Struggling with debt? Ask a stepchange debt adviser a question

SianHannah

Hi,

I'm having a little trouble and hope you can help, I moved into my first flat 3 years ago now and stupidly believed EON would let me know if I was over using on energy, I quickly racked up a £1000 bill and set up a payment, after some issues with EON trying to bill me an extra £600 more than I already owed I began to get my payments down, despite the lack of an apology for constantly causing me stress and a good few months before proving I wasn't still using excessive amounts of energy I decided to move providers along with Flats.

As soon as I left my flat I set up a payment plan by phone and was told I couldn't be given the bank details over the phone so they would send them in the post (I never received these) I then got a message from my bank as I hadn't cancelled my direct debit so EON tried to take the remaining £720 pounds again, skip to a few months and I have missed 2 payments again I stupidly didn't realise the severity and made a payment in December I have again set a payment plan up however EON have now told Equifax I have missed 6 payments and one in January when I have queried this they said it is because the debt is long standing not because I have missed 6 payments can you tell me if this sounds correct? I clearly don't think alot of them from the above so am I trying to correct something that is my own fault or can I really query this?

Eon have made it quite clear they don't believe they have done anything wrong while I'm left really upset, again I didn't received one email, letter or call as a reminder any payment was missed can you also advise me if Utility providers should be providing some level of safe debt management I find it hard to swallow that anyone having really money issues would cope with there car free attitude to leaving people in debt.

StepChange_Rachael

Hi

Thanks for your message.

I appreciate you've mentioned the payment will have gone out now for the DMP, I’d recommend if you haven’t already, to contact the DMP team, their number will be in your welcome pack and they can discuss any queries or issues you have regarding your plan. We generally wouldn’t recommend paying one creditor over another, unless it’s arrears with your household bills, because creditors can view this as preferential treatment and may be less likely to stop interest and charges. However, if your query is still outstanding, please contact us and the team will be able to discuss this with you. You can find our contact details here.

Thanks
Rachael

DeeDee_5by5 wrote: »

Hi I have just started with Step Change, my first payment will go out 1st Feb,
a bout £60 for the credit card and £6 for the store card
I owe £8000 on a credit card and £500 on a store card
I have had some DWP back pay and can now pay off fully the £500 store card
if I pay £500 to the credit I owe £8000 to as well would Step Change be ok with that
would the creditors be ok with that as well , and do I pay it through Step Change.
do I phone and tell Step Change or go on line and tell them

StepChange_Rachael

Hi

Thanks for posting,

I can understand your concern, these letters have been issued by creditors due to changes in guidance by the FCA, the aim is to get people away from persistent debt use. You can find out more information here on this, but in general, if someone has been paying more in interest and charges than the balance over 18 months, a first letter is issued as a warning, after 27 months if there has been no change the creditor will contact again, if there has still been no action to reduce the balance by 36 months then the creditors will recommend ways to clear the debt within three to four years, as a last resort they could suspend the product.

You may already have a plan in place to pay the debt back within this time, before the 36th month, but if you need any further support you can contact our persistent debt team. Their contact details are at the bottom of the page, which you can find here.

Thanks
Rachael

hixyhicks wrote: »

Im going to get into persistent debt problems with some cards.I have never missed a payment but im starting to get post and emails saying i need to pay more which i cant.Firstly can card companies at this stage make me pay more or cause me to default by upping the payments?what i was hoping to do is.Pay the smaller amounts of first whilst paying the minimum on the others then adding the monies to the next.I would just like to know what to expect.

Thank you

StepChange_Rachael

Hi

Thanks for getting in contact.

From my understanding mortgage lenders can be wary about re-mortgaging to pay debt, they often will for home improvements, but I understand you were unable at the time to do this. There maybe the option to find a new mortgage lender but there is normally a fee to end a mortgage agreement early and it probably wouldn’t benefit you financially. I’d recommend getting some impartial mortgage advice so you can explore your options as really, you’d need to speak with a specialist mortgage advisor to find the best way forward.

If you want to speak with our mortgage advice team at StepChange, you can find their contact details here.

Thanks
Rachael

Abi83 wrote: »

Hi,
Hope this is the right place to ask this question. I wouldn't exactly say that I'm struggling with debt but I recently took out a loan to do some home improvements. The cost, as always, increased and so I also borrowed some money from my parents. I originally wanted to remortgage in order to do the work but was told that I couldn't as there wasn't enough equity in the house. Having had the work done there is now equity in the house to remortgage in order to pay off the loan and my parents however I have been told by Santander that they don't allow remortgaging to consolidate debts. I'm currently tied in to this mortgage until Aug 2023 and although I can afford to pay all debts without consolidating, it would make life much easier if I could put them on the mortgage. Is there any way around this? Are there any debt consolidation mortgages anymore? I'd just rather pay one 'lump sum' per month rather than my mortgage, my loan repayments and money to both my parents ��
Any advice would be greatly appreciated ��

StepChange_Rachael

Hi Alila91

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting.

