Harrington Brooks Avis 

Started off really good. Was paying just over £200 per month and i thought would be debt free in around 5 years after my ex so called partner leaving us around 20k in debt. Got to the nearing the end of the 5 years and i was getting letters from creditors to say that the debt was paid off brillaint news i thought. Eventually i had communication from all of them saying all was paid off. After around a year of not paying them thinking it was all over i get a letter and a phone call from a debt credit company saying i still owed them around £3500. I questioned this with H/B and they said thwy would look into it for me. I had no reply from them at all. I then had another letter saying i owed this money and if i didnt pay they was passing onto another debt company. Again i contacted H/B to find out what was going. Again i got no contact back. I then get a letter and phone call from a debt company called LINK FINANCIAL explaing that if i could not repay the money they would seek CCJ against me or if i could set up a payment instead. I reluctantly set up a payment plan of £10 a month to give me some time so i could get H/B to look into it. I contacted them around 5 times about this and they now informed me that they could not find any of my records with them. After a heated discussion on around the 4th call they got a senior manager to check a different history check that only a senior could do (buy this time the companynhad changed its name to ALL CLEAR FINANCE) and they eventually found all the payments that i had made. They said they would contact me back(i also requested a paper copy of every single payment i had made which i never received) after looking into it. They never did. I contacted them again and had to explain the whole situation again and after another heated conversation i had to speak to a senior manager ro check the records again. They eventually told me that i had somewhere paid around £2500 to them for this last creditor but they had paid the wrong one but could not trace where the money had gone. Again they said they would chase and get back to me. They never did. After another 2 or 3 calls to them each time having to explain to someone different the whole story i eventually gave up as i didnt know who else to speak to or what other help to seek. This all started around 2003 ish and im now still paying LINK FINANCIAL a small amount a month. Harrington brooks were no help at all in the end and have some how and somewhere lost the money i paid them around £2500( they was also charging me £60 per month for them to pay the creditors and freeze the interest). Terrible customer aftercare and no help at all when they themselves have made a mistake.

Ave written time and time to this company to get my Iva cancelled they sve complete ingorned me as want to, go with someone else that doesn't charge what they do rubbish company, don't go near

I requested a 100% in pound calculation at the end of last year. After a long period of waiting this finally came through but incorrectly, showing exactly the same calculation as the year before. I chased this and again only to receive the same incorrect calculation back again. Only on the 3rd attempt and after a phone call did I finally receive figures that seemed valid.

The calculation showed that I would be completed in March. Despite this a further payment was taken out in full in April, ignoring the email that I sent in March reminding them of this. The only advice I have since received is to 'cancel my DD', but no one has been in contact with me to confirm the completion or refund for any over-payment. Promises of call backs after chasing the completion team have so far not materialized.

When I try to chase I am often left holding on for ages, as no one seems available to answer calls. The company policy on emails is 10 working days.. most companies respond faster than this when it was physical post, ink and quills.When I do get to speak to someone the answer is a generic 'they will get back to you', but apparently they will not accept calls into that department, so despite being advised in Jan that I would be completed in March I am still waiting to hear anything confirming this and still having installments taken.

Update 12th April 2018

Just received an email now stating that the closure could take up to 6 months!!!! This seems excessive. Other companies are quoting around 4 weeks for a completion certificate after making the final payment.

They have been absolutely fantastic with me I would highly recommend them my life has been so stress free and will be debt free in 2 months they have been very discreet and mist helpful every time I’ve contacted them

Very efficient service. Able to accommodate to my needs very quickly. Great that my personal financial advisor was able to communicate with me via a number of ways.
Thank you again.

Harrington brooks took the load off my mind, their friendly team helped me in every way that they could. When I was on maternity leave and couldn’t afford to pay the full amount they arranged a smaller payment plan to suit me.
I never felt pressured and they always understood my personal circumstances with no hard sell. They even compared energy companies for me and found ways to lower my monthly outgoings. Life became easy again and when I decided to end the plan because my finances were so much improved and I wanted to manage my own finances again, it was straight forward and there was always an option to go back to them. I am so great full to them for helping me.

This company is seriously amazing, I feel like a ton of weight has been lifted of me and Steve has been a legend he has done everything for me and more like having my own personal guardian Angel. He proper looked out for my interest.

Very good in the early days, terrible now. i will be looking into changing company after been let down again by the new systems they have in place. Lodged complains and they just shut the complaint without doing anything about it. I cant believe how a company can change so much from when i started about 5 years ago. The last year it gets worse and worse costumer service. Avoid and try someone else

Paid off my IVA in November after a windfall. I have been charged £900 for the privilege and nothing has been paid to my creditors. I have incurred £120 court costs because I paid an extra £100 per month for the first 10 months of my IVA and this money has not been passed on. Very frustrating

6th of February and still no progress I did however receive a call from HB on the day re the above review which is the first and only time I have been contacted during this closing phase.

Fantastic service right from day one. Even when I've struggled there's always been a friendly voice at the end of the phone to support me. Harrington Brooks are a fantastic way to get back to financial health if You're having problems with debt, give them a call!

