CCJ & final settlement question?

goldenflower

Hi

Started with about £20-22k of debt 2 years ago. Decided finally to get rid of it as it's such a burden. Now have about £11k left.

Have been following the site's advice and have paid off about £10k of my debts in the last year or so. Was lucky enough to break into doing contract accounting work which pays well although have worked my butt off for last 2 years including working away from home for a year! Have done the credit card shuffle, and got some final settlement deals on a couple of old debts so not much left now & feel the end is in sight.

What I'm left with is about £4.5k on a 0% for a year barclaycard deal and a very old debt of £7k from when I had financial difficulties after being made redundant from Abbey National. Fell behind with the staff loan I had from them and they took me to court - after they'd said not to bother with the insurance as I worked for them! At the time of the CCJ a repayment of £1 a month was set, and no interest to be charged.

That was about 8 or 9 years ago and I have just kept paying the £1 a month as per the judgement as I figured I should pay off other things that were costing me interest and work to amass a lump sum to offer a final settlement.

The debt was sold off to Equidebt about 2 years ago. Have just found out that I was putting aside too much money for my 2004/05 tax bill and have got £1.5k spare so thought I'd try and make a settlement offer to Equidebt.

Have just rung them to ask about making a final settlement and was told that because it's a CCJ and the debt includes court costs etc that they wouldn't take a final settlement and the whole £7k is due. Didn't even get as far as making an offer so am a bit gobsmacked.

Anybody any experience of Equidebt and CCJs? Seems a bit odd that they didn't even want to consider any offer. All they're getting is £12 a year now!

Any advice or suggestions appreciated.

goldenflower

Percy_Vere

It would be silly of them to accept a f&f on this debt when they have a ccj against you. They can at any time go back to court to have you means tested and get your payment increased in line with your disposable income plus if you own your home they can also secure the debt against that and ensure they get the full balance when either you sell or (if you stop paying your monthly amount) they force the sale through the courts. Any costs they incur doing this will be added to your balance so you end up paying in the end.

Did you ask them how much they would accept to settle this ? Could you afford that ? If not keep your head down and keep paying.

Burlesque_Babe

hi there goldenflower - I thought that I'd sorted a CCJ out about 3 years ago with a f+f offer.....here's my story, as it turns out apparently they aren't.....

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=120889