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    • If you are buying a used car – you need to read this survival guide.
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    • Hello,

      On 15/1/24 booked appointment with Big Motoring World (BMW) to view a mini on 17/1/24 at 8pm at their Enfield dealership.  

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    • Housing Association property flooding. https://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/topic/438641-housing-association-property-flooding/&do=findComment&comment=5124299
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    • We have finally managed to obtain the transcript of this case.

      The judge's reasoning is very useful and will certainly be helpful in any other cases relating to third-party rights where the customer has contracted with the courier company by using a broker.
      This is generally speaking the problem with using PackLink who are domiciled in Spain and very conveniently out of reach of the British justice system.

      Frankly I don't think that is any accident.

      One of the points that the judge made was that the customers contract with the broker specifically refers to the courier – and it is clear that the courier knows that they are acting for a third party. There is no need to name the third party. They just have to be recognisably part of a class of person – such as a sender or a recipient of the parcel.

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      It would be very nice if the parcel delivery companies – including EVRi – practised this kind of thing as well.

       

      OT APPROVED, 365MC637, FAROOQ, EVRi, 12.07.23 (BRENT) - J v4.pdf
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Spectrum Financial Protection


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  • 4 weeks later...
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Hi

 

I am currently with Spectrum and have been for 4 years I have never had any correspondance from them and none of my debt is getting cleared I am going to change to Payplan which I was advised to do so by Citizens Advice but has anyone got a number for them now as I cannot even find them on the internet

 

Cheers

 

 

They changed their name to moneytailor, but still service customers.

If they didn't contact you for 4 years, why did you keep paying them?

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Just an update!!! I spoke to Spectrum customer services yesterday, ( i think there is only one person managing it) plz be patient as i had to wait for 20 mins.... 20 worrying minutes i might add!!! but spectrum still are in business however I think they are using it as a 'trading style' which doesnt have to be registered at companies house!! Apparently their new name is 'Money Village' i have done some digging into this new company. A few things dont add up so i will be speaking to them later on in the week and try to see where the proffessional relationship ties are!!!

 

I will keep you informed plus if you are in a very lucky position to pay off some of you debts i have some good advice. Small debts (under £1k) its worth going through spectrum to do your settlement but as there is a fee of 5% of the saving on completion, bigger balances are worth doing yourself. N ow you are supposed to tell Spectrum you are doing this but i dont think / Cant see how this would matter!!

 

 

They are still called Spectrum but don't take on new clients or do any marketing after the OFT ruling.

 

They are not legally connected to Moneyvillage but the guy who owns Spectrum, who got in trouble with Watchdog, bought moneyvillage in November 2009. Moneyvillage is regulated by the IFA. You can complain about both to the OFT and the FOS .

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Their contact number is 0844 567 4242. please let me know how you get on as i have been with them since Jan 08. Now i have been in touch with them quite a bit over the past as i have kept my details up to date. I will be getting in touch with them this week as the amount of worrying information on here and other websites is concerning me. Chris the solicitor, i believe i may be another contender for your legal recourse!!

 

 

If you have any serious complaints, I suggest you go directly to the OFT who have this company on their radar. They have the power to shut them down if you have grounds.

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Hi all,

 

I have a very similar story for all those on here... more worryingly that i'm at the end of my 'agreement' and have gone through checking all my debt. One credit card debt that started at 12k when I went to Spectrum is now at a balance of 27K!

 

These people are a waste of time.. They never help you (until today) when I've said I am writing an official letter of complaint - they've rang me 3 times with excuses. TOUGH!

 

They prey on vulnerable, unstable and frankly "money stupid" people who if they weren't swallowed up in debt and worry would get help and easily solve their own issues (so wish I could go back in time!)

 

Anyone who's posted on here and complained got their money back yet?

 

Be interested to know!

Thanks

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  • 4 weeks later...
I am a solicitor dealing with a claim against Spectrum for negligence. One of the allegations is that they advised him he was entering into an IVA when in fact it was an informal plan as well as the fact that he should have been advised to go bankrupt. I would be interested in hearing from anyone else with similar problems as you may be able to help in my case and, similarly we might be able to help you also claim back money from these guys.

