Mark the HMRC guidance or whatever, is essentially a reiteration of the Regulations 14.2: what to do when the person is not there. It acknowledges its higher risk as does the regulations and therefore requires enhanced due diligence to compensate for that higher risk.

Point is it is still competent providing enhanced due diligence is carried out to verify identity without a face to face meeting. It is not legally incompetent as you stated.

The point of cutting and pasting is I am providing sources and authority for my arguments to back them up, something I was always taught to do. Too often people proceed on practice, sometimes practice informed by other, with no theory underpinning it. I find it helpful to always source what I am saying in legislation.

Anyway, never mind you got the signing. Good for you. Just thought it was a bit unprofessional to accuse other professionals and practices of practices that are, although not what we would do, certainly not legally incompetent.

Hi Morks1

This thread has been quite interesting to read for me, I am also applying for a trustdeed with Pay Plan and so far all of our talks have been on the phone too. Infact this is actually most convenient for me because I am tied down with my two kids most days. So i prefer it.

Pay Plan have been really helpful and always there when I felt a bit unsure of a letter i received. I just pick up the phone and talk to them. My trust deed is not finalised yet but it should go through soon. I am in a similar situation to you with a mountain of unsecured debt and negative equity. Me and my girlfriend both think the 5 year trustdeed option is still miles better than anything else we have come across. We are really happy with Payplan

Hope it works out for you

Optimus, glad to hear that. Trust me its not that I secretly work for Payplan, I don't, and it would be interesting to hear if they offered you a face to face interview at all, as they should. The doubt some have is whether they could and in practices regularly offer these to clients.

I agree the key is flexibility, so I believe a really good trust deed firm should be able to do both and accomodate you regardless of your preference. There is nothing legally stopping a trust deed being signed up over the phone and by mail, just some extra enhanced procedures need to be adopted.

I mean lets face it, protected trust deeds are hardly likely to be the target of organised criminals and terroists to be used as money laundering devices. I think from that perspective, 99.99% of cases are low risk. 😉

Hello Optimus Prime.

I note that the IP address that you registered from is the same as previously used to register to the forum by a Payplan employee.

I note also that a quick Google search on the IP address suggests it's connected to Totemic.co.uk. I understand Payplan is part of the Totemic Group.

Readers may want to factor this information into their analysis of the veracity of your post.

Hello,

It has been brought to our attention that a post on this forum earlier today purporting to be from a Payplan client appears to have come from a member of our staff. We would like to sincerely apologise for this. As a professional debt management company we do not condone this type of action. It falls short of the professional behaviour we expect of our staff and we are taking steps to ensure it does not happen again.

Many Thanks
Gemma

Hi Gemma.

Thank you for looking into this and posting so honestly about the situation.

We all make mistakes; it's positive to see so much energy quickly go into putting things right here.

I also admire Genna"a honesty.,,,,, I wish robinhood would be as honest and just say who he works for!

Payplan are one of the biggest debt management companies in England. Because they get some Scottish enquiries, they have just started doing trust deeds, and they only provide a telephone service - even in England.

Shona, I am Robinhood.

I am not purporting to be a debtor, a creditor or anything else and I am not promoting any firm on here.

You want to know who I work for check my registration details, I mentioned it there I believe. Also you could have one of your resident experts Chris Wardle, who was calling me by my pseudonym at the Money Advice Scotland Conference.

In relation to Gemma's comments I do appreciate her honesty, but then you can understand the temptation some staff may have felt out of misguided loyalty for someone to come on and pose as a customer when you have Mark making comments that certain firms practices are legally incompetent when they are not.

You are now getting boring by continually repeating the same stuff and add nothing new.

My name is on the site and I have not amended/edited my comments. Rather than you acting as self proclaimed spokesman for Payplan, I would suggest that Gemma contacts me directly if she wishes and we can discuss the ID position directly.

TDA probably best lock this as I'm sure we are all getting bored to tears with this.

Mark

OK.

I don't think there is any reason to lock the thread. Maybe it's time for everyone to take a step back though and move on.

To be fair, Robinhood's profile has clearly indicated who he is since he registered to the forum and it's pretty easy from there to make the connection with his employer. I can see how people might have missed that... but there certainly hasn't been an effort to mask his identity.

I think everyone can fully understand the difference in opinion between Mark and Robinhood from the information already posted here. So maybe we could find something else to talk about? Just a polite request!!

Thanks PTA. My lips are sealed! Mmmmmmh!

That comes across as quite creepy.

Nicola

Just want to say a quick note. I have been in a trust deed for over 3 years now. I never got offered a face to face discussion BUT I wish I had and I would recomend to anyone before signing to have a face to face thus allowing all questions to be answered.
Thanks..

Hi Tompie

It's a good point. I think it's a simple way to take away all the unknowns. People should be able to enter a proposal of any kind knowing all matters had been discussed and those matters are confirmed in writing for the avoidadence of any doubt.

Mark