Case Study One

I live in Caterham Surrey with my wife and 2 young children. I’m self employed and like many people, credit cards became a part of everyday living. They were instant and convenient!

Unfortunately, the recession started to kick in and work became depleted! One credit card started to fund another in the hope that the work situation would turn around.

With 3 credit cards, a loan and 2 bank accounts I was beginning to drown as I started to pay with Peter to placate Paul and visa versa! My life was blighted with debt and the worry which began to affect my relationship with my family as it became increasingly difficult to maintain a cheery persona.

The continual harassment by debt collectors compounded the situation and they were relentless! The threats of court action and doorstep visits further added to relationship problems. All was not good!

I was at my wits end with no light at the end of the tunnel. I began to lie and hide letters from debt collectors from my wife to try and ease the tension and I felt there was nowhere to turn.

The solution was easy, with the help from these excellent letters, the continual harassment eroded away. Easy to implement, I just responded to the debt collectors threatening letters with these and soon found that the tables had turned!

I no longer feel intimidated and as things turn around for me I can actually start living my life with verve again!

100% recommended you take this action, what is there to lose?!

R B
Surrey

Case Study Two

I am a mother of three and divorced; during this time things became very difficult financially. Unfortunately I was left with the majority of debt. I had the usual, credit cards, store cards and a loan on top of that my mortgage and insurances. I reached a point where I could no longer pay the debts and neither pay priority bills electrical, water, rates and food by trying to keep up with all the payments. Things became very hard and embarrassing. Especially when they called me at work. I was receiving threatening phone calls at home and at work and letters even when I supposedly negotiated payment arrangements with creditors they would move the goal post to suite there selves.

There was various debt management companies and organizations that I looked into but many of them I could not afford our there were not as straight forward in there arrangements as they had said they were. Suddenly there were discussions of hidden costs for them to negotiate on my behalf. So I decided against using such organizations. Instead of helping me solve the problem they were going to make it much worse.

It was later (2009) that I was introduced to some letters (Stop the debt collectors) that helped me, and they certainly stopped me from receiving calls and threatening letters. These letters also stopped the threat of door step collections which had worried me sick for months (I actually got sick)

After sending around three letters to creditors and debt collectors they stopped harassing me. The phone calls stopped the threats of door step collections stopped and they got the message that I knew that what there were doing all that time illegal, by breaking data protection laws and their contractual arrangements that were made by me in good faith was false, they the creditors could not stand up in a court of law, it was their use of my ignorance that they took advantage of and my fear.

Now, the debt collectors no longer scare me or intimidate me, in fact It was more the opposite as I started to scare them so much so they are no longer in my life. When I needed reassurance because I was a nervous wreck and thought I might lose my house but (thanks God) Stop the debt collectors team were there to help me. Later with help from a government charity debt management trust I was able to reduce my outgoings to a level that I could live in a sane manner and still save. Finally the nightmare was over.

I would certainly recommend these letters and assistance I received to a friend or anyone that is experiencing debt problems, they will reassure you and give you time to sort things out in a time and fashion that will help to move you forward in a positive way. My heart felt thanks to Stop the debt collectors team for all their help, they best £14.00 I have ever spent. In fact I worked out the other day how much I had saved per month was something like - £450 p/month over 9 months (so far) that’s about £4050.00!!

L R
Nottingham.

Case Study Three

Two years ago I and my partner found ourselves with a lot of “debts” credit cards and bank loans. Due to a change in circumstances, it began to be difficult to service these alleged debts.

This then led to the threatening letters and phone calls coming in, and a natural dread of opening the post or answering the phone. First, from the banks, who were not at all helpful, and the debt collector companies who the banks allegedly sold or assigned debt to. There followed many threatening phone calls, letters, red cards.

There was no help from the debt collector companies in fact two of them were extremely rude and very arrogant. My partner and I both got to the point where we would not answer our phone in fact we put on fax mode. They started calling our mobiles, at work and at home. When in this situation we could not really think straight and my partner and I had a few serious arguments which I put down to the undue stress. My partner was a nervous wreck, and I was feeling lots guilt as I felt I should have averted this crisis. My partner actually got sick and that was the breaking point for me. I needed to find a way to sort this. Initially we went with a debt management company who promised the earth. So we set up them an agreed amount for all the debts (unsecured) and credit cards.

