Its Not A Crime! - BR 28 Feb

[sisternumber1]

By way of an introduction - My Friend is in her mid twenties chronically ill since childhood. However she did work for part of her life, but 4 years ago had to give up as her health detiorated. This year has been the final straw. She is still alive, but her finances have taken a nosedive as she has not been able to manage them due to long term hospitalisation earlier in the year. She is lucky to be alive.

 

She is being pursued by the banks and credit card companies. Her income consists of full DLA (both parts) and long term sick pay. She gets housing benefit to help with rent and council tax. She shares a house with a friend who is currently in danger of losing her job as she has also got long term illnesses. It occurs to me that my friend would be best served if she were to allow herslef to be declared bankrupt. Her parents are not able to help as they are currently in arrangements with their creditors as 10 years of to and froing from hospitals has had an impact on their finances and their business.

 

Her debts are in the region of £10,000 mainly to 3 credit cards. She is not getting very far with the credit card companies to stop them adding interest and charges. She needs her income that she gets to feed herself - she is on a renal diet, and to keep herself warm.

 

Any wise words or pointers in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

[sisternumber1]

hello Godmother and tiglet.

 

Thank you for your advice. So far my friend has done nothing other than talk to people on the telephone, but she is becoming more and more depressed with the situation that she is in. Can one write letter K even though no other letters have been written? We desperately need to bring this to an end or to some conclusion so that she does not need to worry about this on top of her multiple health problems, as it is having such a detrimental effect on what remains of her quality of life. Would I be allowed to write these letters on her behalf? this is where I admit to being her mother, who feels helpless because I have no funds and no way of raising funds to help her. She does not wish to move back home with us, so I cant even help in the only practical way that was/is an option.

 

I will help her start getting her fees etc refunded but that takes time and I feel that we need to get this all stopped faster then that. Sorry writing this in a bit of a hurry so may not make too much sense.

 

Thanks you for the help - I will talk to her again later.

[sisternumber1]

Thanks - today will start reading and get started for her!

 

I was here once before, under another name, but cant remeber what it was, but managed to reclaim almost 3,000 in charges from A&L despite all their "games", donated to the site as it was money that I never thought I would see again.

 

My debts are under control now. But the route that I took to getting mine sorted is not necessary for my daughter, she will never work again and she will never be running a business ( and believe me having personal debts makes running a business tough). Any way one of the first things I need to do is to get the daily and sometimes 3 times daily telephone calls to stop. She will not answer the door nor the telephone any more and thats not good, as it is turning her into more and more of a hermit, and it means that she is phoning out all the time and it goes onto her bill instead of ours.

 

So of to read and then compose the first letters.

 

And if any one can think of any one I can go to to actually get some help with all this I would be grateful, its the busiest time of the year at work, and though I will make time for all of this I also need to keep things going at work.

 

Thank you

[sisternumber1]

hello tomterm

 

this is timely, no my daughter has no real assets, about 500 in an ISA, which she needs to dip into to feed herself at the moment, she has no prospect of getting a job again, she dialysis 3 times a week at a hospital 40 miles away, her pain levels are such that she is under the palliative care team. Credit cards where acquired before she gave up work for good, which would be before 2004.

 

I had worked out that bankruptcy would probably be the best route to go down in her situation. However we will start with requesting credit agreement requests, and also letting them know both her health status (with a doctors letters to be acquired) and where her income comes from.

 

I started another thread on the legal bit about the charges that are being made by her bank on a monthly basis, which of course is also not helping, and has made her situation so much worse. Any idea of how long Barclays bank will take to admit to and then refund such amounts? (I will have to ask for the statements, unless they are all in the drawer that all unopened post was put into) but the couple that I have seen it seems that at least £100 per month is being taken in various "fees".

 

I so wish that i had considered that she was not even looking at her statements etc in the last 18 or so months as her health was detiorating - we all just assumed that her partner (or as she now conveniently calls herself her housemate) was doing this. Watching ones daughter approach deaths door for the third or fourth time in her very short life does strange things to your thought processes. Unfortunately I believe that that is not an excuse in law.

