New and at my wits end

[Emma Royd]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm so glad I found this site. I've been reading the forums for a few weeks now and this is my first post (Hope i'm posting in the right place). I'm hoping that some of you lovely people can help me too.

 

Where do I start? I started struggling to pay my monthly payments on my credit cards in January when my hours were cut at work. I have four cards and was juggling payments around to keep them off my back.

I then got made redundant in mid may and notified my 4 credit card companies and asked for insurance claim forms because I had been paying PPI on all the accounts. Went to the Job centre for my interview and asked them to fill in the form for me. The lady said they couldnt do it at my local office and gave me an envelope to send them off in.

 

It took me over four weeks to get my income support sorted out and had problems with working tax credits paying the four week run over so there was no way that I could make any payments to the credit cards.

 

Two weeks ago I was worrying because I had not yet received the form back from the job centre. I rang them up and they said they had no record of it. They told me to send in a new one and mark the envelope urgent and post it recorded delivery which I did last Tuesday. I have been trying all week to track and trace and ended up ringing the post office today. They have told me that the letter hasn't been delivered and to give it until the 2nd of August.

 

Now in the meantime I am being harrassed constantly by Alliance & Leicester, Capital 1, Co-Op and Barclaycard. All have been informed of my situation and I have kept them updated about the pending insurance claims.

 

I've since had 2 letters from Debitas, who. after reading on here, realise they are Cap 1's in house debt collector. The first one last week was notifying me that my account is now in default. I wrote back to them asking them to pass the account back to cap 1 because I have an insurance claim pending. I also told them not to contact me by phone and all correspondence must be kept in writing and I sent this by recorded delivery which they have received. I got another letter from them today saying that I have ignored their previous letter (NOT TRUE) and to ring them immediately to discuss my debts or an agent will be calling.

 

I have had to turn the ringer off on my phone because it never stops. It starts at 8.30am and goes on all day till 9pm everynight. The last one tonight was from Debitas at 3 mins to 9 mins to nine. This is happening 7 days a week and I am getting up to 12 calls a day from one or another of them.

 

I really at my wits end and don't know which way to turn. I cant do anymore than i've done already. I'm just waiting on the form being filled in by the job centre and I cannot afford to make any payments on the accounts.

 

Alliance and Leicester are demanding nearly £1000 payment this month. Thats how much the interest as accrued since this all started. I wrote to them in March asking for help and asked if they would freeze the interest on my account but I never got any reply.

 

Hope this all makes sense. There's so much going on at the moment I dont know which to tackle first.

 

Could someone please advise me what to do now? Can I put in for unlawful charges even thought I have insurance claims pending?

 

Thank you in advance

 

Emma Royd

xx

[JOSH_IOU]

Hi You might want to crate a post in the debt collection forums.

This is more of a debt area.

 

They might advise you to do a consumer credit act request some where down the line asking your creidot rif the have an original agreement.

 

My income support took a month to set up and the reason for the delay they said was they had forgoten about it. Ya I was fumeing any way.

 

Thats what I would do.

 

Josh

[Emma Royd]

Thanks Josh i'll pop across and post there too

 

Emma Royd

xx

[saintly_1]

Hi and welcome to Cag

 

Spend sometime familiarising yourself with the site. Make sure you read the site rules and the FAQ's.

 

A couple of useful links are the How do I guide to the forum and the A to Z Index

 

Then when your ready start a new thread in the appropriate forum.

 

 

saint

[Emma Royd]

Thanks Saintly 1 done all that. Just wondering now which is the best place to post in with having so many creditors

 

Emma Royd

xx

[Rooster-UK]

I've moved your thread.....you're already here!

[JOSH_IOU]

well done there Rooster

[Emma Royd]

* waves *

 

thanks everyone, feel safe now

 

 

Emma Royd

xx

[Pinky69]

Hello Emma and welcome to the debt collection forum. First of all, you are doing absolutely the right thing by not speaking to them on the phone. They will only bully and abuse you if you do. If you go to the stickies at the top of this page you will find one on telephone harrassment. In there is a letter you can send to your creditors to tell them to stop calling you. That should do the trick but if it doesn't you can then make a formal complaint to their internal complaints departments and inform the Office of Fair Trading and your local Trading Standards Office. I am on BT's Choose to Refuse Service, which costs £10 per month. You just enter the number you don't want to call you and it is blocked.

 

With regard to your situation, you've been let down by the Jobcentre. Give them until the 2 August and if it is not sorted by then, request to speak to a manager and don't be fobbed off. If you have informed your creditors that you are waiting for insurance there is nothing more you can do at this stage. Try not to worry about it ( easier said than done). There is nothing they can do to you. They can huff and puff but they cannot blow your house down and they will just have to wait until you get the situation sorted out in your own good time, not theirs.

[Emma Royd]

Thanks Pinky

 

I've just typed another reply to Debitas and am enclosing a telephone harrassment letter which I shall send by recorded delivery.

