Superb - nice one lotte123! BB

Superb - congrats! They're caving in easier than many of the others - they must have a conscience! FD confirmed that the cash will be in my account on Thurs so roll on thursday! Best BB

Dear all, I am very concerned at the level of security protecting our personal data at Direct Line. Earlier this week, I telephoned their accounts dept to provide them with my new account details so that new direct debit mandates could be set up. This morning, I receive numerous confirmation letters and direct debit guarantees for all of my policies (all well and good!). BUT I also receive such a confirmation with full bank account details for ANOTHER customer!!:o Also, received with some template document for automated despatch of documents (with some code IPW Job Id: 88510). Naturally, I contacted them and explained the situation and my discontent with such a security violation! The operator's reply was simply 'I'm only the operator - this is one for the big boys. Please return with a covering letter asking for full investigation'. Makes sense, and I will do! So what should I put in this letter to make it clear that its not acceptable? Should I CC the FSA? Best BB

I agree, CCCS are very good and help you every step of the way. More generally, the problems with debt management plans are that they are an informal arrangement, so creditors could change their minds at any time and also you could end up paying for years. Your credit rating is also affected 6 years after the plan has ended. BB

Pooh, I forgot to mention the spreadsheet used by the British Bankers Association - I've found this very useful for working out pro rata payments for unsecured debt. I've attached it to this email - pop in the figures you've included in the thread and remember to put all secured payments as a priority debt. Note that banks have fixed allowances i.e. a single person would be allowed perhaps £250 for house keeping and a family of five £500 etc. I dont know what these specific allowances..perhaps someone on this forum or IVA- Individual Voluntary Arrangement: IVA Advice for Beginners could advise on this. Hope this is useful. Best BB CFS_0405.xls

Hi Pooh, I really relate to the circumstances of your in-laws -we were in a similar situation but luckily without the secured debt. Have you contacted a reputable Insolvency Practitioner for further advice and solutions? If not, I really do recommend you present your case (cut and paste msgs or just include a link to this thread) to The IVA Forum: IVA Community as the legal experts and IPs on the forum are reputable and offer free advice. After I found this IVA forum a week ago, I made contact with numerous people in the same situation and the legal advice was top notch. Also, I have joined up with one of their IPs and are now quickly moving to a debt solution. Note that the forum focuses on all aspects of personal insolvency and not just IVAs. Good luck and hope you get it sorted. Best BB

I've attached a document containing contractual monthly payments and outstanding balances (my estimate given loan amount and number of payments made so far). Re: precise income/expenditure (excluding unsecured debt) is in the spreadsheet attachment. Many thanks, really appreciate any advice. BB BB_UnsecuredDebtPayments_Monthly.doc

We've just thought of one possible solution: 1. Issue letters and token payments for this month 2. Remortgage house for £190k with LTV 95% - allow £148k for paying off current lender and solicitor etc. Interest only mortgage rather than repayment mortgage for short term 3. Use the £39.9k to pay off all credit cards, AA, Lombard Direct and Hitachi Capital freeing up £1,023 per month 4. Ride off into the sunset without restrictions of an IVA! Its late but money probs are better than Pro Plus and money never sleeps! Seriously, though its an idea but the trick will be finding the right mortgage lender (given the token payments this month and likely stain on credit file). Anyway, thanks for listening. Best BB

Note that the spreadsheet is that used by British Bankers Assoc. and enabling macros makes it slightly easier to view. Thanks again. BB

Thanks Gizmo111, income/expenditure sheet attached (all anonymous of course)...really value any ideas to solve this one. Best BB ps forgot to mention, our current payments on unsecured debt are as follows: AA Loan 320.68FirstDirect Loan 195.07Nationwide Loan 178.21Student Loan66.64Lombard Direct Loan145.76NR Loan 130.02NR Loan 62.24Cahoot Loan 95.85NR Loan 177.86Cahoot Loan 96.73DFS Loan80.97Lloyds TSB Credit Card139Alliance&Leicester Cred Card160HSBC Credit Card175HSBC Flexi Loan52.02 Total 2076.05