What a joke of a company, im currently in an iva and have been for the passed 3 years. I recently applied for car finance as the car I pay for through a work salary sacrifice scheme is due to end in February.

Despite me explaining that I need a car to get to work and suggesting that car finance and the insurance would total the same amount I currently pay they have been dragging their heels for over a week to give me a decision to apply for finance. Baring in mind if I have no car I have no job. I have been told everyday for a week to call back the next day with further information and despite jumping through numerous hoops have still not got a decision. If I had been told to submit all the information and told to wait a week I would have done. But every agent I speak to tells me something different and to call back the following day. They have the processes to follow which I understand but the agents on the phone all seem to have their own opinion on what needs to be done....

This is not the first time I have been let down by them either. Do your homework before signing up to an iva with this company. They only care about taking their commission from your payments.

STEER CLEAR!!!!

Just spoken to a lovely man called Guy to go through my financial plan and he was so helpful and understanding can not thank him enough for being so understanding and explaining things to me. Wish all advisors where like him.

Absolutely awful company, STAY CLEAR. I took out a dmp with them and was told I would be debt free in just under 5 years, After 2 years of paying £200 a month I was told I would be debt free in a further 4 and a half years! That maths simply doesn't add up. I cancelled the plan and contacted my creditors directly, of which there were 7, I set up payments which totalled less than £200 pm and just over 2.5 years later I have only 1 creditor left and will be debt free in just over a year. I was approached at a very vulnerable time and was totally ripped off.

Worse company ever! Has left me sorting my accounts after over paying a couple of them in the last 7 months of my plan. With the remaining accounts, they told me I would be debt free in 11 months, so I reviewed the accounts and figured I could to settle everything in 3 months, so I closed with Harrington Brooks - down to their poor (little to none) communication with my creditors.

Made a complaint, they basically brushed me off and refused to help. Wouldn't trust these people to run a pig sty. DO NOT understand the high monthly admin charges....they've done nothing to earn it.

Note - (This 3 months after closing down my account with Harrington Brooks and I'm still chasing overpaid money - hence the frustration!!)

Incredibly unorganised organisation, they approach you when you are in need of help and reassure you with false promises.

Missed payments to creditors, raised fees, lack of communication, action from creditors without knowledge due.

I now have long lasting damage to my credit file due to the mismanagement of my debts from Harrington Brooks.

I would never recommend these they told me the best option for me was a iva I've been paying for a year and all my debts have gone up I haven't seen no improvement at all I don't get how all my debts go up at least £70 each debt never use them

Had been doing my Iva for 4 years all of a sudden they try to up it due to me having a higher wage for afew months even though it was because I travelled and didn't pay tax
Then started to say I needed to pay 3 times the amount for the last year which I couldn't do or understand,making ridiculous demands
So I cancelled it after 4 years of paying 100 pounds a month
Turns out I only paid 1100 off my debt and the rest went to them......total con!!!!! Avoid this company for sure

I was extremely skeptical of using any debt company to handle our affairs, “mainly due to my stubbornness and pride”. Now we are virtually debt free in just 4 years 5 months, it turned out that it was the best decision my wife and I made. 4 years 5 months might sound like a long time to some people but I know for a fact that if I had not had the assistance, guidance and assurance of Harrington Brooks, I would still be re-spending on credit cards and juggling all of the other debt we had. We have been fortunate in that our circumstances changed and our earnings increased to allow us to up our payments, otherwise it would have taken 6 years! Our debt was considerable, tens of thousands of pounds.
After losing my job of 15 years we fell behind with payments and the calls and letters started. I was concerned that after initially starting the plan with Harrington Brooks we were still receiving contact from creditors. IF THIS HAPPENS TO YOU, DON’T WORRY! Just pass the details to HB and they will take care of things I assure you the calls and letters will stop, be prepared to give it time. Consider this too! Deal with one company to pay your outgoings or deal with the many different rules and attitudes of the many companies you owe!
The government capped the fees that HB could charge for their services a couple of years ago. I had been happy to pay the amount they had initially requested for their services but they reduced it in line with government guidance as soon as this instruction was made. At the time of writing this review, we are just one payment away from being debt free and if feels fantastic to be in this position.
Expect your credit rating to take a hit, don’t worry about it, its likely to be in a bad way anyhow. Be honest with HB about your outgoings, don’t hide anything, HB will let you keep enough of your earnings to live on and use the rest effectively to pay of your debtors. Keep disciplined don’t do further borrowing and control your spending so that you don’t need to consider payment breaks.
At every contact I have made with the company they have been courteous, helpful and explain things in the simplest terms. At the end of the day, WE created the problems we had, Harrington Brooks assisted us to get back to level and we cannot thank them enough for their service, or recommend them highly enough. Superb!

William

utterly dreadful so far, we have hit some financial issues recently and we emailed the team with our reasons, we have shown them all the information to prove that we are in a situation where a payment break isn't an option and we have asked for further assistance considering HB say they can look at different options, today I got an email saying this: "I would advise that you speak to your local Citizens Advice Bureau and explore your options moving forward" REALLY??? is this the advice you give? I came to HB for help not for a "contact your local citizen's advice".