Upfront Fees

[chardonnay]

Hi,
I wish I'd been in sound mind and found this site proir to Baines Ernst/Blair Endesby - I was charged two months of £526 which left me nothing!! I didn't eat for nearly two monhs and despite telling them that they took the money anyway - hence some of my depression and ill health. (still I did loose over 1.5 stones which is the only positive!!).
;Listen to everyomne on here - they can and will help.
Chardonnay

[TheMatrix]

Yep, I ended up going with Thomas Charles too, but wished I'd gone straight to a IP as I would have been 2 more payments into my IVA now had I done so.

Still at that time it was very stressful and was very desperate and did not know about this forum. Still at least I'm on the way now towards being debt free. Which is a good feeling!

[cfnc]

Hi Sueann,

Just wondering if you have heard any more?

Kirsty

[Cybus]

Perhaps someone from Thomas Charles would explain what it is they actually do as an intermediary?

[animaleyes76]

They usually hide from all the posts that mention them..

Be nice to hear from them to be honest.

I was told there was "a good chance my iva would be turned down" if i did the paperwork on my own. I needed to be sure my IVA happened hence got suckered by the sales pitch.

[sueann]

Well I am just about to begrudgingly pay the second payment of £259.00. To be perfectly honest they have done no more work than I have done directly with my IP as I had to cover all the details again. By the way if the IVA fails this money is not refundable. I would also stress to anyone to beware, as the IVA figure I went through with TC and was happy with that's why I instructed them turned out completely different to the amount of the IVA that my IP wants to present, infact my IP went in at £100 more per month although I have negotiated this down (fingers crossed) I am still at a difference of approx £50 more a month. I would definitely recommend to anyone to go directly through an IP as you know where you stand figure wise from the beginning and you do not sign a contract based on figures that are far from accurate and not IP approved.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

Thank you everyone it's great to talk to people in the same boat at such a distressing time.

[Destiny]

Hi I also went with Thomas Charles last year (Julia Simavi), yes they did want £250 for two months but I think it was worth every penny. I cannot speak for any of the other advisors that work there but Julia literally held my hand every step of the way. At a time when you don't know where to turn next, it was lovely to speak with someone who didnt judge you and had a sympathetic ear. I was able to phone her at any time of day or night and in fact she would always call me back to save on my phone bills! I was put in touch with Accuma through TC and they too have been very helpful. I emailed my IP the other day with some queries and he replied straight away! I know contacting their IP is something that some forum members have difficulty with so I was quite chuffed to say the least. It is a difficult time and yes £500 could have been put towards a contingency fund but I for one think it was money well spent.

[cfnc]

Nice to hear of your postive exoerience Destiny, but I got exactly the same treatment from my IP personally with no upfront fees, so in my opinion I would not be happy to pay for an intermediate who appears to not have any input in how the proposal is put forward to the creditors.

Kirsty

[TheMatrix]

Perhaps Thomas Charles would care to comment, I have seen someone from them on these forums on other posts.

[Adam Davies]

Hi
I have invited Thomas Charles to comment
Regards

[Oliver]

Firstly I would like to thank destiny for the positive feedback relating to our services. It is true to say that anybody considering and IVA can and often will approach an IP directly. However, we believe that our clients benefit greatly by dealing with one of our debt consultants as a first port of call. Our approach is as follows. One of our experienced debt consultants will asses a potential client’s financial situation and highlight appropriate solutions that are best suited to resolving the financial problem. This service is completed at no charge and is totally free advice.

If a client then decides that they would like to undertake an IVA, our consultant will work with them to understand their financial circumstances in detail. This meeting often takes up to an hour, the output of which is a 9 page Statement of Affairs. This document is posted to the client. At this stage, no fee has been taken form the client.

In order to continue working on behalf of the client to undertake an IVA, Thomas Charles will then ask for an Instruction Fee which is based entirely on the client’s disposable income. Thomas Charles only charges what a client can afford to pay based on the payment they will have to maintain on a monthly basis to undertake an IVA or Debt Management Plan.

By paying this fee, Thomas Charles clients benefit in a number of ways. Firstly each client has a single point of contact who is available at any time, 7 days a week. Most IP offices are open only 9am-5pm and it is often difficult to speak to a person about a problem or question.

Thomas Charles’ administration and quality control teams then collate and review all the required documentation in support of the client’s IVA application. In this way, potential problems are identified early and once an IP starts to work on the file, the lead time to Creditor Meeting is vastly reduced.

Despite being part of the Accuma Group, Thomas Charles is free to use a panel of both internal and external IPs which allows us to make sure that our clients are matched with an IP who will best understand their situation and the best way to present their IVA.

We have helped countless clients deal with the overwhelming pressure that debt can cause and this can be reflected by the genuine feedback left on our website at : http://www.thomascharles.com/about_us.asp I hope this answers some of the comments and issues raised.

[indebtforever]

i am with debtlifeboat formaly baker tilley they took 2 months payments of £555 before the start of the iva but this has been added to the iva pot and was not a fee it was recommended to me that the creditors at the meeting would like the thought of over £1000 in the pot before it started and it was accepted

[cfnc]

Thankyou for your detailed responce Oliver, but everything you have stated we got from our IP, except of course the choice of IP,s but then we had already chosen our due to a recommendation.

We did not have to pay anything extra for the excellent service that we received, we have an email and telephone number to reach our IP and have seen her quite a few times in person, in fact I believe she went above and beyound the role of an IP without any extra money from us and even has had to lower her fees due to a creditors insistence, but at no time has she asked us for extra money.

If asked I would always say never pay an upfront fee and am sorry if that is disagreed with by yourselves.

Kirsty

[TheMatrix]

I'm afraid I would have to agree with Kirsty on this.

[sblack]

What would happen if the applicant had no money to give Oliver?. Obviously whilst in an IVA money is set aside for your payments, but before an IVA a lump sum to pay beforehand may be impossible to find. And any spare money a person has before entering an IVA is a welcome addition to the contingency fund as we have found out to our cost during the first three months of our IVA. If we had to pay an instruction fee upfront then our IVA would have become unworkable due to paying in excess of £200 per month x3 for essential car repairs, we have struggled big time but the bit of contingency money helped us enormously. All gone now but thats life.
We were very happy with the service we received from our IVA firm/IP in and out of office hours.