 

I cant really afford to pay BT for the choose to refuse at the minute. I have caller display though and i've turned off my ringer. I am now logging all calls made to my phone.

 

I managed to get a little sleep last night after posting on here. I drifted off thinking about the big bad wolves huffing and puffing

 

Regards

 

Emma Royd

xx

[palomino]

Emma, just a thought for you : these DCAs are deliberately trying to terrorise you. They deliberately try to reduce you to a gibbering wreck so that they can coerce you into something that you wouldn't otherwise do (if you were thinking rationally).

 

You've done the right thing coming here as there are lots of people who have been in much the same situation at one time or another. You can rest easy - from now on you should get lots of sleep.

[Emma Royd]

Thanks Palomino

 

only have one DCA after me at the moment but i'm being Harrassed by my other creditors too.

 

I'm trying my best to stay calm but they are all wearing me down. It's bad enough that the insurance form went astray in the first place but I cant believe its happened again. I swear it could only happen to me

 

 

I've been reading about claiming charges back on my credit cards. Can anyone tell me if I should start this now or wait to see if my insurance claims will go through?

 

Also,(sorry to be a nuiscance) would it be advisable to start a post in each of the appropriate credit card forums?

 

thanks for everyones advice so far

 

Emma Royd

xx

[JOSH_IOU]

Hi Emma.

 

My personal reccomendation would be to start the credit card process now. If you can afford the £10 Data proection act fee.

 

Emma thats what they are payed to do. They are payed to get you to pay up and contact the creditor. Thats the aim of the game. Only some go about it at all costs. And break the law most of the times.

 

I have 5 DCA's chaseing me and cant aford the stamp to go on the envelope but any how. I amcurrently going through the eviction process and I am handling this with Learning difficulties.

 

Always easier to advise someone else on what to do or even jsut pave the ground so you no where to go next. Cag is a help you to helpyourself forum. And the vast majority of us will do our verry best to help you.

 

Your right to send a Telephone harrasment letter off and logging calls is the next stage after that which you apear to be doing. (great stuff)

 

Before you Start claiming the charges back you need to find if they can enforce the debt in a court of law.

 

They must have a true copy of a consumer credit licence. If they dont you can defend under the consumer credit act.

 

There are template on this forum to help you do this and the cag (consumer action group) wiki is also helpful like that.

 

See what others advise about starting seperate threads. It could be useful as each thread can be designed to each company and not just your specific sittuation if you understand.

 

hang in there

[PriorityOne]

 

Two weeks ago I was worrying because I had not yet received the form back from the job centre. I rang them up and they said they had no record of it. This is fairly typical of DWP... no wonder they started building glass screens between themselves and the public in the 1980s.... They told me to send in a new one and mark the envelope urgent and post it recorded delivery which I did last Tuesday. I have been trying all week to track and trace and ended up ringing the post office today. They have told me that the letter hasn't been delivered and to give it until the 2nd of August.

 

Now in the meantime I am being harrassed constantly by Alliance & Leicester, Capital 1, Co-Op and Barclaycard. All have been informed of my situation and I have kept them updated about the pending insurance claims. Out of interest, how much is owing on each of these cards and when were they taken out ?

Companies have a tendency to accuse you of not getting in touch with them and ignoring this and that, although these comments are usually part of their template letters. I doubt they even look at any correspondence unless it's sent by rec. delivery.

 

I have had to turn the ringer off on my phone because it never stops. It starts at 8.30am and goes on all day till 9pm everynight. The last one tonight was from Debitas at 3 mins to 9 mins to nine. This is happening 7 days a week and I am getting up to 12 calls a day from one or another of them. As advised, send the harrassment letter, off... but it must go by rec. delivery. Some companies will comply with your wishes, but some won't... so let us know how this goes. Whatever the outcome though, continue to just hang up when they call... or refuse to go through "security" to anyone who asks you to; as they cannot continue the call without you going through it.

 

I really at my wits end and don't know which way to turn. Unfortunately, that's the game plan... I cant do anymore than i've done already. I'm just waiting on the form being filled in by the job centre and I cannot afford to make any payments on the accounts.

 

Alliance and Leicester are demanding nearly £1000 payment this month. Thats how much the interest as accrued since this all started. I wrote to them in March asking for help and asked if they would freeze the interest on my account but I never got any reply. Time to send a CCA request in that case... enclose a £1 postal order for each account, initial the request (don't sign) and send to whoever is chasing you for payment by rec. delivery. Make sure you keep hold of all receipts as these are your proof that a legal request was made and received. While you are waiting for them to respond, continue making token payments on each account. As you are on Benefits, £1 to each account will suffice.... but make sure that you hang on to any receipts for payments made through a bank, etc.

If you owe more in charges than the figure on the outstanding balance, please let us know

 

 

[Emma Royd]

Thanks guys I really appreciate your help.