You could consider settlements, but this type of debt solution is difficult to give exact guidance on, as its down to the creditor and each individual case if they would accept or not. Settlements can be a good option as long as it doesn’t leave you in a worse financial situation in the long run or cause strain on family relationships.

You can find a page on settlements here, to give you more advice on how to procced with settlements to creditors.

Hope this helps.
Rachael

alila91 wrote: »

I'm new to Forum's, so I hope I'm doing this right I would like some advice on my current financial situation. I currently have around 16,000 of debt across three credit cards.

I have recently emigrated abroad (outside the EU) and now have no UK income and only enough income from a temp job to afford my rent and bills in my new home.
I have 1,500GBP left in my UK account which I have been using to pay my Credit Card min payment each month but that will run out shortly.

I was wondering if a settlement option may be an option for me if I can borrow funds from a family member? How much is a good amount/percentage to offer?

StepChange_Rachael

Hi

Thanks for your post and for explaining your situation.

I can appreciate why you’d be upset about the situation especially with how EON have dealt with it. As you’ve mentioned, you’ve been trying to set up an agreement from the start and have been in contact with them throughout.

Companies should be providing support for people who are struggling or unable to pay a lump sum upfront, no matter how the debt came about. However, there isn’t a law set in place for creditors to have to follow, creditors are however, expected by the FCA to abide by certain expectations.

If you feel EON has not provided adequate support then I’d recommend making a formal complaint to them, you’ll find their complaints procedure on their website. A company will only take a complaint seriously if it goes through the official channels. If they didn’t resolve the complaint to your satisfaction or didn’t reply within eight weeks, then you could escalate this further to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Take care,
Rachael

SianHannah wrote: »

Hi,

I'm having a little trouble and hope you can help, I moved into my first flat 3 years ago now and stupidly believed EON would let me know if I was over using on energy, I quickly racked up a £1000 bill and set up a payment, after some issues with EON trying to bill me an extra £600 more than I already owed I began to get my payments down, despite the lack of an apology for constantly causing me stress and a good few months before proving I wasn't still using excessive amounts of energy I decided to move providers along with Flats.

As soon as I left my flat I set up a payment plan by phone and was told I couldn't be given the bank details over the phone so they would send them in the post (I never received these) I then got a message from my bank as I hadn't cancelled my direct debit so EON tried to take the remaining £720 pounds again, skip to a few months and I have missed 2 payments again I stupidly didn't realise the severity and made a payment in December I have again set a payment plan up however EON have now told Equifax I have missed 6 payments and one in January when I have queried this they said it is because the debt is long standing not because I have missed 6 payments can you tell me if this sounds correct? I clearly don't think alot of them from the above so am I trying to correct something that is my own fault or can I really query this?

Eon have made it quite clear they don't believe they have done anything wrong while I'm left really upset, again I didn't received one email, letter or call as a reminder any payment was missed can you also advise me if Utility providers should be providing some level of safe debt management I find it hard to swallow that anyone having really money issues would cope with there car free attitude to leaving people in debt.

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

SianHannah said:

Hi,

I'm having a little trouble and hope you can help, I moved into my first flat 3 years ago now and stupidly believed EON would let me know if I was over using on energy, I quickly racked up a £1000 bill and set up a payment, after some issues with EON trying to bill me an extra £600 more than I already owed I began to get my payments down, despite the lack of an apology for constantly causing me stress and a good few months before proving I wasn't still using excessive amounts of energy I decided to move providers along with Flats.

As soon as I left my flat I set up a payment plan by phone and was told I couldn't be given the bank details over the phone so they would send them in the post (I never received these) I then got a message from my bank as I hadn't cancelled my direct debit so EON tried to take the remaining £720 pounds again, skip to a few months and I have missed 2 payments again I stupidly didn't realise the severity and made a payment in December I have again set a payment plan up however EON have now told Equifax I have missed 6 payments and one in January when I have queried this they said it is because the debt is long standing not because I have missed 6 payments can you tell me if this sounds correct? I clearly don't think alot of them from the above so am I trying to correct something that is my own fault or can I really query this?

Eon have made it quite clear they don't believe they have done anything wrong while I'm left really upset, again I didn't received one email, letter or call as a reminder any payment was missed can you also advise me if Utility providers should be providing some level of safe debt management I find it hard to swallow that anyone having really money issues would cope with there car free attitude to leaving people in debt.

StepChange_Rachael said:

Hi

Thanks for your post and for explaining your situation.

I can appreciate why you’d be upset about the situation especially with how EON have dealt with it. As you’ve mentioned, you’ve been trying to set up an agreement from the start and have been in contact with them throughout.

Companies should be providing support for people who are struggling or unable to pay a lump sum upfront, no matter how the debt came about. However, there isn’t a law set in place for creditors to have to follow, creditors are however, expected by the FCA to abide by certain expectations.

