Terms of Business – Compass Debt Counsellors Debt Management Plan

The following terms of business outline the service provided by Compass Debt Counsellors and your responsibilities while you are on debt managment plan

1 Agreement

This agreement will start once we receive a signed copy of this document, any supporting documents we have requested and our initial fee. We need your signed authorisation in order to contact your creditors and to begin negotiating with them on your behalf. By signing this agreement you acknowledge that you are free to enter in to this agreement and that you are authorising us to act as your agent to liaise with your creditors to exchange personal information with them in order to discuss your financial circumstances.

2 Fees

a) The first two months payments you make are retained by Compass as a set up fee to pay for the Debt Managment Plan and will not be paid to your creditors. This is the initial fee. Thereafter we charge a monthly management fee of 20% of each monthly payment you make or a minimum of £20 to cover the costs of administering this plan on your behalf. If in any month you over pay or under pay the amount set out in your debt managment plan we will increase or reduce our managment fee proportionately, unless that sum would be less than £20 in which case we will charge £20.

b) If we need to vary the management fee we will write to you and give you a month's notice of the changes and tell you the reasons for this.

c) We reserve the right to end this agreement if you fail to keep up with payments or if any payment made by you in the first two months is returned unpaid. (See clause 4 below for full details).

3 What if I change my mind after I have signed?

a) You have a `cooling-off" period. For a period of seven working days from the date you return these signed Terms of Business to us, you may cancel the agreement by sending written notice by registered post to Compass Debt Counsellors, Compass House, 195 Derby Road, Long Eaton, Nottingham, NG10 4LQ or by Faxing us on 0115 9468673. This agreement will then be at an end and we will give you a full refund. Please note we are unable to accept verbal cancellation instructions.

b) After the cooling off period has expired you may also end this agreement at any time, by giving us two weeks written notice in the same format as explained above. However if you end the agreement outside the 'cooling-off" period but within the first two months we may retain any money you have paid to cover our reasonable administrative charges up to the time we receive notice from you.

c) You may cancel this agreement by giving us two weeks written notice in the same format as explained above, if, following the signing of the agreement, the total management fee differs significantly from the estimate set out in your welcome letter. If you end the agreement in this way we may retain any money you have paid to cover our reasonable administrative charges up to the time we receive notice from you.

d) From month three onwards if your notice to cancel is received after a monthly payment has been made to your creditors, we will be unable to refund any monies to you. If your notice to cancel is received before we have paid your creditors, we will refund that portion of the monthly payment but may retain the management fee to cover any costs or administrative charges we have incurred.

e) Once we receive notice in writing from you telling us that you wish to cancel this agreement the agreement will be at an end and you will owe us no further payments. Our authority to deal with your creditors will also be at an end and from that point onwards your creditors will be entitled to revert back to the original terms of agreement they had with you.

4 How do may end this agreement with you

We reserve the right to end this agreement with you for the following reasons;

a) If you fail to pay the initial fee within a reasonable time (see clause 2 above);
b) If you fail to keep up with payments or you do not adhere to the payment schedule contained in the debt management plan;
c) If the infomation you gave us when setting up your debt management plan is materially incorrect, fraudulent or otherwise misleading;
d) If the information you gave at the time of acquiring credit was materially incorrect, incomplete or fraudulent;
e) If you (or if more than one person is party to this agreement) - one of you has a bankruptcy petition issued against you;
f) If you (or if more than one person is party to this agreement) - one of you enters in to an Individual Voluntary Arrangement;
g) If you die. If more than one person is party to this agreement and one of you dies then we will liaise with the surviving party to determine the best course of action.
h) If we cannot perform our obligations under this agreement because of something beyond our reasonable control. In this case, we will do everything we reasonably can to let you know as soon as possible and refund whatever fees may be reasonable under the circumstances.
i) If you do something or fail to do something, which in our reasonable opinion could damage our reputation or otherwise bring us into disrepute.
j) It is important that you keep us informed of correspondance you receive from your creditors in order that we are able to effectively administer the plan on your behalf. If you fail to keep us informed of any material information from creditors, or fail to let us know of the exisence of all creditors then we reserve the right to end this agreement.

Where we end this agreement we will give you two weeks notice in writing setting out our reasons for ending the agreement.

