Still cannot bring myself to do it.

Photo_Stylus

Even though i read all the posts on here i still cannot do it myself.
I have approx £40,000 worth of debts on credit cards & one personal loan.
I was struggling with the payments but muddled through.
2 years ago i was off work & the company sick pay ran out then only had statutory sick pay £60 a week. I contacted Citi and MBNA who were the main creditors only to be told they could not or would not stop the excess charges and interest unless i paid £200+ instantly. Talking to them on the phone was like talking to parrots. They would just keep repeating the same lines over and over. Several days later i got a letter saying they do not with to antagonise me but they need to speak to me urgently. Next phone call same happens like speaking to a parrot. I said how can i pay more than i have coming in? We need you to pay..blahblah.....
After getting withheld and unavailable numbers phoning at all hours from 6am to 3am the phone rang constantly.
I turned the ringer off on the phone & only answer it if its a family member. 2 years later and nothing has changed except the numbers that call and the names on the letters. It is not nice having to ignore the phone hoping it was not an important call or having it ring when we have friends around with them wondering why we do not answer it..

The only asset i have is my car which is only worth £1000 maybe less. I dont want to lose my car it is the only thing keeping me mobile but as i am still out of work
i have read that i will probably lose it. It will need about £400 worth of work for the next MOT, My father has offered to lend me the money for this but i do not have the guts to tell him about my debts. And i dont want to spend that money on it then find out i will lose it.

I have not looked into the actual amounts and who now own the debts. All the letters are in a big box. I have only opened them to make sure nothing is from a court. None so far. But i have had some default letters i think thats what you call them? Is that when they say next step is court?

2 adults and 1 child in senior school. Incapacity other benefits total about £800 a month. No other income. I have filled a form in for DLA again but do not expect to get anything.
I can only dream of being able to answer the phone again and not worry when there is a knock on the door.
My wife knows about the debts and panics also. But i have shown her threads on here saying they cannot just come and take goods from the house they must take me to court 1st. I hope. And all the debts are in my name only.

I had the idea of getting her to opening a bank account and transfer the utility bills into her name, Just in case they close my bank account, Halifax is this likely?
Would this make bankruptcy easier and less hassle?
It has been 2 years now and nobody has started court proceedings yet, Are they likely to giving my circumstances? Could i just sit it out and hope they do not until they are all statute barred. Or wait for them to make me bankrupt save me trying to scrape together £345 and probably lose my car.

Well that was a bit longer than i was going to post. My fingers do not want to stop but so many questions so many doubts in my mind.

Thank you all for reading and hope someone can advise me.

kika

Please call debt charities tomorrow, CCCS or CAB are free. I can't advise on bankruptcy but hang on in there and dont despair f

GonzoAston

I didnt think that they could contact you before 7 or 8am and after 9pm? Probably wrong, usually am. But if they do, im sure that would constitute as harrassment.

Im surpsised that you have had no court letters yet though, to be honest. It is very hard to deal with it all when you cant put your mind to it. The only thing that I would suggest is that ignoring it isnt going to make it go away, I wished it would myself. I did ignore it for a while. There are loads of places to go to get help and advice. As Kika said, try CCCs or CAB.

I hope you get it sorted out soon, its no way to live being scared of the phone and knocks on the door, ive been there. Get some advice on what you should/can do.

I hope everything works out for you, so you can answer that phone with confidence It is the best feeling knowing that when you answer, its not going to be a debtor.

10past6

Hi PS

Welcome to the forum, you'll receive all the support and advice you require here.

Some suggestion for you

Send the following letter to the companies that are calling you:

Harassment by telephone

Account Number: XXXXXXX
I am writing in relation to the quantity and frequency of telephone calls that I have received from your company, which I deem to be personally harassing.
I have verbally requested that these stop, but I am still receiving calls. (Delete if necessary)

I now require all further correspondence from your company to be made in writing only.

I am of the view that your continued harassment of me by telephone puts you in breach of Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

If you continue to harass me by telephone, you will also be in breach of the Communications Act (2003) s.127 and I will report you to OFCOM, Trading Standards and The Office of Fair Trading, meaning that you will be liable to a substantial fine.

Be advised that any further telephone calls from your company will be recorded. (**Even if you don‘t yet have recording equipment!!**)

Yours faithfully,


[PRINT ONLY - NEVER SIGN YOUR NAME]

Send the following letter to EVERY one of your creditors:

Dear Sir/Madam
Re Account No/Reference No:-

Since making that above agreement with you, our circumstances have changed.

We cannot now afford to agreed monthly payments because ... [your paragraph added here]

We enclose a Personal Budget sheet which shows our total income from all sources, and the total outgoings of our household. As you can see we have no money left to make offers of payment to my creditors.

In view of our circumstances, would you please accept no payment at present to be reviewed in six months.

If interest or other charges are being added to the account, we would be grateful if you would freeze these so our debt does not increase.

Should my circumstances improve we will contact you again.

Thank you for your assistance. We look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully

[PRINT ONLY - NEVER SIGN YOUR NAME]

Include in the same envelope the following letter:

Dear Sir/Madam

Re:− Account/Reference Number

I do not acknowledge any debt to you or any other company or organisation that you claim to be representing.

