Overwhelmed by debt - Progressing down Default and DMP route - Advice and help needed

RhiBi

Excellent!  That must feel so good!

Always_Fishing

RhiBi said:

Excellent!  That must feel so good!

Thanks, it does. I'm kicking myself now I didn't act sooner, but better late than never and I have everyone on who's given advice on here so far to thank. 

tigergambit

Always_Fishing said:

Done, 1 down 

Well done -always take easy wins when you can. Keeps you motivated.

Always_Fishing

I didn't want to keep creating new threads and spamming the board so just dropping a couple of questions in here that hopefully get picked up  

I've had an affordability complaint rejected by the FOS for one of the credit cards. Is it worth appealing and having an ombudsman review for a final decision if I feel I can still make an argument or is that a bit of a waste of time at this point?

Also, my Barclaycard complaint has been rejected by Barclaycard, the balance is only £430, is this worth perusing with the FOS or is the balance to small to expect anything from? I only ask as recently I read a post somewhere regarding making complaints for balances over £1000 was recommended 

sourcrates

If you win affordability complaints, the redress offered is usually a refund of interest you have or would have paid, plus any charges etc, and on occasion your credit file is expunged of negative information also.

Interest on £430 may not amount to very much, so its up to you to decide if its worth it or not.

You should always exhaust the complaints process if you feel you have a case, after all its free, so you have nothing to lose by doing so, plus there is always the outside chance the lender may still offer a gesture of goodwill to walk away, they are looking for the least expensive route out of this remember, its all about brinkmanship, if they feel a fresh pair of eyes may see things differently, they may just make you an offer to go away, of course they may also stick to their guns, and not budge, but it won`t cost you anything to find out.

ManyWays

The FOS case rejected by the investigator, have you looked at the numbers in the investigator decision carefully: do you think any are wrong or that something is missing?

The interest on the Barclaycard could have been a lot more in the past if the balance was larger and you balance transferred or reduced the balance with a consolidation loan. So the current balance isnt always a reliable indicator.

Rob5342

Complaining is free and takes very little time so my view is that you might as well push everything as far as you can. Even if you only get £20 out of it then it's worth it for the sake of spending a few minutes writing an email or two. Most of the time the ombudsman takes the same view as the investigator but sometimes the outcome is different. The investigator found against me on one of my complaints but I escalated it to ombudsman level and then Nationwide made an offer of refunding £15,000 of interest. I think that was quite an exceptional case but it shows the difference that persisting can make. 

Always_Fishing

I've asked for it to be reviewed by an ombudsman now and given some additional info. 

I'm disappointed by the investigators response to be honest, they've just regurgitated the lenders repo se really, with a lot of the argument being around estimates. For example they estimated I had £1300 of disposable income whereas after bills, priority and non priority debt I had about £200 left for everything else.

I've laid all this out in a table now and referenced it against my bank statements, I thought the investigator might do this though rather than just go on the lenders word.