[sisternumber1]

No bank account yet - this has all only come to light this week - she wasnt telling me, and finally on Friday she told me the extent of her problems with bank and credit card companies. I will help her sort that out this week, then get all her benefits transferred to the new account, and we will go from there, she may have most of her statements as she used to be very methodical, and it has only been the last 18 months where she lost control.

 

So this evening I will start letter writing - she will sign them all and they will all go by recorded delivery. I am intent that it will all be dealt with in writing and that telephone calls will cease, it really is gross the amount of grief she is getting. Sorry I do feel so helpless watching her suffer, and then to be put through all of this as well, its inhumane.

[sisternumber1]

thank you - I hadnt realised that signing letters could be so dodgy! Will bear this in mind.

 

Re bank accounts unfortuantley she does have to have an account that does Standing Orders because that is how the rent is paid, and its the only way the landlord will accept the rent.

 

Ah well will have to investigate a little bit more - cant remeber if my basic Natwest account allows Standing orders.

 

Its been very useful here, didnt realise how much info there was on here. Will keep referring back. Thanks every one who has helped so far your stars.

[sisternumber1]

OK she is currently with Barclays and I am thinking of starting her with a Natwest basic account

[sisternumber1]

We have written letter number one adding a bit about my daughters health. The health bit was brief but still took a whole page! I am taking her slowly through this because she is still convinced that there is nothing to be done, she cannot bring herself to believe that anythign good will come of any of it and that she will be hounded for ever about her debts. So for now just dealing with the two credit card companies that are hounding her. She keeps saying its her fault because she did not take care of her finances, having a hard time convincing her that being physically very ill is an excuse. She nearly died because the medics did not pick up on what was wrong with her until after the heart scan that she had requested, yet doctors and nurses have been seeing her three times a week for the last four years while she is dialysising. Sorry another story altogether - but I am still mad about that.

 

Back to the letters they were sent yesterday 1st class recorded, one to Barclaycard, and one to MBNA/Virgin. I did put in a request for everything else to be dealt with in writing and that we would consider any further telephone calls to my daughter as constituting harrasment. And no signature was appened to these letters. So now to just wait. In the meantime I am organising for my daughter to go visit our GP who will write a letter about my daughters health and her long term prospects, and we will prepare a schedule of income and expenditure, for the next step which I think will be the letter to request that they write off the debt under the circumstances.

 

If my daughter feels up to it or rather when she feels up to it we will tackle the bank, although first opening a a parachute account.

 

Please understand although I would be willing to get on with it all she is very fragile both physically and mentally. We as a family are very lucky to still have her in this world with us.

 

Thanks for all the help and all the resources that are here.

[sisternumber1]

Well this is where we are now.

 

Barclaycard have given her until the 17th December - although they have read the letter as a letter of complaint! However yesterday a letter arrive from Mercers threatening all sorts - they will be faxed the letter from Barclaycard in the morning.

 

Nothing from Virgin/MBNA yet.

 

However - we have been opening all the unopened letters etc, all her bank statements seem to be there but not a single credit card statement since December last year, and on that statement from December and the previous statement last year there are several flights booked using her card. Now my daughter is and has been too ill to travel, in fact she is not allowed to fly. We will be asking for copies of all her statements, as it seems that her cards have been used by her housemate.

 

As she had no money for food, she thought she would go and get money out of her small savings account (her just in case fund). She believed that there was about 300-400 pounds there. So she went looking for the pass book. Nowhere to be found, she asked her housemate if she knew where it was, and her housemate did a big over the top denial. A telephone call was made to Nationwide, who put a stop on it and will be issuing a new book, in the meantime it was arranged that my daughter could go to Nationwide with all relevent bits of paper and get some cash out. Her amazing suprise when she got there and there was only £82 and a few pennies in the account. The last withdrawal was made on a day when my daughter had not long come out of hospital but was not able to walk because of her surgery. We do not know what to do about this one at the moment.

 

So now we are having to gather evidence to proof theft by her housemate. From now we will have everything sent to her c/o of me.

 

I cannot believe that any one can be so callous (trying hard not to use bad language here. We (her step dad and I will be going to see a solicitor to see what can be done - cannot allow some one to get away with all that) It is looking increasingly most likely that my daughters financial postion has been largely caused by my daughters very callous friend/housemate/one time partner. She still lives with her at the moment. But daughter wants her to leave, we have established using the benefits ready reckoner that we can sort my daughter out and that she will still be able to remain independent in the house that she is in, although it will take a few months to sort all of this.

