Why should I bother anymore...

saverio

Hello all,

i've been reading this board and a few others, and here is my current situation...

I used to earn circa 2-3k per month with overtime and bonuses etc. My partner used to take home somewhere in the region of 50k. My partner lost her job some three years ago, and now is emplyed again but earning 20k less. In the last two years, my company has announced two waves of redundency and shaved the budgets down to the barest minimum.

I had circa 20k of unsecured CC debt, and have tried to reason with the card companies over the last year. They have put me onto three monthly restructures twice now, but have never frozen the interest- only the late payment charges and the overbalance charges. Both Citibank and Abbey national CC both sais that the interest payments would have to build up.

Now Abbey national CC - handled by mbna, get a debt collection agency called globalvantage to call me on their behalf. I recieve a call every day from then, and call from 8am to 9pm, although one time they actually called nearer 10pm. They keep trying to get me to leave post dated switch payments with them.

Last year I worked out that I paid over 9k back but the ammounts have all been swallowed up in interest and late payment fees. I've sold everything i have, ebay has done me proud!! - yet none of this has been enough for them. Three months ago, Abbey Credit Card rang my parents of 78, after making sure that my father was indeed my father, they asked if he would be willing to pay money towards my debts- I had a phone call froma very distraught pensioner, who had beentold that other wise his son might end up in prison. he never paid, but the incident brought great shame onto the family in his eyes (mediteranean family).

i dont know what else to do...i've played the game for two years, and last week i overheard a conversation between two students, where one said to the other that when he finished uni, he was going to load up some credit cards, live a highlife and then declare himself bankrupt... no ties, lives at home... one year later clean slate, knuckle down to getting a proper job.

Why am I bothering...

tattooed_lady

Hi Saverio,

Those students you heard discussing playing the system are total idiots - arrgghhh!! People like that make me SO mad. You should be proud of yourself for honestly chipping away at your debt.

You haven't mentioned your current monthly income, is your debt in joint names or just in yours? Could you post a SOA so that the nice people on the board can help? Maybe you should now be entering a DMP with a free service such as CCCS or Payplan and then you will actually see your debt REDUCE. It will affect your credit rating for a while but then i'm sure you won't want any credit for a while anyway.

Chin up, you've done the best thing by posting xx

micheleen

Unless your parents were some sort of guarantors for your debts, then by Globalvantage contacting your parents and discussing your debt with them, they are breaking the law (possibly the Data Protection Act).
Also phoning you up every day can be considered harrassment.Write to them (sending by Special Delivery) and say that you will only deal with them in writing. You can check that the letter has been signed for on the Royal Mail website. If they keep calling, keep a log of dates and times then complain about them to the Office of Fair Trading after a couple of weeks.

fuzzgun19

Hi,
I think it is discusting that they have harrassed your parents for the money.
I would strongly recommend that you contact cccs, or payplan so they can arrange a repayment plan with your creditors, and they may be able to get your interest frozen/reduced, also they are a free service so it wont cost you anything to use their service.
There are some sample letters that may help you if you are thinking of writing to your creditors here

http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/england_wales/debt_advice.php#6

I hope you get sorted!

saverio

ruyareece wrote:

Hi Saverio,

Those students you heard discussing playing the system are total idiots - arrgghhh!! People like that make me SO mad. You should be proud of yourself for honestly chipping away at your debt.

You haven't mentioned your current monthly income, is your debt in joint names or just in yours? Could you post a SOA so that the nice people on the board can help? Maybe you should now be entering a DMP with a free service such as CCCS or Payplan and then you will actually see your debt REDUCE. It will affect your credit rating for a while but then i'm sure you won't want any credit for a while anyway.

Chin up, you've done the best thing by posting xx

Hi, thanks for the vote of confidence,

My basic salary is a take home of just under £1300

that is broken up as follows, mortgage 800, car 200, bills and utilities 300.

I work overtime and try to get around 100 hours per month - 65to 70hr weeks, and this gives me another 1000pounds on a good month which goes entirely onto debt repayment.

As of next year, there will be no overtime for us where I work. I can do private jobs, but short of a miracle or another job coming up -and i'm trying- will not make up this short fall.

The debts are unsecured and totally mine. The phone call to my parents was from Abbey themselves, and they just asked 'is that Mr xxxx?', no security questions, nothing. When he told them that it was infact his son who they wanted, then they asked him for money.

