Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

[Carley]

Hi

I'm new here, only found this site on Friday as recommended by a friend of mine who received some valuable help here last year. I have been reading and am gradually making my way through the wealth of information there is here but I have a question which I need to ask to hopefully help get me on my way to paying off two debts which are a huge concern to me. The amounts are not huge but I am on a low income due to disability and these debts worry the life out of me. I really just want to get them paid off as soon as possible. My question is this: Is there any way I can get the interest frozen on these two debts?

First one is Vanquis Bank (credit card), amount owed £1278.82. My monthly repayment on this at present is £57.54 and the interest charged per month is approx £47.86

The other is a Fifty Plus account, amount owed is £545.00 and I have an arrangement with them to pay this off at £26.00 per month (through Reliable Collections which I think is still Fifty Plus), but the interest per month on this is £15.50.

At this rate I am never going to get them paid off

I do have a couple of other debts with MBNA (Virgin Credit Card) which I pay £25 a month to and also Capital One, also a credit card which I pay £15 a month to, but with these two the interest stopped once I had the payment arrangements in place so at least what I pay is being offset against the money I owe.

Although I am in receipt of DLA, I am terrified that with the governments new PIP coming in at some point that I may lose some of my disability payment despite my medical condition, especially with some of the horror stories you read and hear about in the media with the way they are assessing people. I am desperate to pay off these debts as early as possible because the future is so uncertain.

Can anybody advise me if I can get the interest frozen on the Vanquis and Fifty Plus accounts please so that I can pay off the amounts I owe more quickly?

The Vanquis card is a real nightmare, if I pay the minimum payment then sometimes the interest added puts the card over it's limit so then I have overlimit charges too. This can really snowball if I don't have any extra money to throw at it so this account would really be my number one priority to pay off.

[MrsD]

Re: Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

welcome to AAD

how old are these cards?
how is your credit record I am presuming that the arrangements have trashed it already?

I would read all about UE on here, and perhaps go from there

Have you stopped paying these cards at any point, thereby defaulting them?

[Carley]

Re: Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

Hi MrsD

The credit cards are about 3-4 years old. I had a temporary arrangement with Vanquis sometime last year when I was struggling but all it did was allow me to continue to make normal monthly payments and not pay the arrears I owed for 2/3 missed payments. The arrears were added to the balance and the arrangement only lasted 3 months but interest was still being charged.

The Fifty Plus account is a catalogue account which I have had for a number of years, (7+ years) but I've had the payment arrangement with them for probably about a year and the balance has hardly come down since then. Initially the arrangement was £25 a month then recently they sent me a letter saying they were putting it up to £26 a month. I did miss a couple of payments with them too but they just add admin charges at £12 a time.

Yes my credit record is trashed due to these and the other arrangements I have.

[MrsD]

Re: Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

in that case, I would definitely read up about UE, not just for these but for the others you have on arrangements.

you should never ever be paying unsecured credit at the expense of your day to day living arrangements.


sorry for all the questions we just need to know the whole picture
is everything else up to date, electric, council tax rent etc?

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

Hi Carly and welcome

As MrsD says you could look at whether these accounts are unenforceable first.
Have a read here: UPDATED - A Full Guide to Unenforceability - allaboutFORUMS

If that's not feasible, then you have a couple of options to get the interest stopped.
Might be worth writing to them first with details of your hardship/health problems and enclosing an Income and Expenses sheet to show how little you can afford .
I recommend the NEDCAB online I&E calculator, which has built in trigger figures which tell you if your figures are above the allowable amounts for housekeeping etc:
North East Derbyshire Citizens Advice Bureau

If they refuse, or if you want a quicker way then simply stop paying until they default and terminate the account, at which point interest will stop, after which you can send in an I&E as above.

Do give some thought to unenforceability though, there's no harm in sending off for the agreements just to see how you stand.

Elsa xx

[Carley]

Re: Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

Hiya

No problem re the questions, I appreciate the help.

I am behind with my electricity bill, I currently owe £397 on it and am paying it off at £56 a fortnight. It's my biggest worry. Where I live there is no gas so it's all electric and I have storage heaters which are not the most efficient form of heating. I've tried really hard to cut back which hasn't been easy this winter but I've got the bill down from what it was last year. Everything else is up to date.

Sorry what is UE?

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

UE = Unenforceability...if the creditor can't provide a copy of your credit agreement, or if the copy they have has errors, then they can't enforce the debt.

[Carley]

Re: Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

Thanks, Elsa. I will have a good read of those links.

[Pixie]

Re: Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

Hi Carley

The amount of interest and charges they are adding is just ridiculous!

I would definitely think about stopping paying them - and I know just how scary that can be! - and putting that money towards paying off your electricity arrears. Your health and welfare come before any credit card/catalogue debts!

We often find that creditors don't take any notice of your situation while you're paying them, even on an arrangement to pay (and why would they?) Stop paying and they soon sit up and take notice! They'll send letters trying to scare you but don't worry about them, just let us know what you receive.

Even if your debts turn out to be enforceable they can often be blagged because the creditors quite often don't know if they are or not.

have a good read and keep us informed.

[Carley]

Re: Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

Hi Carley

The amount of interest and charges they are adding is just ridiculous!

I would definitely think about stopping paying them - and I know just how scary that can be! - and putting that money towards paying off your electricity arrears. Your health and welfare come before any credit card/catalogue debts!

We often find that creditors don't take any notice of your situation while you're paying them, even on an arrangement to pay (and why would they?) Stop paying and they soon sit up and take notice! They'll send letters trying to scare you but don't worry about them, just let us know what you receive.

