I have come here to chew bubblegum and clear debt - and I'm all outta bubblegum AKA the £83,000 saga

Guybrush_Threepwood · 4 October 2018 at 2:20PM

fatrab wrote: »

Do you think the lenders are playing a bit of a game when they ask you what the loan is for? I mean, you're hardly going to say "It's for my drugs/alcohol/gambling addiction" are you? If they're asking for the purpose of determining whether THEY are lending responsibly, surely at the point when you say it's for debt consolidation the alarm bells should've been ringing at their end..

I do remember one time when I asked a high street bank for a loan and was declined, I appealed the decision. They said my existing debt levels were too high (they were) and even when I said I was going to use this new loan to consolidate some of the existing debt, they said "we have no guarantee that you will". In that instance, they made the right call. My gambling brain would have done anything to get cash and if they had given me a loan, I strongly suspect it would have gone on gambling rather than any consolidating. The bank made the right call.

This is why I was surprised when the lender I mentioned in my other post said "it's not our fault if you didn't use the loan to clear other debts." Yes, I asked for the loan and yes, I told them it was for consolidating existing debts. But as stated previously, the addict in me didn't care. In hindsight, looking at the information they had available to them regarding my financial circumstances during my application, should they have loaned me money? It is my view that they shouldn't have. I accept that it can be argued that I am at fault here, but these lenders have a duty to act responsibly.

At the current rate, I likely won't hear back from the Ombudsman for at least a couple of months, but I'll be sure to post an update when I do.

Guybrush_Threepwood · 4 October 2018 at 2:22PM

fatrab wrote: »

I got myself into a fair bit of credit card and HP debt which came to a head in 2013. Fancy cars and a wedding were my downfall. £28k on 4 cards and over £40k car finance. The £40k was the easy bit, sold the cars and cleared the debts. But I've still got over £3k on 1 card remaining, fortunately its 0% for 3 years. Clearing it is hard. It can be done but it takes time, and a hell of a lot of focus..

Congrats on getting this far. Make your monthly payments and forget about it - before you know it the card will be completely paid off.

Robin09 · 4 October 2018 at 7:04PM

Just came across your diary, so pleased you are getting help and reducing your debt.

A big chunk of the debt we are repaying is due to my husband's gambling. It didn't go on long, only a few shorts months, his way of dealing with the death of his father, but still left us owing nearly £30,000 back to creditors.

So glad your family and friends are supporting you. Will subscribe and will be cheering you on.

Guybrush_Threepwood · 4 October 2018 at 7:42PM

Thank you. It’s a horrible addiction. I’m glad your husband got through the other side. How are things now?

Guybrush_Threepwood · 5 October 2018 at 1:14PM

Am soon to dip into sub-£70k territory. Hopefully if the Ombusman upholds the adjudicator's decision, I should see an extra £1500 or so come off of the balance before next round of payments too, which would be a nice little bonus.

I've not named (or shamed!) any of my creditors by name on this thread. At some point I will share some of the company names, as some of them deserve recognition for the way they have handled my complaints and my situation, whereas some others, well....

Robin09 · 5 October 2018 at 1:28PM

He is doing good, thank you. He had never done it before and I know he felt such relief when we all found out, he hasn't done it since. We have been in a DMP for quite a while now, paying it down slowly.

Fingers crossed for the ombudsman decision.

Guybrush_Threepwood · 8 October 2018 at 10:44PM

A couple of bits of news today...

Firstly, I heard back from the Ombudsman. The company they were expecting to either accept or appeal the decision by 3rd October have asked for a further 7 days to consider the Adjuciator’s decision as they need to speak with a ‘Senior Management team’. Hmm.

Secondly, one of the Finance Agreements that I complained about got back to me and whilst they have not accepted any irresponsible lending took place, they have refunded £135 worth of charges (from late payments, defaults etc). A drop in the ocean when looking at the overall big picture but it all helps and with regards to this particular lender it reduced the total amount owed by around 20% so means I can clear another creditor off of the list sooner rather than later.

Guybrush_Threepwood · 15 October 2018 at 11:10AM

Another interesting couple of days....

One of my creditors is a high street bank with whom I previously had my main bank account. Due to the personal problems I mentioned earlier in this thread, I managed to run up an (authorised) overdraft of over £2,000.

I cam to an arrangement with the lender whereby they would freeze any charges and interest I would pay £100 per month and they would decrease the overdraft limit by the same amount accordingly.

After 2-3 months, they decided that I should be paying interest on the overdrawn balance after all, so we changed the arrangement so that I would pay £150 per month and they would still reduce the overdraft limit by £100 monthly. This would mean that when any interest was added (usually around £20-30 per month), it wouldn't immediately take me back over the revised limit. I had all of these arrangements confirmed over the phone and in writing.

However, I received a letter on Friday stating my "arrangement has failed". what they had done is reduce the overdraft limit by £150 each month, meaning that as I was only paying £150 into the account, as soon as the interest went on, I went over the limit.

This is not the first time this particular lender has messed up. Previously they have given me £75 compensation for a previous time where they messed up. And after 40 minutes on the phone on Friday evening, they finally agreed with what I was saying and refunded £40-50 in interest charges as a "gesture" and put the arrangement back as it should be.

The amount of paperwork I have from this lender makes up the bulk of my 'debt file'....

Guybrush_Threepwood · 15 October 2018 at 11:33AM

Stats Update:

Number of Creditors (May 2018) - 32
Number of Creditors (Oct 2018) - 19

Total Debt (May 2018) - £83,035.95
Total Debt (Oct 2018) - £70,142.82

Cases opened with Financial Ombudsman - 11
Complaints Upheld Fully - 1
Complaints Upheld In Part - 1
Complaints Denied - 2
Complaints Pending - 7

Guybrush_Threepwood · 15 October 2018 at 3:56PM

Guybrush_Threepwood wrote: »

A couple of bits of news today...

Firstly, I heard back from the Ombudsman. The company they were expecting to either accept or appeal the decision by 3rd October have asked for a further 7 days to consider the Adjuciator’s decision as they need to speak with a ‘Senior Management team’. Hmm.

Update on the above... the short-term lender involved finally agreed with the Adjudicator's decision!

In this instance, the original loan in question was for £1500 with the total repayable being £2985 over 5 months (I know - shocking rate of interest).

All parties have now agreed that this loan should never have been issued to me. To put things right, the interest is being removed and any interest I had already paid is being taken off of the balance. This has reduced the outstanding balance on this loan from £2568.78 to £1019.17 which I will continue paying under an existing arrangement at around £30 per month.

This also means my total debt is now below £70k! :T

The new total is.....

£68,593.21

I've now managed to reduce my original debt by over 17% in 6 months. A long, long way to go, but I'm gradually chipping away at it.

I have come here to chew bubblegum and clear debt - and I'm all outta bubblegum AKA the £83,000 saga

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