Globalvantage ring every day, and their favourite phrase is 'if you pay off your outstanding ammount- the telephone calls will stop'
Apparently they do not dial numbers themselves, an automated dialer does it for them. Testerday they called 3 times, at 12:46, 13:50 and at 20:15.
the call centre is either in india or holland most of the time.

I'm going to make a formal complaint in writing to them and the OFT, who apparently can fine them up to 5k - ironically the ammount outstanding on this card.

They won't reduce or freeze the interest, and after i finished scanning it in, i'll post up the quality of letter that MBNA Abbey Credit Card enjoy sending on a fortnightly basis.

I will call the CCCS as you've advised, but I want the world to know what these people are like when they get nasty - i'd love to participate in one of Martin's phone in sessions when he's got some snotty git from the banking public smiley faces department telling him how they are our friend and try to help where they can.

rosshind

Mortgage 800? etc...

I think you are living beyond your means. Don't mean to sound snotty here (here comes the snotty bit) but why, when you have so many debts do you think you still deserve the spoils of all those expenses? Sell your house, down size, urgently, get yourself a banger. Sorry, it's all you can afford. I think maybe you have convinced yourself that you NEED things which are in fact luxuries?

I think there is a bit of denial going on here. What say you Savero? Have you considered all of these options? Are there things I have not considered myself?

You might be happier if you do this.

Keep you chin up, keep smilin, thats the main thing.

1313

The real reason you have to bother is if you don't, you can end up even more shafted than you feel now.

Bankruptcy itself is a fairly simple process, well that is is you consider filling out a 13 page document in triplicate.

Getting past the Official Reciever is the tough bit. Sure in some cases it is a quick interview and then discharged in 12 months. Only if you are lucky!!! I know a couple who are being looked over by the OR left right and chelsea. Every bit of their last years worth of bank statements is in question. Life policies have been stopped, and kids investments have been pludered.

Make it a part of your life to be bothered to come back to this forum and ask for advice. Then when you have that advice, think, then put it into action. You are the key to the solution.

IN_LIKE_EVERYONE_ELSE!

1313 wrote:

Bankruptcy itself is a fairly simple process, well that is is you consider filling out a 13 page document in triplicate.

Comrade 1313, you need to get you facts right before giving advice, the document is over 30 pages, is clearly written and very helpful, unlike yourself.

Bankruptcy is not to be taken lightly.

1313

IN_LIKE_EVERYONE_ELSE! wrote:

1313 wrote:

Bankruptcy itself is a fairly simple process, well that is is you consider filling out a 13 page document in triplicate.

Comrade 1313, you need to get you facts right before giving advice, the document is over 30 pages, is clearly written and very helpful, unlike yourself.

Bankruptcy is not to be taken lightly.

I have just rang them and you are right it is 30. I bow down to your superior knowledge.

KGB do not believe in gods, but to me you are!!

IN_LIKE_EVERYONE_ELSE!

told ya.............................

System

saverio wrote:

The debts are unsecured and totally mine. The phone call to my parents was from Abbey themselves, and they just asked 'is that Mr xxxx?', no security questions, nothing. When he told them that it was infact his son who they wanted, then they asked him for money.

Globalvantage ring every day, and their favourite phrase is 'if you pay off your outstanding ammount- the telephone calls will stop'
Apparently they do not dial numbers themselves, an automated dialer does it for them. Testerday they called 3 times, at 12:46, 13:50 and at 20:15.
the call centre is either in india or holland most of the time.

Hi saverio

You can ask your creditors to only contact you in writing from now on, which should stop the phone calls. Write them a letter asking for this, send by recorded delivery and keep a copy yourself.

This very helpful post by crossleydd42 may be of help regarding harassment.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.html?p=1006418&postcount=11

As for Abbey calling your parents to discuss your a/c without your permission, it sounds like they've broken the Data Protection Act there.

If I were you, my order of priority for sorting your problems out would be:-

1) Call CCCS for free confidential advice. They should be able to arrange a plan to repay your debts if you're working. If they can't, they'll at least send you a free booklet with loads of relevant advice for you to use to contact your creditors yourself.

2) Post a detailed list of all Income and Expenses on here (you'll need to have this information available anyway if you want to arrange a suitable repayment method with your creditors.

3) Write to your creditors asking for all future correspondence to be in writing only.

4) Go after Abbey regarding their breach of the Data Protection laws - but you should probably ignore this for now as it's best to keep them sweet while you're negotiating the best repayment deal you can get.

Good luck
Dave