Debt Compare Ltd

[Coconutmilk]

I am writing on behalf of a friend who has got himself into a mess and I’m trying to help him out. He entered into a debt management plan with Debt Compare 6 months ago and is paying them £80 per month to pay off his creditors with a total amount owed of £1000. He received a letter today from them saying that they will now start paying his creditors £40 per month of the £80 and that they are the contact point. He was under the impression the whole £80 was going to them - whereas it has just gone to Debt Compare for the last 6 months and he thought he had wiped half his debt! They also told him to ignore any letters he received from his creditors in the meantime! He’s in a bit of a state so I’m trying to help - is there anyway of pursuing this to get some of the £460 he has paid to his creditors?

[MIKE770]

Amethyst

[Amethyst]

These ? Www . Debt compare . Co . Uk / pbs. ( I've not linked directly on purpose )

Just check with him if it is they please first - also ask if he has a copy of any agreement with them and if he has signed up to any 'switching' utilities type schemes.

Also what the debts are that make up the £1k he owes. Payday loans, credit cards, overdraft etc ?

And when his next payment is due ( to debt compare )

He'll likely need extracting ( they're not FCA authorised - So far as I can see ) but let's check situation. If you have any letters /emails from them try get a copy. Particularly that most recent letter.

[Debt Camel]

He may have been referred to a genuine debt management company... it would be illegal for Debt Compare to run a debt management plan,

[Coconutmilk]

Amethyst it is the company you have linked. He has asked for a copy of all correspondence and they have asked him for £10 for these?

[Coconutmilk]

Oh and original creditors were EE and Very and he was passed on to Debt Compare by Lowells

[Amethyst]

Has he asked the under the data protection act ( as a subject access request ) ? They can charge a reasonable fee if the request is unreasonable - which it isn't.

SAR is

https://legalbeagles.info/library/gu...ccess-request/

ICO says

Can we charge a fee?

In most cases you cannot charge a fee to comply with a subject access request.

However, as noted above, where the request is manifestly unfounded or excessive you may charge a “reasonable fee” for the administrative costs of complying with the request.

You can also charge a reasonable fee if an individual requests further copies of their data following a request. You must base the fee on the administrative costs of providing further copies.

I doubt very much he was passed on to Debt Compare by Lowell I'm afraid ... however if he was, then it'd be in a phone call rather than in writing So might be worth a SAR to Lowell - specifically requesting that call recording if he can remember when it was.

Oh and original creditors were EE and Very

Presumably the Very debt is with Lowell - any idea how much it was and if he was already in communication with Lowell, he could simply have gone through his income and expenditure with them - they use the SFS ( standard financial statement ) and would get far more ( well, something ) by directly agreeing an instalment than sending him off to be screwed over by a unregulated debt management provider ( if that is the case ).

EE is a mobile phone debt at a guess? Was that with Lowell too? in which case same applies.

Have you seen any of the letters/documentation ? ( the FCA would be interested IF it is the case that Debt Compare are acting as a debt management co without being authorised )

[MIKE770]

debtcompare.co.uk

http://t.co/EBGnhYrCcF Debt Management & Debt Solution Fees Comparison Service. This is the twitter service for anyone seek debt help or advice.

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Contact

Devonshire Street North
M12 6JH
United Kingdom

[Debt Camel]

sorry but it is going to be MUCH easier if you suggest your friend posts here directly.

[Coconutmilk]

I will do that - thank you

[Debt Camel]

I will do that - thank you

Did you talk to your friend?

I have seen another reference to Debt Compare running DMPs and i would be interested to follow this up.

They are NOT allowed to charge £10 for a Subject Access Request. A SAR is a good way to find out what he has actually signed up to. If it turns out to be effectively a debt management plan, I would be thinking of;
- putting in a complaint to them and asking for a refund of his payments to date
- sending a complaint to ICAEW their regulator that they are running an unauthorised DMP
- and reporting them to the FCA for running an unauthorised DMP.

