Vanquis Bank - huge problem.

[5aside]

My husband had a Vanquis card which he has always made minimum payments on.

We recently relocated to the republic of Ireland which we phoned and told them.

We also told them that my husband was currently unemployed (we moved because of extenuating family circumstances so for a month or so were on benefit).

 

They said they would send out forms so he could take a payment break as in line with the repayment option plan he had been paying. T

 

hey refused to accept our new address in the ROI, sending two statements and an 'impact debt collectors' letter to my husbands mums address - but no forms.

 

We tried to make the payment for this month (about £50 over the minimum to start paying it off) and the payment was declined,

 

after calling vanquis twice they have told us they are unable to take any further payments by debit card on the account as we are no longer resident in the uk.

 

The card has been stopped.

All this is fine - but they are adding charges and interest daily, have not cancelled the Repayment option plan as requested a month ago, AND we are unable to pay it off at all.

 

Not because we dont have the money (we have even offered to pay it off in full) but because they will not accept a debit card.

 

Our main UK accounts are closed so we dont have cheque books, and we were told over the phone they would not accept payment from someone else, so even asking parents to write a cheque would not work!

 

We even tried to pay with an english debit card registered to an english address but they would not accept it as the Vanquis account is closed.

 

I am at a loss of what to do.

The card limit was £500, but with charges and interest is now over its limit and stands at £650 and rising on a daily basis, this includes a monthly charge for repayment option plan that cant be used!!

 

It is costing me a fortune to call their customer support number, they wont send post to our Irish address...what do I do? We have paid down a lot of debt and cleaned up our credit reports with the view to getting a small mortgage over here in the next year. I don't want all our hard work to be undone by Vanquis!!

 

I have written a complaint letter and had no response, presumably because they will not accept our address.

 

Any advice? Surely what they are doing cant be right?

 

In addition to the above, I received a letter from the UK (sent to my mum in law) yesterday dated 24th June, which says "we can not verify your debit card and have had to suspend your account temporarily" and that in order to resolve this matter please could we provide evidence of the debit card being held in our name and registered to our current address.

"We require a photocopy of the front and back of your debit card. We also require a copy of a statement for the card to which your card is linked".

 

It also states on the letter that if they do not receive the copies in the next 14 days then they will accept no further debit/credit card payments on the account.

Then we were told on the phone last week that they had stopped them anyway!!!

 

I am a bit dubious about this!

 

Any advice at all would be much appreciated.

[aburobert]

Personally I would send a cheque by Recorded Delivery (Signed For) each month to them using whoever is prepared to let you use their bank account in the UK. Make sure there is a covering letter stating EXACTLY what the payment is for. Keep a strict record of such payments made and the date the payments were presented for payment to the bank. If the payments are returned keep a record of this as well. If you are in Ireland there is very little likelihood of any court action. But if they should try and get you by issuing papers at an address you are no longer at get a friend to contact the court stating you are not there. This means you would need to check your credit file on a regular basis.

 

If this goes to court I can see a judge taking a very dim view of such tactics. If you have the money to pay them off pay what you think is a full and final payment and send that marking it as a full and final settlement of what you owe them - INSIST a receipt is sent to whoever makes the payment on your behalf. Get the payee to state you are no longer in the UK and unlikely to return. With any luck they will take the money and write off the rest.