First step Finance - **BANNED DIRECTORS STOLE +£6M**

[lord_tiger_putin]

Hi guys complete newbie here!! I was just about to register with fsf when I thought I better just see if they have any reviews. Thank god I stumbled across this forum! I am currently using a company called debtcorrect who aren't particularly good and I was "cold called" by fsf and it sounded good! After a few lengthy conversations and discussions of amounts and figures I now have one of thier agents coming round on tues for me to sign the paperwork. After reading this thread I am now thinking of cancelling and signing up with payplan. I am still thinking about challenging the validity of my contracts to try and be in a stronger position when I offer them a settlement figure. You guys have already been a lifesaver from what I have just read but what would you suggest my next step is? I currently have all my creditors interest frozen and I'm paying them an affordable amount each month through debtcorrect. Thanks in advance for your help!!

To be honest, challenging the contracts is not necessary the best way of dealing with your debts. Do understand my correctly, it is a way but there could be better options and the best one, by far in my experience is PPI. If there are PPI then you look at mis-selling and the changes are good that there will be plenty of it. Then you can get the premiums back, the interest as a result of it, the charges that could be a result of it, the interest on the charges and this could easily wipe out about 2/3 rds of the debts. Doing it is much easier than what you would expect and you will get plenty of help here. I will be more than willing to help you, as I say, it wiped out more than 2/3rd of my debt and that could end be even higher, even after the mess the Stocport clowns made it with their generic, unhelpfull and useless way of claiming. This is also helping me tremedously in cleaning up my credit record, something that was utterly destroyed as a direct result of my involvement with the Stockport circus, aka First Step Finance.

 

Ther are also plenty of help here in challenging your accounts.

 

It is up to you what you are willing to do but many people feel they are not up to it, especially in the beginning but as I said, it is much easier than what one thinks. I can also see absolutely nothing wrong with going along with something like Payplan while you are challeging your accounts and possible PPI (payment protection insurance). You do not have to do it but it could make it easier.

 

You can do exactly what First Crap Finance claim they can do, the only difference by doing it yourself is that you will save a lot of money, it will be far more effective, it will be done far more correctly and above all, you are in control!

 

My advice will be do not use a debt management company which you pay but rather the free services, should you feel you need to use it. If you look around on this forum you will often find that advice, so you do not have to take my word for that. But please, do not get involve with these clowns, you will do yourself a HUGE faviour by not doing it!! This is a fact!

[Still trying]

Hi lord tiger,

 

Thanks for the swift response. I better put you in the picture. I have three creditors:

 

hsbc loan down to just over 10000 (now a managed loan) claimed back the ppi from them successfully and used it to survive my first winter of self employment. Prob should have paid off debts with it but desperate times etc....

 

Egg c card owe about 1300 no claims made against them.

 

Mbna c card owe about 1700 no claims made.

 

I have had both cards for years and a lot of charges certainly on the mbna one.

 

We are about to sell our flat And so I may have a lump sum available soon, would it be worth trying to offer a settlement figure to all my creditors with the 5k that I should end up with?

 

I really appreciate your advice, I have been in debt for the last ten years and I'm now 29 and don't want this hanging over me forever!!

 

Thanks

[lord_tiger_putin]

Anyway, from the website of FCF, the "testimonals" part:

 

"Advice was second to none". "Excellent service right from the start". "Regular calls". These are just a few things our clients have said about us.

 

 

[lord_tiger_putin]

I was just thinking today that I will have to do a posting here at regular intervals that will ensure that the thread will continue to have a high ranking in google so that when someone search for First Step Finance, they will find this thread very high up.

[Still trying]

That's how I found it! Keep up the good work! Without people like you, people like me will forever be plunging deeper into that rabbit hole of debt!

[lord_tiger_putin]

Hi lord tiger,

 

Thanks for the swift response. I better put you in the picture. I have three creditors:

 

hsbc loan down to just over 10000 (now a managed loan) claimed back the ppi from them successfully and used it to survive my first winter of self employment. Prob should have paid off debts with it but desperate times etc....

 

Egg c card owe about 1300 no claims made against them.

 

Mbna c card owe about 1700 no claims made.

 

I have had both cards for years and a lot of charges certainly on the mbna one.

 

We are about to sell our flat And so I may have a lump sum available soon, would it be worth trying to offer a settlement figure to all my creditors with the 5k that I should end up with?

 

I really appreciate your advice, I have been in debt for the last ten years and I'm now 29 and don't want this hanging over me forever!!

