UK Money Solutions Client Support Guide

Transcription

1 UK Money Solutions Client Support Guide

2 Open a new basic bank account. Tell us the bank name, branch address, sort code, account name and number. This type of account can be opened on the day you apply, and you will need a utility bill to prove your address and photographic evidence of who you are e.g. passport or driving licence. Arrange with your employer, benefits agency or pensions provider (etc) to transfer your income into the new bank account. Manually transfer any direct debits or standing orders you wish to keep. EG: utilities, telephone, mortgage etc, to the new bank account. Cancel all direct debits or standing orders to all creditors who we are offering reduced payments. Also contact your creditors and cancel any insurance/payment protection attached to the accounts. We may be able to reclaim PPI if it was mis-sold You may not be able to close your bank account so simply stop using this account. You cannot close any bank account that has loans or overdrafts attached to them that you have asked us to negotiate; the bank will terminate these accounts themselves in time. Do not use any credit or store cards you have requested UK Money Solutions to negotiate on your behalf and keep them safe, the creditors may request their return. Send all correspondence received from your creditors to the Birmingham office as you receive it. This is so that we can keep your account up to date. Any information we have requested that you were unable to give to your consultant at the time of their visit, would you please post this to the Birmingham office as soon as possible. Your consultant has informed you that any joint borrowers may have their credit status affected by you entering into this agreement with UK Money Solutions. Other people living at the same address will not be effected, as long has they have no accounts (including joint bank accounts) or financial agreements with you. Your consultant will have made you aware of a possible link to an account that you may wish to maintain, as the account you have requested UK Money Solutions to negotiate may be part of the same finance company. Please be aware that the creditor, because of negotiations to reduce a particular creditor account in the same group, may decide to close the account that you wish to maintain. This action is at the discretion of that particular creditor. Our advice is to negotiate all accounts in the same finance group or negotiate none and maintain payments as normal.

3 Your consultant has made you aware that creditors in the initial stages of negotiations will continue to correspond with you, we have no way of stopping this and negotiations can take time before agreement is reached. The debt may be passed to collectors or legal departments and this is a normal process of events. We will pay your creditors token payments in months 2 and 3 and the full pro-rata distribution of your monthly payment will be made thereafter. Normally once negotiations are started, creditors will issue Default Notices under the 1974 Consumer Credit Act, and this is recorded by the Credit Reference Agency s. This is normal for creditors to take this action. Remember, post all correspondence to Birmingham as you receive it, if you do not post all correspondence received by yourself it is difficult for us to respond immediately to the creditor/s. Informal arrangements are not guaranteed to stop creditor/s taking court action, but in the vast majority of cases, such action is not taken as the creditor is aware that you are trying to satisfy your debt to them and this is all court action will achieve. Your circumstances could change during a debt management plan and you should contact us immediately if this is the case. You are free to consider alternative debt solutions at any time such as IVA, Bankruptcy, Debt Relief Order, Administration Order, Consolidation, (or various other solutions if you are based in Scotland) if your change of circumstances is such that one of these solutions becomes more appropriate. We may be able to recover any mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance policies you may have taken out alongside any loans or credit cards submitted on the DM plan. We may be able to recover PPI even on agreements you have not included on the plan, and also agreements that you have completely paid off in the past. There is no obligation, and you will need to sign a separate agreement if you want to claim. Just call us on to get your money back. Don t forget, we pay 50 if you recommend a friend to us! If you know of any friends, family members or work colleagues who could benefit from our services, we will pay 50 for each one you recommend. Just tell them to quote your name when they call us!

4 What happens next? Cooling Off Period You have a cancellation period, as set out in your terms and conditions, in which to consider your actions, if you decide you do not wish for us to proceed, then contact our offices by telephone and inform us of your decision and you will also need to confirm this in writing. All your documentation will be returned, thanking you for your enquiry and at this stage there are no charges for our service. Once the cooling off period has elapsed you will receive a welcome letter within the next 14 days. Creditor Correspondence All the correspondence that you receive from your creditors or their agents must be forwarded to our head office in Birmingham as you receive it. If you do not send this correspondence regularly we are unable to reply to the creditors - remember we are the buffer between you and the creditor. On all correspondence you send, would you please put your agreement number on the envelope and paperwork as it assists the post room to direct the correspondence to the person looking after your account. Expect demanding creditor letters and phone calls. Letters and calls are designed to make you afraid of what action will be taken, but please read the text carefully, it uses words like: We may We could We will advise the creditor to take action County Court papers could be prepared Your credit rating will be affected The latter is true - when we negotiate lower payments and ask creditors to freeze interest and costs, the creditor will issue a default notice to you. This is because you have defaulted in your original agreement. Your credit score will be affected until we have negotiated full and final settlements with the creditor and this is when your credit score will begin to return to normal. Please do not panic when you receive correspondence from solicitors or collection agents, this is the normal process of events, so expect them. You may receive a letter marked: - THIS IS A DEFAULT NOTICE ISSUED UNDER THE 1974 CREDIT CONSUMER ACT Do not make a payment when you receive these types of letters because you are already paying them through your debt management plan with UK Money Solutions. Forward these letters to the Birmingham Office. It is meant to frighten you and make you nervous, and it is a normal pattern of events.

