Littlewoods Charges

[altrock]

Hi,

In early 2010 I opened up an account with littlewoods, I was working full-time and I thought it would be very useful to be able to pay a direct debit for X amount of months rather than save for months and months to get some new stuff for the bedroom as my girlfriend had just moved in.

Unfortunately by the end of 2010, the company I worked with had gone bust. The problem with that was that I myself was still living at home and things very quickly turned into "I can't afford for you and _____ to live here when your not working.

The eventual outcome was that my girlfriend moved back to her parents and after I had run out of savings I had no choice but to get a loan and hope that I found a job soon. I didn't find a job and ended up homeless for 7months...

During the 7months I didn't get a single call to my mobile from littlewoods and obviously I had no access to my mail which was going to my Mothers and since she kicked me out on the street we wasn't speaking.

At the time my littlewoods was £100 as I had paid almost all of it off by the time I had lost my job anyway. Fast forward and despite contacting them on one occasion and letting them know that I was homeless and couldn't receive their mail it seems they continued to send me mail and again I never received a call to my mobile which is how I advised them to contact me.

They then sold my debt on to a debt collector, who sold it to another company.

I'm now living with my girlfriend and littlewoods is now demanding £700 from me.

£600 of charges which they issued a £15 fine for every late payment and £20 fine for each time they 'tried to contact me'.

I've been to the CAB and explained everything very concisely to them and I told them it's not a case of having problems making the payments, more that I find it unreasonable to pay £600 of charges. I could pay the outstanding £100 any day I wanted but I'm not going to just roll over and hand over £600 extra.

As I mentioned I had to take out loans before I was kicked out and I even had to take out various 'pay day loans' so I could eat when I was on the street. All of those companies have been very helpful and I've paid off 3 already and I'm almost finished paying off the last loan I took out which was a Wonga loan. They froze interest and I've been paying them £100 a month for the last two months with one payment left.

Littlewoods have been unreasonable, unhelpful and ultimately I'm wondering if what they have done is in some way illegal because £600 in 7months is just a crazy amount of money...

What are my options?

[bluebottle]

Re: Littlewoods Charges

Hi Altrock,

Do you which DCAs have been playing Pass the Parcel with this outstanding amount and did you let Littlewoods know of your situation when it first became obvious you were going to have difficulty paying?

Please come back onto this thread with this information and we will see what help we can give you.

Bluebottle

[altrock]

Re: Littlewoods Charges

Hi Altrock,

Do you which DCAs have been playing Pass the Parcel with this outstanding amount and did you let Littlewoods know of your situation when it first became obvious you were going to have difficulty paying?

Please come back onto this thread with this information and we will see what help we can give you.

Bluebottle

Hi thanks for offering to help!

I can't find any of the original letters from the first company that they sold the debt on to... However it is currently with a company called Lowell Financial...

Also I didn't get in contact with them for about 3months after I got into difficulties... It wasn't that I didn't know it was a good idea, it was more due to not having any credit. After those 3months I did manage to get in touch with them when I offered to look after a friends house for 2 and a half weeks...

I explained I was either sleeping rough or couch surfing and that due to that I wasn't even able to get on to job seekers or anything similar. I also asked them to put on record that I wanted to pay, but I just wasn't in the position to pay anything at the current time.

I wouldn't even be totally unwilling to pay the late payment charges as when you get involved in a catalogue it's pretty evident you get into some form of contract where if you don't pay there will be charges.

But the charges that I received for them 'attempting' to contact me are what is stopping me from paying them currently as I'm aware that once I give them the money I wont be getting it back. It's not even just that I had explained I wasn't living there any more, it's more the fact that there was no real set limit to how many times they could say that and charge me for it... It's almost like literally conjuring a fine out of nowhere and then asking to be paid.

It has been a nightmare, for almost two years now I've been trying to piece my life back together and it's hard to recover from having had nothing and then when you even do get back on your feet you have people demanding immediate payments that are unreasonable.

Like I mentioned, I did go to the CAB and they set up a proposed agreement of 14.00 monthly payments which Lowell have agreed to and are waiting for me to call them and agree the arrangement. I'm stalling a bit there because even though I know I can pay more than 14.00 a month, that is still 50months of payments and I just want to move on with my life.

Plus if I agree, I don't feel there will be much of a chance of disputing anything.

Thanks

[bluebottle]

Re: Littlewoods Charges

Hi,

It would be worth speaking to Consumer Direct about Littlewood piling on late payment charges in the circumstances you describe as they may be in breach of their licence under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, if the agreement you had with Littlewoods is regulated by that Act. You might also like to contact the OFT Consumer Credit Licensing Department to see if Littlewoods are in breach of the CCA and/or the terms of their licence. If CD and OFT advise Littlewoods are in breach, the agreement CAB set up with Lowells may be toast or need to be re-negotiated.

Once you have spoken to CD and OFT, comes back onto this htread and let us know what you have been told. We will then see how we can help you.

Bluebottle

[altrock]

Re: Littlewoods Charges

Hi,

It would be worth speaking to Consumer Direct about Littlewood piling on late payment charges in the circumstances you describe as they may be in breach of their licence under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, if the agreement you had with Littlewoods is regulated by that Act. You might also like to contact the OFT Consumer Credit Licensing Department to see if Littlewoods are in breach of the CCA and/or the terms of their licence. If CD and OFT advise Littlewoods are in breach, the agreement CAB set up with Lowells may be toast or need to be re-negotiated.

Once you have spoken to CD and OFT, comes back onto this htread and let us know what you have been told. We will then see how we can help you.

Bluebottle

Will do! Thanks a lot!

[labman]

Re: Littlewoods Charges

Hi,

There is no point contacting the OFT directly as they will not comment on individual cases. If you can keep questions generic, they may answer, but they are reluctant to say the least.

I find it difficult to understand why CAB have not at least made an attempt to get some of your charges removed.

Have Littlewoods now agreed to freeze all interest and charges? A repayment arrangement is not a contract, and you (or they) can back out of this at any time. If you are repaying something, it may actually strengthen your case, though be sure to start negotiating straight away as the original debt will be paid off very quickly.