They said they would write letters to the banks and that would stop the calls and threats, most of them stopped calling and some still sent threatening letter, the worst being a door step collection. The last we needed was some guy on my doorstep trying to collect money. I called the debt management company several times to get help to sort this out they said they would sort it but they never did.

I was really panicked by now so started talking to some close friends and one of them had had a similar situation and referred me to a Stop the Debt Collector Tool Kit. We bought this and read it through and did exactly what it said. I had a page of 3 paragraphs next to my phone and each time the debt collectors call I read these out. They did not like that. I kept this up for each phone call and then the calls eventually stopped.

The paragraphs I read to them were very empowering. These made them back down and I started to feel sane for the first time in months and actually started to look forward to them calling me!! I recalled the statement on the web page “fear exists in the absence of knowledge” so true!

All though calls stopped they still continued to send threatening letters but we were well prepared for these now as we had the tool kit template letter. This we prepared and sent to each debt collector and after sending this a few times the letters stopped.

Discovering more about the truth of how these companies operate and then using the two letters, I started to feel in charge of the situation. My partner who had up to that time been in fear of these nasty people become like a bull terrier since she realised it was her fear and lack of information on her rights that allowed the fear. It was only after finding out what our rights were in law when we realised why only a few debt management companies actually perform and a lot of them do not know what they are doing.

The result has been that all these debts which we could not afford we are now paying is so small as to be negligible and are saving about £750.00 per month. Fact is we are in control now and since all the oppressive threats, stress, upsets and arguments have gone out of our lives we are on the up again and doing really well. Many thanks to the Stop the debt collector team for all the care and help you have our sincere gratitude.

M L A
East Sussex.

Case Study Four

Some years ago I had several credit cards and used to engage in card surfing - opening a new card and transfer the balance of another one to it, so I could enjoy the interest free period. Life was all right and I was managing my repayments. Then disaster struck, I closed my sliding car door over my thumb at a moment of stress, and could not work for about four months. As a self employed carpenter that was really bad news.

Shortly before that had happened I had taken a month off and landscaped my back garden and built a garden office. I used the cards to pay for this indulgence, as I did not see any problem in managing the outlays.

After I was back to work I suddenly had much higher monthly figures to deal with and I struggled for some months, trying to juggle it all, but finally realized I just can't go on like this. I started getting phone calls day and night with threats of getting dragged into court. So I started contacting the lenders trying to make an arrangement for lower payments or an interest free period or something. But I was met with little cooperation.

One lender suggested a Debt management Service and I got in touch with them and set up a plan with a payment I could afford at the time I think I was overly optimistic with my repayments but I was under stress then and I had not really worked out what I could actually afford.

But when a year had passed I had managed to meet my payments, but not set aside any money for my tax, so I had to lower my monthly figure. Then some of the lenders started to charge interest again the calls started again and I soon realized that the debt was now growing. This debt management company had not done what they promised to do which was write letters to the creditors and stop them harassing me and my family and help me on an on going repayment plan.

And soon the letters started come from Debt collectors again. I since found that a lot of debt management companies do not do what they say they will do they do not stop the harassment. The worst was the door step collectors sent by the debt collectors.

My wife suggested I declare bankruptcy, and I was looking into that. But then a friend of mine told me about Stop the debt collector tool kit. There was another way to deal with debt collectors and the threats. As a result I bought a product that gave me a few easy steps to do in order to stop the calls, threats and harassment. Now I had tools on how to deal with these, and it worked. First I stopped the phone calls and put the debt collectors in their place, this I enjoyed although the first time I did this I have to admit I was very nervous.

I started to use these tools, by writing to the various debt management companies the suggested letters as per the templates given, and I got all kinds of threatening letters back. Then resent them with my invoice per the notice of my fee schedule. (I started actually having fun) I realised that the debt management companies relied on my fear but now that’s was gone along with the stress!

The calls stopped. The letters stopped and the threats stopped. Two debt collectors “sold” the debt to yet another debt collector they started chase me. I sent the same letters to them. They stopped calling and then stopped sending letters. I then went to the Step Two as suggested in the tool kit. This reduced my outgoes on loans by 85%. If I had not waited so long to act on this I would not have had the door step collector arrive.

It is now almost a year and a half since I started doing this, and to this date no “lender” or “debt collector” has taken me to court. Some were harder to get rid of than others, but in the end they all give up – if you do the right thing.

This is a true solution and it has saved me from bankruptcy and allowed me to get more control over my life again. I am truly grateful for this information. Thank you.

K B
Crawley, East Sussex.