May the sunshine on me, v GE debenhams

[sunshine23]

Don’t know where to start!

GE Capital Bank, Debenhams Store Card, was one of a few cards I had until last year

My financial position was terrible, for more than 18mths up to Dec 2006, I was desperately trying to sell a house, CCCS were unable to accept me as a regular client, and could only offer me occasional advice when I phoned them, as I didn’t have a reasonable regular income, and was reliant on the sale of a house to settle mortgages and several other smaller debts. CAB are oversubscribed in my area and only offered minimal advice, whenever I did manage to contact them.

Can you imagine how much I wish I’d known of this Action Group then!

 

Every month I wrote to GE bank, saying I was unable to meet required monthly payment but was making an affordable regular token payment. Despite my best efforts GE applied monthly charges and interest of approx £100 to my account, taking the outstanding balance up several hundred pounds.

Finally I got a sale on the house below the market price but 2 days before the start of mortgage repossession proceedings; this paid off my two mortgages, but didn’t settle the smaller debts in full.

I worked out an equal pro rata amount to all smaller debts of approx 70%

All except GE Capital accepted my offer.

no doubt several default notices on my credit rating now exist, but I didn’t go bankrupt, and felt I had achieved a fairly reasonable and responsible result for my debts.

 

GE refused to accept any reduced payment arrangement, they refused any settlement offer, and continued pursuing me through their in house credit collection agents, Viking direct and a some others, all of whom I managed to throw off. In several conversations GE and its agents told me if I was a client of CCCS or someone similar they would have to settle for my offer or at least a reduced amount, I believe they were playing with me, knowing that I couldn’t get taken on by any Debt agency, as by then, theirs was the only debt I had left and it wasn’t over the 15k threshold, to be accepted by CCCS or anyone else.

Soon after, they sold the debt to Link Financial who took the only available cash payment I had of 82% and proceeded to get a CCJ for the remaining £1200, which I now pay off at £5 per month. CAB were not much help with the court papers and I didn’t know who else to ask at that time

I estimate most of the £1200 CCJ are charges and interest, and would like to recover some money from GE to settle the outstanding CCJ.

 

In my defence I am not a reckless spender, these debts were the result of losing out in a divorce (my ex went after discovering I could no longer work) and being a disabled single mum for the past 9 years. I converted an outbuilding into a second house and used rental income to survive initially, but relentless health problems from an undetected spinal fracture, discovered in 1995 after 28yrs and subsequent surgeries later I rely on incapacity, a lifeline that barely pays monthly utilities and food but it’s my lot! It’s also more than some countries would allow me, if I’d been born elsewhere.

I think what I’m saying is, Beware and cautious, anyone who is working, accident or sickness can strike anyone, and life as you know it, is gone! In the blink of an eye!

Questions:-

1] How do I pursue GE capital bank for some recompense to settle this CCJ? I’m not fighting fit every day and doubt my ability to consistently pursue it, so I would consider a good legal team.

 

2] Would it be permissible to seek recompense of charges on the other small debts to reduce some of the 30% unpaid, and thereby lift some of the default notices on my credit rating? They include Egg, HSBC, BoS, Amex, M&S.

 

3] Would it be worth enquiring if I have any excess mortgage charges I might reclaim? They were settled in full.

 

4]Welcome Finance were one of the debts settled in full although they took about 2 weeks to give my solicitor a final settlement figure. Should I write and ask for their charges schedule? I guess they probably gave me a hard time with regard to charges to.

 

For anyone’s information, I found the Abbey mortgage people pleasant and helpful, they let me go 5 months behind with their mortgage, I was keeping them fully informed on a monthly basis, and paying about 30% of the required monthly mortgage fee.

The Woolwich got the same treatment, but I didn’t, their computer rules and regulations were totally inflexible, they might as well be on Mar’s, their staff are more like robots, as far removed from human beings as you can get.

 

I could give a run down on various credit card company dealings too, if necessary.

Funny enough the best people I dealt with after the Abbey was the Halifax, and that’s quite surprising when reading some comments on this forum.

 

Sorry, yes this does contain some extra info, but I felt it all went together in painting the picture.All help and recommendations will be appreciated. Happy New Year to all

[sunshine23]

Advice please, can anyone recomend a specialist law firm, or give me a few names to choose from.

I have several claims to make and struggle understanding legal jargon and when these overchargers are bluffing to bully me, so i would feel happier using legal help.

any suggestions will be appreciated, and if i choose one to use i wont hold anyone else responsible for my choice!

ty

[steven4064]

Sunshine

 

No one else seems to have replied so I'll try and answer some of your questions.

 

Questions:-

1] How do I pursue GE capital bank for some recompense to settle this CCJ? I’m not fighting fit every day and doubt my ability to consistently pursue it, so I would consider a good legal team.

 

I don't know about legal teams, I'm afraid, but I do know that GE Capital Bank cave in pretty quickly if you follow the strategy on this site. If you don't have all of your statements send them an SAR asking for them. Then work out how much they owe you and send an initial request letter from the templates libraray.

 

More often than not, GE Money seem to pay up at this point without any fight. Sometimes it is a little harder if you are claiming estimated charges ('cos they have lost some of your statements) or interest. In our case, they paid the estimated charges immediately we refused their first offer and only dug their heels in about interest. If you need to go further, just follow the scheme: LBA next.

 

If you don't feel able to consistently pursue this yourself, do you have friend or relative who could help you? I am doing just this for my son.

2] Would it be permissible to seek recompense of charges on the other small debts to reduce some of the 30% unpaid, and thereby lift some of the default notices on my credit rating? They include Egg, HSBC, BoS, Amex, M&S.

 

Yes, treat them the same way as GE Money.

3] Would it be worth enquiring if I have any excess mortgage charges I might reclaim? They were settled in full.

 

Yes, if they charged you an early repayment fee, that is unlawful in the same way as bank charges

 

4]Welcome Finance were one of the debts settled in full although they took about 2 weeks to give my solicitor a final settlement figure. Should I write and ask for their charges schedule? I guess they probably gave me a hard time with regard to charges to.

 

Yes, treat them in the same way as GE Money above.

[sunshine23]

Thank you so much for your reply, I had begun to think I'd made some terrible gaff, in my posting, I know silly thing to think.

 

And thank you for your advice, it helps tremendously.

 

I have sent a template request to GE asking for my statements or a list of charges, they havent yet replied, they have another week to go

 

I beleive I send them a reminder, having read other threads.

So heres hoping for a successful outcome, all the best, from sunshine

[steven4064]

sunshine

 

My answer to question 3 was based on some threads I read earlier. It now turns out that you cannot reclaim back early repayment fees - see the news item half way down the site home page.

 

Steven

[Cristal]

FYI - I have a substantial debt w/Debenhams and am being pursued by Viking. I CCA'd them and also told them to stop harassing me on the phone. The calls have stopped and they don't have much more time to respond before the 12 day deadline. I'll keep you posted!

[sunshine23]

hi cristal

thanks for that info,

just a word of caution, my experience of GE is they use unsrupulous methods, and played with me until they had backed me into a difficult corner where i was not in a position to be offered help from consumer advice.

so good luck, i wish u every success, just beware of their alternative methods.

best regards

[Cristal]

thanks for the heads up!! Did they use a DCA like Viking to collect the debt from you? Let me know how you get on with your CCA or your SAR - it should shut them up for a while at least! Good luck and, again, thanks for your input!

[Cristal]

PS Sorry Sunshine 23 - just rereadyour post and saw that you did deal w/Viking. Good to know. Information is power!