 

Thanks

Yes, HSBC.... this is the account that showed how useless FCF really is. I had 4 PPI policies and FCF tried to claim the last one but HSBC with their useless generic way of claiming and HSBC told them to take a hike. FCF will ceratinly not get all the interest back should they occasionally succeed. I got an offer from HSBC now on all 4 the policies with a significant amount of interest but haven't accept it yet because the credit agreement states that I must service the loan from my current account. Therefore I can use the PPI to get back the penalty charges on my current account, something that is very difficult now after the recent high court judgment. The outstanding amount was almost £6000 and this will be wiped out and I will get back around £4000 from them while FCF only tried to get back around £2000 and failed!!

 

Once you have accepted their PPI offer you cannot do back. I do not know exactly what your circumstance is but maybe you could have got more, maybe not, but it is done.

 

Can you clarify by what you mean about the 2 cards when you are saying no claims made? Do you mean nothing about charges or does it include PPI? I can redirect you to other threads regarding these issues because we should not use this thread to discuss the account in detail. I would suggest to firts get everything from them before you make an offer, you will save more.

 

It will probable be the best if you start a new thread and we can discuss it there and you will also get input from others.

[lord_tiger_putin]

That's how I found it! Keep up the good work! Without people like you, people like me will forever be plunging deeper into that rabbit hole of debt!

I have send you a PM asking to send me the link if you created a new thread.

 

You can have a look at this thread:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?88004-PPI-Successes&p=3191205#post3191205

[lord_tiger_putin]

After a few lengthy conversations and discussions of amounts and figures I now have one of thier agents coming round on tues for me to sign the paperwork.

 

Just a word of caution here, they are known for excerting pressure on people at this stage if they do not want to continue.

 

They will tell you that the people posting here is disgrumbled old clients that can blame only themselves for the mess created and that they (FSF) are the embodiement of perfection. Apparently what people are posting is incorrect and inaccurate and lies and whos knows what, (especially me ) and that you should ignore us. True, this is postings from people who you do not know but this is such a wide range of people, many with utter horror stories. Ask yourself, what have they to gain from not telling it correctly as they have experienced it and that the shear number of people cannot all be "bad apples". There is also the fact that the OFT wants to take away their license, apparentlt the OFT "do not understand"; them, well, this type of decision by the OFT is based on the number of complaints they receive and a decision from the OFT is something one have to take seriously.

 

The second thing they seems to get engaged in is to try to threaten or scare people in an attempt to convince them that it is too late to pull out and that this will cost the person money if they do so. Lies and utter nonsense!! You haven't signed anything yet and even after signing there is a cool off period required by law. If they states that they have already contacted some of your creditors and that they will invoice you, one can then just tell them it is time to celebrate, because Christmas has come early!! for they will have to pay you a significant amount for breaking the law. They do have an utter disregard for the law but that would be just another of the lies they use to try to convice people to sign up.

 

They are only interested in one thing and one thing only:

To make money out of your situation!!

People in these situation has enough hardship and can really do without this type of blood sucker on their backs!!

[brokebutnotbeatn]

Question. You said you have all interst frozen and are paying an amount you can aford through debtcorrect so what is your issue? If it is because you are paying a fee then you could assume control directly with your creditors and pay them the amount (pro ratered) that you save were paying DC as well. Why upset the applecart and start all voer again with another agency?

[Still trying]

The main issue is that I would like to get out of debt quicker and try to negotiate a final settlement figure with each one.

[victoria_siempre]

Hi still

 

Logically you might offer the payments direct to OCs DCAs plus a pro rata increase to include whatever directcorrect is charging you. Win-win-lose.

 

You might then check the legality of the amount of each alleged debt if you haven't already done so.

 

love

 

vic

[Still trying]

Hi still

 

Logically you might offer the payments direct to OCs DCAs plus a pro rata increase to include whatever directcorrect is charging you. Win-win-lose.

 

You might then check the legality of the amount of each alleged debt if you haven't already done so.

 

love

 

vic

 

Hi vic thanks for the advice firstly what's oc and dca?

 

Secondly yes I would be keen to establish the legality of each contract, how best I do it?

 

Thanks

[victoria_siempre]

Hi still

 

The OC is the original creditor eg Egg. The DCA is a commission based Debt Collection Agency who will be collecting on the OC's behalf. It is logical to resolve your DMP first then move on to challenge.

 

x

 

v

[Poor-Credit Borrower]

Hi victoria (or anyone else)

 

I have now been with FSF for over 2 years. About three accounts with OCs have been 'written off', another half a dozen creditors have been piad via the "full & final settlement" process, and another 4 or 5 have been "set up to pay", ranging from £1 to £3 per creditor. A few are with DCAs. Two are "in dispute" including a Halifax CC for about £3500. I have about £4000 "in the pot" with FSF. In these circumstances what should I do? I suspect it would be too late now, in my case, to pull out? Some of the OCs were 'payday' loans, some of which have been repaid now.

