Episode 4 My Worst Deal

We all like to think we're getting a fair deal for our money,

whether we're buying, selling or taking out a loan.

And when times are hard, it matters even more.

But many of the deals on offer could cause you problems.

Some could even wreck your life.

In today's programme:

Turn that gold into cash...

We investigate the deals you can get

when it comes to cashing in your gold.

And reveal how one company offered 85% less than its worth.

It's either a mistake or they've sent the wrong cheque

to the wrong person.

We meet the lady who found out she had a £30,000 debt

she never knew existed.

I'm the sole person responsible for paying the money back,

which is completely unfair.

Can our debt-busting expert help her get out of the deal

she wished she'd never made?

Would you consider ending the arrangement, writing the debt off?

And we're on the road with the UK's Illegal Money Lending Unit,

tasked with ending the worst deal in Britain - loan sharking.

We're in! Police!

If you've got any gold, anything at all, trade it in for cash...

For people looking for cash in a hurry, there's one deal in Britain

that's booming at the moment, selling your old gold for cash.

There are plenty of companies trying to woo you to sell any precious metal

you might have in your possession.

The deals may appear very tempting, but what will you be offered if you take them up?

We decided to find out.

Welcome to the real world of your sold old gold.

The easy way to turn your unwanted gold into cash...

The price of gold has risen five-fold in the last ten years,

leading hundreds of firms to start offering quick money for your gold jewellery.

But if you're looking for a quick fix for your cash flow,

then experts warn you need to take care.

A lot of people are desperate to raise extra money

at short notice and that's exactly what these gold companies offer.

But they prey on the fact that most people

don't understand that any jewellery they do have

might be worth an awful lot more than they thought it was.

Amelia Payne, from Chobham in Surrey, is looking to sell

some old gold in her possession.

She wants to know what the best and worst deals on offer are,

so she's agreed to put some of the most common methods

of cashing in gold to the test for us.

When her father died, Amelia inherited some gold chains

which he'd kept as keepsakes.

I can't believe that it was 25 years ago that dad died - it just,

it's still quite a vivid memory, it's still quite sad.

My father died and I was given a little wooden box by my sister,

and in it were some gold chains.

Keeping memories of her father alive has now been

superseded by the need to meet daily bills.

And now it's the time to get rid of them.

But it wasn't until recently

Amelia realised that instead of sitting in a drawer gathering dust,

she could actually make some money from her father's chains.

I'm not sure that it necessarily occurred to me

until I met someone who had sold her gold chains.

And she got quite a lot of money for them.

If and when I do sell the gold, it would go a long way to

helping with the bills and the children and all sorts.

Then turn that gold into cash...

With TV advertising targeting the cash-strapped consumer,

and with more and more jewellery shops and online companies

offering cash for gold, it's no wonder people

are confused as to where to start and what deals they should go for.

We're taking Amelia to the London Assay Office

so that she can get an accurate valuation for her gold.

The London Assay Office is responsible for testing

the quality of gold.

They protect consumers by testing its metallurgical content.

If they're happy, it's they who give out hallmarks

to items they've approved.

They don't buy gold, but in Amelia's case they've agreed to give us

an accurate and up-to-date figure for the scrap value of her gold.

But before the Assay Office can value the gold,

they need to know exactly what Amelia's jewellery is made of.

Head of training, Dave Merry, will be assessing Amelia's gold.

He's been testing gold here for over 40 years

and knows just what to look for.

The wonderment of our job

is the fact that every article you pick up

you've not really any true idea of what it is until you've tested it.

If you've got a batch of old jewellery lying around at home

and it does bear a hallmark, you don't need to have it tested,

it already has a guarantee of a certain standard.

However, not all gold jewellery is hallmarked so Dave uses an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer

to reveal the make-up and purity of the gold.

As the X-rays hit the article, they create

an excitement in the molecules of the metal and then the software

picks up the wavelength of each separate alloy within the gold.

