Yet Another Suicide through Debt. We're going to fight back NOW!!!

[AA99]

Agree with you good people:D We must make groups like CAG more known to financially desperate people. T-shirts? Newspapers?

[Desperate Daniella]

We won't let it go, but at the moment I'm dealing with a really frightening court case (nothing to do with banks) and I just have to put my energies into that. I don't think we'd get much interest from the press before Christmas because we are in the silly season right now. World disasters will hit the headlines, but usually from December it's all presents and cookery ideas. I'm personally looking for a feature on how to buy all your presents, cook a fabulous Christmas lunch with loads of booze, and all for £30.

 

Hopefully though Marc appearing on the news and being identified as being from the Consumer Action Group will have meant a number of new people will have googled and found us.

 

DD

[Jan4a]

January will be a better time - everyone worrying about the debt after xmas.

[AA99]

What:confused:When:confused:Where:confused:Link Please:cool:

[DuffNCustard]

What an inspiring thread - time for the 'ripped off' to take a stand and unite to assert ourselves.

 

I've been in a DMP for 3 years - if all goes well I will be debt free by September 2011.

 

I am well educated, I have an executive position and am well able to assert myself and handle a business dicussion. Yet in the process of confronting and dealing with my debt I have at times been moved to despair. In those early desolate days the CCCs CAG and other good forums were my lifeline; just knowing that I was not the only debtor and that others were prepared to help me so generously meant more to me than I can ever put the words to.

 

The slow realisation of the lust for profit and wealth that drives the finance industry was something that even an old cynic like me found staggering; added to that the fact that our Parliament don't give a dam reperesents to me a dereliction of duty that is appalling. A slow burn - not for revenge but for justice started. I now spend on average an hour a day contributing to discussion boards were fellow debtors are seeking help and advice and perhaps just as importantly, a bit of comradeship and human warmth!

 

There are some excellent suggestions in this thread, I have another to put forwards. How about if we each sent a letter to our MPs - a mass mail using a template we could create here on this forum?

 

Number two - what about putting a petition up on the No 10 website?

 

Finally if a way can be found for a collective mass boycot of Financial Services that would be the most powerful action we could take - boycotting of a credit card, insurance? and making a big noise about doing it too would hit them in the balance sheet and could deliver a ton of bad publicity. One has to admire the French they take to the streets or blockade Calais if they have a grievance!

[Desperate Daniella]

Hi Duff,

 

All great ideas for January and as Jan says there'll be more people worried by then I'm sure.

 

AA99, Marc was on most of the programmes I saw, but I can't remember the name of the thread here. Martin Lewis was on the other programmes.

 

DD

[AA99]

Hi Duff,

 

All great ideas for January and as Jan says there'll be more people worried by then I'm sure.

 

AA99, Marc was on most of the programmes I saw, but I can't remember the name of the thread here. Martin Lewis was on the other programmes.

 

DD

 

Thanks DD, I saw Mr Lewis quite a bit after the court decision but not Marc.... I'll google him

 

Hello and welcome to Duff:)

[Mitch524]

Not long joined this forum and as people have stated earlier in this thread we need to get the word out about the good work that the people do here to help, support and give people piece of mind that there may be a way out of the financial trouble they are in. I stumbled on this forum when searching for a solution to my situation. I haven't slept better since joining and seen that there are others out there willing to give up there time to help others in the way that the members of this forum do.

There will be thousands more people out there who need the help of the many educated people on here and we do need to get the word out.

I am only beginning my journey but if there is anything that I can do to spread the word just give me a nudge.

Without going on and on I fell into the trap of paying credit cards with other credit cards and as the interest rates became extortionate I took out loans to pay these credit cards and then used the cards again to pay the monthly payments to other cards. I was searching for information on companies who claimed that they could investigate CCA's pre April 2007 to see if they were enforceable and if not clear the debt and as I previously said stumbled on this site.

The sleepless nights and constant worry of when the next credit card bill hit the door mat are now in the past. Yes I'm still a bit apprehensive about the journey ahead but believe me it's not anywhere near the pressure that I was feeling until reading through some of the posts on here.

Thanks to everyone who posts on here keep up the good work and sorry for going on a bit.

Mitch.

[DeRichleau]

IMHO you are not going on at all. The more people you tell the better. I was stood in front of a young woman in the Halifax last week, who was trying to pay £1 into her account to cover her 72p overdraft. Shefound out there and then she had been charged £75 in unfair fees, and was nearly in tears. I told her about this site and made her write down the web address. How she will feed her children this week I dont know. How about contacting the Rip off Britain TV programme with details of this site?

