Your thoughts needed...

DON79

Hi Shirley just wanted to say that you are doing really well coping with all of this, you are great. And I think that you are absolutely right in asking them to consider writing off the debts too - if you don't ask you don't get. and if they say no the first time, don't accept the knockback, get another letter off to them asking for a higher referral in view of your circumstances. I hope that you succeed in getting the debts written off. Best wishes, Donna

dodo50

hi there! sorry to read about your problems and especially all those phone calls. can you maybe change your number and only give out to family and friends? ask bt, say you are receiving nuisance calls.

i too am hoping to go br through lila in scotland and i've been to cab. they are helping me complete the form, they also are quite new to this and we are muddling our way through.

i have a car and would like to keep it but its hovering at 900 -1200 value depending on where i get quote from so i'm hoping the lower end obviously. i was going to complete the form by saying i do not have any asset over 1000 but again i'm scared they find out it could be worth 1100 and refuse! confusing isn't it, like a catch 22. cant sell it as i'm disposing of asset but again i cant afford to keep it much longer either.

i think personnally coolcait's advice on selling for a cheaper model (economising) is a good idea. you have only just got into difficulties so naturally you would economise and this is part of it.

i was in cab office today (they are so very slow) everything takes weeks from one appointment to another. i've been seeing them for months and the adviser today said a lot of people were being refused and he didn't know why. is anyone reading this who knows if you are refused why they wouldn't explain?

anyway i'll keep in touch and let you know how i'm progressing and if i can help at all since i'm going through it all feel free to ask! try and not worry i felt better just talking to cab adviser the first time.

shirleymarye

The DAS scheme would be good if I had more money to play with !
As I only get my state pension it doesn't seem worth me scratching about just to pay off a heap of interest for 15 years ! If I were working and hoping to get pay increases it would be different. I will try these letters and see what happens next !

shirleymarye

dodo50 wrote: »

i was in cab office today (they are so very slow) everything takes weeks from one appointment to another. i've been seeing them for months and the adviser today said a lot of people were being refused and he didn't know why. is anyone reading this who knows if you are refused why they wouldn't explain?

Are you saying that CAB are refusing people ? Maybe they are very busy ?

If I get any problems from my letters I will go to my solicitor I think !

shirleymarye

The car - It would have to be repaired before I could sell it anyway so I will get it done and argue about it later,in the meantime I can still use it !

coolcait

Hiya dodo
What a lovely supportive post to shirley :T :A

I hope that you might find some of the advice given to shirley helpful for you too. And good luck with your own application for bankruptcy under LILA.

I've actually replied to you on another thread tonight, and I hope that you'll get something out of it. It's my understanding that when a bankruptcy application is refused, you'll get a letter saying why it has been refused. But, as I said on the other thread, it might not be written in 'plain English'! I'm sure you could phone up and ask what it actually means though .

I see that the value of your car has come down a fair bit since I last saw you posting. It feels weird to be saying 'great!' about that ,but it is a good thing if you're hoping to apply for bankruptcy under LILA!

If you can now point to a valuation of £900 for your car, then you could apply for bankruptcy under LILA. And, if you did happen to be challenged, you could provide the AiB with a copy of the valuation.

There's still a risk that they might take a different - higher - valuation for the car. But you're in a better position to challenge them if they do. And you could certainly sign the application form honestly because you believe that - on the valuation available to you - the car is worth less than £1000.

Normally, at this point, I would advise you to run it past your money adviser, but I know you've indicated that there's a bit of 'muddling through' going on .

I wonder if it would be worth your while calling the AiB helpline anonymously, and telling them that you're thinking of applying for bankruptcy under LILA as you have no assets worth over £1000. In fact, your only asset is a car which is valued at £900 by [name of valuer]. Ask them if they need you to send in a copy of the valuation. If they say 'no', then maybe you should go for it?

I'd recommend that you take a note of who you talk to (preferably at the beginning, not once you start asking questions . No harm in saying 'Sorry, I didn't catch your name?' if you don't catch it).

HTH

coolcait

shirleymarye wrote: »

The DAS scheme would be good if I had more money to play with !
As I only get my state pension it doesn't seem worth me scratching about just to pay off a heap of interest for 15 years ! If I were working and hoping to get pay increases it would be different. I will try these letters and see what happens next !

Ah, but....

There's that disputed money with Abbey (?)

Just the kind of thing that a good money adviser could help you with, and use as a bargaining tool to get full and final settlement - whether in DAS or not

It might still be worth checking it out - even if it's only for the satisfaction of telling people like the girl from the debt management company that you've found a better solution than her company could offer!

(Yes, I know - it's petty of me . I'm just so riled by what she said to you - although that's no excuse...)

coolcait

shirleymarye wrote: »

The car - It would have to be repaired before I could sell it anyway so I will get it done and argue about it later,in the meantime I can still use it !

Unless it's worth less than £1,000 right now because of the repairs needed (ie, you could only sell it for less than £1,000).

Or if it's only worth enough, in trade-in terms (unrepaired) for you to get a replacement which is worth less than £1,000.

If either of those points is true, then you don't currently have an asset worth over £1,000. If your garage can confirm that in writing, you could probably apply for bankruptcy under LILA.

Points which may be worth thinking about before you pay for repairs which might increase the value of the car (compared to its value, unrepaired, right now)?

(I'm not sure how clear this is, so if it's making no sense to you, just say so! )

dodo50

hi just to clarify what i said earlier i meant the aib were refusing applications not the cab, sorry! the cab did say they were cutting their hours by quite a bit because of financing so it will now take even longer to get appointments but they are friendly and helpful. they'll get better with this new br stuff in time as its relatively new, and at least they can check up for you and write letters also.

i must admit my stomach was churning when i first walked into cab but i was quickly at ease, give them a go!

good luck.

shirleymarye

coolcait wrote: »

Unless it's worth less than £1,000 right now because of the repairs needed (ie, you could only sell it for less than £1,000).

I think the repair will only be about £150 and the car is worth £2000 of anybodies money according to the guide price, in poor condition.

Got another letter from my solicitor about the £7000 this morning,don 't think she knew that I had received a letter before Xmas from Abbey which I passed on to Ombudsman myself as I was so annoyed by it. Just emailed her a copy of it today.

This £7000 does my head in,if I had received it I wouldn't be in quite such a mess and things would be more straightforward !
In my letters to the Abbey credit card,bank and loan people I have mentioned the £7000,maybe they can get hold of it to clear my debt with them !