Car accident

[pavel33]

Kaykay,

Don't misunderstand me, I have no objection to the basic principle of paying my IP fees.

My point is - in my job, clients pay me/my firm money for me to get results, a large part of which involves me having to continually chase up Councils or to make sure I respond promptly to issues that are brought to my attention, without my clients expecting to need to keep reminding me what they pay me to do.

I am my IP's client, and part of the fees I pay should ensure that I get a decent level of customer service. If I email my Case Officer and explain in detail why I'm currently in a mess and can't make my next monthly payment and ask them to call me at a specified time to discuss, I expect my Case Officer to do so, or failing that, to at least recieve some kind of email acknowledgement (e.g. if my Case Officer is on leave etc).. Especially when my IP claims to check emails every 30 minutes and be open from 8-8.

Like wannabedj, I don't expect any kind of contact from my IP until they don't get my full monthly payment, and then they'll ring me up straight away. Three months ago I had a classic example of this, my Case Officer emailed me (after twice being chased) confirming that my monthly payment for that particular month should be x, so that's what I did, and because x wasn't my normal monthly payment the same day my Case Officer was on the phone demanding to know why I'd only paid x - only to go rather sheepish when I said "I refer you to your last email, I've done exactly what you told me to do".

To be fair, having been given a new Case Officer about 6 months ago and having never previously encountered any problems with any of my other Case Officers, I feel it is more a case of having a crap Case Officer than my IP's fault - certainly if 28th goes the way I anticipate I will be formally asking for a new Case Officer.

[KAYKAY]

Which company are you with?

[Grant Thornton]

wannabedj - We received your email yesterday afternoon and we will be in contact this morning,
Kind Regards
Karol

[TigerTiger]

Pavel is right. It is the customer that pays all fees in an IVA. I'm sure Grant Thornton will confirm that if an IVA fails, none of the fees already paid will be deducted from the balances still owing the creditors.

[pavel33]

I am with Payplan.

What annoys me is that I have tried to start "righting my wrong" by contacting Payplan. In my case I could have said nothing and made my full monthly payment, but I would still be breaching the terms of my IVA as I stupidly have an recently outstanding payday loan.

But I realise this is no way to carry on, as ultimately my creditors/IVA firm should be getting the money I'd be wasting on interest. So I emailed my IVA explaining the background to getting in this mess (family illness, undeclared additional expenses) and included a detailed income and expenditure spreadsheet demonstrating that it is financially viable to me to miss one payment and for me to pay the shortfall through increased monthly payments.

It would not have been appropriate for me to do that by phone - aside from the fact I work in a very 'tight' office I wanted to properly set out my financial position from now onwards, hence why I emailed my Case Officer and offered a specific time (during their opening hours) when it would be convenient for me to be called if the Case Officer needed to do so.

Two days later I have had no call nor any email. In that time, because I needed to give prompt instructions to the loan firm to ensure they didn't simply extend the loan and only charge interest, I have gone ahead and done so.

I see no reason why it is my responsibility to chase up my IP to attend to something I have already raised with them. When I get the inevitable "why haven't you made your full payment ?" call on Monday from my Case Officer, no doubt we'll have a major argument, because I feel let down and no longer wish to deal with that person.

[TigerTiger]

Pavel, I know an unresponsive case officer can only increase the 'worry factor' for you. Unfortunately, in an IVA, he who 'pays the piper' doesn't 'call the tune' and this, too often, gets reflected in customer service.

[wannabedj]

Hi Karol
I didn't get the call but had a reply by email which is fine. Can you thank Claire for her help and I'll be in touch on Monday to let her know what happened.
Thanks