The lowest standard in the UK, nine carat, technically it's 37.5% gold,

the rest is made up of different alloys depending on the colour of the gold.

In testing Amelia's charm bracelet, one of the charms looks promising.

This is actually a 14 carat charm, we've got 63% gold,

8.4% silver, 27.6% copper.

So slightly higher standard.

Any gold which is nine carat and above is valuable,

so that's good news for Amelia.

Next to be tested is one of the white and yellow chains.

This is 31% gold.

That figure for gold is much lower than the nine carat standard.

Unfortunately, any gold under nine carats is unsaleable.

Amelia's remaining chains, however, look much more promising.

This gold is coming out at 40%, this is about ten carat.

And Dave doesn't need to put her fob watch chain to the test.

This gold Albert chain has got a nine carat hallmark on every link.

So that's ready to go.

Now knowing what Amelia's gold is made of,

the London Assay Office is in a position to put a price on it.

Hello, Amelia.

It's Chief Valuer Steve Jordan's job to give Amelia a hard cash value

for her scrap gold.

At the time of valuation, the price of gold was around £34.40 per gram,

or £1,066 per ounce.

This will be the least value, it's nine carat gold.

The clasp has been added later, this is 18 carat gold.

I would expect it to make £45.

-As scrap?

-As scrap.

The clasp would be £85.

That's more than I thought.

The bad news, if I may, we've tested it in the lab

and it doesn't test as fine metal, not even silver.

So I'm afraid that one is fit for the bin.

Really? I'll keep that one I think.

The next one?

The charm bracelet as a piece, has a market value at £230.

-Very pleasantly surprised.

-Oh good.

This one, which is generally a lady's watch chain.

I never thought of it being a lady's, as it was my dad's.

This is an interesting combination of platinum and nine carat gold.

So £210.

Oh, good, because that was the special one

because that was the one my father actually wore.

The finest piece is the double Albert.

Dates to around 1920, it's in really good condition - as such, should fetch around £270.

Well, I'm thrilled, thank you very much.

The Assay Office has given Amelia's gold a total value of £840.

That might be the best she can expect to get,

but how much will the different gold dealers actually offer her?

We'll find out later.

It's early morning in Greater Manchester,

and members of the UK's Illegal Money Lending Team, along with police,

are about to take proactive measures

against the worst financial deal on offer in Britain - loan sharking.

Tony Quigley is head of the Illegal Money Lending Unit,

a special team set up to combat the problem.

We're executing warrants at four addresses today.

We're hoping to identify three individuals we're aware of,

and effect arrests.

Loan sharks are unlicensed back-street money lenders.

They prey on the poorest in society, lending money when no-one else will.

They charge exorbitant interest rates,

often backed up with threats and violence.

People are really frightened about illegal moneylenders

because they intimidate people.

Because the debts are illegal they can't be enforced.

They way they enforce them is through bullying.

People are very frightened to come forward.

Today, Tony's team is heading up Operation Apache,

aimed at people they've received intelligence about,

who are suspected of engaging in illegal money lending.

It's one of hundreds of operations they conduct every year

to try and chase loan sharks from British streets.

This is our day job.

Stop loan sharks and catching loan sharks is our day job,

making sure they see the full weight of the law.

The suspected loan shark has no idea the team are coming,

but one way or another, he's about to find out.

We're in - Police!

The team can't afford to give the suspected loan shark

any chance to destroy evidence.

And once inside,

they soon find one of the three suspects they're looking for.

She's arrested and taken into police custody for further questioning.

Across town, another team is at a different address,

looking for suspects in the same case.

Open the door or it's going in.

Open the door or we'll kick the door in.

KNOCKING

The threats to the resident's door, have the desired effect.

And as before, inside, a suspect is soon arrested

and then taken off for questioning.

Meanwhile, the rest of the team begin their search.

They're looking for any evidence that might tie their suspects

to illegal money lending, such as large amounts of cash

or paperwork detailing loans.

A sniffer dog, trained to smell out cash,

is brought in to see what he can find.

