any creditor who doesn't, isn't .

Any letters asking for further information will simply get the same information you have already had in a response as nothing has changed and it's very very doubtful anything will change.


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. Hearing nothing is almost as bad as hearing every couple of months asking for an update when nothing is changing.

Their response

Thank you for your recent email. So we can assist you, please reply with your date of birth.

Many thanks,

The Vanquis Team

me replying to the above 15th October 2018

Hi

xxxxxx(DOB)

Regards

Them 7th November 2018 responding to previous emails, all with the correct account no in subject etc , all replies to previous emails, no new posts.

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

What on earth that means I don't know.

I responded

PLEASE CC THIS TO YOUR COMPLAINTS DEPARTMENT. THANK YOU


Hi, this is really upsetting and stressing me, you can scroll down these emails and see I have already responded with my date of birth when I was requested, and the number you don't recognise was on the email your specialist support department sent me.

And then we are back to the top of this post.

It's getting to me now. The others have all gone away for either six months or a year, this one is like talking to a bunch of idiots.

My complaint was about the incompetence of them, keep asking for the same things, and keep sending out the same questions etc.

Here's their reply (didn't even get what the complaint was about)

Complaint Summary
Within your recent communication you've explained you're experiencing financial difficulty and have requested we write off the outstanding balance on your account. This letter is our final response to your complaint and I've outlined my investigation below.

Investigation
To investigate your complaint I reviewed the emails you've issued to us together with the actions taken on your account

I'm really sorry to learn of your circumstances surrounding your husbands health and the financial difficulty you've been experiencing. I thank you for informing us of this and by doing so we can ensure we are providing you with the right level of support.

I note you initially informed us in May 2015 that you were experiencing financial difficulty. A £1 installment payment arrangement was agreed and all interest and charges were frozen on the account.

You made the required repayments through to April 2018, when your account fell into arrears. At this point a third party did contact us and request to discuss your account and circumstances. Due to data protection we're unable to discuss an account without consent from the customer, therefore authorised user forms were issued to you on two occasions (Note, consent was given numerous times).

Due to the status of your account and the arrears that had accumulated, we referred your account to an external debt collection agency, Moorcroft to collect the balance outstanding in June 2018

On 3rd July 2018 we received an email regarding your change of circumstances. In order to assist you, we recalled your account from Moorcroft to enable you to discuss your repayment options. It was at this point a request was made to write the debt off.

I regret I'm unable to action your write off request. We've reviewed all the documentation you've provided to us and I can advise the installment payment arrangement for you to repay £1 a month is the minimum we can accept for a repayment arrangement. I understand you've advised you aren't able to repay pay this amount.

In view of this, I would recommend you contacting a non fee paying debt management agency for independent advice. Step change debt charity and National Debt line............

Since raising this matter with us, your account has since defaulted and is in the process of being passed to a debt collection agency. It's therefore important that you contact one of the two above agencies and us at your earliest convenience so an outcome can be reached.

Failure to make repayments to your account will result in further arrears and collections activity will resume. This isn't somethings I'm able to prevent and is part of your account terms and conditions. We have an obligation to report accurate information to your credit file on a monthly basis.

Outcome - Not Upheld


Based on the information I've reviewed, the correct process has been followed and I regret I'm unable to action your request. For this reason I'm unable to uphold your complaint.

I'm sorry this isn't the outcome you were hoping for

sourcrates

When you come up against a brick wall, its sometimes better to go around it, rather than try to keep climbing over it.


I think Fatbelly and I are on the same page with this one, eventually they will sell it on, and the new owner may have at least one brain cell between them.

fatbelly

sourcrates wrote: »

When you come up against a brick wall, its sometimes better to go around it, rather than try to keep climbing over it.


I think Fatbelly and I are on the same page with this one, eventually they will sell it on, and the new owner may have at least one brain cell between them.

I agree. Remember I have to deal with this bunch as part of my job. Let them work through their standard letters. Just have a folder that you put them into.

Iwanttobefree

Thanks. So I shall stop replying and simply ignore them now.

Iwanttobefree

Would I be best responding to their latest email

"I've explained my situation time and time again. I'm not going to keep repeating myself. As of now, I am simply filing away any further responses from yourselves, I will not be replying to them"

or just ignore them?

thanks

sourcrates

Iwanttobefree wrote: »

Would I be best responding to their latest email

"I've explained my situation time and time again. I'm not going to keep repeating myself. As of now, I am simply filing away any further responses from yourselves, I will not be replying to them"

or just ignore them?

thanks

Draw a line under it, any way you see fit.

Iwanttobefree

Some very very good news (was waiting until I had it in writing that the accounts were closed, before posting).

Feb 2018 I said I (and my wife) owed about 22K. In post 24 I did a proper statement of affairs and realised I owed just over 28k.

I have numerous health problems and had been on a DMP for years until the DWP decided I wasn't entitled to any benefits at all (even though GP, Specialists all said I mustn't even consider part time work etc), hence I started this thread.

I especially want to give a special thanks to both Fatbelly and Sourcrates for all their advice.

As I have told in this thread, a fair few of my debts were written off due to my health being unlikely to change, and that cut the debts down to about 12K

Very briefly, failed the DWP medical, went to Tribunal, scored zero points, felt it was a very very unfair tribunal, appealed to the upper tribunal on various grounds of me being convinced the first Tribunal wasn't totally legal, won that appeal and had a new tribunal date set for Tuesday 9th April 2019 (two years since my benefits were stopped), and the upper tribunal stated the new tribunal must have the reasons I was getting benefits previously and to see what if anything had changed with my health since then etc.

January this year I was finally unstressed enough to apply for PiP, I was awarded the higher normal rate and the lower rate for mobility. This meant I was now getting the same benefits I was getting 2 years previously, so even if I lost my tribunal (based on my previous experience) we had gone from being between £50 and £100 short each month to having enough to start purchasing much needed clothes (talking every day cheap T shirts etc). This took a while to come through. I decided to wait until the Tribunal outcome before offering monthly payments to clear the £12k, mainly as we had very very urgent things we needed to survive with

At that tribunal, they said it was totally obvious I can't work from just reading the medical reports, and I easily won it and have been put back in the ESA support group with a recommendation from the tribunal not to be reviewed for at least 2 years.

Which resulted in 2 years of back pay.

We made full and final offers to the remaining creditors of 30%. The large ones (creation and Vanquis) came back with counter offers of 50%.

The smaller (less than £500) seemed to all want around 75%.

While the DWP wrongly stopping my payments for two years has been one of the most stressful times in my life, by them doing this has allowed us to have gone from £28k debt in Feb 2018 to being totally debt free in May 2019.

Had that not happened, I would never have found out about applying for PiP, and would still be paying our DMP off until the day we both died.

As it did happen, not only are we debt free, but thanks to also getting PiP I am now receiving double the amount I was getting two years ago and no longer have to pay any of it to creditors.

For the first time in years we can start getting needed (not decorative) things done to the house now and if a sudden bill came in say for the car, we won't have to panic and ask relatives.

Many many thanks all. I dare say I might have to go through the process again in a couple of years, but at least I wont have any creditor hassle if I do.

[Deleted User]

Hi Iwanttobefree,

I followed your thread right from the beginning.

Congratulations on finally being debt free and to getting your benefits back.

Wishing you all the best for the future

Pmo2
xx