5 Other information you need to know about entering into a debt management plan.

a) When you start a monthly payment plan and pay your initial fee you may fall behind (or further behind) with your creditors. Unless your creditors agree to reduce or freeze interest and any other charges, this will lead to an increase in the total amount you have to repay. This may also affect your credit rating and you may find it difficult to get credit until you complete your monthly payment plan. Even after all payments have been made your credit rating may still be affected.
b) We issue monthly payments to your creditors only after payments received from you have cleared. Because we have to wait for funds to clear, the date that we make payment to your creditors may not match the date that contractual payments to your creditors are due and we cannot guarantee that your creditors will not charge you interest, penalties and any other charges as a result of this or take legal action.
c) You should understand that the length of the repayment plan is an estimate and will increase if:
* Your disposable income reduces and we have to reduce your monthly payment as a result: or
* Your creditors charge you interest, penalties and any other charges after your monthly payment plan has started.
d) Secured loans are not included in this debt management plan. These are your mortgage or loans secured against your house for example. It is vital that you continue to pay your mortgage or rent, utility payments (water, gas, electricity) Council Tax payments and any fines yourself as they are not covered under this debt managment plan.
e) While we will try to make sure that your creditors freeze or reduce interest and any other charges, we cannot stop your creditors continuing to charge you if they choose to do so. If this happens, this will result in an increase in the total debt you have to repay and an increase in the length of time you have to continue making repayments.
f) Although we ask creditors suspend or withdraw any enforcement proceedings, we cannot guarantee this. If your creditors take or continue with legal action, you may have to pay costs which will be added to your debts.

6 Our service to you

a) Based on the information we receive from you, we liaise with your creditors, let them know about your financial circumstances and make revised offers of payment for debts you owe them.
b) We ask your creditors to accept revised payments and to reduce or freeze interest and any other charges and (where appropriate) to suspend or withdraw any enforcement proceedings which are related to your debts.
c) Once we have assessed your circumstances, we draw up your monthly payment plan. The plan will contain details of our fees, the amounts of repayments you need to make and the estimated length of time it will take to complete the plan (the period).
d) We reserve the right to exclude from the monthly payment plan unsecured debts that are less than three months old at the time this agreement starts and certain other debts at our discretion.
e) If any of the information contained in the monthly payment plan needs to be revised as a result of new information coming to light during the setting up period, a new payment plan will be prepared and sent to you shortly before the first payment is made to your creditors.
f) Payments to your creditors will commence from month three.
g) On or around the date of the first payment, we send you a statement showing what payments will be made that month and every month thereafter (so long as you maintain your payments to us).
h) Payments are only made to creditors once payments from you (to our client account) have cleared and our monthly fee has been paid.
i) We issue payments to your creditors, normally within five working days. If we have not issued funds to your creditors within this timescale, we will take all reasonable steps to contact you and let you know what has happened and the reason for the delay. Where this happens we will make good any loss incurred by you as a result of our negligence.
j) If in any month you pay us less than the amount set out in your monthly payment plan, we may not issue payments to your creditors if these payments would be below the amounts normally accepted by your creditors.
k) We will keep you regularly updated regarding our dealings with your creditors. l) We review your payment plan twice a year. When we do this we will contact you to ask you for all up-to-date documents you have received from creditors in the intervening period. We review the documents, send you an updated statement and revise your monthly payment plan if neccesary.
m) You can ask us to revise your monthly payment plan at other times if your circumstances change and it would be reasonable to do so. Any request to revise your payment plan will need to be made to us in writing.
n) Any time that changes are made to your monthly payment plan, we send you an updated statement showing details of the changes.
o) This clause does not affect our liability for death or personal injury resulting from our negligence. Nothing in this agreement affects your statutory legal rights.

7 What we do not do

a) We do not lend you money or give you any credit facilities.
b) We do not issue payments to your creditors without having first received cleared funds from you.
c) We do not give you legal advice.
d) We do not make payments against secured loans, or payments for utility or Council Tax bills. (See clause 5d above)

8 What you will do

a) In order to set up the payment plan we will need to ask you for details of your financial and personal circumstances. It is important that the information you supply to us when setting up the payment plan is accurate and not misleading in any way. The information we require will include details of:
- your income and expenses;
- your dependants;
- your assets;
- your creditors and all your agreements you have taken out with them;
- any mortgages or secured loans you have;
- copies of any judgments made against you; and any other enforcement action.

