Help Please

[sandboy]

Hi I Need Help For My Son. He Has Been Out Of Work Since Xmas Started On Jobseekers Allowance Middle Of Feb. He Has 2 Unsecured Loans And An Overdraft With The Same Bank. Although He Has Sent Letters Explaining His Situation Along With An Income And Expenditure Form And Has Been Paying £1 Per Fortnight For Each Debt They Have Passed Him On To Debt Collectors. They Phone The House 3 Times A Day When They Have Been Told To Phone His Mobile Only (he Has Also Had Outgoing Calls On His Mobile Stopped As He Owes Them Also).he Is Unable To Pay Any More. Can You Help Please?

[scoobydoo]

Re: Help Please

bumping your question up as it may have got missed

[Sapphire]

Re: Help Please

Hi Sandboy,

Here take a look at this forum Debt Template Letters - Legal Beagles there are template letters you can adapt to suit your situation.
Also there is a template letter for telephone harrassment, send a copy to all of the creditors and hopefully all the calls will stop within a few days, what you should aim to do is deal with everyone in writing only.
Now, what kinds of debt does he owe ?
Is there a possibility that there are charges that can be claimed back.
Try to put up as much information as possible and we can do all we can to help your son.

[sandboy]

Re: Debt Help Please

He has 2 loans which he now owes around £18000 then there are charges on top which they keep adding even though he has asked them to stop all charges until his situation improves.
His overdraft is £2800 and they are still adding interest even though he has also asked for this to be stopped until his situation improves.
As for the telephone calls as well as being a nuisance they are charging £10 for each account that they phone about.
They refuse to contact only by post as they claim they have to talk to him in person to make sure he can pay the amount he has promised.
(myself i think they are checking to make sure he is not lying to them about being out of work)
Letters have been sent by post,email and fax but they claim not to have received some of them.

Sandboy

[WendyB]

Re: Help Please

Which bank is this?

He needs to write to them, putting the account into dispute, this should stop the charges. Write to the DCAs and request a detailed breakdown of amounts owing, tell them the account is in dispute etc. Also put in the letter something along the lines of "please be advised that all matters relating to this alleged debt should be in writing only and I will not be entering into any discussion by telephone" If you have a look in the template letter from the link Sapphire posted above you will get a better idea.

[sandboy]

Re: Help Please

Halifax is the bank or building society whichever you prefer.
Albion is the name of the DCA.

Can you please tell me how to put his accounts into dispute have never done this before and want to do it right.

Also does he wait to send letter saying the accounts are in dispute until the dispute letter has been sent and accepted?

They refuse to accept that they cannot talk to him they claim it is their right he has asked them to put everything in writing but they still insist on phoning which is clocking up the charges.

Please advise

sandboy

[Tools]

Re: Help Please

I would also suggest that he sends a SAR requesting ALL information that Halifax keeps on him. As for making payments of £1/fortnight had this been previously agreed with the Halifax?

Has he completed an income and expenditure form at their request? If not then I suggest he completes one ASAP, one can be found in our library.

That way he will be able to work out how much he can reasonably afford to offer his creditors, include ALL debts he owes.

We can then review his options and give you/him more assistance in dealing with this.

[Sapphire]

Re: Help Please

Sandboy sent them this letter below to stop the phone calls, and if they carry on calling you then report them

Re: TELEPHONE HARASSMENT


ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXX

Dear Sir/Madam

I am writing to complain about the high number of telephone calls I have received from your company.
Despite a verbal request to stop these calls, I am still being contacted and I deem this to be personal harassment.
I now request that ALL further contact from your company be by letter only.

I believe that your continued harassment of me by telephone places you in breach of Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

If you continue to harass me by telephone, you will also be in breach of the Communications Act (2003) s.127 and I will report you to OFCOM, Trading Standards and The Office of Fair Trading, which could result in a substantial fine against your company.

Be advised that any further telephone calls from your company will be recorded.


Yours faithfully,

Here's a letter for the account being in dispute.

ACCOUNT IN DISPUTE

Dear Sir/Madam,

Your ref:


Thank you for your letter of **DATE**, the contents of which are noted.


