Full and final - help needed!

music_facer

I managed to get myself into an awful pickle as a student, and then did the stupid thing and ran away. It's been several years since I last had contact with any of the companies that I owe money to - but I have an appalling credit rating due to CCJs, and it's time to negotiate a settlement - I'm due to inherit a little bit of money; enough to wipe out the three little debts... (totalling £1,350)

I don't know where to start with this - will the same collection people still be responsible for my debt? Will the companies themselves have written the debt off? Is there any point in actually contacting people to pay of the sums owed? (A phone bill that my whole house neglected to pay, which was in my name, two credit cards for under £500 each)...

The only other slight problem I have is that the Student Loans Company failed to register a new address for me, and as such I was never made aware of problems with deferring my student loan repayments. The loan was taken to county court without my knowledge, and they then put a 'search' on me, and tracked me down to my mum's address. Which was a bit scary for all of us.

I agreed to pay them £10 a month, and have done since - which is a bit of a bind, as I've never earned over the threshold to pay back that loan... I was told at the time that there was nothing that could be done to remove the CCJ despite having no knowledge of court proceedings prior to them taking place - which seemed a bit much as it was *their* mistake which led to the issue going to court in the first place!

I've no plans to go credit crazy anytime soon, but I'm 27 and I'd like to be able to apply for mortgages at some point in the not too distant future... What do I need to do to change my credit history and repair it? And how do I go about getting in touch with the credit card companies who've all gone oh-so quiet???

southernscouser

I'm afraid I cannot help with the CCJ queries however, I'm led to believe (from reading these boards) that if you have had not contact about a debt in 6 years the debt gets wiped out!

Now I don't know if this is a hard fast rule but I'm sure someone on here with more knowledge will be able to help you out.

music_facer

Thanks for the advice!

What I want to do is get rid of these debts as fast as possible: I know that I can probably offer 50 - 80% on the old debts, and at least get that part of my record straight, but I'd always promised myself that I'd pay them off when I could afford it, and now I can... I just want to be sure that they will be recorded as being paid, and to be sure that the 6 year clock doesn't start ticking again because I've paid them off! I also want to be sure that I find the right agency handling the debts - should I contact the original providers? Or wait for them to contact me?

With the CCJ it's a bit of a complicated one: The amount that the SLC say I owe them is about £1000 more than my total loan, due to "administration" charges. Friends of mine have experienced the same problems with them (losing contact details, sending things to old addresses, failing to notify that there's a problem with deferrment etc.) but they were all a lot more on-the-ball about it than me - that said, a few of them have only narrowly escaped what's happened to me! It's a reliable subject to come up at reunion bashes "what's your SLC horror story"? - I don't know of anyone who doesn't have at least one - which is why, I imagine, the system has changed (for the better, I'd say!) to collect repayments from your pay direct.

Anyhow. I have an outstanding debt of £5,500 to the SLC, for which I've received a CCJ. It will take me a few years to pay this off completely, as I've now, finally, got a steady job and home - but I want this moved back to the normal channels, rather than having this kind of debt hanging over me: The credit cards and phone bill were entirely my own fault - I'm not going to moan about those! - but to me, the extra fees and the court order from a company who lost my address seems a bit excessive! It also seems a bit odd that they couldn't seem to find me BEFORE the judgement was served, but it took them a matter of days to locate my mum AFTER the judgement was served!!! :mad:

Will the courts look more favourably on an application of this nature if I pay off other debts first, so that this is the only outstanding one? Are they likely to strike it from the record anyway, seeing as I've been paying the £10 order, which would seem to suggest that I agreed with the judgement? Will they remove the extra £1000 from the total (can you charge legal fees for a judgement later deemed to be illegal)? Will interest be applied?

When the CCJ arrived, I was working as casual staff in a bar, paying almost £400 a month in rent - and was in no position to argue in case they got nasty - so I negotiated a payment and stuck to it... now that I'm in a position to negotiate further, what do I do? Should I contact the SLC and advise them of my intention to get the CCJ wiped from my record? Should I apply first, see what happens and contact them as soon as I know the outcome?

My over-riding intention is not to mess the SLC about, but to pay them back - with as little damage to my credit history as possible - I told them at the time that I felt that their actions were underhand, and I wanted to challenge the judgement - they said that it would not be possible to change what had happened; which, from reading these forums, seems to be untrue...

What does everyone else think? what's the best way to go about this? Help?!*