Even if your debts turn out to be enforceable they can often be blagged because the creditors quite often don't know if they are or not.

have a good read and keep us informed.

Hi Pixie

Sorry for the delay in replying.

Thanks for the information. I think I will do exactly as you suggested and stop paying these and put the money towards my electricity account.

In the past I have always tried to pay something each month, even if it's not the full amount they have requested but this has got me nowhere as they still add the full interest plus admin and underpayment charges etc so I just end up owing more. It seems that trying to do the right thing only increases the balance most of the time. I genuinely do just want to pay these off the fastest way possible and not have the worry of them. The thing that frightens me the most is when I get threats of doorstep collectors. I have had a couple of threats of these in the past and they say they will call up to 9pm at night! I live on my own and it scares the s**t out of me because I imagine some bolshy man turning up and insisting on coming inside to discuss what I owe

My aim (if possible) is to get the interest frozen so that the amount I pay each month is reducing my balances and not feeding the interest charged. If I can find a way to do that I will be very relieved.

I'm off now to read up on the UE stuff. Thanks all for your replies.

Carley

[helmsman]

Re: Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

Hi Pixie

Sorry for the delay in replying.

Thanks for the information. I think I will do exactly as you suggested and stop paying these and put the money towards my electricity account.

In the past I have always tried to pay something each month, even if it's not the full amount they have requested but this has got me nowhere as they still add the full interest plus admin and underpayment charges etc so I just end up owing more. It seems that trying to do the right thing only increases the balance most of the time. I genuinely do just want to pay these off the fastest way possible and not have the worry of them. The thing that frightens me the most is when I get threats of doorstep collectors. I have had a couple of threats of these in the past and they say they will call up to 9pm at night! I live on my own and it scares the s**t out of me because I imagine some bolshy man turning up and insisting on coming inside to discuss what I owe

My aim (if possible) is to get the interest frozen so that the amount I pay each month is reducing my balances and not feeding the interest charged. If I can find a way to do that I will be very relieved.

I'm off now to read up on the UE stuff. Thanks all for your replies.

Carley

Dont forget they will phone you badger you and lie to get money from you, JUST FAIL SECURITY QUESTIONS.good luck

[Undercover Elsa]

Re: Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

We have excellent template letters to send in response to doorstep visit threats, Carly, to make them back off.
The thing to remember is that they don't have any rights whatsoever. They can't demand to come in, they can't take your property and when you ask them to leave they must do so immediately.
These are usually just meaningless threats most of the time, to make you panic and pay up. They rarely actually turn up. If they do you don't have to answer the door. Either ignore or just tell them to go away.

You can try negotiating to get interest and charges stopped on hardship grounds, but they make you jump through hoops to do that and don't always agree. The fastest way to get interest stopped is simply to stop paying until they default and terminate the accounts. Normally you'd send CCA requests to them at the same time, which means the threats would stop until they've supplied the agreement.

How it proceeds from there depends on various factors- all explained in the unenforceability guide

[SXGuy]

Re: Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

Only way to stop them adding interest is to get them to terminate the account, that means stop paying, wait for a default notice and termination letter, then if you want to pay it off after, the balance wont increase anymore.

That being said, if you Follow Ue, it doesnt matter what the balance is as you wont be paying them a penny anyway!

[Carley]

Re: Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

Thank you all so much, I will do as you have suggested and let you know how I get on. I feel better about all of this already.

Carley

[Carley]

Re: Can I get interest frozen on my debts?

Hi

An update on my situation.

I have not made any further payments to either Vanquis Bank or Fifty Plus.

Vanquis Bank: The debt has increased from £1278.82 to £1489.51 due to interest and charges added over the past couple of months, (charges include late payment and over limit fees each month in addition to the usual interest). The debt is therefore increasing by around £70 a month

I have now received two letters from Impact Collection Services, one dated 10th May and the other dated 27th May (both not received for over a week after these dates). The first was a standard collection letter and the second stated full payment was required within 72 hours and failure to pay would result in a notice of default being issued.

Impact have tried calling me numerous times from various different phone numbers but I do not answer the phone to numbers that I don't recognise and once I have verified the number belongs to them, (I check online), I block the number so they can't get through on that number again. They seem to have a hell of a lot of different phone numbers though.

So basically I haven't spoken to them or replied to their letters as yet. Am I right in thinking that if they issue the Notice of Default that the account is then terminated and the interest and charges will stop?

I have looked into the U/E stuff and am not sure it would apply in this case as I took this credit card out somewhere around 2010/2011 I think. In any case would now be the right time to send off the CCA request or am I better off waiting until the default notice has been issued?

Fifty Plus: The balance has now increased from £545.00 to £637.76 including their admin charges which amount to £24 a month on top of the interest of around £16 a month. I have received monthly reminders from Reliable Collections on behalf of Fifty Plus, the latest of which was dated 23rd of May stated "Serious Arrears" and that they are considering their next steps which might extend to making an application to court for an order in respect of their agreement and that they will also be seeking costs and interest. No mention of any default notice so I am unsure what to do about this one. (I haven't paid them anything or made any contact with them).
Edited to say: I've just received today's post and have a letter from Reliable Collections dated 6th June which is a 48 Hour Notice of Closure of the account before it is passed to a debt collector. I'm assuming this is a good thing as no further interest or charges will be added?

On the plus side I have paid extra money off my outstanding electricity bill which is definitely a relief.

I stopped paying Vanquis and Fifty Plus in the hope that the accounts would be terminated and then I could make an arrangement to pay off what was outstanding without incurring further charges but obviously I'm concerned by how much the above two debts are increasing on a monthly basis.

Am I going about this in the right way?

Thanks
Carley