Advice on old debt

martin83 · 24 May 2017 at 8:30AM

Hi,

My wife and I had/have a loan with Natwest. We couldn't afford to make the monthly payments. The debt got passed on to Shoosmith solicitors who we started to make our monthly payments to and they then pass on money to Natwest.

As a result we had a default on our credit file, which has now been wiped as it is over 6 months old. We are continuing to pay our monthly payments.

Do I continue to do this is the debt wiped after so long?

Also I have a very similar issue with a Barclaycard credit card.

Any help is appreciated.

[Deleted User] · 24 May 2017 at 8:41AM

The debt hasn't been wiped. You need to keep paying.

The default will be removed after 6 years, not months, but the debt remains valid.

National_Debtline · 25 May 2017 at 5:43PM

Hi Martin83 and welcome to MSE,

I can understand the confusion here, especially when the debt no longer shows on your credit file and you may have done some reading about the Limitations Act and debts being unenforceable after 6 years. However, this is not applicable to you because in order for a debt to no longer be enforceable there must be a 6 year block of time with no payment, no written acknowledgement of the debt and no court action started in order for this to apply.

zx81 is right, you will need to keep paying the debt until it is cleared (or look at other options to deal with debts in general) as this debt is still enforceable at court. Hope that helps to clarify things.

Laura
@natdebtline

Advice on old debt

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