New To This Help Stop Interest

Absolut_Wench

Ouch! I've just had a loan statement from Lloyds (the first one ever) and find I've always been paying interest, despite having been paying through a DMP for the past 2.5 years :mad: :mad: :mad:

Oh sorry I forgot - they appear to have frozen interest for 6 months last year. I never knew I was paying interest, and they never told me why they froze it for 6 months :rolleyes:

So currently, a quarter of my monthly DMP payment is being eaten up in interest. I know they aren't obliged to stop charging interest, but I wish they would. I now owe far more than I thought :mad:

I have asked my debt manager for advice. Has anyone had any success in asking for the interest to be refunded?

lxpeanut

I've had this problem with Helifax.

They did freeze the interest on my credit card but only for 12months (they didn't tell me this at the time so I suspect the policy changed while my interst was frozen) they then started charging me interest and late payment charges. They wont freeze the interest agian and wont pass it on to a DCA for 6 months so they will add £1000 on to my debt despite the fact I have told them I can not pay.

On my overdraft however they completly refused to even aknowledge my equiries about freezing the interest untill I went over the overdraft limit despite my payments being half the amount of the interest. So they diliberalty put me £250, and whatever charges they added which I think are about £100, more in debt on this too.

So thanks to them I'm actualy about £1300 more in debt than I was when I started the DMP and despite my best efforts to avoid it I am now likley to delare bankruptcy.

LilDevil

I'll have to check my next Lloyds statement then to see if they've started adding interest to my card!

Fairycake_2

We need to fight back!

When I started my DMP with Payplan, I was so overjoyed that I was in control and felt proud that I wasn't having any of the money written off... now this.

It is soul destroying to be honest and puts more pressure on you, your relationships etc.

The FOS are about to start looking into this (had a letter from them yesterday) and although I'm very nervous I am also feeling quite strong as it is about time we all got together and stuck two fingers up at them and made it clear to these people that we won't be pushed around, only want to be treated fairly and if they push us too far we will fight.

I think that everyone who this is affecting should write to the FOS (there is a complaint form on their website) and en masse we can try and change things - remember bank charges?

Good luck everyone!

Fairycake_2

OK, we are now getting somewhere. I had letter on Saturday from the AA further to the most recent FOS correspondence apologising (again!) and sorry for my pain!

Upshot is as a gesture of goodwill they are going to refund 6 months of charges and three months of interest as well as reducing the interest on future months. Getting there but not good enough.

They also state in their letter that "current" policy is that after 12 months interest is reapplied and this can only be "keyed" onto the account once. However, if this is the case how come they can "key in" a reduction in interest?!

I am going to write back to them pointing out that I know of cases where all interest and charges have been reapplied or interest has been stopped completely again. They have set a precedent.

I was pretty annoyed that out of a letter with 10 paragraphs, only one dealt with the main issue of reimbursement of interest and charges and the rest was about how they train their staff, how their letters and calls are to help you to work out repayment(!) blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, about to start writing my response! Don't give up, write to the FOS and we can try and stop this from happening to all of us who are trying to clear our debts!
:j

Fairycake_2

Hi Guys

Just bumbling around and found this regarding harrassment from DCAs (would probably apply to some of the firms we are dealing with too!)

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/business_leaflets/consumer_credit/oft664.pdf

Makes for interesting reading and gives us a bit of ammunition 'cos let's be honest most of the monkeys they have working for them know nothing (other than trying scare tactics!). :rotfl:

Fairycake_2

Just had an interesting (and angry) call with a representative of the AA Credit Card and I'm still shaking. He was phoning as he was having trouble putting into words their policy.... :mad:

Well, I've just got off the phone and after being told (like always in their letters) that their policy is for any debt 7 months in arrears is passed onto a DCA so when I mentioned that this didn't add up as my first arrears letter was in November 2007, I have just been given the bombshell that their system doesn't recognise arrears until at LEAST the THIRD month and basically that I will be paying interest for a year and a half before it is passed over!!!

I told him that I didn't care how much he was struggling to put this policy into words, I wanted a letter detailing this information and that I was sending it straight to the FOS as it was totally unfair.

I am almost in tears here. I want to pay off my debt and decided against as IVA and all I am getting from these people is crap.

Anyway, just wanted to let you all know.

Fairycake_2

After my last letter and telephone conversation I got my statement and it states that there is NO interest applied this month and estimated interest for next month is ZERO!!!

:beer: :beer: :beer: :beer:

I haven't wanted to jinx this so no more letters to the AA until they change it again (gosh I'm so untrusting aren't I?!).

Hopefully this will be the end of it.... good luck to everyone else who is trying to change this - keep plugging away, you'll get there in the end!