Debt Management Organisation payplan

[Guest mediaseller]

:mad:After struggling with no money for 4 months following redundancy I decided to contact a Debt Management Organisation known as Payplan on the recommendation of my Bank (Halifax).

 

Before any of you say well Payplan offer their services for free and so may be under resourced I don't agree since they are part of another company offering financial services and they do charge for some of their debt management solutions. Also they are regulated by the FSA.

 

A list of creditors and balances was compiled along with our joint income and expenditure as is normal and sent to Payplan.

 

Now 4 months into the arrangement a number of my creditors are claiming that they have had no payment proposal offer from Payplan although they can see payments made into the accounts which are equal to the proposed offers and last month a number of my creditors claim that they have not received a payment from Payplan.

 

According to statements which they have provided online, Payplan have taken our money and distributed it to all the creditors accordingly as agreed with us.

 

These delays are resulting in charges being applied by the creditors concerned to our accounts with them and also constant phone calls to our home upsetting my wife.

 

I have complained to Payplan by email a number of times and their response is that they have made proposals to our creditors. My latest complaint 2 weeks ago to Payplan has still not been addressed despite a threat to report them to the FSA.

 

Who is to blame here? Payplan or the creditors?

 

Staff at the Halifax have admitted that they are behind by as much as 8 weeks in dealing with repayment offers however I can’t believe 4 months can you guys?

 

Maybe there is an underlying reason for the creditors to deny receiving proposals, could it be to provide them with an excuse to slap on extra charges?

 

Has anyone else had this experience with Payplan or any other Debt Management Organisation and if so should we be starting another campaign on this subject?

 

Write back and share your experience in this area.

[sequenci]

it is very unusual for this sort of thing to happen with payplan, they are in general very good at what they do.

 

you could consider moving to cccs instead?

[dannyboy660]

Definitely creditors.

 

They claim they've had no payment to encourage you to contact them directly and try to make other arrangements. They'll try to batter you into submission and pay more than you can afford - then come the court threats, "we're sending someone round" etc, etc... It's another trick.

 

The OFT guidelines state that DCA's should not deliberately bypass a third party who is acting on your authority with the intention of making arrangements to clear your debts in a proper and affordable manner i.e Debt Management Companies. The DCA's have to provoke you into making the first move by contacting them directly enquiring about payments....then you have effectively given them the right to ignore Payplan entirely and start hassling you again. Not a good idea. I think the Payplan site will advise you of this, and it's always better to go through them.

 

DCA's hate DMP's, and can't abide the thought of people only paying what they can afford to several other creditors when you should be just paying them the full whack for a debt they only paid peanuts for. Where's the profit in small monthly instalments???? DCA's are just private companies trying to screw you for money you don't have, and they only have a very dubious claim on.

[Guest mediaseller]

Thanks to all who gace advice on this.

 

PS. Lafihax have setteld my charges, £1.700 in full without going to court. Yippeeee!