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pangles_2

i'm thinking of using a company - consumer credit services to help clear my debts. their charge is £199 and said they can reduce my debt by the fact that my creditors haven't sent a new contract for me to sign every time the interest they charge has changed. would this be a recommended route to go?

tunc

Hi My boyfriend owes around £9K on various credit cards and is only paying the minimum amount every month off each card. The interest is so large that the debts just arent going down and now it is at a stage where he is overdrawn every month because his outgoings are more than his earnings. His bank are charging him for the overdraft and this is of course mounting up too. He owns the house so is afraid that he will lose the house if he stops paying the credit cards. Is there some way he can come to an arrangement with the credit card companies to try and reduce the monthly payments? He cannot get another card to do a balance transfer unfortunately. Is there a way to get the credit card company to stop any future interest and agree to lower monthly payments? If this continues his debts are going to spiral even more out of control and he really doesnt know which way to turn. Please help?:(

jamesd

pangles, they are lying to you to extract money from you. Ignore them. There is no requirement for you to sign a new contract each time an interest rate changes. Use CCCS or other debt charities only.

tunc, he should phone CCCS for assistance. His situation is getting worse but can still be saved, with a lot of worry but nothing CCCS hasn't handled routinely many times before. The house is not at risk provided he is able to continue paying the mortgage and doing that has priority over paying the cards.

jamesf75

I just posted this as a new threadt but then realised it is perhaps better here? (apologies for duplicating the message!!)

Repay in full or offer settlement ??
Hi there,

I have a Flexiloan with HSBC. This is a sort of linked overdraft facility which can be drawn down up to a specified limit (in my case £5000). I have to make a monthly payment based on the amount owed. For some time now it has been at the limit. The monthly payment is £200 which I have been unable to make now for about 5 months. Because of this I know it is affecting my credit rating as is 5 payments in arrears. I may shortly be in a position to repay this (family helping out) but I feel there are 2 options and would appreciate advice from anyone who has had similar experiences or just advice in general.

1) Repay in full. Clear the debt totally

2) Offer/ask for a settlement figure as a 'full and final settlement'

Option 2 could potentially save me some money if agreed. I know that it will then show on my credit report as 'settled' rather than 'repaid' but as it is already so far in arrears would it make it much worse??

Clearly the less I need to borrow from family the better.

Thanks for reading and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

James

jamesd

A reduced settlement payment is unlikely to be available at this point and if it was agreed it would have an ongoing negative effect on your credit rating for the next six years, greater than five months of missed payments then paying it off. Better to agree an affordable repayment schedule with family and clear it that way.

Also good to pay the family interest at a rate at least equal to the rate they would get on a savings account. Say 5% a year for convenience, you'd take the amount owed each month and multiply that by 0.0040741 to get the interest to pay for that month. On £5000 that would be £20.37. I've ignored tax so for the family member to get the 4% after basic rate tax you'd multiply this by four and divide by five to get a £16.30 payment equivalent to the after tax value of 5% from a savings account.

If you wanted to do that and repay £5,000 over five years you'd pay £92.08 a month. Over four years £112.90 a month, over three £147.62 a month, over two £217.12 a month or over one, £425.75 a month. Over six years it'd be £78.23 a month and over seven £68.34 a month. These numbers are calculated with this tool using 4% interest rate, the after tax equivalent of 5% on a savings account. If they don't want interest just put in 0 as the interest amount.

CCCS_Sue

mazza25 wrote: »

Hi
I have a question about trust deeds. I have just spoken to the national debt helpline who have advised my husband may have a complaint about his, as it seems the amount he has paid could be well in excess of the debt (possibly £3000 more!)
My question is about our house. The trust deed went through after we applied and were approved for a mortgage, but before we owned our house.
A little research is showing that we might now not actually own our house? The trust deed belongs only to my husband but the house is jointly mortgaged. Can you advise on this?

I'm getting pretty scared.

Hi Mazza25

Thank you for your message

I have passed your query onto our Scottish team.

I will let you know the answer as soon as they get back to me.

