Compass debt company

[Wingco]

Re: Compass debt company

What like running a DM firm and paying ourselves not from profit dividends with other people's money which we have nicked, er had a computer cockup and lost.....?

It's not a bad idea. We have the experience. I'm sure we could do a better job than Solloway!!! And do it legally. It's strange how those who have a solid business idea often end up being a "bit dodgy"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Gilltheblackcat]

Re: Compass debt company

Hi Mox
or found some lucrative criminal activity:judge2:,


Wingco

What like running a DM firm and paying ourselves not from profit dividends with other people's money which we have nicked, er had a computer cockup and lost.....?

[Wingco]

Re: Compass debt company

oops - I posted a duplicate - apologies everyone.

Apology accepted - I read it twice! Both were equally interesting :duh:

[Wingco]

Re: Compass debt company

I hope this is in the right place, Compass told me that I had to settle with all creditors at the same time. I have a number of smaller creditors I could settle with relatively quickly allowing a larger monthly payment to the others. Is this a course of action worth following? Now that I am taking control back I want to do a better job than Compass did. Letters from creditors suggest they are sympathetic to the situation.

I am also a little worried that I may not have contact with some creditors who dealt solely with Compass. Hence a SAR to the administrator as due diligence.

For my DIY DMP,

Step 1 Letters to creditors along the lines of the template on here.

Step 2 Cancel letter to Abbey and Standing Order Cancellation.

Step 3 Produce spreadsheet to manage who and what and how much. Just done this and it is just as scary as it was when we started with Compass

Mox

Hi Mox

Brilliant and well done.

One of the limitations of most Debt Management Companies (DMCs) appears to be their insistence that we pay proportionate amounts to each creditor and settle amounts proportionately. Whereas, you and I, and no doubt many others, appear to favour clearing those that we can afford thereby minimising the work involved. Also, I'm intending offering Full & Final Settlements (FFS) to those who cannot comply fully with my CCA letters. Clearly, it would be different if we suddenly won the lottery, gained an inheritance or found some lucrative criminal activity:judge2:, and we would then be able to spread our funds 'fairly' to the Debt Collection Agencies (DCAs).

I agree fully with the 'financial spreadsheet'. Don't you wish you had done this before? I find it a great challenge every few weeks to update it and reduce my outgoings. My task today was to reduce my Electricity and Gas SOs. I discovered a massive credit balance on my account and called the utility company who immediately refunded £500, and reduced my monthly electricity SO to £30 from £60. That's going to look good on my spreadsheet.

What with further savings on Sky TV, car insurance and cancelling an appliance maintenance plan, I'm quids in this month, but I'm sure there is more to be saved.

AND IT's FUN!!!!!! AND WE ARE IN CONTROL, which is the most important thing.

By the way, don't lose faith in all financial institutions; there is a small organisation on the Isle of Skye, a family business, Wee Willy McFie, IFA and Small Baubles Manager. You can trust Wee Willy. The rest are "a bit dodgy". :laugh:

Wingco

[mox113]

Re: Compass debt company

oops - I posted a duplicate - apologies everyone.

[mox113]

Re: Compass debt company

I hope this is in the right place, Compass told me that I had to settle with all creditors at the same time. I have a number of smaller creditors I could settle with relatively quickly allowing a larger monthly payment to the others. Is this a course of action worth following? Now that I am taking control back I want to do a better job than Compass did. Letters from creditors suggest they are sympathetic to the situation.

I am also a little worried that I may not have contact with some creditors who dealt solely with Compass. Hence a SAR to the administrator as due diligence.

For my DIY DMP,

Step 1 Letters to creditors along the lines of the template on here.

Step 2 Cancel letter to Abbey and Standing Order Cancellation.

Step 3 Produce spreadsheet to manage who and what and how much. Just done this and it is just as scary as it was when we started with Compass

Step 4 CCAs to all creditors as part of the new management I need to make certain of everything.

That's it for now. I must also say that any trust I had in financial organisations is gone.

Hope you are all well

Mox

[danspence000]

Re: Compass debt company

Hiya and welcome.

We don't reccomend anyone going with Abbey. I don't know what you've been told of their 'services' or how they were presented to you but they are not a debt management company. None of what you pay Abbey goes to your creditors. Rather, they claim to look into whether the debts you owe might be unenforceable. In our view you're just throwing good money after bad. I would contact them and cancel any agreement you have with them and either set up your own self managed plan or use a free debt management service such as StepChange.

Thank you,

further reading and research has brought me to just the course of action you suggest.

I am posting my correspondance to Abbey and my creditors this afternoon.