 

 

Hello my name is Lorraine Atkinson. My husband and myself have been with Spectrum now for almost 5 years. We also thought we were in an IVA but were in an informal plan and have now been told two months before the end of the plan that we will still have money to pay at the end of the plan. We were originally told that we would be clear of debt after 5 years. We would be willing to help you out with your case if you wish.

 

Regards

Lorraine Atkinson

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Lorraine,

You are in quite a sticky position at the moment it seems. Do you have the original paperwork about the agreement? This will help in a complaint about being mislead. The best advice is go to the creditors seperately yourself and fully explain your situation with regards to your finances and Spectrum.

 

Hopefully you can set up new arangements with individual parties knowing you wont have to pay Spectrum and at the end of them the debts will be clear!!

 

Hope this helps or if anybody else wants to chip in a few words of wisdom please feel free!!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hiya, I too have been with Spectrum going on 6 years now, initially paid £900 'admin' fee over 3 months. At the beginning got regular updates via letter re were my payments have gone but that has since ceased. I too was told i would be debt free in 5 years (advised after 5 years would be able to pay (good will payment) an amount..whatever i could afford...to my debtors who would then free me from my debt....just putting this down in words now makes me realise how stupid i was for believing this crap. I suppose at the time when you are desperate you will believe anything and this is how these people get away with it!! Earlier this year i recieved notification that a ccj was being made against me by one of my creditors, Spectrum was informed immediately and they stated their legal team tried everything to stop this procedure but were unable to, consequently i had to attend a small court hearing to contest, i faild, they had already made up their mind and the judge wouldnt consider my circumstances...hence one of my creditors now has a hold over my morgage, if/when i sell my property they will reclaim their money, I was extremely concerned that my debtors would have the power to force me to sell my property, i was advised by the 'judge' that 'it very rarely happens'...which is of no great reasurrance for me or my partner and baby!!

I too want to leave Spectrum but feel 'trapped' due to my circumstances & im afraid if i do anything about it this will encourage the debtor who has ccj against me will force me to sell.

I have been contacted by company called Innovative Finance (www.innovativefinance.co.uk) who state they can help me and they apparently have a top notch legal team.......has anyone heard of them?

I would be happy/if able to help your case in any way that i can.

 

Regards

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Stay well away!! We've been with them since 2007 and had nothing but trouble.

 

Firstly, I would ignore the positives written on this forum, as I do not believe they are totally genuine. Having been in the same position many many years ago, I can assure anyone that it is just as quick to use the Citizens Advice or CCCS, and they don't charge a penny! In fact, paying for this service can actually go against you as I will go on to explain.

 

We maxed our credit cards to buy stuff for our house, then tried to transfer them to a 0% interest for 12 months, in order to pay the sums off. I was actually advised to do this by an Independent Financial Advisor. The idea being we kit the house out, then every 12 months transfer the balances to 0%, effectively paying it off gradually over a few years. How wrong was I! Due to reasons out of my control, when the time came, we were unable to transfer any of them, and therefore defaulted big time. After a few months of writing letters and dealing with stroppy people on the phone, we saw the advert for Spectrum in a national newspaper. The employee on the phone was most helpful and understanding, and arranged for the "salesman" to visit - "your worries are now over" he said.

 

The "salesman" came, went through our paperwork, and suggested a DMP. The meeting was all very positive, we were told that we would no longer have any problems as Spectrum would deal with everything - any letters were to be forwarded on, and any callers were to be given the Spectrum Hotline Number - Simple!! Our repayments were agreed and were very minimal, allowing us enough money to still live a fairly decent standard of life. I was mainly concerned about losing my home, and car, which was needed for work, but was told that this was not a problem as the car was on HP, and the house mortgaged so it was secured. We felt a massive weight lifted, and slept much better for the next few days.

 

To cut a long story short, we followed all the procedures laid down by Spectrum, and yet had to endure the following -

 

Threatening phone calls and letters continued; Spectrum staff were rude, unhelpful, and couldn't care a damn; interst wasn't frozen for over 3 years on some of the accounts; when we were given some cash by a relative to clear one of the debts, Spectrum told us to contact the debtor direct to negotiate, they wouldn't do it on our behalf which is in the agreement; we cut back to the bare bones, and any spare money was declared, they then sold us down the river by increasing our monthly payments to our creditors, leaving us with nothing every month; then to crown it all, we decided to contact all our creditors ourselves, and was amazed to hear from every one of them that Spectrum never replied to their letters, and wasn't making our payments on time each month, causing them to cancel agreements!