5 Telephone calls. If you have given the creditor your telephone number when you applied for the credit, expect them to telephone you. We have provided you with a harassment letter template later in this document which explains about dealing with creditor phone calls and what to do. A good method is to keep informing persistent creditors of the following: UK Money Solutions are my appointed agents and they are acting on my behalf, my reference number is (on the top of your agreement) and their telephone number is Do not enter into any detailed conversation and definitely do not agree to any repayment schedule. ALWAYS BE AWARE YOUR CONVERSATION IS MOST PROBABLY BEING RECORDED. If they have your work telephone number and they contact you, tell them you are not allowed personal calls in work and end the conversation. Otherwise use the above approach. Remember they are hoping you are embarrassed by their call and that your work colleagues could be near and you don t want them to know that you have problems, and they hope you will agree to anything just to get them off the telephone. Unfortunately we cannot stop a creditor contacting you in the early stages of negotiations. Personal contact and demanding letters are their normal course of action to try to recover their debts. UK Money Solutions will make token payments upon receipt of your 2 nd and 3 rd monthly payments, and fully distribute all subsequent payments to your creditors, minus our 14.9% monthly charge (subject to a minimum of 30). When do you contact my creditors? Work on your case begins as soon as your first payment has been deposited into your personal client account. We will prepare: Pro rata offer calculations Letters of authority s for each creditor Financial statements for each creditor Inform your creditor of your situation and reason for lower payment We will pay your creditors token payments in months 2 and 3 We will distribute the full pro rata payment thereafter

6 What are credit reference agencies? Credit reference agencies collect information from a number of sources of public information such as electoral roll supplied by local authorities, consisting of 44 million names and 26 million addresses. Also, details of county court judgements, Scottish decrees and bankruptcy information. Information is also gathered from trade bodies such as the Council of Mortgage Lenders (C.M.L), the Fraud Evidence System (CIFAS) and from the Gone Away Information Network (GAIN). They also collect information from their customers, including details of existing client / loan agreements and historical information about the repayment patterns of individuals. How do they use this information? Electoral roll information is used to confirm residency, occupation, distinction between members of the same family and length of residence. Information about any county court judgements is used as an indication of person s previous financial history. Information supplied by their customers, comprising of both positive and adverse existing credit / loan commitments, helps support responsible lending decisions. Customer supplied information allows lenders to reduce their exposure to risk and helps protect individuals from over committing, especially when there may be an existing debt problem. Who uses credit information? Information is used for the purpose of credit assessment. This includes banks, finance houses, building societies, specialist service providers, insurance companies and any company who offers credit facilities. Will I be put on a black list? There is no such thing as a credit black list. Credit reference agencies simply provide all the information they have about an individual to help lenders make an informed decision whether to accept or reject an application for credit. The credit reference agencies do not decide whether someone can borrow or not, that is entirely up to the lender. Do I have access to my file? Yes under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, consumers can write to the credit information agencies to request a copy of the file held on them. There is a charge made for each file requested. What can I do if I think my file is wrong? If you think the information in your file is incorrect, you are entitled to ask the agency to correct or remove it. Alternatively, you could add a personalised note to the file. The procedures, which are different in each case, are as follows:

