Vanquis being difficult

[Temeraire]

I owe approx £3000 on a vanquis card. I was in a well paid job and comfortably paying back what I owed when I developed a long term, chronic illness and eventually lost my job, I now receive esa. I invoked the PPI on vanquis two years ago which has now ended - during that time they received numerous copies of letters from the dwp and my hospital confirming my situation.

 

When they sent me the letter saying that PPI had run out I sent them my income/expenditure budget statement and details of the other debts I have and the amounts they have accepted (ie, 10k bank loan have accepted £6.50 per month via their debt collector). I offered Vanquis £5.50 which is all I have left to offer them. I also made it clear in my letter that all correspondence needed to be in writing as I am too ill to deal with things over the phone.

 

A few weeks later I received a letter that mentioned nothing about my offer or situation whatsoever but suggesting I contact Step Change (I've looked at them and tbh I dont want a third party involved particularly when the other debts are already being managed adequately and the website seems to want to push people into IVAs)

 

I received a statement where they have added interest, charges because the interest have pushed the balance over the limit AND they have started to apply PPI charges again (even though I would not be eligible to claim PPI again). So I sent them another letter, a copy of the original letter, copy of income/expenditure, etc.

 

Today I received a really shirty letter from them saying they have been unable to contact me by phone, they cannot accept my offer, that I should contact Step Change and that I MUST speak to them by phone!

 

Now, I know full well that they cannot force people to discuss things on the phone and the fact that I have already told them I am unable to seems to have been completely ignored.

 

I'm thinking that it is probably going to be easier just to wait it out for debt collectors to become involved as they are usually (in my prior experience) easier to deal with and do things properly after the initial couple of letters. Or is there something else I can do? I'm very tempted to make a complaint because stress makes my illness worse

[huggy41]

as this is not a priority debt you only need to give them £1 per month you tell them take it or leave it DO NOT ASK THEM TELL THEM

[dx100uk]

TELL [dont ask] them they are only going to get £xxPCM for xx mts

as a goodwill gesture

and as a reciprocal GOGW they must freeze int & refrain from levying PENALTY charges.

if they wont

drop them to £1PCM for life.

.

as an example>

.

I am currently in financial difficulties and not able to meet my normal monthly repayments.

to show my goodwill, i am going to pay £5 for 6 mts.

 

i will update you in 6mts time or before, should my situation change.

.

could you please as a reciprocal goodwill guesture,

.

refrain from levying any penalty charges & freeze the interest on my account.?

.

Should you fail to assist me during a period of financial difficulty, contrary to all the guidelines and codes

issued by the relevent bodies and authorities that govern you and the way you conduct yourselves.

.

i shall have no alternative but to reduce my offer to £1PCM for the rest of the life of the account,

.

.

as your actions would do nothing to help me.

.

i thank you for your time.

..

.

dx

.

then pay by your internet banking site

.

and get reclaiming

.

TAKE CONTROL

.

or

if you have sent the above and they refuse

then write back........

.

.

i'm sorry, but you have failed to assist me during a period of financial difficulty, against all the guidelines and codes

issued by the relevent bodies and authorities that govern you and the way you conduct yourselves.

i repeat again, the contents of my letter dated dd/mm/yyyy, for want of clarification:

to show my goodwill, i am going to pay £XX for XX mts

could you please as a reciprocal goodwill guesture, refraining from levying any penalty charges & freeze the interest on my account.

i will update you in 6mts time or before, should my situation chance.

should you fail to help by refraining from levying unlawful PENALTY charges & freeze my interest,

i shall have no alternative but to reduce my offer to £1PCM for the rest of the life of the account,

as your actions are doing nothing to help me.

This is contrary to the rules you should operate under.

disgruntled account holder

dx

[dx100uk]

on and STOP sending them your pers medical info!!

 

NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS!!

 

only a judge can demand that.

 

dx

[Temeraire]

on and STOP sending them your pers medical info!!

 

NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS!!

 

only a judge can demand that.

 

dx

 

I only sent them that because it was required as 'proof' to renew the PPI/payment holiday every three months, usually I just sent them the dwp letter but there was one occasion where the letter was out of date so I had to send the hospital letter. I won't be doing it again! I preferred to send them that than my bank statement tbh.

 

I shall send a letter with what you suggest and wait and see. I had all this years ago with the other creditors but they were, on the whole, easier to deal with!

[dx100uk]

is the PPI worth more to reclaim than use it?