And it's not long before the team begin to turn up evidence.

Back at the station,

Tony begins sifting through what the team have found.

Yeah, reasonably successful today.

We've got people in custody.

We've seized some paperwork and bits and pieces

and the team are working through it at the moment.

Head of the Greater Manchester Police team

involved in the operation is Detective Sergeant Debbie Oakes.

The Illegal Moneylending Team, plus officers from Trading Standards

and from Operation Gulf are now going through the evidence we've secured.

And we're tracing people we can speak to.

I know there's over a dozen people they're going to speak to

to secure the support they need to come forward as a witness.

One of the people arrested was cautioned and has forfeited cash.

Another is on bail until May, pending further enquiries.

When David Carman from Worksop in Nottinghamshire

fell on hard times, he made deals with two very different sources of financial help.

One was legal, the other an illegal money lender.

But both took advantage of his precarious position

and the results have left him in financial ruin.

This was one of the worst times of my life.

David got into debt after suffering a heart attack and stroke in 1999.

He was forced to stop work as a long-distance lorry driver at the age of 49.

He went from earning £24,000 a year to living on benefits of £75 a week.

Within a year, he'd mounted up £16,500 of debt.

My wife had five children, four living with her

so there was six of us to feed.

There wasn't enough to pay our credit cards or the mortgage

and from there the house was repossessed.

We contacted a debt management company to try and sort things out

and started making payments to them rather then direct to the companies.

To get on top of the situation, David contacted a debt management company.

Under their deal, David would pay them a monthly amount,

and they would arrange the repayments to all of his creditors.

At first, it made their lives easier.

It took a great deal of stress and worry away from us.

We were no longer getting threatening letters every day.

David and his wife, Anne, continued paying their debt management company £350 a month for 9 years,

thinking they were slowly getting back in control of their finances.

But then, after suffering from ill heath for many years, David's wife, Anne, died.

When my wife passed away, it reduced the income from £600,

which was made up of social security and disability benefits,

down to £380.

I still find it so painful.

The cost of giving Anne a proper funeral was over £2000,

and David was in no position to pay this on the income he was receiving.

To find the money,

David's only option was to apply to the Social Fund,

a scheme that helps low-income families with one-off emergency payments.

They agreed to help, but wouldn't give David all the money he was hoping for.

They decided to pay half,

leaving me to find just over £1,000.

I contacted the funeral director

and offered to pay on a monthly basis.

But he would not accept that,

he said he would withhold the remains until such times that it was paid.

I just couldn't believe the funeral director.

You're going through such emotional trauma.

And to be told that, you've got to do everything in your power

to come up with that money.

With another £1,200 to find for his wife's funeral and a credit rating below zero,

David knew no-one was going to lend him any more money.

Then he remembered a leaflet that had come through his letterbox.

The only option I had was to borrow from a back-street lender.

There was a mobile number on the leaflet which I phoned

and within two hours someone came to see me,

wanting to know how much I wanted, how long for and why.

The chap that came to see me, although the leaflet appeared quite friendly,

he made no bones about being very forceful.

The conversation was made very clear

that there would probably be repercussions if payments weren't made

but the repercussions weren't told as such, they were hinted at.

I had no option because I had to get the money from somewhere.

It was the only option I had left.

David borrowed £1,000 and agreed to pay back just over £100 a week.

Although the quick cash seemed like a good idea at the time,

David was struggling to find the money to pay the staggering £450 in interest

that the loan shark demanded over the 5 months of the loan.

It was every penny we had coming in,

which was the total income

from social security and child benefit.

David was so afraid of the loan shark that he put all the money he received

towards paying him off as fast as possible.

It meant giving every penny we had.

So, rather than take 5 months, I managed to pay it off in 3 months.

David might have paid off the loan shark,

but it wasn't the end of his problems.

Unfortunately for him, the high interest payments it involved

meant he was running into problems paying his debt management company.

Later, we'll discover how that plan was far from the rescue package David had been led to believe.