 

Oh, and just for good measure, we were summoned to Court on 2 occasions to save the house from a Court Order forcing the sale to pay off various debts! On the 2nd occasion, we were fortunate to have a very friendly Judge who was very supportive, and after agreeing an arrangement with us, even she said that we should contact CCCS as it is a free service, and Creditors get the hump when they see that you are paying a company like Spectrum - 18 times what you are paying them!! Now, we actually pay 3 of our Creditors direct, as well as through Spectrum, otherwise we would have definately lost our home by now!

 

As for their "Legal Team", well they were totally useless, and told us we would have to go to Court and fight for ourselves - something which the "salesman" had said would never happen!

 

In our time with Spectrum, we have paid fees to them which would have cleared off 2 of our debts in full!

 

I remain a customer of theirs for now, but not for much longer as I am taking advice from all and sundry before bailing out.

 

STAY CLEAR, DON'T TRUST WHAT THEY SAY, CONTACT YOUR CREDITORS YOURSELF, SPEAK TO CAB OR CCCS FOR FREE HELP!! THEY'RE ONE BIG CON!

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Hello my name is Lorraine Atkinson. My husband and myself have been with Spectrum now for almost 5 years. We also thought we were in an IVA but were in an informal plan and have now been told two months before the end of the plan that we will still have money to pay at the end of the plan. We were originally told that we would be clear of debt after 5 years. We would be willing to help you out with your case if you wish.

 

Regards

Lorraine Atkinson

 

I would contact the CCCS Lorraine; you can do that on-line and fill out a form for them to contact you. Gut feeling is that unless you got that in writing you're stuffed. That said, the CCCS, could at least give you advice, and worst case scenario would be another Plan, or a new IVA - DON'T PAY THEM ANY MORE MONEY!!

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I am a solicitor dealing with a claim against Spectrum for negligence. One of the allegations is that they advised him he was entering into an IVA when in fact it was an informal plan as well as the fact that he should have been advised to go bankrupt. I would be interested in hearing from anyone else with similar problems as you may be able to help in my case and, similarly we might be able to help you also claim back money from these guys.

 

Chris, I would be more than happy to support your case.

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  • 4 weeks later...
I am a solicitor dealing with a claim against Spectrum for negligence. One of the allegations is that they advised him he was entering into an IVA when in fact it was an informal plan as well as the fact that he should have been advised to go bankrupt. I would be interested in hearing from anyone else with similar problems as you may be able to help in my case and, similarly we might be able to help you also claim back money from these guys.

 

 

 

hi chris have been very interested in your post about spectrum, has anything come of it yet as i am currently with them and have been for 4 yrs but have tried to contact them and had no joy and from what i have found out the are now called money village??? plz contact me as i am very concerned and can find no answers on the internet thanks

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My husband was with spectrum in 2006 he endd up with a ccj because they filled in a court form incorrectly and admitted it afterwards. HE decided it was safer to go bankrupt rather than pay them more money. Now I am in financial difficulty I would not go near spectrum. The advisor who came out to see us and convinced us spectrum was the way to go, left the company a month after signing us which I believe said a lot for the company.

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We were with spectrum for 3 years and was also told at the beginning of the plan that we would be debt free in 5 years. We have only just recently moved to CCCS. I informed all my creditors of the move and they were all in favour of CCCS.

 

For anyone who is with spectrum and want to leave them you do firstly need to get in touch with another debt management service but a free one, notify your creditors of the move and then cancel with spectrum, it really is that simple.

 

Like everyone else who has been with spectrum we also paid them 3 large monthly instalements then followed by £30 a month only £15 of which went to creditor!!

 

Spectrum are a waste of time and unwilling to help you.

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  • 2 weeks later...

For all those who have had problems with this company, I would report them to the OFT and their local trading standards.....from what I see they charge a huge fee (which should be going towards the creditors to pay off the debts) as opposed to a free service like Payplan and CCCS any money you pay to them ALL goes to the creditors In either case I would ring the National Debtline first for advice.

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Hi, I'm looking for some advice for my sister who is with Spectrum finance!!

 

Basicaly am i right in thinking an IVA should be registrered in a court?

I did a search on the public register and hers has not been so i am thinking as she's 3 yrs into her apparent iva which one of the years she was unemployed due to redundancy so made smaller payments she could be possibly be in for a shock at the end of her agreement and may still owe money?

