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Hi,
I recently was struggling with paying of some loans I had and I took out a debt management plan with a company called DFH. I have now paid off the debt but upon recieving a statement off accounts from them I noticed that there was £440 missing from the statement.
I contacted them and they informed me that under the terms and conditions they have taken this money. I was not informed this on the phone when we went over the debt management plan.
Terms and Conditions of Business V1401092013 1. Definition of Terms “You” means you the person entering into this agreement named in the payment plan “Us” and “We” means DFH Ltd, registered office Manchester House, 84-86 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 6NG Co. Registrations No 4581771 “Debt Management Plan” means the plan of repayments paid to your creditors through DFH Ltd. “Creditors” means all the businesses / people that you owe money to and who are included in your schedule “Period” means the period during which the Debt Management Plan is in operation “Initial Fee” means your first two monthly payments and a one off £70 charge which is paid by you to us for the preparation of the plan and which is not used to pay your creditors. “Monthly Payment” means the total payment made each month by you to DFH Ltd, to distribute between the creditors. “Monthly Repayments” means the total amount paid by us to the creditors each month “Monthly Management Charge” This is set at 17.625% or £35 (whichever is greater). 2. Agreement 2.1 You request us and we agree to act on your behalf, as debt advisors to provide the services offered in this agreement. The agreement shall begin once we have received the Client Authority Form or the initial payment in cleared funds. The agreement shall continue until the final repayment has been made to the creditors. 2.2. The agreement maybe cancelled by you at any time during the first 14 calendar days of the period. You can do this by writing to us at the address above or by telephone on 0161 233 6928. We will then refund you any cleared funds that have been paid to us. 3. Our Responsibilities 3.1 Based on the information provided to us by you, we will review your income, outgoings and expenditure. We will draft you a payment plan which suggest a monthly payment to the creditors which we believe you can afford. This suggested monthly payment will include the repayment to any creditors and also our fees. 3.2 We will notify your creditors of our agreement and attempt to agree with the revised terms. In particular we shall attempt to agree to freeze or reduce interest charges and that they withdraw any proceedings against you. 3.3. If your circumstances should change and you are not able to meet the monthly payments we shall review your financial situation and try and renegotiate with your creditors. We will revise the payment plan accordingly 3.4 We shall pay your creditors in accordance with the Debt Management Plan 3.5 All payments made to us will be paid into a Client Account which is separate to our own business accounts. At all times money held in this account to be paid to creditors will be classed as client monies. No interest will be payable on funds in the client account 3.6 During the negotiation process some creditors may continue to charge interest or other charges. We cannot always prevent these but they will be included to be paid off as part of the debt management plan. 3.7 Contractual payments shall not be met during the Debt Management Plan, particularly throughout the initial negotiation period due to the initial fees being paid to DFH Ltd. 3.8 The Debt Management Plan is likely to impact on your credit file with the result being you might not be able to obtain credit in the short term and that there is some likelihood that you may not be able to obtain credit in the medium to long term either. 3.9 Reduced payments to your creditors will affect your credit rating. 3.10 Your creditors may issue default notices which will register against you on your credit file. 4. Your responsibilities 4.1 You will provide us with the relevant information relating to your finances. This includes income and expenditure, your creditors and any agreements you may have with them, any loans, mortgages, any dependants and any judgments made against you. 4.2 It is your responsibility to supply your most recent wage slip when returning your signed documentation. 4.3 You will need to sign the authority forms and send in the initial payment 4.4 You will send any statements etc from creditors and any documentation regarding your creditors and the money you owe them. Once the debt programme has commenced you will agree not to use your credit cards or take out any loans. You will endeavour to keep to the expenditure set out in the plan and not incur any further debt. 4.5 You will inform us of any change in financial circumstances so that we can review the plan accordingly. 4.6 You will remain responsible for continuing to pay any secured loans, mortgages or hire purchase agreements and all household bills. 4.7 If you do not maintain regular monthly payments we will suspend action and any payments on your account. Your creditors may have to be informed that payments are not being maintained. This may result in your creditors continuing any legal action against you for which we cannot be held responsible. 4.8 You need to cancel any payment protection insurance and / or any charges applied to any account you hold where you are charged for use of that facility i.e. Monthly premium on your bank account. 5 Payment Terms 5.1 All received payments in cleared funds will be paid directly into our client account. From this payment we shall pay the agreed monthly repayment to the appropriate creditors and payment of our monthly management charge and any other agreed payment i.e. payment protection plan. 5.2 We shall distribute the agreed amounts to the creditors normally within 5 working days of receiving cleared funds. If there is a delay in this payment over and above 5 working days due to circumstances which are in our control then we shall make good any additional interest which may have arisen due to late payment. 5.3 The Initial payments made to DFH Ltd will be used to cover the preparation of the financial statement and confirmation of creditors’ accounts, written and verbal communication with creditors, negotiating the reduced payment plan. These payments will not go to the creditors; this will place your account into arrears or further arrears. If an IVA is appropriate the initial fee will cover the referral set up costs which include preparation of the documents for the Insolvency Practitioners proposal. 