Thank you for being here

[Wingco]

Re: Compass debt company

I have now signed up as a vip, once again I am so grateful for all of your help and advice it has been invaluable. Membership is a small price to pay and to be honest I thought it would cost more.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

Hi 5
I agree entirely. whilst we are all struggling with our finances, it is a small price to pay for the excellent advice we get for free on here. This website needs to keep going and fighting for consumer rights and having been on other consumer sites, there is absolutely no comparison; on one, I just got abuse for being a filthy debtor, and on another everyone is being told to stop payments to their DCAs. When you advise otherwise and point out the problem with doing this, you get people ridiculing your sensible comments. How on earth they keep anybody other than idiot trolls, I don't know.
One very well known consumer rights and financial advisor keeps advising people to swap to 0% interest Credit Cards but omits to mention the cost of the transfer, often 2-3%, and fails to point out that at the end of the interest free period you often end up on a very high SVR. In my case, it was two 0% transfers that ended up with 32-37.5% SVRs (the average at the time was nearer 19%, that got me deeper into trouble, and I couldn't get out of the cards. My interest was more than my monthly payment. But when you point this out you either get abuse or someone saying that "everybody knows the rates go up - are you stupid?" - of course I know the rates go up but I didn't expect over 30%. and hardly the point when you are faced with monthly payments you can't afford and then try to transfer to another 0% card - you won't be able to. So I think he is giving incredibly poor or incomplete advice and should include far more info on the pitfalls.
The worst advice I saw recently on this famous site was getting people who were struggling with their mortgages and were in arrears to apply to 2 companies that offered 3-year fixed rates at 2.9%, but the fees were over £2000 and they applied massive limitations (60% loan to value) such that there was no way someone in arrears would be approved. A complete waste of space; but it does make interesting reading and in my view, shows you exactly what not to do!
Keep everyone posted on your progress
Wingco

[Unlimited5]

Re: Compass debt company

I have now signed up as a vip, once again I am so grateful for all of your help and advice it has been invaluable. Membership is a small price to pay and to be honest I thought it would cost more.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

[Wingco]

Re: Compass debt company

Hi Debbie and Jackie and Welcome to the forum.


I was wondering Compass peeps in general - when you signed up with Compass did you actually complete any income and expenditure statements for them to assess your circumstances and work out your pro rata payments / disposable income at all ?

Hi Amethyst
When the Compass rep came to my home he asked I&E questions but often said "Don't worry about that" when mentioning irregular self-employed income, and he suggested raising my outgoings on dry cleaning, papers, magazines, car repairs, holiday fund, etc. so that my outgoings were very close to my income. But the final I&E that came through with the contract bore little resemblance to what I told him and the rent from one of my BTLs was missing (£858 per month) and my wife's pension of £600 per month was also overlooked (it was a joint DMP). There were a couple of duplications (house buildings and contents at £37 x 2) plus various other things that were certainly not covered in the interview. We corrected the data but did not get a revised I&E; it didn't make much difference as it was 'swings and roundabouts'. We subsequently sent through an annual update in early 2015 but again got no response from Compass. I now do regular reviews for my own peace of mind; it's very chastening! In fact only yesterday I reviewed a lot of my insurances (car, appliances, breakdown cover etc.) and saved over £500 p.a. Every little helps.
Wingco

[Wingco]

Re: Compass debt company

I am awaiting a response from Cabot. I will get one

Robinson Way added to my list. (Part of Hoist)

Hi Celestine
Any further news on this approach to the DCAs?
Wingco

[Unlimited5]

Re: Compass debt company

I think we are delighted for the 'free' help we get from you guys.

I'm going to raid my biscuit tin for some pennies to pay you.

Wingco

I am more than happy to contribute as well.... I am so pleased with all the help and advice I have received through this forum. I would glady have paid for it.

[Wingco]

Re: Compass debt company

As a Compass client of ten years with what appeared to be a pot of £20+K My ex and I are now back at square one. We did sign up with Abbey and are going to ask them to cancel on Monday (It's Friday today). Having read a part of this thread I think we will be best served by going it alone and creating our own DIY DMP.

The initial anger at Compass management has abated, but we know we need to act quickly to get out of Abbey and start writing to our debtors and DCAs as soon as possible. We have had time to reflect and our ignorance stopped us from asking more searching questions of compass.

We only hope that its not too late to get arrangements made. It was all so easy to forward all our letters to Compass, so now we are entirely certain that we know everyone we need to write to.

So now its time to search the forums and start out again ten years later and a lot of money wasted on somebody's yacht.

Hi Mox
It wasn't wasted on a yacht. The directors tended to buy Range Rovers and Porsches - in one case for sure, he bought one of each.
I wonder what car Rob Solloway's MP wife Amanda drove? I also noted at the Liquidator's meeting 30th March that none of them were wearing expensive watches, in fact quite the opposite...........................intentionally? Call me cynical but you don't run a company, drive a Range Rover and then wear a Casio or Timex.
Wingco

[Unlimited5]

Re: Compass debt company

Hi Debbie and Jackie and Welcome to the forum.


I was wondering Compass peeps in general - when you signed up with Compass did you actually complete any income and expenditure statements for them to assess your circumstances and work out your pro rata payments / disposable income at all ?

o but I seem to remember completing a very short income / expenditure form.
it was 10 years ag

[Wingco]

Re: Compass debt company

Have a listen to the Radio4 piece on this from last Wednesday. (6mins in)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0766g4x

Very good, and well done to Kati + one other - I didn't catch his name but he spoke very well.
I'm amazed Abbey is still taking money off people and I bet they are regretting ever going near this 'process'. I daren't use the 'S' word on here!! But Abbey has been getting away with taking large spurious amounts off ex-Compass clients which bear no relation either to the amount of work they are doing or likely to achieve in a year. One person is paying them £400 x 12 (£4,800) to write half a dozen CCA letters. And if you end up going to Court you have to [pay Abbey's Court attendance fees on top. Doesn't sound like a good deal to me.
Is there any news of the Solicitors Association (?) looking into Abbey? Do we need to do something to start the ball rolliing?
Wingco