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Creditors driving me crazy

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  • Creditors driving me crazy

    Despite having being caught out and lost my job twice during the recession I have, until quite recently, been able to just about manage my creditors. However, they are now driving me to distraction and it's all making me quite ill. They just don't get it! Any input at all would be greatfully accepted. Thanks

    Here is my current Financial Information:

    CURRENT MONTHLY INCOME
    Jobseekers Allowance £260.00
    Housing Benefit £415.40

    MONTHLY OUTGOINGS

    RENT £425.00
    TV Licence £12.12
    Bank Loan £20.22
    Life Ins £12.23
    Contents Ins £12.03
    Barclaycard £10.00
    Cap 1 CC £10.00
    Virgin CC £10.00
    A&L Loan £10.00
    Student Loan £10.00
    Council Tax £14.48
    Gas £26.00
    Electric £25.00

    TOTAL OUTGOINGS = £597.08

    MONTHLY BALANCE REMAINING FOR FOOD/TOILETRIES = £79.50

    WEEKLY BALANCE REMAINING FOR FOOD/TOILETRIES = £19.87



    BELOW IS SOME SOME CURRENT INFO AND REQUESTS FOR ADVICE
    NATWEST BANK MAY 2010 – Accepted my request for reduced payments of £20.22 (Financial Hardship Plan).This is valid for 6 months. At the end of 6 months they may consider extending this for a further 6 months. They have withdrawn Switch, e-transfers and cheque payments. This means I currently have restricted services available. I am currently making payments by Postal Order, I send everything recorded, check what date the letter was signed for and phone the Post Office to confirm ‘encashment’ of said Postal Orders

    BARCLAYCARD
    MAY 2010 – Wrote to them offered reduced monthly payments of £10.00
    Started making, and have continued the monthly £10.00 payments. I have had a fair few letters from Barclaycard and a couple from Mercers. Last letter received from Mercers 29 July 2010 ‘we appreciate this is a difficult time for you’ ……..’if you are unable to pay the amount required on your statements, you should pay the amount you originally offered of £10.00……..This will not prevent your account from being closed and registered at Credit Reference Agencies …..

    CAPITAL 1 CREDIT CARD (Where do I start??)
    March 2010 - Wrote to them offered reduced monthly payments of £10.00
    Started making, and have continued the monthly £10.00 payments. I have had numerous letters from them and countless, constant phone calls. Also have now started receiving letters from a company called f.t.c. (bottom of their letters in very small print ‘FTC is a trading division of CapQuest Debt Recovery Limited) I have not responded to these calls/letters from f.t.c.
    I have also (over the last few months) received 3 letters from CAP1 as follows: ‘We are unable to action your request because you have not provided a signature on your letter, or the signature that you have provided does not match the one we have on file. Please resend your letter with the correct signature. Also ‘We have been told that you have recently changed your address. We have not carried out the instructions because, under the Data Protection Act 1998 we can only take instructions from you to change your account details etc ……….
    2nd August 2010 CCA request and One Pound Postal Order sent recorded delivery. (Signed for by them on 04/08/10).
    I also asked them in my letter why they saw fit to pass my personal details and private customer account information on to a 3rd party, most especially because they are voicing their concerns to me (in writing) that they may not be dealing with the right person eg me!

    VIRGIN CREDIT CARD
    May 2010 MAY 2010 – Wrote to them offered reduced monthly payments of £10.00
    Started making, and have continued the monthly £10.00 payments. Initially I got a few letters from a company called Global Vantage and a few from ‘Aegis’. I ignored these letters. However, MBNA have started banging the drum a bit eg letters and phone calls ‘we need to speak to you etc. I am continuing to make £10.00 monthly payments


