New User Saying Hi

[alwayspoor]

Well Hello There,

 

As you may tell by my username this is how I am left feeling now with all these problems I am having, I am amazed that no one I have spoken to including my local CAB when you can finally get to see someone never told me that all these charges could be reclaimed. So for about 3 years now I have been fighting to try and keep my head above water with charges and returned DDs.

 

A little about myself, I am married with 7 children (Yes 7) and I am on Income support, Housing Benefit and I am Receiving Child Benefit and Tax Credits for My Children. My Wife had been left in quite severe debt by her ex partner who walked out leaving her with the bills and their 5 children. We were married and have twins together now.

 

At first we budgeted hard and lived tight and managed to pay off many of the outstanding debts, still having very high rent arrears left to pay I spent many months looking for work but have been left unemployed (Being overqualified for many jobs, and not skilled or qualified enough for others) With the rules for monetary support being the way they are we get no support income wise pat a certain earning bracket which still leaves us unable to pay our rent and bills and still have money for food and clothes. We have no car use public transport (which with ever increasing ticket prices are also strangling us). Anyway we needed to move recently due to being subjected to violence and abuse by a local gang, this move drained us of what little money we had managed to begin to build and it is taking us a while to get re-established and now getting torrential returned DDs again and being with Nationwide this is £30 a time. I am now registered as clinically depressed and unable to work as my health has deteriorated severly.

 

Our only source of income is our benefits but now Nationwide is dragging us further into debt by taking these charges and not leaving us enough to pay the new bills which is causing more returned DDs, I am left not knowing what to do with the claims being on Hold for the test case and now the Debt collectors have started knocking our door again

 

I appologise for the rant but I needed to get this out in the open, the most annoying part of this is I am told it was our descision to have so many children, and I feel that I am being told I should not have involved myself with my Wife and Children who I love dearly.

 

Please Should I begin action to reclaim these charges and does anyone have any advise for another Account to stop Nationwide from continuing to take our money?

 

Thanks in Advance (and for putting up with the confusing rant)

alwayspoor

[vandermerwe]

Hi Alwayspoor.

 

I am deeply sympathetic for you, but it ain't sympathy you want - it's positive help, and this is where to get it and control your situation instead of the other way round.

 

I've been having a rant because HSBC are nicking my state benefits for their own penalty charges and am, this weekend, writing a letter taken from this site to tell them they are behaving illegally.

 

So step number one:

 

Make two phone calls, one to:

 

The Consumer Credit Counselling Service on 0800 138-1111

 

and the other to:

 

National Debtline on 0808 808 4000

 

and fully outline your situation to both. There are registered charities, make no charge, are independent and, above all staffed with full time and highly skilled debt professionals.

 

In my case the CCCS set up a debt management programme which enable them to pay my creditors a small sum each month and they've saved my sanity (not to mention that of my wife). The only negative is that despite their friendly and helpful staff they tend to shy away from commenting on specific companies by name saying (in my case) "we have to work with them".

 

The National Debtline is, again in my opinion, more forthright and has a far wider range of data sheets for downloading or mailing to you. If the person I spoke to recently is typical of their advisers you will be recommended to open a 'parachute account' (and given a list of providers) and reclaim your charges.

 

Step number two:

 

Leave this thread where it is (on the 'Welcome' site) and you'll get a few more bits of general advice, then go to the bank forum and open up the Nationwide site and start a new thread there.

 

Step number three:

 

Read the sites for newcomers (newbies or idiots like me) and remember the site has a search function at the top which can be very useful - try searching for 'state benefits' for instance.

 

Personally I try and thank anyone who has given me good advice or click on their scales (that's the grey blob at the bottom left between the green circle and the red triangle.

 

Finally you'll find a lot of humour (mainly sardonic - but not always) on the site.

 

Good luck - you're in good company now.

 

Regards

 

Vandermerwe

[alwayspoor]

Thanks for the advice I will give them a call ASAP to see what can be sorted, it's funny (well not really but I'm left feeling all I can do is laugh) but an eviction notice just dropped on our doorstep for our landlord from their bank. I have the thread posted under the landlord section, but geez can things get any worse?????

[vandermerwe]

Probably not alwayspoor, but they can, and should, get better!

 

I know CCCS is available Saturday morning (but probably very busy)

 

Start reading, and good luck again

 

Van