[dragonsfire]

Hi everyone,

By chance I came across this thread as I was also mislead into signing an agreement with Debt Compare- and am just about to extract myself- I would interested in what happened to the person referred to affected by this as a similar situation has occured, and as far as I'm aware they have probably snared quite a few people.. I only discovered by way of chance exactly what has been going on- because I had my details passed onto Debt Compare by a clone firm pretending to be Stepchange- "Stepschange.co.uk/ Step To Change" the clone firm has actually been named and shamed by the FCA here, their website has since been shut down after I also told the real Stepchange about them after only finding out I had never been dealing with the real stepchange after one of their staff told me on a Moneysaving expert thread- I have reported Debt Compare to Action Fraud as well who are part of the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, and the FCA are investigating them as well.

https://fca.org.uk/news/warnings/ste...uthorised-firm

Coconutmilk could you update us all on what has happened?

Regards

[CLS2015]

Dragons fire, I've just discovered a friend in the same situation.
How did you extract yourself from this?
Have sent friend in the direction of the real Stepchange

[Debt Compare]

DCL Statement for Legal Beagles
*
We refer to the post on the Beagle and elsewhere which references DCL receiving enquiries from a company who operated a website, which appears to have hijacked online enquirers searching for Stepchange, by adopting a domain name which closely mimicked that of Stepchange. For the record, we can only deplore such behavior, as taking unscrupulous advantage of the very people we have tried to help.
While we had entered into a marketing agreement with that company, we were completely unaware of the offending website, until it was drawn to our attention by a client in September of 2019. We promptly investigated the matter and immediately terminated our agreement with the company concerned and refunded the complainant gratis all of the money they had paid us.
Our agreement with that company had obliged them, firstly, to source enquiries in a legally compliant manner, expressly outlawing website infringements, and, secondly, (having informed the clients who we were, and a firm of accountants) to obtain an enquirer’s express authority before referring an enquiry to us.
We were as much the victims of this Company, as the enquirers they hoodwinked, as it has caused us considerable reputational damage and expense. Our rating on Trust Pilot over some 700 reviews was graded as ‘Excellent’.
A couple of isolated posts, purely on the basis of hearsay, have incorrectly referred to DCL offering enquirers Debt Management Plans. Our terms of business (which all clients received a copy of prior to sign up), plainly state that not only did we not, as accountants, offer DMP’s but strongly advise enquirers to consider very carefully entering into them (or indeed an IVA). We can only endorse statements in the mainstream press warning against the very DMP’s which are often advised by Stepchange and others. They can be subject to hidden charges and fees which are never properly disclosed to the client, saddle vulnerable people with agreements to repay debts over a considerable period of time, under which they end up making exorbitant repayments considerable in excess of their original indebtedness.
Our approach was fundamentally different, as plainly stated in our agreement with clients. We prepare a personal budget, having verified indebtedness with creditors, and calculated their disposable income (in a more realistic manner than standard criteria do) out of which repayments can be made. Moreover, and without additional charge, where a client requests us to do so, we try and negotiate a collective agreement with legitimate creditors for monthly repayment by the debtor. We neither receive repayments under such collective agreements, nor do we otherwise manage client funds – it is up to a responsible client to maintain payments for themselves. Where there is reasonable cause to believe that a debt may not be enforceable, or that a client may have a counterclaim or cause for complaint against a creditor, they are hot brought within the fold of such collective agreements; rather, the matter is referred to solicitors. In that critical respect, the service which we offer differs markedly from that offered by Stepchange.
We have nothing particularly against Stepchange, other than their liking for DMP’s, and their adherence to criteria calculating ‘disposable income’ which does not take sufficient account, in our view, of the financial realities of life. As we have long pointed out, Stepchange was/and is an organisation indirectly funded by the financial and lending institutions. You may draw your own conclusions from that.
We trust that we have clarified matters.
*

[dragonsfire]

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