With reference to the above, we would be grateful if you would send us a copy of this credit agreement.

We understand that under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 (Sections 77−79), we are entitled to receive a copy of our credit agreement on request.

We enclose a payment of £1.00 which represents the fee payable under the Consumer Credit Act.

We understand a copy of our credit agreement should be supplied within 12 working days.

We understand that under the Consumer Credit Act creditors are unable to enforce an agreement if they fail to comply with a request for a copy of the agreement under these sections of the Act.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully

[PRINT ONLY - NEVER SIGN YOUR NAME]

The purpose of the above letter, you're making sure the debt is enforceable, unenforceable = no payment (more to it than that, but that's the top / bottom of it)

Be sure to include a £1.00 postal order for each request, send all letters by recorded delivery.

Next

Create an excel spreedsheet and enter what letters you've sent, who to, date, keep an eye on the timscales within the letters.

Within the excel spreedsheet, enter each of your creditors, balance, etc,. etc,..

Scan each letter you have and put them into a new folder within your computer, create a new folder for each creditor.

Try and follow the above tips, it will assist in keeping your debts under control, remember, the debts are NEVER going to go away no matter how big the box is.

Finally, click here and complete your SOA (Statement of affairs) the members will assit if needed where you may be able to reduce any outgoings.

One other point, click here as confirm you're receiving all your entilted too.

Other members will be along to offer advice, in the meantime I trust I've given you the tools required in an attempt for you to regain some control.

Any questions, ask away.

Good luck

Photo_Stylus

Problem with the calls, I had no idea who they were from just annoying silent calls i did have BT block withheld numbers yet the calls still came. It seems some calls cannot be blocked. I complained so much BT refunded my charge for this service. Which i said was missold. I have had to cancel the text to landline service also as the agencies use this service to make sure you get calls later than their allowed time slots. If they send a text to your landline at 8:59pm you might not get the call for some time and if you miss that it will keep calling until the early hours then start again at 6am i think.
The other problem i have is that several companies seemed to be chasing the same debts originally, Not sure if they are just different groups of the same company or totally different. Some of the companies have not contacted me for a while so i do not know who owns which debt.
So many of them.

Do i have the guts to sit in the CAB centre and explain all this? Sadly i think not.
Or phone the CCCS only for them to want to call me back and be too scared to answer the phone.

This i should have chosen a better membername cowardly custard.

Thanks for the help.

RAS

Hi

You can get your credit records to find out who is chasing the debt, if yu want to.

Silent calls should be reported to OFcom.

10past6

Photo_Stylus wrote: »

This i should have chosen a better membername cowardly custard.

Spend a bit of time reading through various threads on here, many members have been in the very same situation you find yourself in, but they've managed to turn the situation round with help & support offered.

No one can turn this situation round for you, only YOU can do that, we can advise and assist, but the onus is on you to make the start, I mentioned previously, the debts are NOT going to go away, the sooner you face them, the sooner you'll find peace, and you will, trust me

As for not knowing which debt belongs to who, send the CCA template letter above to those companies that are chasing you.

MissShoes

Hi PS,

a few questions:

1) could you get a job?
2) could your OH get a 2nd job?
3) any other assets you could sell other than the car?
4) why wait for the debts to become statute barred and live in fear until that happens? Could you take steps to paying them off?

Why not post up your SOA so all the great people here can see if any money could be saved?

Hope this helps, good luck,

MS xx

Photo_Stylus

Thanks for the replies, Going to set Next Monday as the "DO IT DAY".
Either make appointment for CAB or phone CCCS etc.

MissShoes,
1) Not unless i can find an employer then does not mind me not turning up at fixed times and that i may need to leave my daily tasks at a moments notice.
2) OH Could get a job but sadly does not have the earning power to be able to cover any loss of benefits.
3) Other assets, Just the child but i think this is frowned upon.
4) Yes I could possibly pay them off in a little over 8 years, If i only pay the gas,electric and water bills and nothing else. But my partner says we need food and other items.

Strange but no calls this week, Maybe they are all queuing up at the courts.

DoWhatULove-LoveWhatUDo

It's entirely natural to feel paralysed by worry when you can see no way out, but if you posted this on the Bankruptcy And Living With It Board the posters over there would be able to allay your fears and answer your questions regarding bankruptcy and it may be a way forward for you.
You should not have to live like this.

Photo_Stylus

WOW. what a shock, Just started going through the pile of letters and there are LOTS.

Final Demand, Formal Demand, Statutory Demand, Pay now or we will send the boys round.

I think i have had at least one letter from every debt recovery company available.

MBNA who started the problem in the 1st place by not being helpful and after driving me to despair on the phone then send letters saying they are trying to help me. Well the one letter i read said i owed over £10,000. The CC limit was approx £7000. Over £3000 in charges and interest. If only i had found this site or had someone tell me just pay them a couple of £ but make sure you pay it ontime and everytime until my toes curl up if i had to. Might have kept me sane.

Trying to make sense of what cards i had and how much were owed on them. But one day after a very sleepless night the calls started and i just shredded loads of the paperwork. Silly i know.

If only i knew then what i know now i would never have gotten a CC in the 1st place.
OK thats helped. Now the serious stuff.

Next post to make it clearer.