Time to clear the decks of debts...

Natbuster

Hello.

Decision taken… I need to shift these debts which have been like a mill-stone round my neck for nearly ten years.

I have two unsecured personal loans:
1 – Cahoot / Abbey - £8k (since 2007)
2 – Household Bank - £5k (since 2000)

I took out the Cahoot loan to consolidate some other little things. This year I did manage to clear off a £3k credit card.

I am on special repayment terms with the two above companies as during last year I struggled to make the minimum.

Last week the Cahoot / Abbey account was passed onto a DCA called Robinson Way. I have no idea what prompted this as I have been meeting my repayment terms. I received a letter from Abbey saying this is not their account anymore and I should direct all questions to Robinson Way. I have yet to hear from Robinson Way.
Interestingly and perhaps significantly, this morning London Scottish bank was placed in administration. Robinson Way is part of London Scottish. So this may have some implication. Perhaps the debt will be sold on once more?

The Household Bank debt has been with me since 2000 (originally HFC). I have been paying interest only and have paid well over the original amount of the debt L, but it is still there. This account has been negotiated to stop interest, so payments are going against the balance.

So now I really want to get cleared of these; anyway possible.

In a few years I would like to be able to get a mortgage, so I need to protect any remnants of my credit rating which is already dire.

I have read on this site about various techniques to take a quick path to solving this problem, such as asking for the original CCA documents.

So there I am. £13k of debt and wanting to go forward. I don’t have extra cash flow to magically clear these at a faster rate. I can afford my existing payments. At this rate it is going to be eight more years of repayments to clear them. I need to speed this up. I also want to protect my credit file from any more damage.

Any initial welcoming advice?
Thanks.

Natbuster

any advice to get me started?

ElizabethJH

I think most peoples advice would be to post your SOA to see exactly whether you have any extra cash from somewhere... you'd be surprised at how things you think are normal prices people on this site can slash down!! Also do you have time for a second job? Easiest way of getting extra to throw at debts!!