Tesco Credit card imposed repayment plan

Picklevickie

All, 

I like others have balance transferred and now I am in the situation where I am out of 0% on Tesco credit card and am now paying interest charges. 

I constantly receive letters asking me to pay more than the minimum  amount, however due to other commitments this is not a priority at present. 

I am making regular direct debit payments towards this debt, and have no defaults at all on any of my cards. ( my Experian Credit score is 988/999)

I have now received a new communication from Tesco Credit Card informing me that I am being placed on a repayment plan without my consent and the only thing I can have any say in is the length of plan I am being offered! 

Can Tesco Credit card do this when I have not defaulted? 

Please advise? 

razord

You're likely classed as in persistent debt. They are required to do this: https://www.stepchange.org/debt-info/persistent-credit-card-debt.aspx

MorningcoffeeIV

Yes. They are obliged to do so by FCA regulations.

Your fake credit score doesn't accurately reflect your poor credit management, so repay as much as you can.

Picklevickie

I would hardly say Experian are fake? But thanks for the info. 

MrFrugalFever

Picklevickie said:

I would hardly say Experian are fake? But thanks for the info. 

Experian is very much real but the credit ‘score’ supplied by them is very much not. A gimmick marketing score. How would they know what each of the hundreds of lenders criteria is? It’s a universal one size fits all score to give you a rough indication of where it thinks you sit in terms of how well you manage your finances and seen as Experian do not lend anyone any money I can’t see how it can be accurate.

sleepyjones

Technically you should be able to just pay £1 over the minimum payment so you can maintain your other commitments, I'm not sure if it's maybe gone too far down the line now for that to be acceptable to them though.

As far as Experian, they as a company obviously aren't fake, but your "credit score" isn't really a thing to anyone else expect you.  Lenders don't even see your "Credit score", they base their decisions on many other factors ... if you apply for a new credit card with a "credit score" of 988/999 you would have to assume you'd be approved for everything 'cause surely you can't get much better than that?  but clearly not because nobody ever sees that "score" except you.

Ebe_Scrooge

Picklevickie said:

I would hardly say Experian are fake? But thanks for the info. 

The very fact that you have a high score with Experian yet are struggling to repay your debts should be proof enough that the score is utterly meaningless.

eskbanker

Picklevickie said:

I constantly receive letters asking me to pay more than the minimum  amount, however due to other commitments this is not a priority at present.

While Tesco, like any other lender, has to comply with the persistent debt process, they shouldn't be writing 'constantly', which has been mentioned in another similar thread - what exactly do you mean by 'constantly', i.e. how many letters have they sent over what period?

Picklevickie said:

I am making regular direct debit payments towards this debt, and have no defaults at all on any of my cards. ( my Experian Credit score is 988/999)

Your reference to not defaulting on 'any of my cards', while not prioritising repayment on this one, suggests that you have plenty of debt, and further illustrates the unreliability of Experian's invented number.

Picklevickie said:

I have now received a new communication from Tesco Credit Card informing me that I am being placed on a repayment plan without my consent and the only thing I can have any say in is the length of plan I am being offered! 

Can Tesco Credit card do this when I have not defaulted?

The FCA says:

Where a firm is required to contact a customer in persistent debt to set out options for the customer to reduce the debt, those options must be reasonable. The aim of the repayment options is that the debt is repaid in a reasonable period. This is usually between 3 and 4 years and only, in exceptional circumstances should the repayment period extend beyond 4 years (but this should not result in additional cost to the customer).

Are they complying with this?

See https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/persistent-debt-help/ for further information about this process.