[angel_1]

Welcome Mitch to the forum

 

you will have already seen that we are a really helpful bunch

 

your post made me remember my fears when i started this mad journey of mine to get debt free

 

it will all make sense as you read all the threads and save them that may mirror your own circumstances

 

but you will invest time in reading and you will learn so much it will become easier in time understanding your rights and the threats made to you from creditors in time will educate you to deal with what you have to deal with one at a time

 

just start each a thread for each of your creditors and that way you will get specific help on that creditor or the problems you face and it will soon make it easy for you and others to follow

 

just shout if you have any concerns so many people have helped me and i am happy to help others where i can its the very least i can do

 

keep positive and keep learning laters angel x:)

[Mitch524]

I've sent out 3 Account in Dispute letters and resent a CCA request (Sent to wrong address) as more info comes back should I post on the specific thread for Debts in Scotland as I live North of the Border ?

[steve2577]

Hope I'm not butting in here

 

 

(excuse the punctuation I am rubbish at writing)

 

 

Apologies to everybody I thought I was so important why shouldn't everybody stop what they are doing and help me NOW NOW NOW.

 

I am crap at explaining things and crap and writing but here goes.

 

Been too busy posting all my own issues over the last few weeks and only now have had the time to look and see if I can help others. I thought I was so in debt that everybody would gasp in horror but it's only £65k for me and £40k for my partner (don't beleive I'm saying this now but a few weeks ago it seemed equivalent to the national debt of the Earth).

 

I now think that the actual level of debt is irrelevant some people buckle over £1,000 some people buckle over £100,000 so the actual amount doesn't matter it's the same for us all. For me it was a combination of lving beyond my means and stupidity but what's also in the equation is that soem the CC's recently upped my interest to 38.53% and when you owe them £10k this is the real crime bearing in mind interest rates are at there lowest for decades and bearing in mind I have never missed a single payment in the last 10 years this was the Straw That Broke the Camels Back.

 

Like I said before, crap at explaining, crap at writing but If it helps anybody I actually decided that the worst was going to happen the bailliffs would come in and the whole family would be on the street and as soon as I accepted this anything else seemed a positive. About 4 days ago I thought about ending my life and at the time it just seemed the right thing to do I have had a good life and things have been ok so a no brainer really. But then the CAG forum entered my life.

 

I know you can't trust everyone and I know some people have hidden motives but if a computer can emit a signal then to me the signal the CAG forum emits is one of mutual comradeship (I am not a lefty).

 

Now after 3 weeks of hell in effect this is the learning curve I am reguvinated and ready to help wherever I can.

 

I have a few gifts (ie internal things passed on genetically by my mother not xmas presents) and can think out of the box in a lot of interesting ways so if anybody has any issues particulary things like sending an offer they can't refuse I have some great ideas.

 

The CAG saved me and I would like to give something back.

 

 

Many Regards Steve:)

[Desperate Daniella]

Hi Steve and Mitch,

 

I'm so glad you have found CAG. I was in a terrible state this time last year when I found CAG and like you felt like ending it all. I still have my very bad days but caggers are lovely people and I am so very grateful I found them.

 

I think Angel summed up the forum perfectly. We've all been grateful on bad days for a sprinkling of her angel dust .

 

Steve, you weren't butting in at all. I started the thread because I was so shocked about the lady who sat in front of a train, but it's not "my" thread, it's "our" thread, so anyone who has any ideas, or just needs to have a moan on a bad day, is very welcome here.

 

In the New Year we need to come up with a list of things to protest about and one of the main ones is going to be the fact that we are held to ransom over interest rates going up and up and up, and I'd also like to include the Barclays Bank Reserve fee - £22 for being overdrawn by £2.36 for five hours, £14 charged by British Gas for a letter to tell you you haven't paid on time, and so on. The list is endless, and these are all reasons why we are so much in debt.

 

CAG has saved so many of us. Let's try and save some other people who don't at the moment know where to go and are in utter despair tonight.

 

DDxxxx

[angel_1]

hello everyone

 

thought id look in before off to bed i go

 

thanks Daniela - for the nice compliment:-)

 

and welcome steve too , everyone is welcome here like daniela said, its our thread and at times we all have our good moments and also our bad but cag really has invigorated my senses and my passion to do the right thing in not being frightened anymore

 

so have a fab day all tomorrow nite nite for now

 

keep happy laters angel x

 

leaving a trail of angel dust on my way out

[Desperate Daniella]

You see, I promised you there'd be some angel dust. (You deserved the compliment, Angel. )

 

I have just called my local Samaritans (quickly because they have other people to talk to tonight) to ask if they ever give out help numbers such as CAG to desperate people. I didn't think they did and they still don't.

 

I really do think that we need to get the Samaritans onside. The very nice lady I spoke to said that people are really just phoning them for a good cry and to get things off their chests and "they will have other avenues for practical advice." That's the point. Most people don't know about CAG. I contacted CCCS last year who were very nice and suggested a debt management plan but they never mentioned CAG. I found it by googling "unenforceable credit agreements" after seeing the Panorama programme.

