Its All Going Pear Shaped

[italy]

hI I HAVE JOINED TODAY AFTER STUMBLING ACROSS THIS SITE WHILE TRYING TO INVESTIGATE RECLAIMING CREDIT CARD BALANCES IN LINE WITH THE CONSUMER CREDIT ACT. SHOULD WE DO IT? WE ARE HEAVILY IN DEBT AND I CAN SEE NO WAY OUT OF IT CONSEQUENTLY MY MARRIAGE IS SUFFERING. I FEEL SO ALONE AND GUILTY THAT I LET MYSELF GET INTO THIS MESS. THE BANK DOES NOT WANT TO KNOW AND IN FACT LEFT US A NEGATIVE RETURN TO OUR REMORTAGE APPLICATION ON THE ANSWERPHONE! READING SOME OF THE OTHER THREADS HAS MADE ME SEE THERE ARE OTHERS IN THIS AND I NEED TO BE STRONG HOW DO YOU ALL MANAGE I? AT THE MOMENT I GO TO WORK, COME HOME ,FEED THE FAMILY AND THEN SPEND THE REST OF THE NIGHT TRYING TO MAKE THE FIGURES LOOK BETTER.

[rory32]

Hi italy and welcome to CAG.

Who are your credit cards with and when did you take them out?

Do you have a lot of charges on the accounts?

[italy]

Thank you. We have cards with mbna,capital, barclay egg and hsbc and halifax. All taken out before 2006 and some in 1999. We are looking at going with a company to see if they are enforceable. But it is an upfront fee of 1000 and they say no solicitors fees. Is there a catch?. I suppose though it is the last option as we now have too much going out than in.In january we tried to remortgage and consilidate the then much smaller debt on to it,this we would have been able to afford. The banks would not listen so all year we have had to use cards to get through the month.The debt has increased. There are charges on the accounts but can we reclaim them? Also the interest each month on some is more than the monthly payment Catch 22 or what!
I feel so guilty as how did i let it come to this

[rory32]

We are looking at going with a company to see if they are enforceable. But it is an upfront fee of 1000

Alternatively you could just post the agreements on here (removing personal details first) and people can tell you if the agreements are enforceable or not for free.

[italy]

Help help. What do you do whenthe bank cancels all direct debits that have been set up, apparantly has reissued the bank card so we cannot write cheques. When i ring i get a really rude, unhelpful woman who is not interested in the fact i have been with them since being a child or that yesterday i spent 1 hour talking to their help section re the circumstances. They just do it no warning so that i can sort out the direct debits due to go out. I feel so angry and upset. Any advice

[rory32]

It sounds like you need to open another bank account with another bank. If you have a poor credit rating go for a basic one as you probably won't be able to open a current account.

[italy]

looking at other banks. I felt really down yesterday i just want it to get better. if we could have remortgaged it would of. But today i feel like fighting. so i will pursue the credit cards. I wrote to hsbc last year re bank carges and they said it was on hold. so i have left it should i do more? it is really helpful just being able to post a thread on this site as it is hard at home when i have a young family and work late hours. Knowing others are fighting and suceeding is great. so thank you

[rory32]

The bank charges won't be refunded at the moment but it doesn't stop you from filing a claim at court. Although your claim will be stayed it stops the limitation clock on your claim if any of the bank charges are getting near the 6 year limit. Also if you file at court then they wouldn't be able to take you to court over the overdraft as you would have a stayed claim against them.

[italy]

how do i file a claim and do i readjust the charges from the last letter i sent them to include the charges in the last year

[rory32]

If you have a read of the links I have posted it will explain the step by step process for reclaiming bank charges.

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/faq.php

3. Letter before action - Consumer version - asking for it back

4. Particulars of claim - N1 - updated version now available

do i readjust the charges from the last letter i sent them to include the charges in the last year

Yes.

[KJD]

Originally Posted by rory32

Do you have a lot of charges on the accounts?

