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reason2 · 9 August 2017 at 11:18AM

Hi,

I recently had 4 CCJ's applied to my credit file. All at old old addresses. I know these people had my up to date address but didnt send any correspondence to them.

I applied to have them set aside and as there were 4 of them, i applied for help with fees as i do not have £1100 to pay for these fee's.

this was rejected because apparently, expenditure doesn't get considered, simply put, if you earn more than their limit (pre tax) then you arent eligible.

even though my £20 debt repayments take up a lot of my outgoings, these cant be counted and so they deem i can afford £1100 (i definitely cant)

i want them set aside as i believe they have deliberately sent docs to old addresses in order to have the judgements applied by default and i would rather deal with these so they dont impact my file for 6 years.

however i simply cant afford the extortionate fees.

it is also unjust that the solicitors can send docs to random addresses to by pass myself and get judgements by default.

this makes me want to not both because clearing things will make no difference to my file with 4 X CCJ's there for 6 years.

do i have any other options to try and get these set aside knowing i cant afford the £1100 fees

Former_StepChange_Linsi · 9 August 2017 at 3:45PM

Hi

Thanks for getting in touch.

I’m sorry to hear about what’s happened and that you weren’t aware these creditors had decided to take further action.

The only way to have a CCJ set aside is to use an N244 form which has a £255 fee. You need to use one form per debt which would cost £1020 for four debts. Although you’d need to pay the fee upfront, if the judgement is set aside and the creditor is found to be at fault, you can request that they pay the costs of the applications. There is more information about setting aside a judgment on our website, should you decide to pursue this.

If you had been able to reply to the claim forms and you admit you owe the debts, then you would have received a judgement in acceptance (if the creditor accepted your offer) or a judgement by determination (if the court decided on the payment). Either way a CCJ would still be recorded on your credit file.

So, if you agree that you do need to repay these debts then the cheaper option would be to use an N245 form to vary the judgement. This costs £50, so £200 for four debts. Varying a judgment allows you to set up an affordable monthly repayment though the country court and as long as you stick to the agreed repayments the creditors won’t be able to take any further action (unless you are a home owner).

Having judgement in default as opposed to a judgement in acceptance or a judgement by determination doesn’t have any greater impact on your credit file.

You can also ask the credit reference agencies to put a notice of correction on your report of up to 200 words explaining the cause of the debt. There’s more information about credit files and the credit reference agencies on our website here.

If you need help working out an affordable repayment you can use our Debt Remedy tool to create a budget and get tailored advice online.

I hope this helps,

Linsi

reason2 wrote: »

Hi,

I recently had 4 CCJ's applied to my credit file. All at old old addresses. I know these people had my up to date address but didnt send any correspondence to them.

I applied to have them set aside and as there were 4 of them, i applied for help with fees as i do not have £1100 to pay for these fee's.

this was rejected because apparently, expenditure doesn't get considered, simply put, if you earn more than their limit (pre tax) then you arent eligible.

even though my £20 debt repayments take up a lot of my outgoings, these cant be counted and so they deem i can afford £1100 (i definitely cant)

i want them set aside as i believe they have deliberately sent docs to old addresses in order to have the judgements applied by default and i would rather deal with these so they dont impact my file for 6 years.

however i simply cant afford the extortionate fees.

it is also unjust that the solicitors can send docs to random addresses to by pass myself and get judgements by default.

this makes me want to not both because clearing things will make no difference to my file with 4 X CCJ's there for 6 years.

do i have any other options to try and get these set aside knowing i cant afford the £1100 fees

Mature-Student · 10 August 2017 at 1:34PM

Hi

I am slowly getting myself out of the mire and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I want to go for a promoted post at work but know that when they see the one default on my credit file it will be an automatic no.

The default happened 6 years ago (lender's mistake with dd while I wasn't dealing well with family illness & death) and the lender very quickly sold the debt on. I have been paying it off for the last three years and have less than 20% of the original amount left to pay. I can just get together about three quarters of the amount outstanding (without taking on more debt) so emailed the legal firm handling the repayments with a full & final offer. They wanted to know the source of this extra money then simply said I had to fill in an income and expenses form first.

I don't want to do this as my income is now a bit higher but I have been using the extra to pay off other debts that charge interest. The defaulted one has no interest added, don't know why. I'm worried they will try to force me to pay more to them as well as take the lump sum.