As the letters come now I shred them, quite often I don't even open them.

"Have you got any old gold laying around? Want to know how you can turn it into cash?"

It's not just television advertising that's becoming dominated by companies

looking to give a cash deal for your old gold.

More and more high street shops are also now buying into the gold game.

Amelia Payne's already had her gold valued

at the London Assay Office at £840.

Now she's hitting the high street to see what price the jewellers will offer her.

She's brought her gold chains to Basingstoke.

Hatton Goldsmiths claim that it's never been easier

to get a great deal for your unwanted gold.

This gold buying shop quoted me just over £600, which I was pleasantly surprised.

F Hinds have been cashing in gold for two years,

claiming to offer you not only security and confidence,

but also one of the highest rates available anywhere on the high street or online.

The valuation was £598.

Warren James is one of the largest independent jewellers in the UK

and has been offering cash for gold services for two years.

The valuation was very good. It was £628.

Finally, Amelia is visiting Stone's Fine Jewellery Store.

They're an old hand at the cash for gold game, having been trading for 31 years.

They've valued my jewellery at the best so far, at £670, which is wonderful.

Amelia's high street valuations come in around £200 less than that of the Assay office.

But how will online deals compare?

These companies encourage people to sell their unwanted gold

by sending it off to be valued by post.

A few years ago these postal gold companies just didn't exist.

They popped up everywhere in the response to the rising gold price.

Years ago, people with unwanted jewellery in their drawer at home

might not have thought about selling it and getting a quick buck.

Now it's hard not be thinking about it, because you've got adverts on the television

prompting you to think about selling your unwanted gold.

Amelia's keen to see what sort of deal the online gold buyers will offer her.

But first, she's got to choose which company to send her gold to.

I've looked on a few sites, it's very easy.

You put in the weight and then you put in the carats and they will give you a price.

The Cash for my Gold site valued Amelia's gold at £756.

Tesco and Ramsdens valued the gold at £620.

But there's another site which attracts Amelia's interest even more.

PostalGold.com is one of the biggest players in the online market.

As far as I can see, you can't get an estimate,

you literally just have to send it off.

Having seen the estimated valuations from other websites,

she decides to send all her chains to PostalGold.com

in the hope they'll quote her a similar figure.

I have no idea what valuation they're going to give me

so it's going to be very interesting.

I've wrapped it all up and I'm going to send it all off and we'll see what happens.

Later, we'll see what kind of deal Amelia gets offered.

David Carman took up two deals to help him out of a financial hole

after injury forced him to give up work.

One was with a debt management company.

A second was a loan from an illegal loan shark.

David paid the loan shark back, but the exorbitant interest rate

left little for his debt management company.

I got into further debt because all our money was going to the shark.

As each week went by, as each payment was made,

I should have been less depressed but I was getting more depressed,

worrying about whether we could get it paid off.

Then, David received a call from his bank.

They said his debt management company had had to drop him and his debt management plan

because he hadn't been able to pay the premium for months.

It meant all his previous creditors were on his back again.

Within no time at all I was receiving vast amounts of mail,

all from the creditors, all explaining interest charges

and I must make a payment or a bailiff will call.

Totally beyond belief.

Desperate, and with nowhere else to turn,

David approached his local Citizens Advice Bureau for help.

When David first came to see us, he was totally defeated by it all.

He was just so low when he came in, he was absolutely devastated.

David was relieved to finally share his financial burdens.

But the good news didn't last long.

Looking at his paperwork, the Citizens Advice Bureau showed him

that rather than helping solve his money worries,

the debt management company he'd been paying for years, had actually been adding to them.

David asked for balances to the creditors that he owed money to

and I think the final straw came when he found out just how much he still owed them.

With the help of the CAB, David discovered that of the £7,000 he and his wife had paid

towards their £12,000 debts over the previous ten years,

only £1,500 had been used to clear their borrowing.

The rest had gone in fees to the debt management company.

We didn't realise what the charges would be, which is all hidden away in the small print.

