Very.co.uk - refused token payment, need advice

[louisemarie1760]

Hello all! Hope someone can help me.

 

I've been having an ongoing dispute with Very.co.uk about my payments as

 

due to a huge change in circumstance (serious illness) I am unable to keep up the payments.

 

I have tried to reason with them and sent them all my medical evidence,

but to be honest they were heartless b**tards and I have now referred the case to the Financial Ombudsman.

 

I didn't know if I should suspend payments in the meantime (especially due to how rude they were) or keep making them.

 

The person with whom I had the correspondence at Very said they would not accept my token offer of £1 and they considered the matter closed and would not correspond with me anymore.

 

So I sent my case off to the Ombudsman.

 

I've been rather ill so put it the back of my mind until I felt better and then I asked the Ombudsman if I should suspend payments (still waiting on word back).

 

Today I logged into my Very account and see that because I suspended my payments due to the dispute they have added charges

and say my account is now £69 in arrears on top of my credit limit.

 

Can anyone advise what to do?

 

The FO are taking their time to answer and Very refuse to talk to me anymore, so I feel stuck!

 

Any help would be great, thank you

 

Lou

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Did you actually exhaust Verys complaints procedure and get a final response letter from them or was this by phone?

 

It would be a good idea to check your credit reference files, this debt may well have been sold or assigned to a debt collection agency.

[dx100uk]

hi LM

 

why are you wasting the FOS's time with this

 

its a cat debt VERY [pun] VERY low priority

 

stop letting THEM control YOU

 

YOU control THEM

 

its YOUR MONEY not THEIRS!!

 

now i've moved you to the cat forum

 

there are numerous threads here to follow

 

now these charges..

 

 

you do know you can get them ALL back+int onthem?

 

and that stupid ins cover if you are paying it?

 

time to stop ALL comms by the phone now

 

WRITING ONLY. you need a papertrails.

 

send them this :

 

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

[louisemarie1760]

Thank you for the replies, all communication was done by email and writing to them so I have a paper trail. I did exhaust their complaints procedure so they said next stage was Ombudsman which is why I did tht. WIll get reclaiming and let them know about payments, thank you so much. Lou

[dx100uk]

no bother

 

just dont faff around with a cat company

 

tell them and then do it .. end off.

 

have you got all the historic statements?

 

dx

[louisemarie1760]

Yeh I have access via their website to all my statements

Lou

[dx100uk]

well i'd get them downloaded

before they vanish [nice trick SD pull there]

 

then go thru the whole account and get reclaiming.

 

also, if they've trashed your credit rating.

 

then look toward getting that sorted too

if the PENALTY charges are the sole reason for the markers

 

 

dx

[louisemarie1760]

Thanks so much DX you are a star, I really appreciate all your help! Lou

[dx100uk]

thread tidied

 

dx

[BRIGADIER2JCS]

Thank you dx, keep it tidy

[louisemarie1760]

Hi everyone

 

Looking for a bit of advice

 

- I have a debt with Very which I was paying reduced payments of £5 per month to

due to the fact I'd fallen very ill and I'm now going to be living with my conditions forever.

 

A few weeks ago, the debt was passed to Lowell.

 

I've been reading about how awful they are - boy is that right,

they call every day and leave voicemails and send texts,

even though I've emailed them and told them I need everything in writing

and that due to health difficulties I can't speak on the phone. I sent them the Harrassment Warning today.

 

I sent them a £1 postal order with a CCA request, so waiting to see what they come back with, though any tips for dealing with these morons would be very much appreciated.

 

Thanks!

Lou

[dx100uk]

whats the debt all about?

 

dx

[louisemarie1760]

It's catalogue debt with Very.co.uk

 

Thanks

[unclebulgaria67]

Roughly how much is the debt ?

 

When did you take out the Very account approx ? How did you take out the Very account e.g written application by post, Internet ?

 

Do you have other debts on your credit record ? ( you should check your credit record to see what is on there)

 

In regard to this specific debt, you have done the right thing and should wait for Lowell to respond to the CCA. Ignore Lowell in the meantime, until you get their response.

 

If you have told Lowells of any health conditions which make your vulnerable Lowells should note this and communicate in a way that takes this into account. i.e respect your wishes for written correspondence only. If Lowells continue to hassle you, then I would suggest a written complaint by recorded delivery to Lowells Compliance Manager.

