DM29

As I said in a previous post, I am fairly new to trust deeds and I am now in a trust deed with Wilson Andrews which has just become protected.

Obviously I am limited on what feedback I can give you concerning a trust deed with Wilson Andrews. I do have a general opinion that I have formed on this which I will share.

I do not wish to offend any of the experts on here, each of whom work within their own companies who offer trust deeds and other financial solutions. Each company that offers trust deeds will have on their website that they will do this and that and will take care of your creditors. At the end of the day, the trust deed company will take a fee for the services that they provide. These companies are regulated and if you feel that you are not receiving the level of service that you are due then you have the right and it is probably your duty to complain to the company concerned.

I see it a bit like politics. The trust deed company tell you they will do this and that for you. It is only when you select a trust deed company and enter into the trust deed do you find out the true level of service that they provide.

Sorry if this is a bit cynical and long winded but that is my opinion.

Hi Gresgow, thanks for your reply. It is very much appreciated. I too am in a trust deed with Wilson Andrews at present and cannot agree with you more on your point that you only find out the true level of service of a trust deed provider until you are in one. When we opted for the trust deed, we were promised by Wilson Andrews that we would be debt free within 3 years, they would gladly help us with anything we needed to know...etc, ect. We have been in the trust deed for little over a year now and to be perfectly honest with you, I feel its the worst thing we could have done!! It turns out that they now want to double our payments (even though our income has not increased by much) not once have we had a face to face interview with them as ÔÇ£our case wasn't complexÔÇØ and now to top it all off we are going to end up paying back just as much as we originally owed but are black listed and may have to sell/re-mortgage our family home at the end of it all. I feel I have been completely mis-sold the trust deed. They even sent sherrif officers to my door looking for bank statements I had sent off months earlier! Had I known all of this at the start I would never have went near them!

Anyway (rant over) !

Thanks again for your reply.

Forgot to add....I will not be debt free in 3 months either as WA have extended the trust deed by an extra 6 months due to arrears we have with them of £1,700 each, backdated to the start of the claim. Finding this hard to understand as they done a 6 month review in June last year and sent us a letter saying everything was fine. This is another point I will be raising at my meeting with them! At any point there has been a change in my income since I have been with them, whether it be an increase or decrease, I have always contacted them to advise but have always just been told that this would be looked at in my 6 monthly reviews. Good customer service? I don't think so!

*3 years..

I think gresgow makes a really interesting point; if every trust deed company is saying that they provide a great service it must be very difficult to decide which one would be right for you.

I think that a face-to-face meeting is essential before signing a trust deed. They are a major decision, quite complicated in some respects, and a big responsibility. Having the opportunity to ask questions in detail seems vital before going ahead.

Hello dm29.

If your company is sending Sheriff's Officers to get bank statements from you it would seem that they might have decided that you are failing to co-operate with them. It's a fairly major step and one that isn't taken often.

Obviously from your comments you entirely reject this.

I do think that it's very important and wise that you have organised a face-to-face meeting with them now. From this and the other threads that you have been contributing to there appear to be misunderstandings about what a fair monthly contribution is given your current circumstances, a misunderstanding about what should have happened with the unsecured loan repayment attached to your mortgage, and a misunderstanding about whether or not you are co-operating with them.

Please let us know how the meeting goes.

At the end of the day TDA, if we sign up for a trust deed based on a telephone conversation or a face to face meeting it is basically the same. We are taking at face value what we are being promised by our chosen IP and it is not until we are into the trust deed do we see if we are getting what we were promised. What I am wondering is what protection we have and what is the minimum that we can expect from the trust deed provider. Or is that down to our own opinion? Is there a 'minimum level of service' that we are entitled to?

I understand your argument and respect your opinion on the subject of the pre-signing meeting gresgow, but I don't agree with you.

When they get chance to visit the forum it will be interesting to hear why Mark, Kevin and Julie believe such a face-to-face meeting to be important.

I don't think that there is any minimum level of service to clients set out. In some ways I think this would be a very good idea. Trust deed providers do have responsibilities to the law and to their regulators that provide protection in many ways however.

When we did a survey of site visitors and members last year the feedback was that while most people were generally pretty satisfied with the way things had gone, a substantial minority felt let-down by the service they had received. A large majority of people did feel they had made the right decision to go ahead with a trust deed though.

My opinion is that every trust deed company makes promises to ensure that people choose to use them. Most are then professional and committed to delivering what they promised. A minority however seem to care very little about their clients once they've signed up.

Gresgow, can I ask, when you contacted WA regarding opting to enter into a TD were you asked if you wanted a face to face interview? We did ask about this but were told "our case wasn't complex and didn't need a face to face" I now wish I had pushed for this.

TDA, I have never been un-coperative with my trust deed provider it has always been the other way about. As for your comment about Sherrif Officers being sent to my door being a major step and one that isnt taken lightly, I was informed by the Sherrif Officers that "this happens all the time, and it is nothing to worry about, merely a break down in communication" A break down in communication should not be happening when you are paying thousands of pounds in fees to the TD povider. It turned out that the self addressed envelopes WA had sent us to send our bank statements actually went to their company in England although it was the Glasgow company who were carring out the review and the English company had not forwarded the statements to them. When we complained to WA about this we were told "all they could do was appologise" So, who is at fault here? Certainly not me.

dm29

To be honest I can't really remember, I think I was offered a meeting prior to signing the TD, but chose not to as I was anxious to get things started as soon as possible. It was although my intention as it is now to arrange to meet with someone from WA to discuss a few matters relating to the TD.

Thanks, please let us know how you get on at your meeting, as I will do after i have mine.

We always try and set up a face-to-face meeting when discussing a trust deed if at all possible. I just think that it is easier to ensure that everybody understands their responsibilities and what they are signing. After all, the majority of communication is body language is it not? You can usually pick up the signs if a client is worried about a particular aspect of the trust deed or doesn't quite understand.

Like Kevin's firm we always try and set up a face-to-face meeting when discussing a Trust Deed. Not only does this give us an indication of whether everything is fully understood prior to proceeding, but it also gives the person a chance to decide whether they are happy to proceed with us, as a firm.

Julie

Hi kevin andd julie. I was never offered a face to face meeting when we called for advice on a trust deed, nor was I ever offered any other solution to my debt. Until reading things on this forum, I didn't even know what a DMP was as the only debt solution that was ever offered 2 us was a TD. I feel that I have been totally misled. Only now, at my request am I going to have a face to face - a year down the line. I have a lot of questions that I want answered so am hoping to get things sorted with the trust deed provider. I'm sure if you have read any of my other posts, a face to face is not the only mis-understanding I am having with them.