It was very frustrating because I'd used all my resources, there was nothing I could do.

Having used every penny he had to try and pay off his debt,

David now owes nearly £16,000, the same amount that he owed over 10 years ago.

Because he couldn't afford the bankruptcy fees,

he's back to the point now where's he's left with debts

and he's back to basically one option of making token £1 a month offers.

I've given up worrying about the debts

because I've tried everything I can and the more I worry, the more stressed I get.

As the letters come now, I shred them, quite often I don't even open them.

The combination of a bad deal from a debt management plan

and exorbitant interest from a loan shark have left David with a debt

that he'll never be able to pay back.

Amelia Payne has been testing out the different deals on offer

to turn you old gold into cash.

The London Assay Office valued her gold chains at £840.

High Street jewellers valued it on average around £200 less.

The online dealers offered her good prices on their websites,

but to know exactly what you'd get from them, you have to send your gold in.

Amelia's chosen to send off her gold to be valued by PostalGold.com,

and now, three days later, there's something in the post for her.

I have this letter now and the cheque comes to £116.18.

There is no information telling me how many pieces they received,

no telling me what sort of gold it was, what carat it was,

there is literally nothing except for that with a cheque at the bottom.

It's either a mistake or they've sent the wrong cheque to the wrong person.

It just can't be right.

That cheque will definitely go back. It's ludicrous.

When Amelia called PostalGold.com to say that she wanted to return the cheque,

they then increased their offer to £185.

So how do all the valuations compare?

The London Assay Office valued the gold at £840.

High street jewellery stores offered to pay on average 25% less.

The online companies quoted on average 37% less.

However, PostalGold.com's first offer was only £116.18.

That's a staggering 85% less than the Assay Office.

Which? Money Editor James Daley isn't surprised

by some of the low offers that come from the gold dealers operating via the post.

The bottom line is you'll get a fraction of what your gold is worth

if you go through a postal gold company.

Research has found that these companies

are generally offering lower prices than you're going to get on the high street.

Although many postal services are quick and easy to use,

Which? believe it's vital customers shop around for the best prices.

Should you be sacrificing 60-70-80% of what you could have got by selling it elsewhere

just for that convenience, doesn't sound like a fair trade off.

They're playing on people's lack of understanding and knowledge about what their jewellery is worth.

PostalGold.com said they regretted that Amelia was not happy with the payment they offered,

but said any customer that didn't like the amount offered

had 14 days to consider it with the return of their gold guaranteed.

They added that their valuation service was entirely free of charge.

If you're thinking of selling your gold,

James has some words of advice.

If you're able to, go around your high street jeweller first

then maybe try some of the bigger chains. Shop around, that's the point.

Former policeman Mike Thomas

is a registered debt counsellor with 17 years' experience.

He runs a website giving free advice to people with money worries.

He fights for the consumer rights

of those that've taken up deals they now regret

and today, he's on his way to see a woman

still living with the consequences of her worst deal.

I'm going to meet a lady today who's in a bit of a pickle.

She's got a debt from the 1990s, I believe,

and I think it's a lot of money, I think it's over £25,000.

For many people in the UK, the only way they can afford a mortgage

is by buying with a partner or friend.

But when that relationship breaks down

and mortgage payments can't be met, it's only a matter of time

before repossession comes knocking at the door.

That's exactly what happened to Alison Chisholm in Croydon.

She went through the misery of having her home repossessed back in 1996.

And I'm probably the happiest I've ever been now

and...it's come back to haunt me.

Alison now lives with her partner and three-year-old daughter, Grace.

Life may look rosy, but a never-ending debt

is spoiling their lives.

I bought a flat in 1991

because I had been with a guy for a couple of years

and we'd got engaged the previous year,

so we decided that it was high time we moved in together.

This picture was taken in the flat Alison used to own,

but not long after it was taken,

her relationship with her partner hit the rocks.

About a year and half later, it all ended

and I was left in the flat on my own with a mortgage.