 

I have the number of Samaritans' Head Office and am happy to call them, but I'm hitting the red triangle to see if the site team feel that an approach from them would be more appropriate.

 

Night, night.

 

DDxxxx

[AA99]

Good one DD! I have a girlfriend that was an ex-Samaritan. I'll have a word with her too;)

 

Welcome Steve:) You are definitely not alone. This time 2 years ago, we barely had a worry in the world, now we have 10 credit cards and loans on the go that have made us ill with their ludicrous interest rate charges and fees and total disregard to human life. Now they can have my blood, sweat or tears, but definitely not the £ they're demanding:)

[Mitch524]

Valid point AA99 re outrages interest rates. That is the reason I am now fighting back. If these people were reasonable there wouldn't be the amount of debt and misery we are having to deal with these days. From 0% introductory offers to charging in the range of 25-30% it's an outrage.

[steve2577]

Valid point AA99 re outrages interest rates. That is the reason I am now fighting back. If these people were reasonable there wouldn't be the amount of debt and misery we are having to deal with these days. From 0% introductory offers to charging in the range of 25-30% it's an outrage.

 

 

It's a bit of a side issue but in my thread Steve V Capital One I posted a letter that Capital One kindly sent to me informaing me that as a valued customer they wer increasing the rates from 33% to 38.53% and I have never missed a payment in the last 10 years. Itwas this one letter that made me decide that they can swivel for there money.

 

 

 

Steve:roll:

[MARTIN3030]

I've sent out 3 Account in Dispute letters and resent a CCA request (Sent to wrong address) as more info comes back should I post on the specific thread for Debts in Scotland as I live North of the Border ?

 

Yes would be a good idea.Highlight your thread title with the Creditor/DCAs name to get better response.

[nunnyrose]

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/debt-collection-industry/236893-michael-mcintyre-walks-out.html

 

Now here's somebody we need to get on board with this

[AA99]

Help:???:

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/getting-out-debt/236776-credit-card-debt-suicidal.html

[shinobi101]

This kind of thing makes my blood boil. That woman's life was worth more than the bank. The wrong one survived.

 

The solution is for the banks to be forced to write off debt in cases of proven hardship. They should also be banned from the sudden and total withdrawal of facilities when the customer is making a genuine effort.

 

The reason for this is explained here:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general-debt-issues/175668-how-credit-cards-bank.html

 

Most people think that if you borrow say £30k, that the bank has given you £30k of it's own money in the hope of getting it all back plus enough to make a small profit; and if you don't pay it means the bank will have lost £30k.

 

The reality is that the money you allegedly borrow is in fact (usually) created by the bank itself by means of an accounting entry. They accept your promise to pay as an asset, then create a corresponding liability which becomes your loan. You have swapped a promise to pay for an accounting entry. Transaction over. I see the demand by the bank that you then pay them loads of real money plus interest as outright fraudulent. If you don't pay, they don't lose anything they ever actually had. The money would exist if you hadn't borrowed it!

 

The fact that people are actually dying for this con is unforgiveable.

[roygoodbeat]

I have a number of debts and the way these companies and their debt collection agents work is unacceptable. I can't sleep at night, I hate coming home from work, as I know the post is waiting for me and my partner bearly speaks to me.

 

I have attempted to pay back and sort things out. I haven't had any time off year and for a large part of the year I was doing three jobs. On one occasion I believed that I had sorted a payment agreement with Tesco Finance and I began to repay them. They suddenly started getting debt collection agents writing to me. I wrote back saying a mistake must have been made by Tesco as an offer of payment had been made and payments commenced. Within 6 weeks of this I received a court summons ordering me to pay.

 

Even when I have written to the authories, complaining about the way these companies act, breaking the rules and law, they do not seem to want to know. Are they fit for purpose?

 

I know that I am depressed alot of the time as I feel that whatever you do, the banks and lenders get away with murder and the called regulators look after their own:mad:

[Desperate Daniella]

Hi Shinobi and roygoodbeat,

 

Welcome to the thread, and sorry for not being around for a bit.

 

roy, like you I often don't sleep at night because of the bills mounting up, but the DCAs can be dealt with. I started asking for copies of my credit agreements in November 2009 and I have lost count of the number of DCAs who have written to me since then. Have you got a thread on Tesco Finance? Are you up against any other creditors? What happened with the Court summons?

 

Caro has another thread about campaigning against the banks and we're debating whether to lump all the other things in too if we have a demonstration - e.g. complaints about late charges, DCAs, etc.

 

I'm going to post a link there to this thread and hopefully we can all share ideas.

 

DD

[hatesdebt]

Could you post a link to the campaign against bank thread please...