 

Its turning into a worse nightmare then it appeared a week ago - and she has just had some bad news about her health, her fourth fistula is not working, and her collar bone has not healed - broke about a year ago - she has advanced osteoporosis. So further surgery needed, and she doenst want any more surgery!

 

We need a fairy godmother to help sort out all this mess, but in the meantime I will keep going and doing what I can.

 

sorry about more long and complicated and invlolved post.

[sisternumber1]

If this was the case her housemate would have produced the bank book - instead she faltly denies having ever seen it or even knowing that it existed in the first place.

 

Yes the police will be our next port of call, as soon as we have the credit card statements, maybe without the credit card statements as something much more serious is now happening.

[sisternumber1]

thank you tomterm - I have taken to keeping in touch by phoning, texting and going round as much as I can, and yes I have also been worrying about abuse of a physical nature, she certainly is beeing abused psychologicaly, there is a lot of verbal abuse as well, my daughter and I spoke of this a lot last evening while she was on dialysis - three and a half hours tied to a machine is a good time to talk. there is still a lot that my daughter will not talk about, but she has come round to believing that she would be better off on her own. The problem is that she is a grown woman, and her most pressing problems are physical rather then psychological, so as a mother treading the right path is hard, will have to wait for her to agree to the police being involved. And by the way my daughter isnt an angel - I am not blind to her faults, and after all for all that she has gone through she is allowed some, arent we all allowed some?

 

And thank you surprise, I had decided yesterday that she should send her jewellry home (mostly of no value, but some of it was mine as a teenager), most of her photographs are still here, infact an awful lot of her possessions are still here, her room is still hers, we cant bring ourselves to remodel it or take her things out of it, because we suspect that one day she will be back, probably to be nursed by her mother!

 

Thank you once again both of you.

[sisternumber1]

thank you hopefull

 

yes of course we are all allowed faults - it seems those with the worse ones are the ones who thing that they are faultless - this same person said to me last May as we were waiting for my "little" girl to be operated on - it did seem an age, but this person who is making my daughter so miserable said "my biggest fault is that I am too giving", she did not turn up at the hospital until a week after my daughter was diagnosed with this mass in her heart, she was away doing her own thing.

 

Does she suspect that we have worked things out and are just waiting for the proof? I suspect not, she is perfect in her own eyes and cleverer then all the rest of us put together.

 

Sorry still making phone calls to see what I should do about the more dangerous situation that my daughter finds herself in - not sure if I need my daughters permission to go to the police under the circumstances, if the police go in with their size 10s and find nothing, and my daughter convinces them its all her fault, what then? I will shortly go over and just turn up, just to make sure all is well. I may be getting a little paranoid now. but the missing drugs is making me very edgy.

[sisternumber1]

I fully agree tomterm - but...

[sisternumber1]

thanks godmother- lots of things now sorted out in the short term - answers in nor particular order - unfortunately my daughters signature is easily forgeable. Both credit cards are already destroyed, and any way both accounts are in default. Yes this person has been travelling to and from Belfast on regular occassions - thats where her family are. I realise that a lot of what is happening is not really anything to do with a debt forum, it just all adds to what is happening to my daughter. I am getting a little uncomfortable talking quite so openely on an open forum - my fault of course. Thats not to say that I will not continue to post, but I will try to stick to the debt issues.

 

thanks every one for your patience and understanding.

[sisternumber1]

Well daughter is out of hospital for now (she was in for about 2 weeks with a dreadful infection- she is prone to these) - needs surgery which she is disinclined to have ( resetting collar bone which never healed properly and a new fistula needs making for dialysis (although goodness knows where they will do it this time?)- she has had enough:(

 

Housemate is leaving very shortly - like today! will not believe until she is on the plane:D

 

have spoken to the police - not as useful as I thought

 

still waiting for credit card statements for the last year - both MBNA and Barcalycard prevaricating, Barclaycard have involved Mercers - have requested that all three stop harrasment of my very poorly daughter. (I am currently itching to have a pop at any or all of them through the court system and or the press.)

 

Daughter has written a letter giving them the right to talk and write to me.