 

The reason i ask is she asked me to borrow her money and i'vr refused until this money problem is sorted

 

Thanks

 

Dave

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  • 4 months later...

Ok,

 

I finally had the guts to cancel my agreement with Spectrum. First off, I cancelled the standing order with the Bank, then I wrote to Spectrum telling them they were useless, hadn't done the work they said they would, told them they were fired, and that I was reporting them to the OFT. After a couple of letters back and forth with various people within their Organisation, I got Cheque back for £300! I'd paid them around £2500 in total, but was so glad to get rid, and get some cash back too which could go to some of my Creditors. I then notified all my Creditors, and increased my repayments to them, using what money would have gone to Spectrum - setting up Standing Orders with them direct. Most of them wanted an updated Financial Statement, but were happy just to hear from me, and agreed to what I had offered. Interestingly - ALL of them said they rarely received any correspondence from Spectrum, and they never returned their calls. Go it alone, it's the only way; in fact I've had less problems doing things myself.

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  • 2 months later...
I am a solicitor dealing with a claim against Spectrum for negligence. One of the allegations is that they advised him he was entering into an IVA when in fact it was an informal plan as well as the fact that he should have been advised to go bankrupt. I would be interested in hearing from anyone else with similar problems as you may be able to help in my case and, similarly we might be able to help you also claim back money from these guys.

 

 

hi its been a while but thought id try contacting you anyway. i was told it was an IVA, but only found out it was about a month age (4years later) now im being told it isnt an IVA and this is ongoing til i can pay everthing off? before i went with spectrum i was covering all debt (£11000) but was only paying interest, after 3 years i contacted spectrum and 4 years later im no better off?

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My brother had this with another Company, exactly the same. When he realised, he decided to go Bankrupt, but I managed to talk him round - that was not the best solution for his needs; yes he was in debt, by a significant amount, but not enough to warrant going that far as this can have serious consequences at a later date. He finally got all his paperwork in order, and actually organised a proper IVA. He's annoyed that if it had been done properly first time round, he'd be 3-4 years in now, but at least he now knows that in 4 1/2 years he will now be clear. I dumped my Debt Management Company, and have found dealing with each creditor direct a lot less hassle.

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  • 1 month later...

getting worried about Spectrum myself, are they still operational? been with them for 5 years (wish I hadn't) but haven't heard anything from them since Jan 2011. Payments to them still going out of my bank, nothing from creditors, nothing from spectrum. Fed up of 30mins on hold when trying to phone them.

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Stop paying them, write to all your creditors informing them of this step, arrange with your creditors to pay them yourself and request from them an account number, reference number and sort code so that you can set up standing orders.

 

This lot are a joke and do nothing for the fes they charge except get you further into the mire

I'm not an expert so check everything I tell you, however click me scales if I've been useful.

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

 

There is no freemasonry like the freemasonry of Golf

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As conar has said.... get rid of them! I was really worried about what "may" happen, until the pushed me over the limit. I cancelled their payments (nothing legally they can do about that as theyve breached the contract in so many was), wrote to them demanding a refund (which i got after a lot of arguing and threats of reporting to the OFT), then contacted ALL my creditors direct to arrange payments. My creditors have been brilliant, and I'd wished i'd had the guts to do it a long time ago. They were pleased to hear from me as it appears that they received little or no contact from Spectrum; some said they hadn't received my payments either! We now pay the same amount each month, but spread the Sectrum fee equally to our creditors, so they are happy as they are getting more money. They normally want an update each month, ie any changes to income and an expenditure sheet, but never question anything, and treat you like you're human - Spectrum made us feel like dirt on their shoes, like we were doing something wrong. There are tens of thousands of people in the same position. Don't worry anymore - you'll feel a dark cloud disappear once theyve gone.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi I'm new to this site so bear with me.

I have been with spectrum now for 5 years this year, and feel I was led to believe I had taken an iva with them. But today after speaking to some one from national debtline - http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/ I feel it may only be a debt management agreement. What can I do? Also I was informed that they can't continue with 1 of my creditors due to the fact that it is now a ccj which was news to me.

When I finally thought I was getting somewhere and that it was hopefully all soon to be written off. It turns out I now have a ccj cheers spectrum!!!!!!!

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