Harrassment ...

[Grace53]

... by Metropolitan Collection Services? Get in touch with FINANCIAL OMBUDSMAN ... write to MBCS and tell them you will deal with them ONLY IN WRITING NOT BY TELEPHONE. Tell them you will NOT agree to ANYTHING under TELEPHONE PRESSURE and that you want ALL FUTURE COMMUNICATIONS from them IN WRITING so that you can CONSIDER your best options rather than MAKE IMPULSIVE AGREEMENTS UNDER PRESSURE that perhaps you cannot meet. Don't succumb to their FEAR tactics. In short tell the banks to DO ONE because you've had enough of accepting their 'loans' and then experiencing their BULLYING to repay more than you can afford. Tell them they're no BETTER than the loan sharks we hear about every day. Tell them you're on to them. Tell them you and your kids ALSO deserve a HOLIDAY now and then AND decent FOOD to eat. Tell them this is 2010 and the game is up! We've had enough!

[sequenci]

Tell them you and your kids ALSO deserve a HOLIDAY now and then AND decent FOOD to eat.

 

I appreciate the money needed for food and housekeeping. It is unlikely any creditor would agree that you should set aside mone yfor a holiday I'm afraid to say.

[Grace53]

I wasn't implying anything about creditors allowing money set aside for holidays - but let's face it - we've been paying for their holidays for years haven't we? I think you missed the point I was making. I was continually harrassed by telephone by MBCS for a £5,000 credit card debt, until I was suicidal and in worse health and debt than before. I had even been to Citizens Advice and they had drawn up a payment plan and submitted it to HSBC who COMPLETELY IGNORED IT and put the matter into the hands of MBCS and refused to discuss the matter with me. I went to CAB on the advice of HSBC in the first place! After months of telephone bullying, one day I received 11 phone calls while at work, asking me to agree there and then to raise the amount I was paying back, I went out to my car in my lunch hour and phoned the Financial Ombudsman and told them about the harrassment. I was also paying another company DEBTLINE, £30 a month to supposedly deal with MBSC and stop them harrassing me. At the time I had the feeling that DEBTLINE was simply another subsidiary of MBCS and they were in fact, creaming off £30 a month from my overall payment to MBCS, thus in effect lowering the amount that was being paid off my debt - and they were doing NOTHING to stop the harrassment. So I was in fact worse off by using their so called services. I wrote both MBCS and DEBTLINE a letter and I copied Financial Ombudsman in. I told them I would NOT deal with them by telephone, I would NOT agree to any more raised payments, I would NOT respond to their bullying tactics and that as I had now had a chance to assess my disposable income, I could actually only afford £5 a month at present. They accepted that, they have not phoned me again. Until yesterday I didn't know that MBCS were actually HSBC banks own debt collectors. When I did find out I felt really, really sick to think how they were behaving towards the small people out here who owe a few coppers compared to their fat cat salaries which no doubt allow them and their families to live a pretty wonderful lifestyle. They don't care if you can feed yourself or your family, they don't care if you commit suicide, they care about lending you money that they know you'll have difficulty paying back, they also know you have more scruples than they do and you'll do your utmost to pay because you're honest. And then they simply wait. They wait until you miss your payments, and then they're not your friendly bank any more. And all the while they're lending - they KNOW this is going to happen eventually, because they are more money savvy than YOU. And you're there feeling stupid, guilty and worthless because you're in debt and don't know how you got there. The Bank got you there because it's where the Bank wanted you so the Bank could repossess the home they lent you money to supposedly 'buy'. They're no worse than the loan sharks we're all warned about, they just bully you in a more professional way don't they?it we've been paying for their holidays for years haven't we?

[sequenci]

I appreciate that it is never easy dealing with creditors, and you're right to get the FOS involved. The mantra that we always give to the forum users is to keep all correspondance in writing and make it clear to the creditors that they do not have your permission to communicate in writing.

 

I'm not sure 'Debtline' are part of the HSBC group but I have serious issues with them as they seem to try and imply that they are a not-for-profits agency like 'National Debtline' - two completely different firms.

[Dotty50]

Hi Grace

 

Finding CAG will help you to turn your life around and things will seem much easier further down the line.

 

Nobody has a magic wand but the help on here is invaluable. You will soon come to realise this.

[Grace53]

Thanks Dotty - It's helped just by being able to post my rant. I'm not even anti banks or bank charges - they have wages to pay, premises to pay for and new technology to roll out etc. But what I am against is the fact that they know what's going into a person's account and whether it's a salary or a state benefit - but they will continue to take that benefit from you in bank charges before it even reaches your pocket or puts food on your table. Seems all wrong that people are charged at the same rate when they can least afford it, yet other people are adding more and more interest to their accounts. They say cancer is the biggest killer, but it's not - POVERTY is and when poverty is induced in others by greedy people who have more than enough then that's just plain wrong isn't it?

[Dotty50]

Yes

[sea-sidelady]

I will move this thread over to the debt forum, as you will get more replies in there.

[dannyboy660]

You're absolutely right.

 

The rich get richer.......at the expense of ordinary working people.

 

The only solution that works now is to just not pay the b......ds if the conditions are unfair or unrealistic, - because somebody didn't have the sense to realise that empowering or unregulating the bankers will not necessarily result in social upward mobility, it will result in the 'working class' being milked dry. Well, I'm dry and pist off too.

 

I think it was better when a few made money from the masses, rather than the current situation where anyone with a few votes can poop on us all.

[MadAboutIT]

understand your rant Grace, through the strength of the masses here on CAG that look after us in regards to getting back on track, you will find excellent advice and good company. In my spare time I used to surf the net, now I spend all my spare time on CAG understanding what I can do. I actually got my first DCA to hang up on me last week before that I would be constantly afraid of what the wife would say because I spent half the weekly allowance over the phone to them.

 

From what I have so far:

 

DCA's - ignore them

DCA's - pay nothing to them via card or DD

DCA's - Get a recording device or call log going

DCA's - if you need to deal with them, you DO NOT have to accept the harrassment - do everything in writing