To be wary of making any further payments?

[Abcdefgfedcba]

I've been very stupid by not keeping a log of everything and am now in a real pickle.

A friend allowed me to purchase items on a catalogue in her name. This was various items over 12 months. I was not the only person, which means the payments made monthly onto the catalogue were for various peoples orders.

I stupidly didn't keep a record of what was bought and what was paid back.

I've asked a few times now for her to send me information of the total cost, along with payments made towards that. She keeps saying she will do this, but never does.

She's not messaging me up to 10 times a day saying I need to pay at least 100 per month because I owe her over 2k.

Looking at my bank statements I have already paid back over 1k.

I ordered clothing, kids Xmas presents last year, a smart watch, laptop.

Am I Being a terrible person to not want to keep putting money into her bank without seeing proof of how much I owe at least?

I'm worried that I'll end up paying money back indefinitely even after clearing the balance.

I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to buy things on the catalogue, but I just want a statement or something to show where I'm up to.

I now feel harassed and stressed by the constant texts. Should I just put more money into her bank?

Don't be too hard on yourself OP, it's not just you that's caused this situation.

Just send a message along the lines of what people ahve suggested and leave it. Move on with your life. If she comes back with: actually here's the spent total/paid total and you still owe me £300, then pay the £300. If they start causing trouble for you, send a message saying you want to settle the account fairly, but you will go to the police if they threaten/harass you.

I know it's hard when you don't have much money, but your kids don't need expensive things at Christmas. If you are still struggling, why not get things second hand this year and make a game of it (if they are young). Could say you are doing it for the environment, 'let's see what we can get without wasting any more plastic' etc. or explain to them if they are a bit older?

Tell her you believe you have paid what you owe. If she believes that’s not the case she needs to show you what you owe.

What was she getting out of this??? I’m guessing she charged a fee or something for letting people use her account?

PP have been a bit harsh @Abcdefgfedcba and it's good that you are attempting to sort it out. Depression is a common reason for debt. I'm not going to lecture you on poor decisions you've made in the past. To move forward you say you want to pay off what you owe. So I suggest you do what others have said and send her a letter with copies for you and keep a couple to give her DH. It sounds like you cou,d potentially have paid what you owe her so you shouldn't pay any more until you are certain you still owe. She sounds a bit chaotic and may not be certain what she ordered for whom and therefore who owes what. If she prints off a list of all the orders and blacks out all the ones that were not delivered to your address that's one way but it won't show what %age of the interest she's being charged is owed by you. She needs to do this for everyone she ordered things on behalf of. I'm a bit confused though as to whether she's acting as an agent for Very or just doing this as a favour. But you need to get a handle on your finances too, I do understand how when you are in a low income it's very week to week but maybe think about how to budget a bit better so you can treat your kids without all this huge worry

If the stuff was delivered direct to you, did you keep the delivery notes? There would be important info on there, of costs, account number, phone number etc.

Maybe you could ring the catalogue company and ask them directly what you still owe?

I would insist on meeting up with her, if she refuses, call round to her house and bring a friend with you and request to see statements.
Stop making payments until she provides statements of all of your payments,all this information will be online on her catalogue account.
All items ordered from catalogues will be available to see on her account.
Are you frightened of her ?

She sounds like a scam artist.

I cannot see any reason anybody would be opening a Very account, which you yourself state she didn’t use, and then open it up to multiple acquaintances to order through her unless it was so that she could make some money through having people overpay.

I would bet that she has had yourself and the other people she opened her account to significantly overpay so that she could cash in. The fact she said she’d keep a log of it but now can’t/ won’t provide you with statements just further confirms the likelihood of this.

If I was you I would send her a message outlining how much you believe you owe and how much you believe you’ve paid. Tell her that as far as you can tell you have paid for all of the items and interest on top of that and that you won’t be planning on paying anything else unless she can show you the statements showing what you’ve bought, how much the initial costs were, how and when your payments to her were then used to pay off Very and how much interest has been accrued. I wouldn’t accept her saying you’ve accrued lots of interest unless she can prove that as soon as you made payments they were used to pay off your items (and not those of other purchasers) and that interest was still accumulated.

She’s the one that’s been running a dodgy scheme getting people who would be denied an account to pay through her so she’s the one who needs to justify her ongoing requests for cash.

What a fiasco , just send her a message now saying that as far as you are concerned you have paid back everything you owed and will not be paying anymore unless she can show you proof of 1) what you still owe and 2) your previous payments having been sent in . If she then threatens you with the husband etc just call the police .

OP- I think you owe more.

You say this is the last so far... which is over £1300. This indicates you have ordered more stuff not listed so your debt is likely much greater.

Your payments made (stated above) do not cover what you can remember buying. Is it as much as £2k? Who knows?!

Well, have you even asked her for statements, yet?

@cowfacemonkey well Op just seems go be responding go all the negative comments and not actually responding to anyone with helpful comments so 🤷🏻‍♀️ probably right

She is the one liable for the debt so the ball is in your courts. Hold firm. You tell her you will not pay a single penny more unless she works out exactly what you owe her and she sees proof.

It is insane that you did this without knowing the amounts or keeping a record but what’s done is done.