6 Termination of the agreement 6.1 You may terminate this agreement in the 14 days cooling off period as explained in 2.2 6.2 After the 14 day cooling off period you may terminate this agreement at anytime giving two weeks notice to the address above. In this instance we reserve the right to retain the initial fees. 6.3 You may terminate this agreement if the total fees payable differ significantly to the amount estimated at the beginning of the plan. This right to cancellation will not be available if there was any misrepresentation by you of your finances. 6.4 We may terminate this agreement at anytime by giving you two weeks prior written notice if any of the following happen You fail to make successive payments You are otherwise in serious breach or have persistently committed a series of minor breaches (even if any one individual breach would not necessarily be regarded as a serious breach on its own) You become bankrupt, file a bankruptcy petition, make an arrangement or composition with your creditors generally, or make an application to a court of competent jurisdiction for protection from your creditors generally. We are prevented from fulfilling our obligations by reason of force majeure. 6.5 It is your responsibility to cancel any payment method set with your bank, any payment received after
termination may be liable to a deduction equal to your monthly management fee. 6.6 If you are offered an alternative debt solution, you may be subject to a termination fee from your existing plan. 6.7 If for any reason we are unable to communicate or correspond with you for a sustained period of time we do reserve the right to terminate the agreement without notice. 7 when this agreement ends 1) our duties and obligations under this agreement will come to an end 2) You may within 30 days of the end of this agreement request us to return all paperwork received from you or your creditors that has been retained by us, after this period we reserve the right to securely destroy any paperwork we then hold. 3) Your liability to your creditors will continue to the extent that any amounts you owe to your creditors remain outstanding over and above the repayments made to them under the Debt Management Plan. 8 Data Protection Statement 8.1 We will collect personal information about you both directly from you and your creditors as authorised by your Client Authority Form. We may also collect further information as a result of managing your payment plan. 8.2 We will use your personal information to provide our services to you 8.3 We may also use your personal information to provide you with details of other products and services which we think may be of interest to you. In addition we may share these with select third parties and they may contact you directly to provide you details of such products and services. 8.4 Please let us know if you do not want us to disclose your personal information by writing to us at the above address. 8.5 Other than as set out above, we will only disclose your personal information to the extent required by law, court order or as requested by other government or law enforcement authorities or to any entity or company to who we either transfer or subcontract any or all of our obligations to. 8.6 At any time you may contact us to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. There will be a charge of £5.00 Is there anything I can do to challenge these high fees?
I recently was struggling with paying of some loans I had and I took out a debt management plan with a company called DFH. I have now paid off the debt but upon recieving a statement off accounts from them I noticed that there was £440 missing from the statement.
I contacted them and they informed me that under the terms and conditions they have taken this money. I was not informed this on the phone when we went over the debt management plan.
Terms and Conditions of Business V1401092013 1. Definition of Terms “You” means you the person entering into this agreement named in the payment plan “Us” and “We” means DFH Ltd, registered office Manchester House, 84-86 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 6NG Co. Registrations No 4581771 “Debt Management Plan” means the plan of repayments paid to your creditors through DFH Ltd. “Creditors” means all the businesses / people that you owe money to and who are included in your schedule “Period” means the period during which the Debt Management Plan is in operation “Initial Fee” means your first two monthly payments and a one off £70 charge which is paid by you to us for the preparation of the plan and which is not used to pay your creditors. “Monthly Payment” means the total payment made each month by you to DFH Ltd, to distribute between the creditors. “Monthly Repayments” means the total amount paid by us to the creditors each month “Monthly Management Charge” This is set at 17.625% or £35 (whichever is greater). 2. Agreement 2.1 You request us and we agree to act on your behalf, as debt advisors to provide the services offered in this agreement. The agreement shall begin once we have received the Client Authority Form or the initial payment in cleared funds. The agreement shall continue until the final repayment has been made to the creditors. 2.2. The agreement maybe cancelled by you at any time during the first 14 calendar days of the period. You can do this by writing to us at the address above or by telephone on 0161 233 6928. We will then refund you any cleared funds that have been paid to us. 3. Our Responsibilities 3.1 Based on the information provided to us by you, we will review your income, outgoings and expenditure. We will draft you a payment plan which suggest a monthly payment to the creditors which we believe you can afford. This suggested monthly payment will include the repayment to any creditors and also our fees. 3.2 We will notify your creditors of our agreement and attempt to agree with the revised terms. In particular we shall attempt to agree to freeze or reduce interest charges and that they withdraw any proceedings against you. 3.3. If your circumstances should change and you are not able to meet the monthly payments we shall review your financial situation and try and renegotiate with your creditors. We will revise the payment plan accordingly 3.4 We shall pay your creditors in accordance with the Debt Management Plan 3.5 All payments made to us will be paid into a Client Account which is separate to our own business accounts. At all times money held in this account to be paid to creditors will be classed as client monies. No interest will be payable on funds in the client account 3.6 During the negotiation process some creditors may continue to charge interest or other charges. We cannot always prevent these but they will be included to be paid off as part of the debt management plan. 3.7 Contractual payments shall not be met during the Debt Management Plan, particularly throughout the initial negotiation period due to the initial fees being paid to DFH Ltd. 3.8 The Debt Management Plan is likely to impact on your credit file with the result being you might not be able to obtain credit in the short term and that there is some likelihood that you may not be able to obtain credit in the medium to long term either. 