Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

[enaid]

They want their money back

With the credit crunch affecting everyone, `Panorama' reveals the lengths some lenders are now going to in order to get borrowers to pay off their debts. Reporter Paul Kenyon meets a woman threatened with repossession over a sofa, and a couple who have exploited loopholes in the law to have thousands of pounds worth of debt written off.

[Tools]

Re: Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

...........and a couple who have exploited loopholes in the law to have thousands of pounds worth of debt written off.

Oh god, please don`t let it be Basil Rankin...... or worse..........Cartel.

[michael]

Re: Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

Oh god, please don`t let it be Basil Rankin

Unfortunately, it is:

Careful With Your Cash!: Want Your Money Back...??

Free 30 minute advert on prime time TV

[natweststaffmember]

Re: Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

Unfortunately, it is:

Careful With Your Cash!: Want Your Money Back...??

Free 30 minute advert on prime time TV

Oh GOD! I thought it was worth watching....Is Corrie on at that time?

[Amethyst]

Re: Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

Panorama reporter Paul Kenyon explains how far some creditors will go to get their money back
As a nation we've racked up nearly £1.5 trillion of personal debt, and are increasingly falling behind with payments on our credit cards, overdrafts and bank loans.
But now many financial institutions - also strapped for cash - want their money back and they are calling in specialist companies to chase up non-payers.
Panorama's Can't Pay, Won't Pay looks at how lenders are using the courts to retrieve their money, while some people are refusing to pay a penny back.
One couple, who claim the law is on their side, managed to avoid paying almost £100,000 out of their £120,000 debts.
After studying the Consumer Credit Act, Basil and Amanda Rankine looked for a number of potential slips in their credit agreements.
These included checking that the correct APR was included, that the forms had actually been signed and that the lenders had kept a copy of the paperwork.
Tougher tactics
The Rankines said they wrote to their credit card firms and managed to get a total of £37,000 written off.




Take the debt test

Following this success, they decided to take some of their other creditors to court. But it proved to be a step too far. In the High Court, the judge dismissed the case and said they were trying to wriggle out of debt.
A legal technicality meant that as their lenders hadn't pursued their claim in the courtroom, they could no longer enforce the outstanding debts.
But while they'd avoided repaying nearly £100,000 in debt, the Rankines now face a legal bill of almost the same amount.
Creditors are using tougher tactics to make debtors pay back their debts - with a recent surge in applications for charging orders.
These court orders enable lenders to secure bad debt on plastic and on loans against borrowers' properties.
When unsecured loans become attached to the sale of a house, the debtor is obliged to pay off a chunk of the debt if they ever sell up or re-mortgage.
However, some lenders are now unwilling to wait, and are applying for an 'order for sale' which forces the property-owner to sell up straight away and pay off their debt from the capital.
Bad debt
In the first six months of this year alone, UK banks and building societies wrote off £1.8bn in bad consumer debts for various reasons.




1st Credit statement
Britain in the Red: Your Questions Answered

Chasing bad debt is time-consuming and expensive and lenders are increasingly opting to sell on our bad loans at a knockdown price to firms that specialise in debt collection.
One of the industry's largest debt purchasers is 1st Credit. It says it acquires 12,000 new debtors every month, and claims to be sympathetic to those who genuinely cannot pay.
However, when Leanne Blurton had to deal with her stepfather's financial problems after he was committed to a psychiatric hospital, she found it didn't live up to that claim.
While other creditors suspended repayments, 1st Credit was the only one to refuse to freeze his account. Instead, it continued to take £54 a month. In a series of phone calls, Ms Blurton is asked to provide evidence of her stepfather's illness but when she does, she is then told repeatedly there is still nothing the company can do to help.
When Panorama contacted 1st Credit, it apologised to Ms Blurton and said in a statement:
"We're very sorry that our actions have caused him and his daughter considerable distress.
"1st Credit is re-training staff members concerned and issuing clearer guidelines to all staff regarding the handling of cases such as this."
1st Direct have now frozen his account.
Sale threat
Driving charging orders through the courts is a new breed of debt collector, which do not purchase debts, but pursue them.
Malina Bergeman found that her £1,700 sofa shot up to £6,200 after interest and penalty charges were added.
She bought the sofa on a 'pay nothing for a year' deal, but by the time the year was up had lost her job and was struggling financially.
A debt charity advised reducing monthly re-payments on the sofa from £121 to £40. She took its advice. But Creation Finance - which operates Land of Leather's credit agreements - demanded the entire amount owed, and then applied for a charging order on Ms Bergeman's home.
The company went further and threatened her with an order for sale.
Her father was forced to step in and paid a settlement of £4,700… using a credit card.
However, consumer advice agencies say they are dealing with rising numbers of applications, which puts those in debt increasingly at risk of losing their homes.
Panorama: Can't Pay, Won't Pay will be on BBC One on Monday 10 November at 8.30pm