 

Doctor will be wrting a letter to both companies saying how ill my daughter is and that she will never work again, I wouldnt be suprised if she doesnt also require them to stop harrassing my daughter.

 

Have still done nothing with the bank - seem to be running round to and from hospital, working and trying to be all things to every one.

 

Eventually we will get it all under control.

[sisternumber1]

Housemate has gone for two weeks, then she will be coming for her belongings, and daughters best friend (not) will move her back to Belfast for good - so my next task will be sorting out benefits so that my daughter can stay where she is, so bank will still have to stay on hold, as I think getting benefits sorted will be much more important. Glad work stops tomorrow for a fortnight! I have long list of people to telephone and forms to acquire.

[sisternumber1]

OK Despite asking both Barclaycard and their alter egos Mercers to communicate in writing only, my daughter is still getting telephone calls from Mercers. She just tells them to get in touch with me as she is too unwell to deal with matters and puts the phone down. They have twice now sent people to the door (her door) but both times she was at the hospital for her thrice weekly dialysis. Each time they leave a card. I became incensed and rang them - the conversation went on the lines that their job is to recover the money they are allowed to recover it in any way the want. When I suggested that they might maybe take her to court, she said that neither Mercers nor Barclaycard would ever go to court, and they would in fact now be seeking to have a charge placed against my house - told them they would not be able to do that and she said "you just wait", then I asked her if they treated all people with no regard for their health, and she said not our problem " we always get our money", we will even come into the hospital next time your daughter is there. She let me believe no matter what it says on the letter from the doctor they (Mercers) will continue persuing the debt until it is fully paid. OK maybe I should not have continued this conversation for as long as I did, but it tells me that Barclaycard and Mercers behave in much the same way as the doorstep moneylenders.

 

Advice please, and no I will not be speaking to them again unless I am armed with my tape recorder.

 

I in the meantime will finish the letters together with a wonderfull letter that we have permission to use from her Renal registrar referring her to the Orthapaedic team, detailing all the work that is needed on her bones, together with all the things that she has been in hospital for in the last 18 months (it was copied to her and the GP). On Monday we have to start the rounds of all the benefits that she may be entitled to so that she can stay in her house.

 

We are having her landline number changed, and she is not answering calls on her mobile unless she knows who it is from. The hardest thing is getting rid of Mercers - Why are mercers chasing whne we have a letter from Barclaycard saying that they are sorry that they have not addressed her letter from November yet, and they will be back in touch by January 17th? Mercers say that they are Barclaycard, and once passed to them they will continue telephoning and calling on my daughter and now myself until they have the money in their hands, they(she) say that they are allowed to do what they like. Tried to tell her that they were not acting within the law and she said something along the lines that they had every legal right to get there money no matter how. Oh I wish I had recorded it.

 

No wonder so many people crumble!

:-x

[sisternumber1]

thank you Paul - just used that letter its going in the post today - just what we needed right now

[sisternumber1]

A letter received by my daughter dated 21st December, arrivedyesterday 28th December. So crossed in the post with the ones that I have written. some quotes from the letter

 

"Your correspondence dated 19th November 2007 has been passed to me in my capacity as a Customer Relationship Manager. Please accept my apologies in my delay in replying to you

 

Firstly, pleas accept my apologies for the level of service you have received. We endeavour to offer the highest level of service and it is apparent that the level you have received recently has failed to meet the standards that you both expect and deserve" (still have not received the statements for the last year which we have now asked for on two occassions - we wish to be able to prove that my daughters card was used by some one else while my daughter was in hospital - my partner suggest I write to them and tell them they are aiding and abetting fraudulent use by not supplying my daughter with these statements)

 

Then they recommend that she should use CAB or some one like that, they may take notice of their recommendations.