Charges on your credit cards are not being held up re the bank charges case. So you can start reclaiming those now. It can be very straight forward. When I claimed my charges back from Barclaycard, all I had to do was to write some letters. They refunded my card in full and that's meant the balance went down, so my repayments are less. I'm sure that will help you in the short term

Best place to start is to get all the paperwork out you have for all your cards, etc. Sort out all statements and letters out into date order and then we can help you tackle each one. If it's specifically charges you are looking at reclaiming to start with, go to the relevant section of this forum, start a new thread for each card / bank and the good people here will talk you through claiming back the charges. You'll have to do a bit of work to get this going, but even just sorting your paperwork out is a great start and I promise you, it will give you a more positive feeling about your finances.

If you want to take things a step further, you can get help here to see if your original credit agreements are indeed enforceable. That's a decision for you to take. Personally, I have got a couple of cards on hold while the card companies try to find my original agreements but I know I'll have to repay them eventually. But it's giving me a breather to get the others paid off first, especially now the balances have been reduced re the charges being refunded.

You'll find all the help you need on this site to do all of the above... my opinion is (FWIW), don't go giving any of your hard-earned money to someone else for doing something you can do yourself

Just shout if you need any more help getting started...

[KJD]

Originally Posted by italy

We have cards with mbna,capital, barclay egg and hsbc and halifax

So we can start with those...

Originally Posted by italy

I feel so guilty as how did i let it come to this

DON'T - we've all either been there or are still there. That's how come a lot of us are on this site. But you've taken the first steps to taking back control!

Personally I have so much to thank this site for - card charges, bank charges, help with driving fine, help getting compensation from BT, help refuting an enormous water bill - the list is endless..

Your own experiences and results will empower you and you'll be able to help others who come looking for help as well.

[italy]

Thanks for all the advice. I need to get statements from the credit cards as i have not kept copies. Should i use a particular letter. I am going to resubmit the bank charges info and add on this last year and take off 2001/2. So i will start again.

[KJD]

Glad you've come back, italy.

If you haven't got all your statements, you'll need to send an S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) to each company. Have a read here and you can adapt the letter to suit (ie change details from bank to credit card etc). If you get stuck, I've got the one I sent to Barclaycard (but not on this computer). You'll need to send £10.00 to each one though for this, so you might need to prioritise which one(s) you think you might have the most charges on (esp as it's so near Crimbo!)

1. Data Protection Act, Subject Access Request letter - List of charges

Make sure you send the letters by either recorded or special delivery, and diary the 40 day deadline so you can chase them up if they do not respond in time.

Once you've decided which one(s) you are going to start with, go to the Bank Action Group section and start a new thread for each card / account, eg 'italy v mbna' would go here...

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/mbna/

Even if you just start by posting "sent my Subject Access Request off today", you'll receive encouragement, and when the paperwork starts to come in, you can check your facts, figures etc and get advice on your next step.

In the meantime, start at the top of the main forum page, have a good read of all the facts etc, and have a look round the different bank forums to see what others have encountered. Any questions, ask in your new thread(s).

Again, shout if you need anything else... and stay with us

Karen

[angel_1]

hello italy

i just wanted to say hiya,,, i understand your first post i was like that about 6 months ago, but now im so much more relaxed about stuff and knowing my rights really does help you stay more focused and positive

fab advice already given and i just wanted to show my support

and keep strong we will all continue to help you,

those companies that charge this upfront fee, i know that when i spoke with my local trading standards they were looking into these companies,

we can see if what you get back from your card companies is enforceable or not, and its basically what these companies do, the one i looked into just for curiosity said they wouldnt get any defaults removed only help us in applying to get them removed, - well i dont trust them and id rather go with the experienced caggers here than them

thats just my view, so stick with us and we will help you

take care ciao for now MAZ

[AA99]

Hi Italy, I am a friend of Maz, post below, and can't repeat enough what was said to you. I only joined in September after nearly 6 desperate months with 8 creditors!!!!! I couldn't tell you what a relief it was to find this site and the knowing that I wasn't the only one! You will be fine on here. Don't take to heart too much of various phone calls and threatening letters you will receive. Read as many individual cases as you can, it will take hours, your mind will boggle, your family will be knarked that you spend so much time on your PC but take it one step at a time..... you will feel so much more confident soon when you know your rights. I've just won my first case and it feels great - Consumers have rights too!! Not just the big bully fat cat banks that are now tumbling down......

Take heart and be strong, we all get through all this together!