Such is the lifestyle, I went to bed at around about 7am last night.
I'm the type of big hefty lad who likes his 8 hours. I don't really like it when something wakes me up just 3 hours after I've entered the lovely land of nod.
That's exactly what happened at 10 o'clock this morning though. The missus woke me up in tears.
She isn't usually like this so early in the day. No stranger to tears naturally, but it typically takes a couple of glasses of red and an episode of Eastenders to get her into such a state.
So I dutifully enquired as to what the hey was going on.
It seems she is paying off a small council tax debt via a debt collecting agency, a messengers at arms type company. They had sent her a letter saying that her bank account was to be arrested, and money taken directly from her monthly paycheck. On top of this, they are charging her a £40ish account arresting fee.
She hadn't fallen behind in her repayment schedule or anything, she is due to to pay back £50 on the first of every month, and has not failed to make this payment or anything.
Her crime, was cancelling a direct debit last week. She decided she was no longer a fan of the whole direct debit thang, and to pay them manually instead.
The man at the debt collectors she'd phoned about this had made her upset. Very unsympathetic, not listning to her story, and hung up on her.
I looked at one of the earlier letters they sent her regarding the setting up of the direct debit. It says things like "you have the right to cancel the direct debit at any time" at no point does it say anything like the line the man on the phone was qouting her, that changing the payment type without prior notification may result in her account being arrested.
I understand they gotta do what they gotta do but it seems a rather extreme measure for one who has not missed any payments. It's nasty the way these types of places go about their buisness. They were still going to get their money, but seem to jump at any excuse to slap charges on the people they are collecting money from (who are obviously already in debt)
I've a good mind to phone em up myself and
give 'em a piece of my mind make a sensible well mannered complaint while she's at work. Not sure if that would do any good, so I'm holding off for the moment.
Does anyone know if there is an independant watchdog like organization that you can complain to about the practice of debt collectors? Or is there anyway I can charge them £40 for making my missus cry and getting me out of bed
With a letter saying "you have the right to cancel this direct debit at any time" I think she should have a leg to stand on, but am otherwise clueless in these matters.
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