www.iva.co.uk

Hi,

Just a very quick question: I've been cold-contacted by a company called House and Home, and cannot find them at all on the web. I'll do a more intensive look later on tonight but just wondered if anyone's heard of them.

hi there it might be a scam best not to contact them might be best to contact your supervisor or your ip about this

JOHNPAUL

Sorry Shortm but I have not heard of them.

Best Regards
Oliver

Thomas Charles and Co Ltd.
Experts in personal debt solutions.
Read customer feedback at: www.thomascharles.com/about_us.asp

Hi,

The full company name is House & Home Care Ltd (H&HC) and it appears to be connected the Debt Consolidation Centre. They aren't mentioned on iva.com or on here as far as I can tell - and I can't really find anything about them.

They've sent me a load of bumf in the post about changing my bank account and so on, all of which includes a pay in slip for £299 which I assume is for their fee for setting up the DMP, and a standing order mandate.

Only on receipt of this, the income and expenditure form, letter of authority etc will they start speaking to the creditors to request freeze of interest payments.

I'm rather concerned about this - I would've thought that paying someone I've spoken to ONCE over the phone, a few hundred notes up front, before even giving them specifics about what I owe and to whom, would be a highly risky thing for me to do under my present financial circumstances.

If they can't achieve an agreement where would that leave me? A few hundred quid short with creditors hammering on my door?

My brain hurts.

the best thing to do is tell your ip right away could be a scam or a 3rd party company toteing for bis

JOHNPAUL

Bit More Info:

Name & Registered Office
HOUSE & HOME CARE LIMITED
41 GREEK STREET
STOCKPORT
CHESHIRE
SK3 8AX
Company No. 05829935
Status: Active
Date of Incorporation: 26/05/2006
Company Type: Private Limited Company
Nature of Business (SIC(03)):
6523 - Other financial intermediation
Accounting Reference Date: 31/05
Last Accounts Made Up To: (NO ACCOUNTS FILED)
Next Accounts Due: 26/03/2008
Last Return Made Up To: 26/05/2007
Next Return Due: 23/06/2008
Last Members List: 26/05/2007

JohnPaul:

I don't have an IP yet. I'm still in the process of selecting one!

What I absolutely DON'T want, is to pick an outfit with an ostensibly good reputation, and then have huge trouble getting hold of them when I actually need to - or who expect me to have all the paperwork to hand all the time.

This is partly due to the nature of my work - I'm out on the road a lot and am almost phobic about being stuck in a position where something's gone wrong, I'm nowhere near my paperwork, the person dealing with my case is not available, nobody else can help etc.

BigPete:

Thanks for the info on the company registration. Seems they've got a lot of subsidiary companies, one of which is the Debt Consolidation Centre, which it appears has the correct licenses to offer IVAs:

Company Registration Number 5829935
Consumer Credit Licence Number 590778
Data Protection Licence Number PZ9593970

Can't find the same information for H&HC though.

First impressions: H&HC seem to be pretty hands-on, have given me a direct personal contact, and are extremely responsive. In many ways their response has been comparable to the one I got from ClearStart in the first instance - just a heck of a lot faster.

I spoke to my named contact with them at the weekend (he called me BTW) and he's suggested what I can do over the course of October is get a new bank account set up, transfer my wages into that account, set up the standing order to them and stop all payments from my present account. They will start contacting my creditors this month, so in effect, from next payday, my fixed expenditure will be toward rent, council tax, and the pot for repaying the creditors.

If, at a later date, an IVA turns out to be a better option then he says this would reduce the amount of effort required.

Ultimately, this all sounds extremely reasonable to me; the only concerns I have are

(a) nobody seems to have reviewed H&HC as a service provider and they don't have a website of their own.

(b) I have no idea how to go about verifying their legitimacy within the regulatory framework. Just because the DCC has the right bits of paper, doesn't mean H&HC do.

IVA practitioners are subject to greater regulatory scrutiny than DMP companies and additionally must be members of a RPB, how do I go about confirming they have all that?

(c) I know up front how much money H&HC are going to "make" from me if I go ahead with this proposal and I know on paper at least what their plan of attack is. From my noob standpoint, it looks like a very hassle-free way of proceeding.

What I DON'T know is how, generally, other IPs would go about it. I know ideally the IPs need figures to come up with a tailored solution but surely they must have a rough idea what kinds of options they could offer based on just a scenario?

My situation is this: approx £40k in debt, one wage of £1300pcm coming in. Based on rent and council tax totalling £600, I can afford to pay £300 a month back.

Hi
Are you still undecided between an IVA and DMP ?
In a DMP they will probably deduct £15 a month in fees,£45.So you will be paying creditors £255 a month and on debts of 40k will take 13 years to pay if the interest is stopped.Under an IVA you should return approx 13k,a touch over a 30p dividend.
Have a chat with one of the companies on this forum and discuss your options.
Regards

Andy Davie
IVA.co.uk Spokesperson

About me:
http://www.iva.co.uk/andy_davie_profile.asp

IVA Helpline: 0800 197 4838
http://www.iva.co.uk/iva_helpline.asp

If you have any doubt about who to use, and are concerned about dealing with an IP remotely as you feel they may not always be available when you need to speak to them (and we are busy people!) can I suggest that you pick up your local Yellow Pages and find someone who operates in your area and arrange a face to face meeting. Hopefully this will reassure you of their interest in you as a client, and give you a local base where you can drop into from time to time if the need arises.

Regards, Melanie Giles, Insolvency Practitioner for over 20 years.

To have me propose an IVA for you, please visit:
http://www.melaniegiles.com/ivaEnquiry.asp

See customer feedback at:
http://www.iva.com/iva_companies/IVA_Advice_Bureau.asp

So H&HC want you to pay their initial fee and send them a standing order form without even analysing whether a Debt Management Plan is the most suitable solution for you (via your income and expenditure, and creditors details)?

Most reputable companies would investigate your circumstances first before recommending a solution. There's plenty of companies that would look at this without charge to you; worth getting a couple of opinions.

If an IVA turns out to be best you'll have saved the DMP set-up fee and will potentially clear your debts quicker.

If a DMP turns out to be a better option for you there's plenty of companies that would only charge once your case has been properly analysed for viability. Pay up front for an unviable case and it's your money lost.

We've seen some evidence of companies deliberately putting clients into DMP's (who were better suited to and served by IVA's) before transferring them soon after to IVA's. Boosts the P&L with both set-up charges. Not nice.






Andrew Graveson
Bright Oak
andrew@brightoak.co.uk
www.brightoak.co.uk