So much negative forums with regards to GT, I have just sent my acknowledgement letter off today to them. Starting to be concerned I have made a bad choice.
Hi, it's all you hear really isn't it. I do believe Foggy is with them after being transferred to them and his posts are usually positive. He may be around in a while to comment for himself. x
IVA final payment left the bank on the 26th January 2013...looking forward to a debt free future.
I am with GT, transferred by my original IP at BE at the beginning of year 2. Not had a single problem so far. Had all correspondence replied to in a very timely manner and with a fair result. I am a bit off the closure fiasco, which is GT's nemesis. Irrespective of who's fault this PPI drama is GT have not dealt with it or it's customers/clients in a reasonable manner which is why I suspect there are quite a few complainants on this forum. (touch wood) GT have not created any problems with my IVA so far.
Last Payment made 04/12/14. Completion Certificate 25/7/15. IVA company GT. No Issues
HI. Yes, Lesley is correct. I was transferred to GT from RSM Tenon, a few months before my second review was due.
I must say, in all honesty, that I have had no problems with them at all. They have answered all of my queries in a friendly, helpful and timely manner. My review went well and all of my concerns were listened to and taken on board, resulting in a reduction of payments.
When I was doing my initial research I admit I did dismiss GT due to their reputation for slower closures then ( before PPI) and their policy of keeping you tied to your obligations after the last payment, until the completion certificate is issued -- which I and many firms believe is inequitable.
However, on the actual running of the IVA I have no complaints ( save for that thorny issue of no contact with my IP -- which plagues many companies).
My opinions are merely that .. opinions based on experience. Always seek professional advice.
IVA Completed 23rd July 2013 .... C.C. 10th January 2014
Thsnks for your advice. The lady who has been talking to me is great and immediately put me st ease. So I have been happy with the help abd service I have received. Be happy when I am on the rosd to being debt free
My IVA was originally with BE and my experiences with GT have been mixed. I could not fault them at all and would actually sing their praises until.....closures.
In all fairness there are people who are involved on the periphery of closures who are really trying hard to supply excellent customer service but I get the impression they are probably finding the closures debacle as frustrating as the rest of us.
I can't quite make out why closures is in such a mess. I thought that GT had probably taken on too much business but the other departments seem to be able to cope.
Im with GT and have been from the start. They used to be evry quick to respond to general queries but now are much slower.
One area they are a disgrace with are closures...they are taking an insane amount of time to close clients IVA's, and have a windfall policy that stipulates if you come into money or want to start your life again, get a mortgage, loan, car finance, or have a payrise, or bonus etc they will take their share towards your creditors...15% of course going to them...i just hope sooner or later the regulators pull them up on it because my arrangement ends next year and quite frankly i do not need the stress of that situation. Ive gone through a horrid divorce and the reason for this IVA is basically an evil ex who left me in debt - yet still remains in our house - albeit all on benefits...long story...(sorry to rant)!!
Its just plain WRONG that they delay closures and attempt to claim after the plan has in effect closed...does 'IVA end date' not mean exactly that anymore???
To summarise are a solid company but if i did it again (which i wont) id chose someone else..
Last edited by geoffr on Fri Mar 22, 2013 9:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
Hi
I have met the two IPs from GT and some of their senior management and I can honestly say that they are genuine people who care for the business and clients. The problem I believe has simply been the logistics of taking on more and more IVA books coupled with the PPI and VAT fiascos of recent months. Personally I think their communication could and should have been better given the fact that they have a platform on here to communicate on a mass scale, just generic statments would have avoided much of the negative posts on here.
I once said I'd bee a rich man if I received £1 for everytime PPI was mentioned on the forum, i'd be even richer if I received another £1 for the times GT was mentioned !
Hopefully we will see far more positive posts once the closures come thick and fast following the mass variation
Im with GT. They delt with my application very well, put me immediatly at ease and got my IVA accepted no problem. Im only in my first month so do not have and long term experience with them but so far so good! Emails have been replied to within hours and I even have my IPs direct email address as he emailed me at the beginning. Good luck they have thus far done well for me
Dont get me wrong folks, they have been very good,but its just the issues surrounding long delays in closures that scares me. Like all of us i cannot wait to start afresh and the thought they may delay this makes me feel literally sickened!
In the signing up process they are excellent. They deal with you with a great deal of attention and compassion and present viable IVAs that are fair to both sides. So 5/5 for that.