If you feel EON has not provided adequate support then I’d recommend making a formal complaint to them, you’ll find their complaints procedure on their website. A company will only take a complaint seriously if it goes through the official channels. If they didn’t resolve the complaint to your satisfaction or didn’t reply within eight weeks, then you could escalate this further to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Take care,
Rachael

 

Hello SianHannah and welcome to the Forums.

I’m sorry to lose you and that you feel we haven’t kept you informed about the increasing balance on your account. We issue bills/statements regularly, mostly every quarter, which show the balance on the front page. If you registered with our website for paperless billing, we’ll have posted any bills/statements online and sent you an email to let you know they were there.

Customers registered with our website also have use of online tools to help them keep on top of their accounts. These include ‘Real Time Billing’ where current balances can be seen by popping in meter readings; the ‘Direct Debit Manager’ that lets customers see how their payments are stacking up against the amount of energy they’re using (changes to payments can be made through this tool to better suit different circumstances); and ‘E.ON See’ that gives information about usage at individual properties as well as tips on how to save money by saving energy.

Once an account closes and a final bill is issued, we look for payment straightaway. If a monthly or variable Direct Debit is open, the full amount of the final bill will be claimed automatically. Customers are advised about this along with the payment date on the front page of the final bill.

Although we look for payment in full, we know that from time to time this isn’t always possible. In these situations, we're happy to look at setting up a payment plan to spread the balance over a more manageable period.

With our payment plans, the agreed amount needs to be paid by the due date. Missed, late or partial payments will cause arrangements to automatically fail. If this happens, we'll write to advise and our usual debt follow up will start. At this point, outstanding balances become due in full. This should've been explained to you when you agreed the plan and I'm sorry if it wasn't. We also write to confirm details of the plan and this includes information about what happens should it fail.

This doesn't mean nothing can be done. We'll be happy to look at another plan or even a different type of arrangement if this would be more suitable. We've a specialist team who look after setting up payment arrangements where a previous one has failed. They'll go through your account and talk to you about what's best going forward.

When we report to Equifax, we need to give them a true reflection of the status of an account at the time of the share. I can confirm, the number doesn’t refer to missed payments. This is the age of the debt. A 6 means six months in arrears and this is the limit of the age shared.

Totally understand, it’s too late now to do much about the missing emails. I’d usually advise to check the online account has been set up with the right details and permissions for sending and receiving emails. I’d also advise to check if our emails are going into junk or spam folders. This can be avoided by adding our email address as a trusted contact.

If you believe we haven’t done the things I’ve spoken about above, please follow Step Change Rachael’s advice above and raise a formal complaint. As Rachael says, there’s more information about this on our website.

Thanks SianHannah.

Malc

Mrp791

Hi, 

My home was repossed 11 years ago by ge money after being made redundant early 2009. 

My mortgage was £1000 a month after being Misold a interest free mortgage , that’s a whole other story . I last heard from them with a shortfall of £36000  shortfall which was the redemption fee of around £10000 and charges and 6 months missed payments as I was on jobseekers and was homeless for 4 years I want to get a mortgage in 18 months again I’m now in a steady job and have rented for 5 years now and last time I heard any thing was 10 years ago do you think it’s safe to get a mortgage and do you think I’d stand a chance of getting one
many thanks

scotty1971

Can I change bank accounts online as the bank I am with just now will be part of my DAS? I need  to change accounts and have to have the mandate sent back to yourselves by the 18th of this month. So is it possible to change online.
Hope you can help with this.
Thanks 

StepChange_Allen

Mrp791 said:

Hi, 

My home was repossed 11 years ago by ge money after being made redundant early 2009. 

My mortgage was £1000 a month after being Misold a interest free mortgage , that’s a whole other story . I last heard from them with a shortfall of £36000  shortfall which was the redemption fee of around £10000 and charges and 6 months missed payments as I was on jobseekers and was homeless for 4 years I want to get a mortgage in 18 months again I’m now in a steady job and have rented for 5 years now and last time I heard any thing was 10 years ago do you think it’s safe to get a mortgage and do you think I’d stand a chance of getting one
many thanks

Hi there

Welcome to the forum and thanks for posting.

It's not possible to advise anyone of the likelihood of their chances of getting a mortgage without knowing a lot about their budget, credit history, debts and more. What I can say is that with mortgage shortfalls, the interest becomes statute barred (legally unenforceable) after 6 years of no payments or written acknowledgement of the debt. The capital part of the mortgage (likely to be most of the balance) becomes statute barred after 12 years. If you'd like to read more about statute barred debt, please have a read on our website: www.stepchange.org/debt-info/can-i-write-off-debt/statute-barred-debt

You can try and apply for a mortgage, but I can't give you any idea of whether you'll get one. What you could do as a bit of a guide is get a free credit check done and see how your credit file looks.

I hope this is helpful.

Allen