Are they allowed to act this way? They are the intermediary between myself and the company that bought the debt.

Thanks

Former_StepChange_Linsi · 10 August 2017 at 2:07PM

Hi

Thanks for your post.

A creditor or company acting on behalf of a creditor isn’t under any obligation to accept a full and final settlement offer, and they can ask for additional information before making a decision.

Whilst they can ask for this information you’re not under any obligation to provide this. The only exception would be if you were ordered by a court.

A default remains on your credit file for six years from the date it’s registered. So if the default happened about six years ago it should be removed from credit file soon, even if you still owe money to the creditor.

The creditor may ask for higher payments if your income has increased but they can’t force you to do this. If you decide to complete the income and expenses form it’s also worth listing the other debts you’re currently repaying. Also if your settlement offer is accepted make sure you get this in writing before making a payment.

I hope this helps.

Linsi

Mature-Student wrote: »

Hi

I am slowly getting myself out of the mire and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I want to go for a promoted post at work but know that when they see the one default on my credit file it will be an automatic no.

The default happened 6 years ago (lender's mistake with dd while I wasn't dealing well with family illness & death) and the lender very quickly sold the debt on. I have been paying it off for the last three years and have less than 20% of the original amount left to pay. I can just get together about three quarters of the amount outstanding (without taking on more debt) so emailed the legal firm handling the repayments with a full & final offer. They wanted to know the source of this extra money then simply said I had to fill in an income and expenses form first.

I don't want to do this as my income is now a bit higher but I have been using the extra to pay off other debts that charge interest. The defaulted one has no interest added, don't know why. I'm worried they will try to force me to pay more to them as well as take the lump sum.

Are they allowed to act this way? They are the intermediary between myself and the company that bought the debt.

Thanks

Pagcelt · 11 August 2017 at 10:37AM

Hi,

I have quite a bit of credit card debt and a sizeable overdraft. I am hoping to try and buy a house with my partner in the near future so really need to get my debt sorted.

One credit card has £382 and an apr of 16.6%
One credit card has £1922 and an apr of 29.7%
Another credit card has £5517 and an apr of 26.18%

I'm only managing to pay just over the minimum payment on these cards.

I also have an overdraft of £1990 that I have usually maxed out by the end of the month. This was costing £1 a day but I have just had a letter to say the fees are changing from the 2nd of November and I will now be charged 1p a day for every £7 I have borrowed. By my calculations this will more than double the cost of my overdraft.

I have a sharesave account through work that will be maturing at the start of December and will be worth around £4000 but possibly a bit more.
My plan is to use this to clear my overdraft and clear the balance on the card that has the £1922 on it. Any extra that I have leftover I was going to use to clear the card with the smallest balance just to get rid of it entirely and then put the rest towards the last card.

Do you think this would be the best course of action or do you have any other advice?

Kind regards,

Paul Agnew.

StepChange_Kirsty · 11 August 2017 at 1:15PM

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your post and welcome to the forum.

That’s good news that you’ve got a plan of action for dealing with the debts and a sharesave scheme to help you repay these. At the moment interest on debt tends to be much higher than interest on savings so it is sensible to try clear your debts first. This article on the main MSE site explains more.

The article also explains you should pay off the most expensive debts first. In your situation it is clear the overdraft is going to cost you the most so getting rid of this is very sensible.

On face value it would appear that the £1,922 credit card would be costing you the more as it has the highest rate of interest but actually 26.18% on a balance of £5,517 is much more expensive than 29.7% on a balance of £1,922 so it might be more cost effective to reduce the highest balance first. Of course if you wanted to clear two of the credit cards just to have less to juggle, that would be your decision.

Once you’ve used all the money from the savings, you then need to start bringing the balances down by paying by instalments. Again start by attacking the one which is costing you the most, so the one with the highest interest on a monthly basis, whilst still maintaining minimum payments to the others. When one is paid off, move onto the next.

Remember, it is really important that when you’ve cleared these debts that you remove the option to use them again. Make sure you withdraw your overdraft facility as soon as it is paid off and look to cut up your credit cards ASAP.

As soon as your debts are cleared, you can move on and start saving for your house.

I hope this helps.

Kirsty

Pagcelt wrote: »

Hi,

I have quite a bit of credit card debt and a sizeable overdraft. I am hoping to try and buy a house with my partner in the near future so really need to get my debt sorted.

