Hi. I've had nothing but good advice from this group in the past, and could really do with some again please.

My wife phoned 123 Debt Solutions, and arranged a DMP with them. When I found out, I looked online and found many recommendations for the free payplan.com, and she has now decided to arrange the DMP with them instead.

Problem is, she gave 123 DS her debit card number, and now that the pack has arrived from them in the post, I notice that in the T&Cs, it says:-

3.10 By providing your card details for your 1st payment, You have entered into an agreement and You will be liable for 1st payment into the Plan. Should You not wish to enter into the Plan and require a refund, please return Your unsigned documents to Us, accompanied by a cancellation letter. Please see section 5.3 of these terms.

5.3 If You wish to cancel the agrement, You must do so within seven days of making a payment in order to receive a refund. If We have already disbursed funds to the creditors on behalf of the client, a refund will not be issued.

Note that she has not signed anything, and never authorised any payment to be taken, she simply provided over the phone information she was asked for, but now I'm concerned that they will take the money from her account without permission.

Can anybody assist with a suitable cancellation letter. Many many thanks.

Send them back and make sure you send them rec or reg. at once!

Check that they have not taken anything out and if poss. get her to cancel the card and ask for a new card no. asap. if you can do this before anyone trys to take money then it will cut out the long process of having to get the refund

As for the cancellation letter just state that you have decided to not to use their services ....thank you.

No need to elaborate but do point out that the date.

I think you should also write to your bank confirming that this company no longer has permission to take money from account. If necessary, you are going to have to ask for a new card.

Many thanks spots1 and citizenB

Keep us informed ...hope you have been able to start the process

Thanks spots1. Will keep updating with anything that may be of use to others.

Recieved paperwork from Payplan today, but unfortunately they listed our tax credits wrong, forgot to list council tax as an outgoing, and forgot to list my wife's disability living allowance, so have to call them on Monday.

i have had the same problem with this company, unlawfully taking money from my account for a service i have not recieved as i cancelled it, £82.00 lighter now, been on to the financial ombudsman, as these people were supposed to help you out of debt not put you in it!! go to payplan they are run by the goverment and 100% goes to your creditors,

steer clear of these 123 debt solutions are a joke!!!

Thanks oasisyoungy. She went with payplan, and all seems good so far.

steer clear of these 123 debt solutions are a joke!!!

Too right they are. We just received their welcome pack and reading very small print it seems they would offer their services (which consists of them sending a few letters out) to us for the bargain price of £25 PER MONTH,! That would double the debt we are in

Needless to say they can shove their service where the sun doesn't shine.

BE VARY CAREFULof this so called "solution", nowhere on their website does it mention their charges, at no time during the initial phone call was any charge mentioned. They shouldn't be allowed to prey on the needy in the way that they do.

i have had the same problem with this company, unlawfully taking money from my account for a service i have not recieved as i cancelled it, £82.00 lighter now, been on to the financial ombudsman, as these people were supposed to help you out of debt not put you in it!! go to payplan they are run by the goverment and 100% goes to your creditors,

 

steer clear of these 123 debt solutions are a joke!!!

Payplan are not run by the Government (if they were they wouldn't be anything like as good as they are). Payplan are a private sector company who provide free DMP's funded via lenders.

Payplan are not run by the Government (if they were they wouldn't be anything like as good as they are). Payplan are a private sector company who provide free DMP's funded via lenders.

Hi

Are there any Goverment run ones Nick?

Hi

 

Are there any Goverment run ones Nick?

I think the Goverment might be too busy worrying about their own debt to be starting a debt management service!

Also though Payplan you can buy insurances

There is also the option of doingt it yourself and arranging your own DMP.

This is what I have done and I feel a lot more in control of the situation than using a 3rd party and I got a great deal of satisfaction out of negotiating with creditors myself. I have certainly become a lot more assertive with them than I was at the start

Tbh, i'd have been very wary from the off, of a company called "123 debt solutions". It sounds like something a 5 year old could have come up with.