[Tools]

Re: Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

Unfortunately, it is:

Careful With Your Cash!: Want Your Money Back...??

Free 30 minute advert on prime time TV

I was actually joking Michael ffs, but thank you for telling me. I do hope that Panorama show Mr Rankine and co. for the greedy ambulance chasing scum that they are and how the court awarded huge costs against them. I best order a new TV right now as I don`t think the screen will last too long tonight.

[Curlyben]

Re: Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

Fecking sh!te reporting as ever.
Admittedly it did show the DCA's in a "good" light

[Amethyst]

Re: Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

grrr Basil Rankine...wish his girlfriend had carried on her explanation of why she thought they were entitled to borrow and not pay back. Glad they picked up that can't pays affect everyone else, shame they didnt mention much about the legal changes to increase charging orders and why they are so darn prevalant now - or stat demands. The examples were a bit pants too, could have gone a lot deeper. A sale order over 20k on a guy that has 8 propertys really isnt going to instill sympathy.

Anyway interesting, and nice to see Andrew on there.

And have the OFT actually acted on Greenhalghs now ? that website is pretty disgusting...who was it had an issue with them (scars friend I think) - they were right gits lol.

[EXC]

Re: Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

grrr Basil Rankine...wish his girlfriend had carried on her explanation of why she thought they were entitled to borrow and not pay back. .

I know! She was gobsmackingly unconvincing.

[Curlyben]

Re: Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

Least Basil admitted they where trying to AVOID debt !!!

[michael]

Re: Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

And have the OFT actually acted on Greenhalghs now ?

Not so far it seems. The 'We will hound you' is still on their website:
http://www.greenhalghs.net/faq1.htm

[Guest]

Re: Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

I suppose they think that they are being clever. It is interesting that the image they have chosen for their homepage is a snake and, somewhat fittingly, snakes feature elsewhere on their website too.

[Amethyst]

Re: Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

ahh this post Legal Beagles (excuse my language on that post btw)
There, we thought similar of them then too.

[natweststaffmember]

Re: Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

Have you seen the legal bit at the bottom of their home page?

"North West based Greenhalghs Solicitors are a firm of commercial solicitors specialising in Commercial Litigation and aggressive debt recovery. Operating from a Wigan office base, particular areas of legal expertise cover Leasing, Credit & Hire, Financial, Supply of Goods & Services, Transport and IT. The principal solicitors at Greenhalghs have broad experience in Commercial Litigation and contentious matters. Greenhalghs solicitors was set up in April 2000 with a vision of improving the commercial debt recovery services offered to clients. "

Bold bit is mine not theirs.

[Amethyst]

Re: Panorama BBC tonight 8.30

Just thinking about Basil (not what i expected at all btw - i was more fawlty towers lol) at the end the reporter guy (sorry dont know his name) said something to the effect that if Basil hadnt tried to set a legal precendent with his claims he would probably be debt free by now.....I hope thats not seen as an encouragement to use the CCA to get out of legitimate debt by the wont payers in society.