Alison managed to meet repayments by herself for a further four years,

then the cost became too much to bear.

I just had to leave

because I couldn't afford to pay it on my own any more.

So I took myself into the mortgage company

with my keys and gave them back.

Alison thought handing back the property to the mortgage company

would be the end of it.

She moved away from the area, and put it all behind her.

In time, she met a new partner, Gerald,

and the couple were keen to get married.

But in 2009, her old flat came back to haunt her.

I came back from maternity leave,

glad to get my first pay packet for a few months

and I noticed that there had been an amount of money that was taken out.

Unbeknownst to Alison, the bank had sold her old flat at a loss

and 12 years on had tracked her down.

They were now chasing her for the money.

The shortfall had been £12,000 back in 1997

but with interest and solicitors' fees on top, Alison owed £30,000.

She had a debt which she never even knew existed.

They can't find my partner that I took the mortgage out with,

so I'm the sole person who is responsible

for paying the money back, which is completely unfair

because we both signed the mortgage agreement.

Desperate to move forward in her life and be debt free...

-Hello, Alison. I'm Mike.

-Hi, there.

-Pleased to meet you.

-Hi.

..but with nowhere else to turn,

she called in Mike for some professional debt advice.

-You've been dumped on.

-I have. By a huge height.

How do you feel about that?

I don't feel very good about it at all,

because I can't move on, I can't move house...

If we wanted to, I can't get married.

So are you telling me that this is affecting your relationship,

-i.e. you won't get married because of the debt?

-No, I won't.

-It's horrendous.

-It is.

-Well, I tell you what, I've got a job to do here.

-OK.

The job is I've got to get you married at some stage in the future.

We've got to find a way.

Of the £30,000 she owes, Alison has paid back £17,000.

She's had to rely on her partner for financial help

with paying off the debt

because she can't afford to pay it on her own.

He's contributing about £200 a month towards your living expenses.

Mike calls the bank solicitor who's been chasing Alison for the debt.

Good afternoon. My name's Mike Thomas.

What Mike knows and Alison doesn't know,

is that banks can be negotiated down

and that they do accept offers.

My client Alison's income compared to her expenditure before she pays you,

she's overspending by £200 a month

so there's no money available to pay you.

Due to the nature and the length of this case,

would you consider ending the arrangement and writing the debt off?

That would not be an option?

The solicitors might not be happy to write off Alison's debt,

but Mike's optimistic and determined to give them a run for their money.

Well. I've got a job to do.

I think I can get rid of these guys for a small lump sum.

Later, we'll see if Mike can negotiate a deal

so Alison can be rid of her debt.

With High Street lending

increasingly hard to come by these days,

it's no wonder that one deal that's currently booming in Britain

is doorstep lending.

Licensed doorstep lenders are legal.

However, recently they've come in for heavy criticism

from many MPs for the high rates they charge

for lending small sums of money.

Doorstep lending is aimed at people on low incomes

who are too much of a risk

for mainstream lenders to offer credit to.

They offer small loans, typically anything from £50 to £500.

It's called doorstep lending

because people will literally knock on the door and offer you a loan.

People will lend you money

and you'll pay back a certain amount each week.

If you are on a low income with a bad credit rating,

you might think doorstep lending is your only option

to get the cash you need quickly.

Come on, then, Ryan! Yay!

Come on, then!

It's certainly what Debbie Smart from Gravesend in Kent thought

when she fell into financial troubles.

I thought I was stuck in a situation

that was going to last quite a long while,

and wasn't happy with my health.

As a single mum, off work,

suffering from depression and living on benefits,

Debbie constantly struggled to juggle her finances.

Literally, the money I had was for basic living,

was for food, was for electric and gas

and there was no extra money left at the end of it.

I was getting very depressed.

But due to a previous bankruptcy,

getting hold of cash from any of the big high-street lenders

just wasn't an option for Debbie.

Instead, she was tempted into contacting a loans company

who'd recently been leafleting her area.