    ALLIANCE&LEICESTER
    I was making reduced monthly payments of £10.00 but during April 2010 they sent me a letter informing me that that my 'Loan Agreement has been terminated and that the outstanding balance will be either passed or sold to a debt collection agency for recovery of the outstanding balance’. Prior to that I received several letters form Wescot Credit Services Ltd.
    On 17th June 2010 I received a letter from Rockwell Debt Collection Agency ‘We have been instructed by Santander UK plc to contact you regarding the above account which remains unpaid. Your debt is now overdue and must be paid in full to these offices ………
    22 June 2010 I responded to Rockwell ‘Your company has contacted me……….. I have no knowledge of any such debt being owed by myself to Rockwell Debt Collection Agency……
    28th June 2010 I received a letter from Rockwell ‘We note your comments and have sought further information from our client. We will contact you again shortly……..
    6th August 2010 received (from Rockwell) a copy of the original Alliance and Leicester Loan Agreement and the following letter, Thank you for your letter received in our office on 5th August 2010. Please find enclosed a copy of the agreement in relation to the above account. Our files are closed for the next 14 working days to allow time for your investigation and further contact. If you have any queries ……… I have not yet replied to them. If my agreement is with Alliance and Leicester why should I pay Rockwell??
    Well, that’s the lot. All these guys are driving me crazy and making me ill. I can’t sleep properly, I don’t eat properly and I have a constant headache. I only go out of the door when I need to. I feel like a prisoner. So depressed (I am normally the one that bolsters everyone else up!) Would be very grateful for any tips as to how I can put a stop to this daily, constant harassment
    I am also starting to get very confused as to the different terminology that these people use:-
    BARCLAYCARD - ‘This will not prevent your account from being closed and registered at Credit Reference Agencies’. Right, I understand that bit BUT IF THEY CLOSE MY ACCOUNT HOW CAN I MAKE PAYMENTS TO MY ACCOUNT??
    ALLIANCE&LEICESTER - 'Your Loan Agreement has been terminated and that the outstanding balance will be either passed or sold to a debt collection agency for recovery of the outstanding balance’, Again, I understand that they have terminated my Loan Agreement . HOW DO I MAKE PAYMENTS ON A TERMINATED THE LOAN AGREEMENT? ?
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Here is a bit more relevant information:
    Lost my job twice (Both companies went Bust without notice) during the height of the Recession
    I am not a homeowner
    My rent is currently paid by Housing Benefit (Desperately seeking work, but Midlands area been decimated in the recession). I spend hours, every day looking for some ‘proper’ work)
    I have no savings or assets left at all
    I don’t drive (I don’t own a car)
    What little furniture etc I have is from charity shops
    ‘There is no more left from them to have and there is truly nothing to be had of any value, whatsoever’

    • I tried CCCS they advised me to go Bankrupt
    • I tried PayPlan and they advised me to contact my creditors and negotiate with them


    Any advice or tips, anything at all would be brilliant. I have tried my best to manage all this until I can find some work. I just can’t get any sense out of these people whatsoever. Thanks

    Pos
















  • #2
    Re: Creditors driving me crazy

    In reality you should only be making token payments of £1 per month. as clearly you cannot afford to pay more.

    Please see the folowing:
    http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/en...pbs-weekly.pdf

    When you fill out these forms, you must be realistic;
    most people omit many everyday expenses such as:
    laundry;
    telephone;
    postage/stationary;
    travelling, looking for work;
    haircut;
    general hygene requisites;
    clothing;
    etc...

    Call, http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/

    We woud like to hear more about your situation(s) but please contact the above first.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Creditors driving me crazy

      Welcome Pos xx

      Wow! I'm really impressed by the measured way you described your problems. You have been extremely organised in how you have dealt with these debts thus far.

      Many people join this site and haven't even started to list their incoming/outgoing income. You have accurately assessed your circumstances and have done everything to tackle these issues fairly.

      OK, firstly, relax. Stop worrying yourself sick about these debts. Letters and calls can be dealt with. Trust me, we have some really good letters to send them!

      They cannot get blood from a stone. You are surviving on £19 quid a week for food and toiletries, by the sound of you, your managing it somehow. There is nothing more to give and until you get a job, they are not going to get any more from you.

      I think you've done really well to manage the £10 per month payments. But you're probably paying far too much out of your income. The DCA's will lie and bully you to get as much from you as they can. They don't care if you cant afford to travel to job interviews, eat healthily or buy essentials, they will take everything and get you to believe they are more entitled.

      Have a read around the debt forums about dealing with debts, debt collection agents DCA's, and structuring debt to make it fairer and more manageable.

      Below is a link to our income/expenditure form. Fill that in, then we can work out what would be fair and manageable payments. Letters can then be sent to the various creditors to restructure or challenge these debts.

      Legal Beagles Consumer Forum


      Some debt specialists like Curlyben will pop along soon to help. The more you read, the more empowered you will feel. There are so many people in the same shoes as you are, we will help you get back some control and sanity!


