www.iva.co.uk

Hi,

We are currently doing some research on the different experiences people in debt have when dealing with their creditors.

Understandably creditors do contact people who have missed payments and send letters to chase up the debts, they are after all owed the money.

However, we are interested particularly in people's stories that have involved either multiple calls, aggressive or threatening staff or indeed when people have been frightened into making payments in some way.

Creditors often pass debts to a third party who's job it is to chase the clients and get payments from them, but it may be that these creditors are unaware of how collection agencies do this.

There are many agencies that do a great job for the creditors and of course it is a difficult job to do, but it seems that there are examples where one or two are employing some rather extreme tactics to get clients to make payments.

The aim of this research is to raise awareness and potentially try to improve the relationships between creditors and people in debt. Ultimately if communication improves then affordable arrangements can be made, people will be able to tackle their debts and creditors will get regular payments.

If anyone would be interested in sharing their experiences, we would like to hear from you either on this thread or by email to info@vincentbond.com

regards
Steve

Hey Steve, to be honest I was quite lucky with my creditors. I explained my situation and they held calls for 10 days. I did have some guy from Halifax who said that I obviously didn't care! I had to sell my business so I DID care! I had a debt collector to the house from Mercers but she was really nice.

Sorry, I guess that's not what you're looking for but I bet there are some people on here who have had worse.

Hi
I know that we have had some horror stories on this forum.
Regards

Hi

My partner received numerous calls at work which was quite upstetting as she would be styling a clients hair only for the young trainee to shout "can you come to the phone? It's the Halifax!"

She explained to them on numerous occasions that she was not allowed personal calls at work and we were proposing an IVA but they just were not interested. Some days it was 2 calls in 10 minutes! Now that to me is Harrassment!

Hi Steve

Yes we did have one particular creditor that harrassed us, at one point 14 calls in one day, aggressive, rude, and very unsettling. Would you prefer I email with more specific details.

Ang

We had one creditor who kept hassling us until the IVA was arranged ringing many times a day I was told that I had a moral responsibility to pay back the money (which I knew I had for my peace of mind). Some would ring many times a day and were trying to insist that we paid some money I explained that my IP said to stop all payments (I was paying towards my IVA before the creditors meeting) to be told that was illegal advice.

At the end I was so distressed that I would read them out a statement saying I am going for an IVA and gave them my IP phone number and suggested if they wanted any more information they would be better speaking to them.

Often at weekends I would just let the phone go to answer machine and answer the calls I wanted to answer.

I was lucky that the calls stopped more or less straight away once my IVA was arranged and the few calls I had once I said I am in a IVA said they were sorry to have troubled me and I heard no more.

Jan

Many thanks for the feedback from you all and apologies for not getting back to this thread sooner.

If any of you are prepared to email some more details to us that would be great. I appreciate the time taken to do this and of course no details are passed onto any third parties at all.

Particularly we are looking at what type of tactics are used by callers to get people to make payments over the phone - of course many are unfortunately aggressive, but some can be even worse.

Would welcome the opportunity to chat through your experiences if you are willing to do so - our number is below.

Again many thanks for this.

info@vincentbond.com
0845 300 8066

One cretditor called me every 20 mins for two full days. Another (after I offered a settlement figure) laughed, saying its never going to happen and we will bankrupt you. The did send a stat demand and I said OK, I cant fight anymore, then they sent a letter saying they had changed their minds.

Hi freelili,

Would you be prepared to chat through this with us? Do not feel any pressure to if you are unsure, but we are interested in understanding why these kind of situations occur.

Thanks
Steve

No problem at all, I still have all the paperwork regarding this case. It caused me a great deal of stress to be honest and wasnt helpful at all. I honestly didnt know it was a threat and gave up. It hindered any progession for all of my other creditors too as I felt, whats the point?

My worst creditor was NRock, they rang me every half hour, every day, it started at 7.30am up until 9.30pm,even on Sundays, I did speak to them and explain everything but they said the calls are automated and will only stop if I make a payment! I changed the phone number in the end, I got sick of it

Hi

I have posted on the forum regarding the problems with Lloyds TSB. So far they are the worst. They are incapable of listening and do not ry to help at all. They seem incapable of sorting anything out and for such a large company they are pretty useless. We get calls almost every week either for myself or my wife and they say the same over and over.


Will happily talk to someone about this.


regards

John

Hi,

Our worst calls have been from Mercers. They call constantly,about 8 times a day.Sometimes they are automated though but when you do speak to a human,on a couple of occasions,they have been quite aggressive about getting an immediate payment. Hasn't been so bad last few days though as have Creditors Meeting in November and I think or hope that they are aware of this by now.

They were a nightmare for me too, although I never answered a call until the day my IVA was approved! They do seem to drop off, I sometimes wonder if they are trying to lull you into a false sense of security. I sometimes went for days without any, then they would start again.

Some of these posts indicate harrassment!

The Debt Resolution Forum is also doing some research on this - Steve please contact the - see details on www.debtresolutionforum.org.uk or contact me.