3.9 Reduced payments to your creditors will affect your credit rating. 3.10 Your creditors may issue default notices which will register against you on your credit file. 4. Your responsibilities 4.1 You will provide us with the relevant information relating to your finances. This includes income and expenditure, your creditors and any agreements you may have with them, any loans, mortgages, any dependants and any judgments made against you. 4.2 It is your responsibility to supply your most recent wage slip when returning your signed documentation. 4.3 You will need to sign the authority forms and send in the initial payment 4.4 You will send any statements etc from creditors and any documentation regarding your creditors and the money you owe them. Once the debt programme has commenced you will agree not to use your credit cards or take out any loans. You will endeavour to keep to the expenditure set out in the plan and not incur any further debt. 4.5 You will inform us of any change in financial circumstances so that we can review the plan accordingly. 4.6 You will remain responsible for continuing to pay any secured loans, mortgages or hire purchase agreements and all household bills. 4.7 If you do not maintain regular monthly payments we will suspend action and any payments on your account. Your creditors may have to be informed that payments are not being maintained. This may result in your creditors continuing any legal action against you for which we cannot be held responsible. 4.8 You need to cancel any payment protection insurance and / or any charges applied to any account you hold where you are charged for use of that facility i.e. Monthly premium on your bank account. 5 Payment Terms 5.1 All received payments in cleared funds will be paid directly into our client account. From this payment we shall pay the agreed monthly repayment to the appropriate creditors and payment of our monthly management charge and any other agreed payment i.e. payment protection plan. 5.2 We shall distribute the agreed amounts to the creditors normally within 5 working days of receiving cleared funds. If there is a delay in this payment over and above 5 working days due to circumstances which are in our control then we shall make good any additional interest which may have arisen due to late payment. 5.3 The Initial payments made to DFH Ltd will be used to cover the preparation of the financial statement and confirmation of creditors’ accounts, written and verbal communication with creditors, negotiating the reduced payment plan. These payments will not go to the creditors; this will place your account into arrears or further arrears. If an IVA is appropriate the initial fee will cover the referral set up costs which include preparation of the documents for the Insolvency Practitioners proposal. 6 Termination of the agreement 6.1 You may terminate this agreement in the 14 days cooling off period as explained in 2.2 6.2 After the 14 day cooling off period you may terminate this agreement at anytime giving two weeks notice to the address above. In this instance we reserve the right to retain the initial fees. 6.3 You may terminate this agreement if the total fees payable differ significantly to the amount estimated at the beginning of the plan. This right to cancellation will not be available if there was any misrepresentation by you of your finances. 6.4 We may terminate this agreement at anytime by giving you two weeks prior written notice if any of the following happen You fail to make successive payments You are otherwise in serious breach or have persistently committed a series of minor breaches (even if any one individual breach would not necessarily be regarded as a serious breach on its own) You become bankrupt, file a bankruptcy petition, make an arrangement or composition with your creditors generally, or make an application to a court of competent jurisdiction for protection from your creditors generally. We are prevented from fulfilling our obligations by reason of force majeure. 6.5 It is your responsibility to cancel any payment method set with your bank, any payment received after
termination may be liable to a deduction equal to your monthly management fee. 6.6 If you are offered an alternative debt solution, you may be subject to a termination fee from your existing plan. 6.7 If for any reason we are unable to communicate or correspond with you for a sustained period of time we do reserve the right to terminate the agreement without notice. 7 when this agreement ends 1) our duties and obligations under this agreement will come to an end 2) You may within 30 days of the end of this agreement request us to return all paperwork received from you or your creditors that has been retained by us, after this period we reserve the right to securely destroy any paperwork we then hold. 3) Your liability to your creditors will continue to the extent that any amounts you owe to your creditors remain outstanding over and above the repayments made to them under the Debt Management Plan. 8 Data Protection Statement 8.1 We will collect personal information about you both directly from you and your creditors as authorised by your Client Authority Form. We may also collect further information as a result of managing your payment plan. 8.2 We will use your personal information to provide our services to you 8.3 We may also use your personal information to provide you with details of other products and services which we think may be of interest to you. In addition we may share these with select third parties and they may contact you directly to provide you details of such products and services. 8.4 Please let us know if you do not want us to disclose your personal information by writing to us at the above address. 8.5 Other than as set out above, we will only disclose your personal information to the extent required by law, court order or as requested by other government or law enforcement authorities or to any entity or company to who we either transfer or subcontract any or all of our obligations to. 8.6 At any time you may contact us to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you. There will be a charge of £5.00 Is there anything I can do to challenge these high fees?
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