advice needed please

[paula5650]

can you please tell me if the service charges are legal on catalogue repayments, i am paying them each month for goods, but i had to finish work because of servere illness, so i had to send what i can afford each month, because of this they are charging me about £11.50 a monthservice charges, ill never get it paid of at this rate can you please advise mee

thank you

[silverfox1961]

Hi,

If you have all your statements then put a claim in for a refund of these (up to now) unlawful charges.

 

If you can't afford the minimum payments, have you informed them of this?

 

Your essential outgoings take priority and anything else can wait.

If all you can afford is £1 then that is all you send.

[alfwithhair]

'Service Charge' as most of these catalogue's call it is actually 'Interest'

So is not rearly an unlawful charge, it is based on a percentage of the balance owing. You need to write to them and ask if they will freeze unincured interest.

 

If the charges are for non payment or for admin fees, such as sending you a letter, which are usually fixed cost £12, £15 or sometime £20 depending on the catalogue, then do as silver fox suggests and get them to credit them back to your account, these are penalty charges and you must claim them back.

[cerberusalert]

How old is this account & did you open it online?

[paula5650]

Thank you so much for all it is a great help your information, i did inform them, but they are still charging me,and when i first ordered the goods it was on line.Ishall get a letter of to them straight away and see what they say thankyou

[paula5650]

i have been in touch with my catalogue and they refuse to lower or freeze the service charges, or accept a reduced payment can you advise me what else i can do, i asked about claiming my service charges and was told that only works with the bank charges

[paula5650]

please please will you give me advise really worried

[alfwithhair]

i have been in touch with my catalogue and they refuse to lower or freeze the service charges, or accept a reduced payment can you advise me what else i can do, i asked about claiming my service charges and was told that only works with the bank charges

 

I take it all this was discussed by telephone?

Firstlt stop ringing them up , they are not interested in anything you say, unless it is debit or credit cards details

 

Write to them outlining the reason you are behind with the payment, enclosed a breif I&E sheet, showing what you have left after paying priority bills and tell them that whats on offer, like it or lump it.

 

Tell them if they are going to charge more in charges and interest than the amount of you monthly payment, then you are refusing to pay them anything until such time as they do.

 

They will not like it and more then likely set their collection idiots on to you.

 

But stick to your guns, pay only what YOU can afford and ignore anything and everything they tell you to the contrary.

 

They cannot have what you haven't got, simple as.

 

Also send a seperate letter with a list of all the penalty charges, the date incured and the amount, and a total at the bottom + interest charged at the same rate as they are charging you. Tell them point black you have no intention of paying them and you want them credited back to your account pronto before you will even consider coming to an agreement regarding payment to clear the outstanding balance.

 

PS you have not answered a previous question about how old this account is?

Can you also say who the company is and also a rough idea of the total balance outstanding

Edited October 29, 2009 by alfwithhair

[paula5650]

thankyou for answering my question, the account is still running but when i had to give up work about 4 month ago i had to reduce my payment as i couldnt afford the full payment i owe them about £550 but they keep adding charges on each month and now they want me to pay £169 to bring my payments upto dateof which i dont have, and its them that are ringing me

[cerberusalert]

How long have you had the account and did you open it online, the telephone or did you fill in an application form?

[paula5650]

i have had the account about 8 mnth and i opened it on line and i didnt fill in any forms, sorry i forgot the company is fifty plus. im paying them £20 a month at the moment

Edited October 30, 2009 by paula5650

[paula5650]

please i need more help this catalogue company phoned me again and we arranged that i shoud pay them £20.00 every 4 weeks and for me to make a one of payment of £43.00 added to the account and they would stop the sevice charges of £12.00 per month so i agreed i paid them the £20.00 on the 4th nov and now they sent me a letter saying they want another payment by the 28th november else they are going to say i defaulted on my payments can you please advise