Hi,

I wish I had found this site sooner but anyway let me proceed.

I am currently have issues with DLC (Direct Legal & Collections).

They are acting on behalf of their cilent: Orange Personal Communications Ltd.

The debt itself is my mothers, in which she owes around £506.63 on the debt. She contacted DLC and they advised her that she can settle the debt in installments of 8 weeks of £63.33 a week or over 4 weeks at £126.66 and she was not happy about this as she only works part time which is an hour a week and cannot afford this amount each week. And they would not settle for a lower payment and told her she was to pay immediately and could only offer her 8 weeks to do to avoid the possibility of legal action being taken against her, and obviously incurring additional costs.

She accepted the terms to this, and obviously I was not happy because she was not happy about it, so she called them back up and gave me approval to settle the debt and talk about it with them, but I could not get any further. I told them I can settle the debt with two payments, one for October 27th of £200, and one for November 24th of £306.63. They would not accept this and said I could only pay in half payments so would have to pay £253.32 on October 27th (tomorrow) and the further and final payment of £253.32 on November 24th.

Having said that and agreed terms as I could not reason with them and simply gave up. And everything was going as planned but I have since picked up a snag and have had to pay another debt in the meantime which means I was unable to meet the payment terms agreed for tomorrow. I contacted them yesterday and they accpepted that I could not pay the full amount agreed for October 27th so now they've settled for £101.32 per week up until November 24th but sadly after looking at my outgoings for the next few weeks I cannot afford that myself.

Also they would not accept that I could not pay on November 10th and they told me I cannot miss a payment or legal action would be taken for the amount outstanding. They even asked me to provide a Credit / Debit Card so that they can take the payment instantly every friday for the next five weeks. They would not agree to the new terms unless I did this.

I have since found this site and also a Office of Fair Trading document on Debt Collection and what can be done and it says something like this under Deceptive and/or unfair methods sections.

"Pressuring debtors to pay in full, in unreasonably large installments or to increase payments when they are not able to do so."

So after this long post, and explanantion of this debt and dealings with the Debt Collector in question "DLC (Direct Legal & Collections)" I am wondering if I phoned them up against and questioned the fact they are going against Fair Training Standards for collection for a debt and offering payments that I am unable to afford, but they will not listen to reason.

I want to pay this debt, and I wish to do so. But I cannot afford to pay what they are asking, without risking other bills and payments I need to make whilst trying to settle this debt. Its just got me so annoyed and I am basically asking for some help on what I can do to resolve this and maybe get a lower re-payment settled with this company that simply will not be reasoned with.

Thank You

Regards
Adam Norton