Gregory Pennington IVA / Debt management Review

Overall Rating

Cheapest management fee, not including free services (accountability if paying for something).

Slow to respond, cant get in touch with my contact, which is part of the service that I pay for, often passed from pillar to post, sometimes feel harrassed, lots of contact from creditors from begining to end.

Though some of my creditors accepted an offer of payment initially I feel that there was a lack of communication from my finance manager to these companies. I have a friend who is also on debt management with them and we were both told that the creditors were on an 'auto acceptance' due to good relations? If I ever had a query I would be assured that I would get a response within a few days but this didn ' t always happen and I was forced to call in again, bearing in mind that we have to call a 0845 number which is not free, therefore increasing phone bills. I could be on hold for a long time with no option to leave a message for my finance manager, though I am told that again this is part of the service that they provide. Every day there seems to be a problem with either their systems or their phones. When the staff explain what they have to do when apologising for things such as a delay, it is kind of understandable and they have a heck of a lot to do in a day and although I feel sympathy for them, it does not change the fact that I m sold a service basically under false pretenses and what I am promised is not given to me. I don ' t receive responses from personal post that I send to them, though if there is a problem on the account, I feel I am receiving too many letters and text messages, but if I have a problem it seems silent. I also feel that I am trying to be pressured into buying products that I just cannot afford and that I simply don ' t want. It gets a joke when you are asked to have the same thing on every call! I feel agitated then as I don ' t want to bother my finance manager but again I am paying for a service that I am not correctly receiving, I have heard this from many people that I know who are with them. Also my PERSONAL finance manager changes frequently and though I can appreciate promotions etc, the apparent lack of continuity is awful so is this why we are receiving a less than satisfactory service?
The staff generally does seem ok but I am here to pay my debts and though politeness is good, I want to clear the money that I owe in the way promised to me by the company.

Members' Comments onkatie118's Review

• Mary501 on 14th May 2009

  To katie118's post:
  I totally agree with you. I don't use them myself but my parents do and they say exactly the same things you've said. Also they are getting letters saying they haven#t got enough money to pay everything coming out and when they ring up they say it was all paid!