 

Have sent off 2 letters this morning to Debitas by recorded delivery. Only had 2 phone calls so far today. One from Debitas and one which I now know to be Mercers. Looked up the 0151 number on Whocallsme.com. From reading on here I gather Mercers are part of Barclays. Now I find this strange as i've no letters from Barclays regarding my account.

 

 

Time to send a CCA request in that case... enclose a £1 postal order for each account

. Got 4 x £1 postal orders when I went to the post office. My homework for tonight is preparing CCA requests.

 

Out of interest, how much is owing on each of these cards and when were they taken out ?

I'll come back later to post the amounts.

 

If you owe more in charges than the figure on the outstanding balance, please let us know

May need help with this cos i'm thick at maths

 

thanks again

 

Emma Royd

xx

[Guest forgottenone]

Emma, Choose to Refuse is free for one calendar month. You can cancel anytime. Then £3.75 per month thereafter. Used to be free, but they cottoned onto that very quickly! It's not much, but it will take the pressure off you in that direction for one month. But worth taking advantage of just for the freebie. If only for 1 month. Had to do the same through Capital One. I am now in the hands of the lovely Debitas ... erm, sorry, Capone ... Yes, you are correct ... Mercers in house, just as bad as Capital One.

Edited July 24, 2008 by forgottenone

[PriorityOne]

Mercers are the in-house brigade at Barclays/Barclaycard and you're now on their automated dialling software , which normally means that they'll get through at least twice a day... and if no-one answers leave a robotic message asking someone to call them. Don't do this, by they way.

 

The easiest way of recognising the call is the space-age gap on your 'phone line before anyone speaks to you. I used to just hang up when I heard this, so in most cases they got no further. If my daughter took the call and passed it to me, I just refused to confirm who I was and also refused to go through "security"... so they had 6 months of absolute frustration before handing the account back to Barclaycard... who then flogged it out to The Lewis Group....

 

CCA requests protect you against legal action, providing companies don't have an enforceable Agreement... which is why I normally advise people to go down this route when creditors/DCAs start to get sh*tty and either ignore your attempts write to them... or bully you into more than you can afford.

 

[Emma Royd]

Emma, Choose to Refuse is free for one calendar month. You can cancel anytime. Then £3.75 per month thereafter. Used to be free, but they cottoned onto that very quickly! It's not much, but it will take the pressure off you in that direction for one month. But worth taking advantage of just for the freebie. If only for 1 month. Had to do the same through Capital One. I am now in the hands of the lovely Debitas ... erm, sorry, Capone ... Yes, you are correct ... Mercers in house, just as bad as Capital One.

 

Thanks will give BT a ring tomorrow and give it a go

 

Emma Royd

xx

[creditcardmug]

P1 is right they appear to work in shifts on a 7 day rota, the speedialler is set to ring you 2-3 times a day depending on the shift pattern being worked.

I sent them a particularly stern letter and the calls stopped instantly

[Emma Royd]

by Priority one:

 

Out of interest, how much is owing on each of these cards and when were they taken out ?

 

This is whats showing on my Alliance and Leicester statement for this month:

 

Balance Previous £5,487.18

Late fee £ 12.00

Est interest nxt statement £ 142.02

New balance £5,636.06

Min payment £ 942.87 due date 09 Aug 2008

 

and underneath it says: Time is running out. We want to help you. To discuss your options call 0800 092 2966

 

DELINQUENT ACCOUNT PPC SUSPENDED

 

 

What does PPC stand for ?

 

I've had this credit card for around 10 yrs now. Not sure of the exact year without looking. Its also the card I owe the most on. Totals on the others (CAP1, Co-Op and Barclaycard) to follow.

 

thanks

 

Emma Royd

xx

[PriorityOne]

I sent them a particularly stern letter and the calls stopped instantly

 

Well mine didn't.... maybe they just loved me more

[creditcardmug]

Well mine didn't.... maybe they just loved me more

LOL

[Emma Royd]

Originally Posted by PriorityOne:

Well mine didn't.... maybe they just loved me more

 

Aww bless

 

 

Right i'm all set to do me homework for the night. Got me some postal orders and found the template for CCA request.

 

Quick couple of questions please

 

Not sure who to send the postal order to regarding CAP1 account. Do I send it to CAP1 or Debitas?

 

Do I leave the postal orders blank or make them payable to the relevent company?

 

Thanks everyone

I feel so much better tonight. I feel like i'm taking back control and its making me :grin:. I'm usually a strong person but this really has been getting me down. So glad I found you

 

Emma Royd

xx

[PriorityOne]

The CCA request and postal order should go to whoever is chasing you for payment.... so if it's Debitas, it goes to them and if it's Cap1, it goes to them instead. Don't sign the CCA request either... just initial it.

 

Make each postal order payable to the relevant company... and make sure they all go by rec. delivery.

 

[Emma Royd]

Thanks PriorityOne

 

I'm on a mission now and it feels good

 

Emma Royd

xx