Baines & Ernst

Alex_Fyfe

Just registered and was hoping to get some advice.

I'm in debt and have been using a debt mgmt company called Baines & Ernst to look after the issue for me.

However, they charge £44 per month as a mgmt fee. I have been told by them that If I "go it alone" the people I owe money too will continually chase me and take me straight to court as they will not listen to what I am prepared to offer in terms of repayment.

Is this the case or are Baines & Ernst using scare tactics to keep me with them??

Thanks

Alex.

natters_2

I have been sorting out my debts and repayments from the beginning - yes you do get lots of calls - but eventually it does stop - every 4 to 6 months I will get a call or a letter from some of them asking for an updated SOA, or just ask if anything has changed.

Not one of my creditors has put me in court - alot have threatened - some have even told me they won't when after another irritating phone call I have suggeseted just that.

If you drop Baines & Ernst - that is £528 a year that will be paid off your debts instead of to them

gilligansyle

You can get debt advice for free from CCCS - details at the top of this board. They will not charge for the service. If appropriate, they will help you set up a debt management plan. You don't need to go it alone.

Honeybee_2

Have you tried Payplan or CCCS? They do the same as Baines and Ernst without charging a management fee.

Conor_3

GET RID OF THEM NOW. IMMEDIATELY.

I cannot state this strongly enough. I made the stupid mistake of using them. Some of your creditors will refuse to deal with them and others will still keep on adding interest. Your credit file will show defaults on payments every month you're with them. You'll still get the letters and the phone calls from your creditors despite what B&E claim.

I had debts of £20k and went with B&E, paying them £110 a month, out of which, they took £35. I worked out that even if the interest was frozen, which it wasn't, it'd take me 22 YEARS to pay it back. When I got some proper advice, I was told to immediately declare bankrupt.

They are wrong in regards to the companies not dealing with you. Completely wrong. You can use the CCCS which is a free organisation to set up a Debt Management Plan with your creditors who do what B&E claim to do but all creditors will work with the CCCS.

DebsA_2

Hi there, I'm also new to this site but some years ago we tried Baines and Ernst. They charged us £50 per month (we had £21,000 of debt). We went to the Citizen's Advice Bureau who do not charge for the same service. They send out a yearly financial statement to your creditors and although we get the odd call all our creditors accepted the statement and we now owe about £8,000. Hope this helps.

Kevicho

Baines and earst would love you to beleive this as they are making money for doing very little.

Call the CCCs or payplan and ask them to take over your DMP (as they are free)


Cancel them today and if they say anything just reply that you are disgusted at the lies and level of untruths they will stoop too to make money out of someone elses misery

paddypuma

Hi Alex

I was with Baines and Ernst for the last 4 years and I never had any major issues with them at the start. Yes, they charge a management fee but at the time I set up the plan, I was pretty desperate to get it sorted. I never heard from my creditors after signing up to the plan so I was pretty happy.

It only until recently that I have realised how complacent they are with regards to making sure they have the right information on your account. When I called them for up to date balances of all my debt, they didn't have any and hadn't had any for nearly half a year! I asked them for a total balance on my account and I was told 'about £13k', this ended up being more like 15k. Also, I had to give THEM an account number and contact number of one of my creditors as they didn't have it, even though I had sent them letters that i'd received from the creditor stating all my account details.

If I had known about CCCS at the time, I would definitely have gone with them. A DMP is a good way to go if you want to pay off the debt at an affordable rate - but don't pay managment fees. That money would be put to better use going towards your debt!

Also, don't be afraid if you want to 'go it alone'. Call Baines & Ernst and ask them to give you the details of each of your creditors (if you dont already have them) and advise them that you wish to cancel your plan. Then cancel the Direct Debit to them. Yes, your creditors will hassel you initially and some can be pretty rude but at the end of the day, if you call them and offer to pay them what you can, they should accept it.

Alex_Fyfe

My debts (embarrassed as I am) are:

Halifax Loan: £23'293.84
Halifax credit card: £6'695.65
Bank of Scotland loan: £5'519.00
Halifax current account: £1'837.43
Career Development finance: £1'329.00
GUS Home shopping: £419.03
Picture Finance: £17'000.00

TOTAL: £56'093.95 :eek:

Debts....Background:

The debts stem as far back as 1995 when I divorced my 1st wife (I'm remarried now). I took the majority of the debt with me and then added some for good measure.

I've always tried to shoulder the debts on my own. Even when I got married again I didn't fully explain to my wife how hard/bad things were. Having 3 kids was also costly!! I felt the walls closing in as each day passed & in the end fell ill with severe depression.

Through the persistance of my wife (who I love greatly!) I went to see a councillor who helped me turn things around. Having removed the emotional clutter I was carrying I decided to tackle the debt issues head on. Baines & Ernst were a well known company so I chose them for ease of use. However, that was before I found this site and bunch of knowledgable helpful people (that's you).

Having read the responses to my post which were great I have spoken to CCCS.The conversation lasted 1 hr and I would have to class it as my lightbulb moment!!

The lady at CCCS went through a budget planner with me and helped me to realise two things:

1. Baines & Ernst had NOT completed a proper budget plan as theirs had missed a number of items I needed to budget for (eg. Car Insurance, Car maintainance & general money for kids hols/clothes).

2. Because of point 1 I did not have as much money to pay my creditors as I thought.

The lady recommended I use the MSE budget planner to work out a proper budget which I did. It scared the *???!?! out of me. Even earning £1900 per month I needed £2230 minimum to keep to my budget and pay the £550 per month to my creditors.

However, for the first time ever I have sat down with my partner and have completed a joint budget plan which includes all the things we need to budget for and have found that working together I can beat my debts!!

It may take the next 10 years to pay everything off but I now believe it's possible to do thanks to my wife & people like you!! :T

My tip to those who feel their debts are too great and have left them feeling helpless DON'T GIVE IN!!! Just leave a post on this site and listen to the advice of those who've been there and come through it...just as I will.

Thanks

Alex.:j

poorandindenial

Great post Alex:T:T:T

Well done for taking control of your debts and for ditching B&E.

rayday2

Alex I very nearly went with a fee management company they ran through on the phone a budget made it sound like I could afford it, sent the things through the post.

Then I sat down and thought hang on I still can't manage but they wanted there £100 a month for creditors so I searched the interent and luckily found the National Debt Helpline and went it alone. It is so easy to be taken in, I perversly I have enjoyted taking control and have been OK two years in it.

Well done and good luck for the future.

Quick plug floating around there is a DMP Supporth Thread Part Three and you will be amazed how many people are in there and a lot with CCCS so experts for any questions etc you may have.