It was about getting a loan.

It was, like, bullet pointed that, you know, "CCJs accepted,

"no problems for bankruptcies."

Debbie had previously taken out small loans from doorstep lenders,

but been able to pay them back.

This time, however, she accepted a £500 loan from a doorstep company

and she struggled to scrape together

the £20 weekly repayments she needed.

I'd got myself into such a cycle with them, I was in a state.

It was never-ending and I could not see a way out of it.

On top of this, the high interest rates on the loan

began to catch up with her, forcing Debbie into deeper and deeper debt.

I started to panic, realising that I was in this now

until all those weeks have gone by and the payments had been made

and the loans cleared and finished.

In just over a year, Debbie had borrowed a total of £1,350.

But with an APR 20 times that of a typical credit card,

she owed over £2,200.

Even after a year of paying back £20 a week,

she felt she'd never be able to pay it all off.

I was out of control, I had no control over it.

If I hadn't have got these loans out, this would have been spare cash

that I could have treated myself and Ryan to.

Debbie had no idea how to get out of this situation.

It wasn't until she was helping at her local family centre

that she found out about a new credit union opening in her area.

Credit unions are non-profit-making financial co-operatives

that offer low-interest loans to people on low incomes

or with difficult credit histories.

For many people on low incomes,

they offer a better value alternative to the doorstep lenders.

The maximum loan interest we can charge is 26.8%,

it's the equivalent of a credit card.

Sadly, Debbie's case worker, John,

sees many families falling into the doorstep-lending trap.

A lot of the people who come to us

have been with those sort of lenders for a long time

and are finding that the moment their income comes in

they've got to pay almost all of that income

to pay off the loan that they owe, then they have to borrow more

and it just goes on and on and on. It's a spiral.

Fortunately for Debbie, John was able to offer

a low-interest loan to help her clear her debts.

It was such a relief to actually have someone

that could, basically, talk through things with me,

it helped me and made me feel better straightaway.

Debbie feels that at the time when she was most vulnerable

and desperate for money, she had no other way to support her son,

but with the experience taking its toll both physically and mentally,

she's glad this chapter in her life has finally been closed.

I started to feel control coming back,

I can't explain the feeling

it felt like I was escaping and starting to get out of

the hole I had dug myself.

That's the walking bit. Oh, thank you. Bye!

Alison Chisholm had her flat repossessed in the mid-90s

after being unable to afford the mortgage.

After handing back the flat keys, she thought that was the end of it.

But 12 years later, her bank came after her.

They'd sold her old flat at a loss

and wanted her to pay the difference.

She's now paid off £17,000 of the £30,000 the bank wants,

but she's still got a further £13,000 to pay off.

Having met with Alison,

registered debt counsellor and former police officer Mike Thomas

has been on the phone to her mortgage company.

She's agreed for him to negotiate with them directly.

It's taken long phone calls, and some serious persistence...

My client settles the account, you go away,

and you don't write to my client any more.

..but now Mike's back at Alison's with the results of his hard work.

-How are we doing?

-Good. Very good.

-Yeah, not so bad.

Well, I'm pleased to say that I'm actually getting somewhere.

-Now, their claim is just over £13,000.

-OK.

What I've managed to do is get it down to £3,000.

-Wow.

-Wow.

-That's really good.

-I've actually got the letter there for you.

-OK.

Fortunately for Alison, her mum will be able to help her pay

this final bill, leaving her, at long last, debt free.

Seeing it in black and white, it's absolutely amazing.

£3,000.

-Wow. Big sigh.

-Oh, it's been good having you fighting our corner.

Absolutely amazing, and I'm really, really chuffed.

-I can see that.

-Yeah. Really chuffed.

-Well, good.

-So thanks very much.

-You're going to get hitched?

-Yeah. Hopefully.

GERALD LAUGHS

Gerald is a man of not many words.

THEY LAUGH

Having experienced her worst deal

and having had the debt haunting her for over 15 years,

Alison can finally move on with her life.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd