Debt reduction solicitor

bessy190

Hello and help 😖
I have always had brilliant credit and been debt free and this changed very quickly for me a few years ago when leaving a partner and starting afresh I foolishly ran up credit cards !
repayments became impossible 
may family I know 
I really didn’t want to IVA or bankruptcy and I was contacted by a company called FNK legal who promised that for a fee if £4000 could reduce the debts by auditing ( unfair lending criteria) and I could still pay the debt back and it would be maybe 10k less than the 30k it was. I’ve been paying them a fee of £177 per month for one year with some communication that things are progressing well. Last month I missed one payment to them, I wanted to make this payment by bacs or card and emailed them to discuss but with no reply , also messaging them too.
now they have emailed me a closure letter? Saying they will cease work for the missed payment!
I’ve had no communication, I can’t even see the agreement that I signed sent to me !
my current situation is “drowning” and am gutted to think I’ve paid them £2000 just to be cut off like this.
can I go to the financial ombudsman?
thank you 

born_again

Asked for this to be moved to debt section.
As you need proper advice.
There are debt charities that will help.

You should never be paying any company to help in these situations. Not helpful in many ways, more advice for the future.

RAS

You've been taken for a huge ride. Sorry you lost another £2k but you can do CCA requests, affordability appeals and even write offs for nothing, yourself or via a free debt charity.

The starting point is to complete an SOA so that you and we can see what your finances actually look like. Normally I suggest you might benefit from sharing, but in this case, it's probably necessary if we are to sort out what has happened and what needs to happen.

EssexHebridean

Oh heck OP I am so sorry you've been caught like this - you're far from the first, how these sharks sleep at night I have no idea. 

Good advice above on the SOA - the link to that is in my signature below. Get it filled in reflecting exactly where you are financially right now, and we'll see what looks like a good way forwards for you. 

ManyWays

In addition to the SOA, you also need to check your credit records to find out what if anything has been paid to your debts, how many are marked as defaulted and how many are in a payment arrangement. This is important to know and we cant make a guess at what it might be. 

fatbelly

These peop!e are regulated by SRA, not FCA 

https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11740963

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/register/organisation/?sraNumber=657756

The scheme sounds like something that needs to be looked at by both authorities.

https://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/
https://www.fca.org.uk/consumers/how-complain
 

sourcrates

This kind of thing really makes my blood boil, these ambulance chasers are worse than debt collectors.

Please tell me you have stopped paying them, you should make a complaint and try and get your money back.

EssexHebridean

Some things to check - 

When you originally signed up with this mob were you sent a terms of business letter or terms of retainer? (It should have been supplied by email or hard copy, not just made available through your client portal I think, and would have been one of the first things you got from them.)
If yes, does it specify that a single missed payment would mean that your instruction to them would be terminated, and all fees paid forfeit?
Does that original letter set out how you go about making a formal complaint? 

ManyWays

If you want to try to go after this firm, great, but you should not expect to gain anything from it. And you shouldnt want to go back to paying them that much a month when you have no idea what they have actually achieved.

So the most important thing is getting a new plan to tackle your debts: post an Statement of Affairs here with the current creditor names and balance, and check your credit record to see which are recording you as missing payment, in a payment arrangement, or in default.

It would also be a good idea to try to find what FNK has actually done, so email info@fnklegal.com with the subject DSAR and say you are making a Subject Access Request for all the personal information they have about you, including copies of any correspondence with creditors that have been made on your behalf.