Hilarious Encounter with Scam Debt Management Co....

Eshka_2

Hey everyone

Had an amusing call this morning from some company who'd got my details from somewhere, probably one of my stupid loan applications, but it was quite funny - I kept it going just to see what they'd try and sell me, had quite a banter with the kid on the other end of the phone.

They called themselves Churchwood - I don't know, maybe reputable enough but I didn't trust them at all. They told me they could ''help me using a tailored debt management plan to reduce my monthly outgoings''...yadda yadda, being part of this site had me well prepared for their sales pitch.

Gave the guy a few random figures to see what he came up with, and I got this:
''Well good news - you qualify for help with one of our tailored plans. We can reduce your monthly debt bills to just £100 and have you debt free in just 82 months!!!''
I almost collapsed with laughter, as I was on the phone with CCCS this morning and know there's a much easier, more effective and FREE way out of my debt with just a little hard work. I said, ''Ok, so how much do you charge for this service? What's your APR?'', and he reeled off percentages at lightning speed so I could barely hear him before saying ''And we're the cheapest in the UK, you'll be glad you came to us!''. It was something like a 15% management charge plus 15% APR over the 82 months. What a joke.

So, I said, ''As it goes, I already have a solution to my problems which won't cost me a management charge or APR, I'm going through the CCCS''. He fell over himself stuttering on about how Churchwood work in the consumers' best interests, so I challenged him: ''How can you work in the interests of the consumer when you charge extortionate fees to people who already struggle to afford to live?''. Not much of a response - instead he came back with, 'Yeah but the CCCS work in the interests of the creditors, the creditors pay them and sponsor them and if the creditors want to increase your payments the CCCS can't stop them - we can cos we negotiate with them''. I said, ''Ok...so you're telling me the CCCS are a charity who support creditors but claim to help consumers with debt problems...''....''Yes, that's right''.

I ended the call by saying ''This is complete rubbish, cheers now, bye!''.

It's sad to know that companies will stoop this low trying to rake in business from you - if they can't sell you a loan then they still wanna snag cash off you to do a crap job of dealing with your debt problems.

82 months for me to clear 6k of debt? I don't bloody think so.

Thanks MSE for opening my eyes to the nasty, nasty world of the financial industry!!

floss2

I know i failed my maths 'A' level, but that is a ridiculous total of £8,200, an extra 36% on top of your £6k!

mmacg

Very typical from my experience of Churchwood. Cannot suggest more strongly that people do not use a DMP that is charged for and instead use one of the free ones, that are not biased.

Dont forget if you want to call Churchwood back, dont pay for the 0870 call, make them pay by using 0800 195 6669

Teacher2301

Eshka - you and I have something in common - the love of winding up junk callers!

bank_of_slate

Infuriating how they deliberately choose a name like that...just because it has church in the title!!!

My original MSE name would be more suitable ...Slate & Nazi finance
...Linda xx

BURGH_LASS

i am with churchwood just now, and to be honest, i didn't think much about it when i first went through them 3 years ago, its now that i'm thinking, this is taking me absolute ages to pay off, i've still got about £4k to go, think it was about £8k to start with, but i'm getting a phone call from CCCS at lunchtime tomorrow to go over everything and see if i'm eligible to go with them, so fingers crosseed, as i had spoke to payplan about a month ago, and they said i'm not in enough debt

angelavdavis

Well done you for giving them "what for". Glad they wasted their time on someone that had the knowledge you do and didn't spend it on someone with less knowledge that they could sucker in.

MissEyre

Hope you have a good conversation with CCCS tomorrow, Burgh Lass-if they can't help you, I know a few people on here manage their own DMPs, and that would certainly work out cheaper that paying Churchwood-def. worth thinking about! x

chimp_choker

MissEyre wrote: »

Hope you have a good conversation with CCCS tomorrow, Burgh Lass-if they can't help you, I know a few people on here manage their own DMPs, and that would certainly work out cheaper that paying Churchwood-def. worth thinking about! x

I've been doing my own for nearly 2 years now.

lazy&indebt

Imagine if they'd rang someone who was at their wits end and under incredible amounts of stress? They'd be playing on that fact just to earn themselves a bit of cash!! Dirty dirty people