FYI, report on my creditors attitudes

[chairmanmiaow]

I've been dealing with several creditors to negotiate token payments whilst I get my finances straight, I thought I'd give a quick rundown of how they are:

Egg - not bad, passed me to their DCA Capquest, who have been fine so far.
Northern Rock - no problem. accepted £1 per month straight up, review in 6 months
Goldfish - took a bit of time to get the letter, but after that as above.
Zopa - CRS are their DCA, no problems.
HSBC - didn't get the letter due to admin muckup, but seem pretty reasonable and amenable
MBNA - slow to respond, don't seem to know what they're doing.
Barclaycard - pain in the **** - they don't want to accept offer, and I am having to fight to get them to reply in writing
Citicard - not heard back yet

[emma_t]

You may not hear straight away from citi card. I had a credit card with a £500 balnce and a personal loan with citifinancial balance about £8k. I only had 1 letter and 1 phone call while my iva was being prepared and they did not vote at all at my creditors meeting.
Barclaycard were ok t first then started to get rude and threatening and very unplesant - I terminated the call a few times as even though I owed them money do no expect to be spoken to that way.
Goldfish/Morgan Stanley were the most persistant but ere also on the whole curtious.
I didn't have many other problems with creditors being over the top just letters and phone calls.

Feel its also important to recognise the polite, friendly and helpful creditors which in my case were HSBC credit card (lovely lady, wished me well after I explained the problems and talked to me in a non-judgemental wasy)
John Lewis credit card were also nice to deal with (think this is HBOS)

there is good and bad out there, or sometimes it is just the attitude of the telephone staff memeber you deal with that day.

Personally I think they would get further by behaving in a polite, professional way like the lady from HSBC as if I had any money I would have been far more inclined to pay them that barclaycard at the time
Emma

[Kes]

In relation to Emma's response above. It seems you were lucky HSBC made my life hell, they wouldnt listen at all, phoned me at work infront of my boss daily and wouldnt stop calling. Demanding money with a right attitude. I also had some abuse from Barclaycard, all sarcastic that I owe the debt and remain responsible even though I said I was in an IVA and the lady was trying to say that it didnt count I had to be Bankrupt for her to stop calling. Going back to HSBC they later proceeded to pass my account to a debt collector after they were informed by my IP that my IVA was agreed. Now both HSBC and the debt collector whom brought the debt have listed defaults against my name. It's certainly a chapter in my life I never wish to repeat. I hope everyone has a better time of it.

[johnz]

I've personally found the actual creditors to be fine.

Egg were wonderful and actually advised me how to handle my other creditors.

Lloyds were very slow setting up my DMP, but now they have all is well.

I have only had phone calls and letters from a debt collection company who have one of my catalogue debts. They're being a complete pain the butt because they have a 28 payment cycle. Who gets paid every 28 days!!!! Had 3 letters so far this month, but no phone calls yet, which is good.

RBS have been slow to stop interest because I have to be 3 months in arrears before they'll pass the debt on. Got the default notice yesterday, so that shouldn't be too much longer now.

The other catalogues have been great.

So apart from so called "Reliable Collections", I've had no letters or phone calls at all. Fab!![:D]

Johnz

[debbiw]

Johnz, that's great news! Glad its all coming together for you now x

[johnz]

Cheers Debbi. It's getting there slowly [:D] Poor Simon at Brightoak must be soooo sick of me by now [:D][:D]

How's things with you?

Johnz

[chairmanmiaow]

Barclaycard moved my debt along to the next step in the process I think now. I'm getting calls from South Africans rather than Indians. One today made me laugh.

"Hello, i'm calling from Barclaycard, but I see we've already called you yesterday."
Me "yes."
(silence)
She's clearly expecting me to say more at this point. I don't. She cracks first.
"erm, well, I'll make a note on the system. bye."


Going silent for 5 seconds on the phone is great a trick, especially if you are getting wound up by creditors. It messes with their head and helps you get control of the conversation back.

[chairmanmiaow]

All agreed to token payments now except HSBC & Barclays.

Barclays have passed it to Mercers, so maybe they'll be more sensible to deal with. We shall see.