7 NOTICE OF DISPUTE You can write to the credit agency, explaining why you thing the information is incorrect, the agency will then confirm the accuracy of the data held with the appropriate lender. The lender will investigate and if necessary amend or delete the data in question. While your information is under investigation a notice will appear in your file to this effect. You will be notified of the result. NOTICE OF CORRECTION If there is a section in your file that is factually correct, but you feel it creates a misleading impression, you can explain why using this notice. You can write a statement of up to 200 words explaining why you believe the entry is wrong or misleading. The credit agency can reject your notice if they believe it to be incorrect, defamatory (affecting a third parties good name or reputation), frivolous or scandalous, or any other reason unsuitable for publication. If your statement is accepted it will appear in your credit file. NOTICE OF DISASSOCIATION If there is information in your credit file about people (e.g. your family or a partner) with whom you have no shared financial arrangement, you can financially disassociate yourself from them; it simply means that no financial information relation to this person/s will appear on your credit file. Other family members, your husband, wife, brother or sister etc, can also use the same procedure to disassociate themselves from other members of the family with whom they have no shared financial agreements. Notice of disassociation request will be passed between the credit reference agencies, they will verify the details you have provided, and if it is found that they have evidence of a financial connection between you and the other person the requested disassociation will be refused and you will be advised accordingly. Credit Reference Agency Addresses: Experian Equifax PO Box 8000 PO Box 3001 Nottingham Glasgow NG1 5GX G81 2DT

8 Harassment template letter for creditors There are certain restrictions placed upon the people trying to contact you in regards to the debts that you owe them. They are allowed to contact you in a reasonable manner, but they cannot contact you to the point of harassment. If you feel that a particular creditor is contacting you unreasonably, use this letter template to remind them that they should be acting within the law: MY NAME AND ADDRESS Dear Sir/Madam *_Harassment by telephone_* *_FORMAL COMPLAINT UNDER THE CONSUMER CREDIT ACT 2006 COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE_* *Account Numbers:* We are writing in relation to the quantity and frequency of telephone calls that we have received from your company regarding reviews on our accounts, which we deem to be personally harassing. We now require all further correspondence from your company to be made in writing only. We are of the view that your continued harassment of us by telephone puts you in breach of Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, and the Protection from Harassment Act If you continue to harass us for increases by telephone or request that we call you, you will also be in breach of the Communications Act (2003)s.127 and we will report you to OFCOM, Trading Standards and The Office of Fair Trading, meaning that you will be liable to a substantial fine. Please treat this also as a formal complaint, and send us a copy of your company complaints procedure. Be advised that any further telephone calls from your company will be recorded. Yours Faithfully MY SIGNATURE

9 Threat of a 'home visit' by creditors template letter You may experience a number of various types of creditor contact and threats. One type of threat that is particularly upsetting to our clients is the threat of somebody coming to knock on the door. Do not confuse 'door knockers' with bailiffs because they do not have the same powers whatsoever. If any company threatens you by saying they will 'send somebody round' then immediately issue to them the following letter: MY NAME AND ADDRESS To whom it may concern, Please be advised that under OFT rules, you can only visit me at my home if you make an appointment and I have no wish to make an appointment with you. There is only an implied licence under English Common Law for people to be able to visit me on my property without express permission; the postman and people asking for directions etc (Armstrong v. Sheppard and Short Ltd [1959] 2 Q.B. per Lord Evershed M.R.). Therefore take note that I revoke licence under Common Law for you or your representatives to visit me at my property and if you do so then you will be liable to damages for a tort of trespass and action will be taken including, but not limited to, police attendance. As you have been given this notice, should your representative then come to my property and cause any embarrassment which results in financial loss to me you will also be liable for damages. Yours Sincerely MY SIGNATURE

10 Peace of Mind Our clients can have the peace of mind knowing that they are benefiting from the services of a nationally established company operating on their behalf. We aim to offer a personal one-to-one service with our clients, so we can treat all our clients as individuals and address each client s individual needs personally. We are here to help every step of the way. Any problems, worries or questions, please do not hesitate to pick up the phone and speak to us. Please keep us updated by forwarding creditor correspondence to enable us to keep your account up to date. Summary of what we will do for you (if requested): Contact Details Lower, affordable monthly payments for you We will reclaim any mis-sold payment protection insurance where possible We will ask your creditors to refund unfair charges where possible We will review your circumstances every 6 months to ensure the plan is still right for you We will negotiate full and final settlements with your creditors when requested 100% customer support whenever you need it UK Money Solutions Floors 2, 3 & 4 Murdoch Chambers 153A Corporation Street Birmingham West Midlands B4 6PH Tel: UK Money Solutions is a trading style of UKMS Money Solutions Limited registered in England and Wales ( ) Registered Address: Murdoch Chambers, 153A Corporation Street, Birmingham B4 6PH. Licenced by the Office of Fair Trading ( ) and registered under the Data Protection Act (Z ). UKMS is regulated by the Ministry of Justice in respect of regulated claims management activities (CRM26720). Its registration is recorded on the website Don t forget, we pay 50 if you recommend a friend to us!