[dx100uk]

sold or just collectring

 

I've moved you to the cat forum

 

lots of other like thres here.

 

itll be mostly "12 PENALTY charges ibet anyway

 

got all the statements?

 

if not send very a SAR

 

to get them.

 

dx

[louisemarie1760]

Thanks for the reply.

 

Debt is around £700/£800 (they added charges, so will being doing SAR and get reclaiming)

 

I took it out around 2011 online.

 

I have debts with RBS at the moment (Credit Card and Overdraft from student days, ashamed to say).

 

Thanks, been reading up so I just wanted to check I was doing the right thing.

 

I will see if they heed the correspondence and Harrassment Notice and if not, a complaint will go to the Compliance Manager.

 

Thanks so much for the response, it's nice to just have the reassurance I'm on the right track here in what I'm doing!

[louisemarie1760]

Hi dx

 

Not sure if it's sold or collecting, how would I know for sure? (sorry to be a ditz)

 

Don't have the statements, Very locked me out my account before I could get them, so doing a SAR and will get that off.

 

Thanks for moving the post, wasn't sure where to put it.

 

Thanks again.

[louisemarie1760]

Just re-read their letter, they are saying Lowell Portfolio 1 now own the debt. Thanks

[unclebulgaria67]

You should have had a letter from Very and/or Lowell advising you of the assignment of the debt. What you have to be very careful of is that this debt is more easily enforced, because it is under the amended 2006 Consumer Credit Act, so they just have to prove you owe the debt and don't need to provide any court with a true copy of the CCA.

 

So yes a CCA to Lowell was a good idea and you should get a copy of a CCA, plus up to date statement of account back from Lowells.

 

Also SAR to Very, so you can see what charges have been added and you can start to challenge these, so they are hopefully deducted from the debt amount.

 

Once you know how much the real debt is that is owed to Very, you should make arrangements to make regular payments to whoever owns the debt.

 

What you should be aware of is that some debt collectors are buying all debts owed by some people and if the value is over £750, they can look at threatening bankruptcy. This is particularly the case, if you are a home owner. If you have several debts, it might be worth calling Step Change to see if they can help, as some debt owners can be a pain to deal with, but will often accept minimal token payments via Step Change.

[louisemarie1760]

If I claim charges back from Very, do they contact Lowells to change the debt amount?

 

I'm not a homeowner, I just rent at the moment. I was with StepChange on a DMP but because of my illness I couldn't afford £60 a month and could only afford £1 token payments to my creditors so StepChange said I had to just do letters myself to the creditors about this.

[unclebulgaria67]

If I claim charges back from Very, do they contact Lowells to change the debt amount?

 

I'm not a homeowner, I just rent at the moment. I was with StepChange on a DMP but because of my illness I couldn't afford £60 a month and could only afford £1 token payments to my creditors so StepChange said I had to just do letters myself to the creditors about this.

 

If Very agree to refund charges I presume that they would write to Lowells to advise them and you would then be advised of the revised sum due.

 

Make sense re Step Change advice. Creditors should be made aware of your health situation and you should make token payments, once the correct debt amount has been confirmed.

[louisemarie1760]

Thanks for the reply I just have heard so many horror stories about Lowell. Hopefully get my CCA etc back from them at some point and SAR from Very and get all this sorted.

[dx100uk]

if very don't OWN the debt

the reclaims goto YOU!

 

 

dx

[louisemarie1760]

Hi

 

I wasn't too sure where to post this so please do feel free to move it to relevant forum!

 

I recently sent a CCA request to Lowell who were collecting on behalf of Very.co.uk. They didn't comply and I sent them the fail letter, which gave them 21 days to resolve the matter. That's up on Tuesday and somehow, I don't see them sending me anything by then.

 

If nothing appears, what do I do next? Sorry, I'm a bit new to CCA stuff and it's hurting my head!

 

Thanks in advance

 

Louise

[Boltmaker]

No CCA, No pay. If they do write again do not acknowledge any debt to them or to very. Wait until they contact you again then reply that account is now in dispute as they have failed to produce CCA requested. Specimen letter available from library on this site. Good luck and don't worry the ball is in their court not yours.