Help needed

[jbias18]

Hi all,

Not sure if this is in the right section but I have been considering a DMP which I will be self managing using the NEDCAB templates and I and E form.

I have a couple of questions about my debts and my options, I will no longer be able to make my minimum payments and I have already informed my creditors of this, I have been suffering from depression and my debts have been amassed mostly to gambling which was triggered from the depression I am currently having treatment for both.

I have debts with 5 creditors and have listed them below;

Natwest overdraft £1800
Marbles Loan £5500
Lending stream £1024
Sunny £420
Satsuma £1030

All of these debts are fairly new although I have had my overdraft for approx 4 years.

My issues are as follows with these companies, I told LS and Sunny that I would struggle to repay their debts in early August they responded to me but my father lent me some money to clear them which I did, however a week later I borrowed again and I am in the same situation by not being able to afford them. I have had 30 odd loans between these companies over a year or so. I have sent another email to them explaining my situation do I have grounds to complain as they were aware of my illness?

Natwest were told about my depression and gambling when I owed almost £4000 and I was going to enter a repayment plan but I had a win gambling and cleared my overdraft, I then cancelled my overdraft last Tuesday online in banking hours but it didn’t take force until the next day. By this time I had lost more money gambling even though I had tried to remove my overdraft for this reason. I am now £1800 into an un arranged overdraft they have given me 30 days with no charges to come up with a repayment plan.

Do I have any options available to me or is there any help available with these issues?

I am more than happy to repay my debts via DMP but do I have any grounds against the three creditors above?

If this is in the wrong section I would appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction to post again.

Thanks in advance

[The Tech Clerk]

Warwick65

[Joanna Connolly Solicitors]

I have debts with 5 creditors and have listed them below;

Natwest overdraft £1800
Marbles Loan £5500
Lending stream £1024
Sunny £420
Satsuma £1030

. . . If this is in the wrong section I would appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction to post again.

Hello

I'll take a look at your overall situation after the Bank Holiday Weekend.

Warwick65 will help you too.

When (what year) and how (online?) did you open the Marbles loan account?

Di

[jbias18]

Thanks Di,

I opened up the marbles loan account around a month ago and yes online same for the satsuma loan that was around 2/3 weeks a go online.

[Warwick65]

Hi

Firstly I want to stress there will be no judgement from me or anyone else so please remember that if you ever think the questions are intrusive.

Ok so I actually think there are two issues here, one is the obvious debt and the other is the gambling- there seems little point in dealing with one and not the other i.e if we can help sort out the debt but you continue to gamble you will only end in more debt.

Firstly I will look at the gambling
Not quite sure what your 'poison ' is - online, bookmakers, FOBT, arcades , casinos or something else so it may help me give some direct advice if I know- no need if you aren't ready for that

There are some great resources available to help you deal with the problem and i am hoping you do think you have a problem

In no particular order is gamanon http://gamanon.org.uk/ but of course you may not live in an area served by them or you may not be ready to be quite that open

The other is gamcare https://www.gamcare.org.uk/ The offer online , telephone and sometimes face to face advice and support as well as forums where fellow problem gamblers support each other

Some people can limit their gambling while others need to go 'cold turkey' and quit all together

I am not sure what sort of relationship you have with your GP but you could tell them and maybe they can direct you to therapy - but that sort of help is difficult to find in these days of austerity


Now for your debt

Do you have any defaults on your credit file, if you don't know you could sign up with a free service such as noddle or clearscore. If you do then you may have a stronger case to claim against these PDLs and marbles for an affordability complaint.

Here is a really good guide to making affordability complaints https://debtcamel.co.uk/payday-loan-refunds/

Can you give us a little history about each PDL e,g did they give you large loans to begin with or did these build up as you borrowed and repaid, borrowed a bit more and repaid etc. I think if it was the latter you have a very good prospect of complaining as it would be obvious you were in a cycle of debt. If they gave you large loans , did they check your income and outgoings (and importantly and sorry to ask - did you tell the whole truth

Most payday lenders will refuse your complaint to start with but you can then go to the Financial Ombudsman service

Sorry if this is all a lot to take in but they are questions that may help you

Just so you know, I have had more PDL's than I care to admit (paid some back and not others)

[jbias18]

Hi Warwick,

I will explain my full situation which may be quite lengthy but it will hopefully help clear everything up and how I am where I am.

In relation to the gambling I have always gambled since being 18 I am now 32, most of the time it was just small amounts but it did escalate quickly into a serious problem which caused debt around 23, the debt that I accrued from this was cleared around 3 years a go. I managed to stop completely from 25 to 30 but started again when my depression kicked in roughly two years a go. This coincided with me getting married and having my mum and dad at together at various events as they divorced when I was younger. I have only just been to see the doctor about my depression which has been caused from childhood memories and my mother suffering a recent attack at her place of work. My gambling was always on sports and almost always online, some time was spent in bookmakers but very little compared to online gambling.

Last time that I quit gambling I managed to do it by self excluding from the online bookmakers and over time I just forgot about it, I will be seeing my GP again today so I will ask what further support there is, I am hopeful that they will find out what triggered the gambling again and be able to diagnose the cause of my depression as that leads me to gamble.

In relation to the debt I do have two defaults on my account both for payday loans 3 and 5 years a go, all other accounts are up to date and there are many partially settled debts from my last experience of problem gambling.

Lending stream started off low then when I started paying them they increased from 200 to 1200, Sunny has always been 400 I think. Both companies make you fill in income and outgoings but these are money ranges rather than exact figures, if I am being honest I used to just bang in any amounts in the outgoings and never really checked them for correct amounts after the first few loans. I have always left my wages and employer the same on the two PDL's even though I have changed jobs twice since last year and the wages are near enough the same a couple of hundred difference.

Does it matter that my wages are lower now than they were at the time of application they have lowered since starting at my current employer two months a go as they will be contributing to me finishing off my degree?

I do have proof that I sent LS and Sunny an email on a previous loan stating that my depression has caused financial hardship yet I was still able to take out further loans, I have since sent two further emails advising that I cannot make payments and I can supply those emails to you if you need to have a look? In regards to Natwest I called them to advise of my depression so they were aware as well but I did later call and say that I would not need to enter a repayment plan but as per the last email I have again contacted them to freeze my account for 30 days.

Please let me know if you need anything else and again many thanks for taking the time to help me on these issues.

James

[Warwick65]

HI
With regard to what you have and haven't sent to the PDL's I do not need to see anything ( And if I am honest I don't want to see anything) . I am just someone with experience of PDLs and the harm gambling causes and not an expert. I did a project on the increase in gambling between 1999 and 2010. At that point the caring sharing Tories did away with the survey even though there was significant evidence there was an increase in problem gamblers.

I think something to think is you stopped for 5 years so that is a sign you can do it and you now know one of your triggers - conflict and depression.

I would, without doubt make affordability complaints to all the payday lenders, if you were re-loaning every month they should not have been doing that. Hopefully they may agree and refund the interest you have paid which might go someway if not all the way to repaying what you owe.

It really also shouldn't be so easy to just keep on using the same details, in my opinion they should be asking for up to date payslips each month . It is very easy to not correct any assumptions or mistakes they have made .

I will do what I can to help

take care

[jbias18]

Thanks Warwick,

I will use the templates on debt camal and get my complaints off to the two PDL’s that I have.

[Warwick65]

Maybe Satsuma as well, they have to do affordability checks