 

dx

[Temeraire]

I've already used it. I used it for the maximum time allowable between Nov 2010 and Nov 2012. It was every three months during this period that I had to send them proof that I was entitled to it. Now it has ended, it's back to 'normal' for them

 

They have started charging me PPI AGAIN though - despite me now being unemployed and already having a medical condition, therefore the PPI can't be used again.

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

They cannot charge for PPI that you cannot claim on.

 

I suggest the following letter to the Complince Manager at Vanquis.

 

Ref: account number xxxxxxxxxxxxx.

 

Sir,

 

Vanquis Bank have been made fully aware of my medical history and current state of health, which is being made worse by the way Vanquis are now treating me since the PPI was exhausted on xx xx xxxx.

 

I have now become aware that Vanquis are now adding further PPI payments to my account which I am unable to claim on, you WILL therefore cease adding such payments to this account and refund immediately and payments already added.

 

The offer of pament in the sum of £x.xx per calendar month is all that I can reasonably afford and cannot be increased, in fact I must thank you for encourageing me to review my outgoings as I have realised that due to the cost of living rises I may soon have to reduce my offer to £1.00 pcm within the next 2 months.

 

Please note I will deal with this matter in writting only no telephone contact will be tolerated.

 

This is my final response.

[dx100uk]

have you all you statements ?

 

if not SAR them

 

lets see what YOU are owed over the cards history

 

i bet you've paid far more in then they've paid you out

 

dx

[ims21]

Before sending any letters you should really make sure that this is in fact PPI and not their repayment option plan.

 

Did this insurance make repayments against your card for the time that you couldn't?

 

OR

 

Did you just get a repayment holiday?

 

I ask because you mention payment holiday in post #5.

 

This could be Vanquis ROP and not PPI.

[Temeraire]

yeah, it was their repayment option plan (which is why I said /repayment holiday), I've just been calling it that as it's less of a mouthful but I doubt I would be entitled to claim back on their repayment option now anyway, so the same should apply I would have thought in terms of they shouldnt have started charging me for it again without permission?

 

I do have all statements and the account is fine other than their current attitude.

[ims21]

Ok so it isn't PPI.

 

If you cannot use ROP again I would personally cancel it from now on.

 

As the benefit of the plan has been used I reckon there is next to no chance of getting previous payments back.

[Temeraire]

yes, I have already asked them to in the previous two letters - which they have made no reference to so I assume they haven't done.

 

I'm not interested in getting previous payments back - I have no idea where that has come from.

 

All I want is for them to accept the payment I have offered and is all I can afford and for them to stop the repayment plan, charges and interest.

[ims21]

Letter as in post #3 telling them what they are going to get.

 

Include an instruction once again that you are cancelling the ROP forthwith and should any amounts feature on the account from now on you will absolutely not be paying them and will report to fos if tey continue to be applied.

[Temeraire]

I don't want or need a third party to get involved in order to make vanquis actually accept a token payment but they are refusing to acknowledge my payments of £5.50 per month which is all I can afford and have made the generous offer of £81 per month (which is one weeks money for me at the minute!).

 

They are saying I have to get Citizen's Advice or a similar agency involved with a letter stating they are acting as a third party - well when I went to CAB 8 years ago with different issues I was told CAB would only do this if the person was vulnerable and incapable of dealing with financial matters alone and they just gave me template letters to use which worked fine. Vanquis do not seem to like these template letters though!

 

So, what happens if I refuse (again!) to get a third party involved - I assume I will start getting knocks on the door? To be honest, I have found in the past that once banks/credit cards sell the debt on and the debt agencies actually deal with things it's much easier to get things accepted but reading on here, it seems that Vanquis don't like to do that and prefer to keep threatening for as long as possible.

 

Any advice?

[ims21]

Two threads merged...please keep to one thread for this issue.

 

How are you making your payment? If you do it by online banking then they will automatically go to your account.

 

Are your payments not featuring on your account? I am sure the OFT would love to hear about that.

 

And no, you don't need a third party to handle this for you.

[Temeraire]

Payments are being made online and are appearing on the statement.

 

They are refusing to accept my financial situation though and insisting on normal payments and continuing to charge interest and other charges since December 2012 when all this started. I have sent them multiple copies of income and expenditure along with the offer of £5.50 per month (which is the same as all other non-priority debts) but it is this offer they are refusing and insisting that I either pay them £81 per month or get a third party involved.

 

Sorry, I didn't explain things very well in my first post, I have M.E. and it's been a tiring day!