Well its not good, perhaps £40k equity and the unsecured debt is....£112k!:o Most of it would be cleared by 2010 as the monthly payments are so high (hence we're struggling) but could knock some out with the £40k to gain some breathing space each month...assuming resulting mortgage payment isnt above £950...although like you say its turning unsecured to secured and hence stretching the debt over 15-20 years (with more interest). Not sure what other options I have....debt management? sell up and move to small house (prefer not to)? IVA? Lottery! BB

Thanks Gizmo - link very useful. Just thinking about alternative options to an IVA that would be less restrictive. This month will be the first time we will be unable to make the full contractual monthly payments to many of our creditors, so I'll be writing to them this week offering a token payment, abstractly stating the reasons why and that we intend to resume normal payments the following month. This would give us time to explore the debt consolidation route in a bit more detail. We thought about this in January when we could see the problem coming and at that time the Nationwide assistant didnt think we'd get a remortgage due to the level of unsecured debt we have. However, since we didnt go through the process, based on her advice, we dont actually know. Perhaps we should have gone for it or tried another lender. Do you think the token payments we intend to make this month will affect our chances of getting a remortgage or secured loan? BB

Many thanks for info posted so far - its really helpful. Sorry to sound ignorant, but what does CCA stand for? BB

Hello, I'm on the verge of achieving some success with FD. To cut a long story short, my partner and I have incurred heavy bank charges for years from FD. These charges, as you probably can guess, have been unfair, unsubstantiated and forced us into more debt. We have been with FD for 5 years (4 years as main operational account) and with Nationwide for 1 year (now our main account). Over the five years, we incurred £1,400 of charges from First Direct (and that's without adding interest) so earlier this month I issued a letter to them requesting this back using the template from the BBC website. This morning, I received a 'Without Prejudice' letter from First Direct offering a refund just shy of £1,000, £400 less than what we asked for and it included an additional £185 charges they've added this month. If we accept it, we must sign and send it back within 10 working days. The bank's defence of the charges was as follows: 'In circumstances where you have authorised a payment that would, if met by us, lead to your account going overdrawn or to exceed an agreed overdraft limit, we have to consider whether to make this payment. A fee is payable for this service provided by the bank, details of which are clearly set out in our published tariff. The circumstances in which the fee will apply are clearly set out in our Account Terms and Conditions, a copy of which was provided to you when you opened your account. We are confident to our position and believe that if your claim for a refund proceeded to Court, we would successfully resist any legal challenge in relation to these fees' But I believe they're bluffing and would normally take up the challenge. However, I need to access that cash quickly before I start other action which may have them reclaim it. After I've taken the cash, I'll target Nationwide as I'm sure I've funded bonuses for staff at my local branch already! Just got to wait until my parachute account opens next week! Anyway, thanks for listening! Best BB vbrep_register("679413")

Many thanks for the advice Bankfodder. In fact, this morning I received a 'Without Prejudice' letter from First Direct offering a refund just shy of £1,000, £400 less than what we asked for and it included an additional £185 charges they've added this month. If we accept it, we must sign and send it back within 10 working days. The bank's defence of the charges was as follows: 'In circumstances where you have authorised a payment that would, if met by us, lead to your account going overdrawn or to exceed an agreed overdraft limit, we have to consider whether to make this payment. A fee is payable for this service provided by the bank, details of which are clearly set out in our published tariff. The circumstances in which the fee will apply are clearly set out in our Account Terms and Conditions, a copy of which was provided to you when you opened your account. We are confident to our position and believe that if your claim for a refund proceeded to Court, we would successfully resist any legal challenge in relation to these fees' But I believe they're bluffing and would normally take up the challenge. However, I need to access that cash quickly before I start other action which may have them reclaim it. BB