With regard to this company, I have had nothing but good experiences. They are seriously helping me to get out of a terrible situation.

However, I'm not sure that I understand the points you are making about their terms and conditions...surely you can liken this contract to any other kind of contract. For example, would you enter into an agreement with a mobile phone company and then refuse to pay them and then on top of that refuse to follow their cancellation procedure that you have agreed to by signing the documentation?

As with all contracts, their is a cooling off period. If it is a distance sale, the period is 14 days. This should be plenty of time to potentially change your mind, and if not, more fool you!

I'd also like to ask why, if you were not completely sure about it, that you would give your card details to a company for processing on a certain date. I know I wouldnt!

I think people need to be more aware of what they are actually agreeing to...dont sign agreements if you dont agree with them!!

I would also like to mention the gripe that you appear to have with 123 debt solutions charging a fee. They are a business, and they are providing you with a service, so what is the problem with them charging a fee?? They deal with all my creditors by phone and post, and their staff are in 7 days a week, which is great for me because I work full time and would find it difficult to contact them otherwise. The person I spoke to initially did not hide anything from me, and I do not have a problem with fees being taken to have this weight taken off my shoulders.

Thanks to 123 debt solutions, I will only be in debt for another year or so, all being well. I wouldnt have been able to do this on my own and as another plus, they have also got the interest and charges frozen on every one of my debts.

I also did some research on payplan. They are not really free. As mentioned previously, they are funded by the lenders...so the lenders will push you to go with payplan if they can. That way, you are esentially paying your interest and charges every month, and I'd be surprised if you could actually get out of debt in a reasonable amount of time.

Never any need to use a fee paying DMP.

Easily done for yourself.

And of course PayPlan is free to the user.

NIckykr seems very defensive of 123, i wonder if i rang what the chances are of a NIcky working there??? very high.

The point is Nicky. people are in debt, cant afford to pay their creditors so for 123 to sort they pay them a stupid amount of money. therefore reducing the amount they could pay, and taking longer to pay.

EXAMPLE:

user owes 24000, and pays Payplan £100 per month, this will mean they will pay off in 20yrs

user pays 123 £100pm maybe £85 will get paid to creditors meaning it will take over 23yrs to pay off.

DO the sums..... it makes sense. dont pay for your DMP!!!

even your creditors will tell you to ditch a fee paying dmp for a free one.

I love how they say they can guarantee freezing charges and interest. THat just isnt the case.

Hi

One that always makes me chuckle with some of the fee chargers is when you read that they 'work' harder than the free providers at getting the interest and charges frozen, a strange and rather paradoxical view really when you think about it, especially the charges bit.

Still not seen anything around from them about working harder at stopping any up front fees and the keeping of the first couple of months or so payments and that though.

You would crease yourself with laughing if you thought about it too much really, ah well, thats marketing for ya I suppose.

They cant work harder. ALl the free ones and the paid ones can do is ask the creditor to stop interest and charges based on the financial situation of the debtor. If they say no, then tough luck.

They cant work harder. ALl the free ones and the paid ones can do is ask the creditor to stop interest and charges based on the financial situation of the debtor. If they say no, then tough luck.

Hi

Well yes, I see your point.

Maybe some of them are more persistent, and because the creditors get less from their payment arrangements when you take the fees into account the creditors think well, lets freeze the interest and charges but not with the free providers or maybe its just marketing and sales rubbish:)

Anyway enough of that for tonight Im off to bed to watch my Columbo DVDs again (fantastic entertainment from the sadly missed brilliant Peter Falk that just gets better & better with time)

Yep. Agree with you there. Have fun with columbo. I havent seen any of those movies for a long time.

They cant work harder. ALl the free ones and the paid ones can do is ask the creditor to stop interest and charges based on the financial situation of the debtor. If they say no, then tough luck.

Actually, they do a lot more work than that in relality. Or at least, some of them do.