One credit card has £382 and an apr of 16.6%
One credit card has £1922 and an apr of 29.7%
Another credit card has £5517 and an apr of 26.18%

I'm only managing to pay just over the minimum payment on these cards.

I also have an overdraft of £1990 that I have usually maxed out by the end of the month. This was costing £1 a day but I have just had a letter to say the fees are changing from the 2nd of November and I will now be charged 1p a day for every £7 I have borrowed. By my calculations this will more than double the cost of my overdraft.

I have a sharesave account through work that will be maturing at the start of December and will be worth around £4000 but possibly a bit more.
My plan is to use this to clear my overdraft and clear the balance on the card that has the £1922 on it. Any extra that I have leftover I was going to use to clear the card with the smallest balance just to get rid of it entirely and then put the rest towards the last card.

Do you think this would be the best course of action or do you have any other advice?

Kind regards,

Paul Agnew.

Pagcelt · 11 August 2017 at 2:10PM

Hi Kirsty,

Thanks for the speedy reply. It sounds like I'm on the right track then. I think I would prefer to clear the two smaller credit cards first and then leave myself with just the larger one to concentrate on clearing.

Thanks again.

Paul.

Pagcelt · 11 August 2017 at 2:21PM

I should also add that myself and my partner have been paying into a save to buy ISA with Santander that is giving us 4% interest as well as a 25% bonus from the government when we put this towards a mortgage deposit.

Am I right to assume that it would be silly to use some of this towards the debt as I would be forfeiting the 25% bonus?

Thanks,

Paul.

StepChange_Kirsty · 11 August 2017 at 2:44PM

Hi again Paul,

Just to let you know, as a charity we specialise in debts rather than savings but I think you’re right that you don’t need to forfeit your Help to Buy ISA unless you're really struggling to maintain even contractual payments, especially so now that you’ve got a good plan in place.

You might want to consider putting payments into the ISA on hold so you can focus your efforts on clearing the debt. As the previous article explains, what you are paying in interest on the credit cards will far outweigh what you are able to gain in interest from the ISA. In the end that will mean you will be able to save much more.

All the best

Kirsty

Pagcelt wrote: »

Hi Kirsty,

Thanks for the speedy reply. It sounds like I'm on the right track then. I think I would prefer to clear the two smaller credit cards first and then leave myself with just the larger one to concentrate on clearing.

Thanks again.

Paul.

Pagcelt wrote: »

I should also add that myself and my partner have been paying into a save to buy ISA with Santander that is giving us 4% interest as well as a 25% bonus from the government when we put this towards a mortgage deposit.

Am I right to assume that it would be silly to use some of this towards the debt as I would be forfeiting the 25% bonus?

Thanks,

Paul.

sourcrates · 12 August 2017 at 11:25AM

tedblight wrote: »

Please don't judge me....

I have a lot of debt, £12,500 in total.
3 Credit Cards, Maxed out & 1 Over Draft (about £330 per month in total out goings)
Current Credit Score is 702 out of 999 on Experian.(Poor) Never a late payer just a minimum payer. No CCJ or anything like that, but just always on the bread line. I'm normally about £150 short each month on meeting my outgoings. I don't live a life of luxury. I don't drink, smoke or gamble, No sky TV lol etc. I have to rely on my partner to stop any direct debits bouncing etc.

Anyway, Now that Lloyds are moving the goal posts on overdraft fees. It will now increase from £50 per to about £135 per month.
This would finish me off.

The APR's are quite high on the credit cards but I can't get a consolidation loan at a lower rate due to my credit score.

In 2012 my Equifax score was 448 (Good - Above Average) but the cost of living rockets and wages have frozen.
I've changed utilities suppliers recently and I'm always trying to get the best deals on essential services. Even if I saved a few quid here and there. The short fall means I can't use the saved money to pay of existing debt quicker.

I know it's all of my own doing, so please be kind to me.... I guess my case is typical around the country.

Life sucks!

Hi Ted

Stepchange reps wont be back till Monday, have a look on there website, plenty of info on debt management etc, sounds like all you need is a debt management plan, or possibly a debt relief order, have a look at the debt remedy tool, fill in your details, (totally anonymously) and it spits out a solution for you.

Any more info you need, please post in the general DFW forum.

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