 

Then " I have stopped the interest and fees on your account for the next 28 days to allow you time to contact us or seek advice. I have also stopped any telephone calls to you for the next 14 days" (that one is an out and out lie, the telephone calls are still coming - hopefully for not much longer the letter was sent yesterday to Mercers by Special Delivery - will fax a copy of that to Barclaycard - I finally have a fax number - now dealing with people in Stockton-on-Tees instead of Northampton)

 

Then it says "I hope that I have answered all your concerns" - the problem is that I am not sure what letter she is answering, the letter that was written originally that she he is answering was not a letter of complaint it a. told about my daughters ill health and how she had not been able to attend to any of her correspondence for the best part of a year, and b. could she have her statements for the last 12 months so that she could see how she comes to have such a huge debt.

since then we have sent a letter allowing them to talk to me, and another one asking them to please supply the statements that are missing, and now we have sent the letter that Paul suggested. As I have the day to myself I will started reading round the rest of this site especially regarding the unenforcibility of the the contract with Barclaycard. My daughter has had this card for the last 8 years. The virgin card she has had for a while but only used it for the first time at the beginning of this year. Going through my daughters papers its obvious that she was well in control of her finances until about October of last year, she is a compulsively list writer and itemiser of all her financial obligations - her calendar has the dates that all her benefits go into the bank, together with the dates when all her commitments go out of the bank, but there is a gap between Ocotber last year and November this year, and she really feels as if it has all elluded her.

[sisternumber1]

Dont worry once they have that then they are breaking the communications act if they contine to telephone your daughter or you.

 

The Fact they thing they can place a charging order on the property she rents is very amussingas i would love to be a fly on the wall when they try and get the court order. God what it would be like to be a fly at times.

 

Good luck with the benefits if you need any help give me a shout l am good at forms.

 

Chrissi

 

 

Its not her rented property they think that they can get a charging order on but mine! The young woman in question says that because my daughter has given me permission to talk and write on her behalf because of her ill health means she has passed the responsibility of her debt to me! but as she also said that they never utilise the court system to enforce debts! I doubt that this young woman had any ideas as to what she was talking about. No more telephone conversations though until I have recording facilities in place!

 

Now can someone answer the question what exactly is the connection between Mercers and Barclaycard? If Barclaycard have say they have stopped the telephone calls for 14 days, does this apply to Mercers? Does Barcalycard own Mercers? or is Mercers independent entity? When I was sorting out my personal debts they were the hardest to get rid off, in fact my Barclaycard debts where the hardest to sort as they did not listen, nor did they ever reply to letters.

[sisternumber1]

htey have signed for the letter that we sent as per Paul's(pt2537) reply. They signed for it this morning it was sent special delivery.

 

My daughter is now getting calls from Mercers every hour on the hour, she has switched her phone off for now. Please a link to where to go to know what to do next. Mercers said told me that they did not care about how they got their money back, and they trully do not care of what they may drive us to, as our doctors says my daughter is very vunerable, how the hell do we stop them? I am trying to get all the paperwork together as quickly as I can but Barcalycard seem to be reasonable but Mercers are bhounding my daughter, do they always work like this?

[sisternumber1]

Thank you Paul

 

She is on her way home from dialysis at the moment. She has agreed to complain to the police so we will do this tomorrow - she needs to sleep, nice way to spend new year, but it will be done, when I have a moment I will read round to see what i need to do re trading standards.

 

Today received in the post her latest statment from Barclaycard - not all the missing ones but one date a week ago. They are taking Payment Protection charges from her account, looks like these have always been charged to her account, surely we should be able to get these back? Didnt realise that she was paying for such a thing and I am sure that she will never be able to use it as her medical condition would never allow her to claim under such "insurance", presumably just another way to fleece her.

[sisternumber1]

strange twist - my daughter received a text message requesting she phone the number in the text urgently. the telphone number is one belonging to MBNA - is this a new way round the request to get in touch in writing only?

 

OH Barclaycard have now akcnowledged that they are not to telephone her - they are sorry that the telephone communications were seen in the light of harrasment!! They have promised to remove all my daughters telephone numbers from their database. Indeed now no more phone calls have been received from them or their alter ego Mercers. Now doing several things as per other thread.

[sisternumber1]

Now have one from some people called ScottCall saying that if we do not telephone Mercers they will send some one round! Thats despite the letter saying that they may not send any one to the door! this is so intimidating! And yet we are dealing with Barclaycard direct - so why are Mercers still involved!

[sisternumber1]

have now found some helpful threads so first thing tomorrow will get in touch with northampton trading standards. will also once again try and get the police involved, thank fully this letter came to my address not my daughters, have no idea which address they intend doorstepping though!