Tbh I would worry you are paying for more than you owe.

Sorry I'm struggling to keep up and I can't figure out how to reply to comments so it shows up in my reply.

I've listed everything I ordered, but the clothes and Xmas fillers are guesses. I've hopefully over estimated, but can't be sure.

I've asked many times for statements and she says she will send it over in x amounts of days and that day comes and goes.

I've asked at least 15 times over the last 4 months.

I'm going to send an email using the templates in the above comments, so that I have a paper trail.

This sounds like a form of loan sharking to me. Particularly as she has done this for multiple people.

Agree, this is dodgy af

No idea why people get a catalogue with very when they're owned my Littlewoods and Littlewoods don't charge interest unless it's a bnpl and it isn't cleared before it kicks in.

Very prices are significantly cheaper that Littlewoods for exactly the same items especially furniture and white goods. Very have the same BNPL terms except the maximum term is now 12 months whilst Littlewoods is longer.

The think the OPs "mate" has ordered all this stuff, pocketed all the monthly payments and is now stuffed as the 12 months interest free will soon be finishing so the balance needs to be paid in full.

I'm glad you feel able to stand up to her and say no more.

Very prices are significantly cheaper that Littlewoods for exactly the same items especially furniture and white goods

But its not. Very charge interest, Littlewoods don't. The only way that would be a beneficial is if you're paying the full price when buying which is rare and not the point of catalogues. They're both the same with a different set up.

Abcdefgfedcba

Please include in the email the bit about requesting statements many times in the last few months, that is important.
Also give her a deadline.
. i.e
You have 14 days to provide me a full and up-to-date statement of this account or I will consider this matter closed with no further payments due.

I'd contact her and say you want to set up a direct debit to pay back what you owe but you need an update on what items you've ordered, how much they were and what the balance is. Tell her you can sort out what you've paid via your bank statements (so she'll know that and won't try and make out it's less) - but say you can't do this until she gives you the information you need.

Ball's then in her court ...

I really hope you get this sorted out but I also hope that this thread stops others from being tempted into similar scenarios.

You were unable to make purchases on credit because of your credit rating.

So you then ordered things through someone else so that your credit rating wouldn't be taken into account.

In doing so you've shown why people in your financial situation (debt, poor credit etc) to be unable to keep borrowing, the laws are there to protect you as much as anyone else. I've been in debt after an accident that has stopped me working for a good year and a half.

It's ridiculous that while already in debt and with poor credit, you ordered those kind of items at all - mini televisions, perfume and Apple watches?! Once i was financially struggling I didn't dream of buying things that were absolute luxuries.

Spending more than £1k on non necessary items was extremely irresponsible and hopefully this situation has been a wake up call if nothing else.

If nothing else you should have at least had a running total of the purchases - it's unreal that you don't!

Like I say I do hope this gets sorted out but I also hope it's been a huge lesson for you.

You have paid money every month to your friend directly to her, not the catalogue company, you have no proof that she has paid the money to Very, for all you know she could have been pocketing the money, if she has other customers she has done this to, who knows how much money she has taken. Legally you have never signed any agreement over the goods you have bought & have no proof of what you owe. I would make an appointment at your local CAB, take bank statements showing all payments you have made & see what they say.

For goodness sake! Just text her the estimate of what you purchased and how much you’ve paid and say “unless I’m much mistaken/happy for you to prove otherwise, I’m fucking done”.

No more money until you see evidence!!! Why is that hard?!

@Nat6999

Why? This woman is not an agent of Very. She is not affiliated with Very. She cannot instigate debt collectors. It is not official.

Basically, her friend offered to buy her stuff because the OP couldn’t get credit. There is a disunite over the OP paying her back and around how much that should be. But it’s the exact same dispute as if this woman had given OP £1000. Or what if this woman had bought OP dinner, and OP was meant to return the flavour but didn’t. It’s the same. Would you tell her to go to CAB?

There is nothing “legally” here. There is no reason to go to CAB, Or see a solicitor, or call Very.

Someone lent someone money. Now they are arguing over paying it back. You don’t call CAB for that. OP already knows what she needs to do. Send an email to her friend listing all the purchases she remembers, and all the payments made and she needs to tell the friend that she has paid everything she remembers, but if there is money still owed then friend needs to show proof.

All the friend can do is take her to small claims, but she would need to show the same proof. If she decides to go to small claims, OP should take action at that point. But right now, there is no need to involve any third parties.

Honestly just stop paying until she sends you a statement.

Send a clear text/letter saying you are stopping all payments until you receive a statement. Make sure you keep a record of your letter and any messages from her needs to be met with ‘I will continue payments when I have received a statement’ until she sends the statement.

I would include in your email that you want to pay it all off before the interest free period ends so that she k owns you are not going to pay additional I interest unless she can prove you already have fallen foul of that.

Everyone has stated the same information in lots of different ways, so there's nothing much to add, except that it sounds like a very complicated situation, given that she used to work for you and her husband's behaviour hasn't been ideal. I hope you safely get it resolved.

I also used to give her a pre paid bank card that my commission went onto, for her to spend as she pleasured.

Why?