www.iva.co.uk

My IVA was agreed on 27 06 11 with Freeman Jones. Prior to the creditors meeting I had to pay one payment upfront (£495) on the understanding that if the IVA was agreed it would constitute the first payment and, if it wasn't, it would be returned. My payments proper then began in July. So, by my calculations my last payment should be this month. Freeman Jones disagree and say I have another payment to make in June. I explained about the upfront amount prior to the meeting and they say there is no record of it. There surely must be - if I had not paid it there would not have been any creditors meeting!! They have put the onus on me to provide proof - I cannot. The money was paid out of my old bank account and no longer exists. Seems really unfair after all these payments and so close to the end. I have never missed a payment and for this to happen so close to the end is totally gutting.

Fj are notorious for issues at closure - often to the detriment of people such as yourself.

Stand your ground pointing to the terms of the arrangement.

Email Steven Hewitt, the forum FJ representative, I am sure he will look into this for you.

Steven.hewitt at Freemanjones dot co dot uk

Hi

They are obliged to keep a record of all payments made, insist on a statement from them showing all payments made to date
I think your account is accurate and that FJ have made a mistake

Regards

Regards

Was it definitely FJ you paid it to or was a third party who introduced you to FJ and took the funds as a referral fee?

FJ would have a record of this - 1) of asking you for it at the beginning and 2) or receiving it from you. It might not be recorded on your IVA payments as it might have gone into FJs account and drawn as their Nominee fee before the proposals were accepted.

Chase them up again.

You can always ask the old bank for a copy statement - their might be a small fee for this but it wont be as high as the contribution they are asking you for.

Thanks for your posts. Lisa - you could well be right - my original enquiries were with Gregory Pennington and then passed to Freeman JONES when IVA agreed. Wouldn't know where to start with the bank - it was an account with Lloyds TSB who have since split.

You're welcome - I suggest you start with Gregory Pennington...!

http://www.gregorypennington.co.uk/about/contact/

In addition any referral fee should have been disclosed in the proposals and the Nominees report - have a look at both of those.

Hi I think you will find the first payment was an introductory payment to Gregory for them to refer you to Freeman Jones, I must admit we made a payment but it was fully explained it was an introductory fee, had no problems with our closure, F&F offered Jan Meeting March CC two weeks after F&F payment cleared. Hope you get it settled so close to the end, finishing line in sight enjoy your debt free future.

Hmm an introduction fee for gregory Pennington to introduce to freeman jones.gregory Pennington part of think money,freeman jones part of think money.seems to me all the same company

Indeed! I think I read somewhere that Ocean Finance are part of the same set up too

Thanks for your input guys - I was aware that GP and fj are part of the same company and I was expressly told that this payment would constitute my first IVA payment and was not any sort of referral/introduction fee

Interesting:

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/thinkmoney.co.uk

The FJ representative on here actually appears to be their comms person.

Reinforces that they are more interested in managing the message rather than managing the service.

Yep, he also looks after the online affairs of Think2claim and Ocean Finance. As others have said, I'm sure he'll pick this up and help resolve the problem for you.

Hi Maria,

I'd like to look into this for you and get to the bottom of this. Please can you pop me a direct email to Steven.hewitt@freemanjones.co.uk.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards

Hope Steven can help you.