Regards
Sue

littleredhen

i am not sure if my question belongs here but i couldn't find anywhere else to post

today we received 2 letters addressed to 2 people unknown to us which also said aka and our surname albeit spelt incorrectly so we opened the letters to find they are from an asset recovery firm requesting settlement of a debt
so i phoned and spoke to the letter writer and explained that we had never heard of the people but that the letter did state aka and my surname - the letter writer told me that they had been provided with the details via a tracing agent and she would record our conversation and remove our details and that we should send the letters back with a covering letter saying we do not know the people etc.
my question is is that the end of it or can i expect further things including court summons and bailiffs etc -
any advice would put my mind at rest

CCCS_Sue

Worried196 wrote: »

Hello - sorry about the length of this...
In June 2003 my husband and I left a council tenancy because my 15 year old son had been attacked on a number of occasions by an older lad. We had to leave quickly because of fears for his safety. a week later my husband went back to the prop. to collect last bits of belongings. There was a steel security door on the premises as it had been broken into shortly after we left. Husband went to council explained why we left, handed in keys and letter surrending tenancy. Was told would be liable for 28 days rent. After 18 months sent a bill (over 3000.00) from council for rent arrears - they only terminated the tenancy in March 2004! Immediately rang the council arrears officer explained everything. They asked me to put in writing and they would investigate. Did that - sent several emails documenting everything. Heard no more until January 2010 when received a solicitors letter. Then a county court claim for amount. Also solicitor said sent an invoice in 2006 (which they didn't) now claiming additional 800.00 interest. I sent off an acknowledgement of service then a part admission for the 28 days notice rent arrears, solicitor and court fees and defended the rest. Now just read somewhere on the internet that we should have both sent off acknow of service and part admission as they could just ignore my part admission and issue a CCJ to my husband for the sum. Please help not sure if this is correct. Appreciate your thoughts on this and my part admission/defence.

Hi worried196

Thank you for your message

If the tenancy was solely in your name and the CCJ was issued to you, then it should not affect your husband
However, if the tenancy was in joint names, then they could issue a separate CCJ to your husband but he would also be able to put in a defence as you have.
You could contact the court to find out. They should be able to give you more details.
I have attached a link to the Housing Ombudsman website which you may help you further.

http://www.housing-ombudsman.org.uk/

Regards
Sue

CCCS_Sue

pangles wrote: »

i'm thinking of using a company - consumer credit services to help clear my debts. their charge is £199 and said they can reduce my debt by the fact that my creditors haven't sent a new contract for me to sign every time the interest they charge has changed. would this be a recommended route to go?

Hi Pangles

Thank you for your message

Be very wary!

There are a lot of organisations offering “wipe-off debt” services for a substantial fee. It’s worth noting that consumer credit debts will only be written off, if there is clear evidence that the creditor in question has breached the guidelines set within the Consumer Credit Act. The commercial companies offering to wipe off debts seem to be advertising this to the wider market, without prior knowledge to the individual’s financial situation.
If you would like free confidential advice on your debt situation, then you are welcome to contact CCCS (Consumer Credit Counselling Service) to make an appointment to speak to one of our debt counsellors about your situation.
CCCS is a registered charity, and there is no charge whatsoever for the services we provide to our clients
To book an appointment with one of our trained counsellors you would need to contact our helpline free on 0800 138 1111. Lines are open Monday to Friday 08:00-20:00. It would be helpful that when you call you have details ready regarding your income, expenditure and creditors, as this can help speed up the referral process. If you have this information ready it may be possible to refer you directly to a counsellor if one is available, otherwise we will arrange a time that is convenient for you to be called back for an appointment.

Alternatively you can visit our online debt advice facility called Debt Remedy. Debt Remedy would assist you in completing a financial statement and you would be provided with tailored advice on the best way to deal with your situation. This link will take you directly to Debt Remedy www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu

Regards
Sue

CCCS_Sue

tunc wrote: »

Hi My boyfriend owes around £9K on various credit cards and is only paying the minimum amount every month off each card. The interest is so large that the debts just arent going down and now it is at a stage where he is overdrawn every month because his outgoings are more than his earnings. His bank are charging him for the overdraft and this is of course mounting up too. He owns the house so is afraid that he will lose the house if he stops paying the credit cards. Is there some way he can come to an arrangement with the credit card companies to try and reduce the monthly payments? He cannot get another card to do a balance transfer unfortunately. Is there a way to get the credit card company to stop any future interest and agree to lower monthly payments? If this continues his debts are going to spiral even more out of control and he really doesnt know which way to turn. Please help?:(

Hi tunc

Thank you for your message

If your partner is paying the minimum payments, then the creditors will continue to add charges and interest.

If he was unable to make the minimum payments and was struggling with the repayments, then he could contact his creditors and ask them to consider stopping the interest and charges.
However, the creditors do not have to agree to this. It is completely at their discretion.

The fact that he is using his overdraft to get by each month shows that he is constantly living off credit and he is struggling.

I would recommend that he call us for an appointment to speak to one of our debt counsellors on 0800 138 1111. The counsellor will help him to put together a budget showing his income and expenditure, and advice on the best options for his situation.

Alternatively, he can use our online facility Debt Remedy.
This link will take you directly to Debt Remedy www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu

Regards
Sue