      Good luck :beagle:
      "Although scalar fields are Lorentz scalars, they may transform nontrivially under other symmetries, such as flavour or isospin. For example, the pion is invariant under the restricted Lorentz group, but is an isospin triplet (meaning it transforms like a three component vector under the SU(2) isospin symmetry). Furthermore, it picks up a negative phase under parity inversion, so it transforms nontrivially under the full Lorentz group; such particles are called pseudoscalar rather than scalar. Most mesons are pseudoscalar particles." (finally explained to a captivated Celestine by Professor Brian Cox on Wednesday 27th June 2012 )

      I am proud to have co-founded LegalBeagles in 2007

      If we have helped you we'd appreciate it if you can leave a review on our Trust Pilot page

      If you wish to book an appointment with me to discuss your credit agreement, please email kate@legalbeaglesgroup. com

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Creditors driving me crazy

        I see you're paying £10 a month towards a Student Loan.

        Have you advised the S.L.C that your income has dropped below the required £16000 p.a.? They should then agree to further payments being deferred until your situation improves.



        CJ

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Creditors driving me crazy

          What are the balances on these debts?

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Creditors driving me crazy

            Originally posted by Emerald View Post
            What are the balances on these debts?
            and are there any charges on the credi ctards that you can reclaim i.e late payment charges, overlimit charges etc? Do you have PPI (payment protection insurance) on any of them which you could use to claim on?
            Is no longer here

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Creditors driving me crazy

              How are you sending your payments ? I noticed that you state that you are paying Nat West with a postal order and that you are sending letters via recorded delivery, if thats so then you are wasting money there with the charge for the postal order and recorded delivery. Pop yourself along to the Nationwide and open a Flex account (its ideal for people in your situation), you can pay all your bills/debts via BACS, also send your letters via 'signed for' post, it costs nothing apart from the stamp I do believe.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Creditors driving me crazy

                "also send your letters via 'signed for' post, it costs nothing apart from the stamp I do believe"

                Signed for letter £1.15 to post. I only know that cause I sent 2 off yesterday.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Creditors driving me crazy

                  Originally posted by shell View Post
                  "also send your letters via 'signed for' post, it costs nothing apart from the stamp I do believe"

                  Signed for letter £1.15 to post. I only know that cause I sent 2 off yesterday.
                  Blimey is that so, I thought that there was a free way to do it. Sorry my mistake.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Creditors driving me crazy

                    there is a free way, you get a Certificate of Posting from the Post Office. it means you have to hand your letters in over the counter rather than stick them in the postbox, and they don't get signed for at the other end, but you do have proof that you posted them. But if it's really important then i would say send them recorded, 2nd class recorded is £1.06 (332p for 2nd class stamp plus 74p for Recorded)
                    Is no longer here

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Creditors driving me crazy

                      Originally posted by WendyB View Post
                      there is a free way, you get a Certificate of Posting from the Post Office. it means you have to hand your letters in over the counter rather than stick them in the postbox, and they don't get signed for at the other end, but you do have proof that you posted them. But if it's really important then i would say send them recorded, 2nd class recorded is £1.06 (332p for 2nd class stamp plus 74p for Recorded)
                      Thats what I was thinking of ... Certificate of posting, I now know I am not going completely bonkers. Thanks Wends xxx.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Creditors driving me crazy

                        Some very good advice here but the bankruptsy advice by the cccs was bad advice indeed
                        If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of payments.

                        sigpic

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Creditors driving me crazy

                          Originally posted by shell View Post
                          "also send your letters via 'signed for' post, it costs nothing apart from the stamp I do believe"

                          Signed for letter £1.15 to post. I only know that cause I sent 2 off yesterday.
                          My last bunch cost £1.40!!!! coz my letters are to long lol :tinysmile_cry_t:

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Creditors driving me crazy

                            Thank you all so much for your responses - I am no longer alone!!

                            I am drafting a responce and will hopefully get it posted on the site tonight. Tnx

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Creditors driving me crazy

                              Awwww no you're definitely not alone on Legal Beagles! :beagle:

                              Look forward to hearing more xx
                              "Although scalar fields are Lorentz scalars, they may transform nontrivially under other symmetries, such as flavour or isospin. For example, the pion is invariant under the restricted Lorentz group, but is an isospin triplet (meaning it transforms like a three component vector under the SU(2) isospin symmetry). Furthermore, it picks up a negative phase under parity inversion, so it transforms nontrivially under the full Lorentz group; such particles are called pseudoscalar rather than scalar. Most mesons are pseudoscalar particles." (finally explained to a captivated Celestine by Professor Brian Cox on Wednesday 27th June 2012 )

                              I am proud to have co-founded LegalBeagles in 2007

                              If we have helped you we'd appreciate it if you can leave a review on our Trust Pilot page

                              If you wish to book an appointment with me to discuss your credit agreement, please email kate@legalbeaglesgroup. com

                              Comment

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