www.iva.co.uk

In a DMP with Stepchange and all was going well. All I owed NCO-Amex was £25. I go and ask NCO for an up to date balance and low and behold it jumps to over £600! They don't have the decency to tell me, I've just noticed it on the Stepchange website. NCO took over the debt from Amex in Sept 2009 and I've never received any correspondence from them since. Should they have been sending me statements or at least telling the that they were going to charge interest? Even Barclays would send me a statement, stating that "in compliance with the Consumer Credit Act 1974" that they had to send me an arrears notice and this arrears notice included a statement showing payments and outstanding balance. Anybody got any advice, gratefully appreciated

Sorry I don't know the answer to your question, although it does seem very unfair. I would speak to your adviser at Stepchange and seek their guidance as to whether this is right or not.

Perhaps the creditors who have bought the debt have decided to speak directly to you debt management company instead of you, and by engaging the DMP company to manage the plan is seen as your authority for them to act in your interest. Unfortunately creditors can continue to add interest and default charges whilst in an DMP

cheers for the replies so far, in terms of acting on my behalf, no problem with that. What is most annoying is that they've only just decided now to let stepchange now the final balance - after 4 years! Surely they have to send me statements etc

As they have bought the debt - I am not sure whether the company has the same legal obligations as the original creditors as far as issuing statements. It would seem strange if the original creditors who have offloaded toxic debt can still be held accountable under the consumer credit act

fair enough it might not be amex's issue but would NCO be under the same obligations to keep sending me statements - interesting question! I wonder if anybody else thought they were close to paying it off only to suddenly find themselves with an extra £600 to pay off.

Given that Stepchange are funded by the banks and received thousands of referrals from the banks each month, they should be able to sort this out. I also find it a bit odd to put a £25 debt into a DMP rather than just advising you to clear it.