I am disputing the total value of these debts with ********* due to unlawful and unreasonable charges. As such, therefore, I consider this account to be in dispute and no further action or payment shall be made until this matter is resolved.
As per OFT guidelines Section 2.8k "not ceasing collection activity whilst investigating a reasonably queried or disputed debt."

This process may take some time, due to the Office of Fair Trading's test case, but I will try to expedite this issue as a matter of urgency.

Consequentially any legal action you pursue will be averred as both UNLAWFUL and VEXATIOUS.

After taking advice, I am of the opinion that your continued pursuit is in violation of the Administration of Justice Act 1970 section 40, Protection from harassment Act 1997 section 3 as well as breaching a number of the OFT Collection Guidelines.

I reserve the right to report your actions to any such regulatory authorities as I see fit.
You have 14 days from receiving this letter to contact me with your intentions to resolve this matter which is now a formal complaint.

I hope that you will enter into a sincere dialogue with me about this matter and I am writing this letter to you on the assumption that you would prefer to do this than merely respond with standard letters and leaflets.

I would appreciate your due diligence in this matter.

I look forward to hearing from you in writing.

Yours

[natweststaffmember]

Re: Help Please

Just to add to this, make sure once the telephone harrassment letter is sent that your son logs all calls he receives because that may be important evidence of their failure to comply with the "no telephone calls" letter.

[TUTTSI]

Re: Help Please

Here is a link to the Income and expenditure schedule http://legalbeagles.info/forums/showthread.php?t=5102

Does he have any bank charges, which he might be able to be reclaimed under the FSA waiver rules, this will be in addition to any other charges from other companies.

[sandboy]

Re: Help Please

Please ignore my ignorance but what is an SAR?
The payments of £1 were agreed by telephone nothing in writing.

He has sent an income and expenditure form by post,email and fax they claim to have received the one by email only and have replied by post asking him to call them to discuss the contents on an 0870 number which he cannot do.

He has £208 per month income and £225 per month expenditure this does not include the money paid to them each fortnight.

Can you please tell me how he puts his debts into dispute? the letters posted will be helpful but only once the dispute is in place.

His bank charges total over £300 so far he was going to try to reclaim them but was unsure if he could as he was paying them the agreed amount asked for.

sandboy

[Amy]

Re: Help Please

Please ignore my ignorance but what is an SAR?

Subject Access Request, which should be sent to the bank as opposed to the DCA.

The payments of £1 were agreed by telephone nothing in writing.

This is why everything should be kept to writing only, despite the fact that they can and are claiming they must speak to him in person. Nothing in writing benefits the DCA as there is no proof.

Can you please tell me how he puts his debts into dispute? the letters posted will be helpful but only once the dispute is in place.

By disputing what he owes, in writing.

[Sapphire]

Re: Help Please

Sandboy he needs to send of an SAR as in post #1 in this link Legal Beagles each one needs a postal order of £10 as it is the fee payable. Once he has sent of the SAR he then writes again with the letter I posted in #7 entitled ACCOUNT IN DISPUTE that will hopefully hold them off till the paperwork returns and we can see what can be claimed back as in charges etc.
If you type out the letters for your son then its advisable not to sign the letters but to use the 'signature font', as some DCA's have been known to lets say 'cut & paste' if there is no signature.
In the meantime please get your son to fill in an income and expenditure form found here Legal Beagles and you can either send it to me via a private message or post it up here on the thread, hopefully we can help and advise your son and guide him towards getting things straight.

[sandboy]

Re: Help Please

My son has received a letter from the bank today agreeing to his payments for his bank account(its only taken 3months for them to reply).
They do not however state if all charges and interest will be stopped as he requested.
For now the telephone calls have stopped regarding the loans without having to send any letters.
As for sending an SAR he has no money to do this but he has all the letters they have sent with the charges and interest on can he use these to work out what he can reclaim?

sandboy

[TUTTSI]

Re: Help Please

My son has received a letter from the bank today agreeing to his payments for his bank account(its only taken 3months for them to reply).
They do not however state if all charges and interest will be stopped as he requested.
For now the telephone calls have stopped regarding the loans without having to send any letters.
As for sending an SAR he has no money to do this but he has all the letters they have sent with the charges and interest on can he use these to work out what he can reclaim?

sandboy

Yes of course you can use these letters. Put them on a spready which you will find a template in the library.