Once you have an IVA accepted and and regular payments start you are effectively with another 'dept' of GT who look after this side of things. You wont get to speak directly to an IP, so you're looked after by their support team. Again, generally speaking they are good at this side of things but do occasionally make mistakes and have got slower on things like annual I&E reviews. However I always managed to get hold of someone when needed by email or telephone without to much trouble. So 3.5/5.
Now here comes the bad news. At the end of your final payment you are put into a sort of pre-closures state where things like the final review are done, creditors claims are checked and such like. At this stage we've had some people find out not all the correct payments have been made to creditors, or there is a shortfall, or creditors havent even made submitted claims etc. When really this sort of info could have been discovered long before. The result is, some people may experience delays before their case goes to closures. Even when things do go as expected, you're probably looking at around 3 months from final payment to getting to closures. Once in closures, they state 6 months is required and as far as I can tell you're lucky if they actually complete in this time frame. That means most people are waiting at least 9-10 months for a completion cert after final payment, with many waiting much much longer. This is poor in my opinion, especially considering their hardline approach of the IVA T&Cs still being enforced in full while you wait. So 1/5 for their closures process I'm afraid.
While I can sort of understand the situation at GT (although not the lack of communication), the one thing I don't understand is why they are being so rigid about assets. Surely if someone has complied with the terms of their IVA for 60/72 months they should be allowed to then move on. It seems that people are forced to continue living as though they are in an IVA through no fault of their own.
Whether it's imcompetence at GT or circumstances beyond their control they need to sort out the mess - other companies seem to be able to do it so why not GT?
I TOTALLY agree with you Skippy. How can they get away with this?? Its completely wrong. This is supposed to be a process whereby we repay our creditors as much as we can afford...its bounda and agreed that its morally so much better than bankrupcty to be in an IVA. Every person in one struggles by to the best of their ability by strict guidelines, pays over any overtime, or bonuses, lives by strict lifestyle guidelines for however long the plan is srt at. At the end just when your about to see the light seems the kind folks at GT switch that light back out and make you continue living in an 'IVA world whereby anything you do financially can be taken'. Its a flipping disgrace, and of course being the super power they are i expect nobody will touch them.
I found them ok to begin with (we were transferred over in year 2 from our original IVA company), however they were always a bit scrappy. I sent copies of my P60 and was told I MUST send the original - which of course they then lost. I had to fill in several I&E forms one year because even though they had a signature on receipt, they couldn't find the documentation. Year 4, they sent a 21 day follow up letter to me 7 days after the initial I&E was sent out and refused point blank to believe that the date on the original I&E letter was only 7 days before - I had to scan a copy of the letter and send it to them to prove that I hadn't breached the arrangement by not sending it back within 7 days. They don't seem to realise that while it might just be a 'mistake' to them, receiving a letter on a Friday night (so you can't speak to anyone until Monday) saying you're in breach and they are going to start proceedings to fail the IVA if you don't contact them immediately can ruin your whole weekend and terrify you if you've gone through the IVA process. They were also crap at responding to queries or telling us that things had been accepted (they queried the fuel amounts once and we sent in receipts and heard nothing until the letter saying that the I&E had been accepted). So attention to detail doesn't appear to be their strong point.
Then we fast forward onto closures. The variation team were brilliant, I have to say, and Karol was always very helpful (I spoke to her before I ever found this forum). Unfortunately throughout the process I had need to contact her more than I'd liked to have because my original queries to the CS team would go unanswered, so after a week I'd email Karol and ask her if she could help me sort it out. I was fairly lucky, I got my CC about a year after my final payment. I asked several questions via email about things that would happen post-IVA and asking for some advice on what the creditors/CRAs should have received and received one answer, which prompted another question, which has been roundly ignored since and I've had no contact despite sending 5 or 6 emails. I've basically given up now.
However, we've just received a spotty letter each telling us that we need to sign a variation etc etc or our IVAs could suffer from delayed closure. THEY WERE CLOSED OVER A YEAR AGO AND WE HAVE CC AND FINAL REPORTS. This is infuriating because I spoke to them last year and told them point blank they were not to pass my details onto any third party, and they told me they would not. So, how have EIC suddenly got our details a YEAR after closure? People keep telling us that we signed up to allow GT to give out our details without specific permission - however a) why do they write and ask you give permission if that is the case, and b) surely that permission ends with the closure of the arrangement? I don't believe they've sat on our details for a year (they have a relatively new mobile number for starters which I only gave a certain department, so I KNOW they have given those details out more recently), and I find it quite disturbing that they don't seem to know which arrangements they have closed and which they haven't.
Last edited by kittyface on Wed Mar 27, 2013 6:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