 

cheers

PCB

[Poor-Credit Borrower]

PS - the £1 to £3 are monthly payments, of course.

[brokebutnotbeatn]

Accounts with DCAs are easier to negotiate F&Fs on as they paid such a small amount for the debt. Those still with the original lender (OC) are mush harder to negotiate on...Halifax being the worst of all in my view.

I don't know who this outfit is so I don't know what you mean by £4000 still in the pot?

[Poor-Credit Borrower]

Thanks for this. So I'll probably have a task on my hands with the Halifax... Yeah some of my alleged debts are now with DCAs.

 

I thought you would have gathered who First Step Finance are with all the previous posts on this thread. They are a debt elimination/debt reduction company, not a debt management co, who challenge debts on the debtor's/customer's behalf. It doesn't work for everyone, but it has worked to an extent for me. They don't take a direct proportion of payments that the customer makes, based on what they can afford, but all the early payments are 'absorbed' as the initial amount FSF take are 8% of the declared, alleged debt. In addition they take 15% of any debt that is paid to a creditor in part/full payment, and they take 25% of whatever they manage to reduce the debt by, whether that is through F&Fs or other means. It is high, but to be fair 25% is standard in the industry as all major CMCs (claims management co.s) charge that % commission for the reclaim of PPIs etc.

 

If I knew that this CAG forum were going to be so helpful, at the outset, I would have tried to deal with the debts myself with the help of CAG. But I have now been with FSF since April 2009.

You were asking about the "pot" - all the clients' (i.e. debtors') money goes into a sort of holding account, of which a very small amount is distributed to creditors until a F&F or whatever can be reached - the rest would go towards their charges, and at the end of the whole process the excess would hopefully be paid back to the customer (or distributed to creditors if the customer cancels). Hope this helps.

 

PCB

[victoria_siempre]

Hi poor

 

Personally nobody gets 3 bites of my cherry and keeps my money in their pot (making it difficult to extricate oneself).

 

Our CAG line is not to pay for things that we can do for free here.

 

x

 

v

[Still trying]

So I have cancelled my application with first step finance and they really didn't try very hard at all! I wonder if they know that their numbers up?

 

I have started my own thread so as not to clog up this one with my specific case. Please take a look it has more detail!

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?315655-Still-trying-against-hsbc-egg-and-mbna&p=3518536#post3518536

[Still trying]

Hi still

 

The OC is the original creditor eg Egg. The DCA is a commission based Debt Collection Agency who will be collecting on the OC's behalf. It is logical to resolve your DMP first then move on to challenge.

 

x

 

I'm guessing dmp = debt management program? Lol!

 

Secondly how is it best to go about challenging the legality of the debt?

 

Thanks

 

ST

[brokebutnotbeatn]

You can't really challenge the legality of the debt, just whether the owner has something that would hold up in court if they were to pursue you to court. If it is clear they have not then that will help direct your approach. So carry on paying your agreed sums then you should CCA the person trying to collect on the debt with a £1 postal order (see CAG library for letter) OR you SAR the original lender (this way you can work out if their are any charges you could claim back) and the agreement should be part of that SAR - this will cost you £10 and you will need to specifiy what informaiton you are after - again see letter template in the library.

[Stressed64]

So I have cancelled my application with first step finance and they really didn't try very hard at all! I wonder if they know that their numbers up?

 

I have started my own thread so as not to clog up this one with my specific case. Please take a look it has more detail!

 

 

 

You have probably done yourself a big favour there, as you may have seen in my posts my dealings with FSF have not been great, the bottom line is however that my debts have increased by over £3000 during the period I have been with them, I have a CCJ against me and a charging order against my property. Some people mention the 'pot' which your undistributed money goes into, unfortunately the charges made for letters and phone calls to my creditors were so high that at my current level of payment it will be three years before I reach £0.00 so after four and a half years I would have nothing in my 'pot' to negotiate with. One month the charges were over £1500 for this I could have employed a proper solicitor or actually paid it towards my debts. I am now DIY and have managed to reduce my payments by almost £50.00 per month compared to what FSF had negotiated !

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

They are not required to send

a copy of the agreement under DPA (SAR)

as it's covered by CCA 1974.

[lord_tiger_putin]

I have to admit, these clowns never ceases to amaze me!!!

 

If you are trying to deceive people or just outright lie, Ms Walker, at least you should not do it in such a way that it is the easiest thing for the other party to produce documents, statements, etc. disproving you!!

 

yee, yee,….

 

I understand that you do not have the slightest clue what is fact and what is fiction!

 

But at least, try!! or ask someone else…

 

yes, yes, yes, I know there is no one at FCF you can ask ...

 

then it is far better to refrain from these practises!!!

 

You cannot understand what I mean????

 

huh??

[BRIGADIER2JCS]