b) It is important that you supply us with copies of all correspondence you receive from your creditors promptly and provide us with details of any dealings you may have had with any creditors, whether we are in contact with them on your behalf or not. You must not ignore correspondence or any other communications from your creditors or any person acting on behalf of a creditor.

c) It is important that you do not spend any money over and above your reasonable living expenses as described in the monthly payment plan.

d) You must tell us as soon as possible about any changes in your circumstances which might affect the viability of your monthly payment plan.

e) When we carry out your six monthly review we will advise you of any changes that in our opinion need to be made to your plan and adjust your payments accordingly. Please let us know if you do not agree to the changes we recommend

9 By signing these Terms of Business:

You confirm that none of the debts you have instructed us to deal with are secured loans or any of the things set out in clause 4d

10 How we hold your money

a) Payments made by you which will be paid to your creditors are held in a client trust account together with money we hold for our other clients.
b) We will only take our management fee when we make payments to your creditors.
c) Any money held for you which is not due to creditors or to us under this agreement, may be paid to you or to your order through a UK bank account, in your name or (where you hold a joint account) in your name and the name of the other person.
d) If there is any money which we hold for you and we are for any reason unable to pay it to you in line with these terms, we will write to you to ask for your instructions for payment.

11 The effect of ending this agreement

When this agreement ends, our duties and obligations under this agreement will come to an end. We will return any money that we may be holding for you in our client trust account. You will not have to pay us any more money.

12 Other information

a) Any personal information you give to us will be confidential. Personal information will only be passed on to your creditors and such third parties as are required to know it for the purposes of performing the obligations under this agreement. We will not pass this information to anyone else without your express permission except in accordance with our data protection statement and to the creditors you have authorised us to deal with or their authorised agents.
b) If at any time you are not happy with the service that we have given you, in the first instance, please telephone the business area you usually deal with in order to explain your concerns. If you want to write to us, please send your complaint to: Compass Debt Counsellors, Compass House, 195 Derby Road, Long Eaton, Nottingham, NG10 4LQ. A copy of our Internal Complaints Procedure is also available upon request from the contact details given above. Using our Internal Complaints Procedure will not affect your legal rights. We are subject to the jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Service (P05).
c) You should keep copies of all documents that you send to us as we carry out all our work on computer-scanned document images to improve our efficiency. If you ask us at the end of this agreement, we will return to you scanned images of any documents you have sent to us.
d) With the exception of the cancellation notice under clause 2, which must be sent by registered post (or fax), any notices we or you serve under this agreement will be valid if sent by first-class post to the address shown in this agreement.
e) We may transfer any or all of our rights and obligations under this agreement. If we do this, we will write to you to let you know the details.
f) This agreement is governed by English law.

13 Data protection statement

a) We know how important it is to protect your Personal Information. Any Personal Information we hold will be subject to the appropriate legal safeguards under the Data Protection Act 1998. We will process your Personal Information in accordance with the terms and for the purposes of this agreement.
b) We may share Personal Information within our company and with any other associated company within our group in order to fulfil our obligations under this agreement. We may also use your Personal Information for marketing purposes to identify and provide you (by post, telephone, fax, email or SMS text) with details of other similar products and services which we, our associated companies, or an approved third party deem could be of interest to you.
c) By signing and returning this form you will be giving consent for your details to be used in this way. You can tell us if you do not want to receive marketing information from us, an associated company or a third party by ticking the appropriate box or writing to the address below. Otherwise, we will only disclose your Personal Information in accordance with relevant laws or regulations (including fraud prevention).
d) You may ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you. You can do this by writing to us at the address below, Please note that under the Data Protection Act 1998 we may charge you a maximum fee of £10.00 for this request. You may also ask us to amend your personal information if it is inaccurate.
e) We may change our privacy policy from time to time. We will let you know about the changes by sending you details.
f) Please send requests to: Data Protection Manager, Compass Debt Counsellors, Compass House, 195 Derby Road, Long Eaton, Nottingham NG10 4LQ. We may record and monitor calls for service quality.

I/we do not wish to be contacted by you or your associated companies about any other products or services that may be of interest to me/us. [ ]

I/we do not wish to be contacted by relevant third parties about any other products or services that may be of interest to me/us. [ ]

Your Signature: Each person should read these Terms of Business carefully before signing this declaration