Can anyone adise me plz

crystal9

Currently we have debts of about £30,000 to credit cards and loans. we are currently dealing with through debt management co gregory penningtons.

We have heard recently of some debts being un-enforceable by law.
Could we take this route and what would the situation be as already using a debt management.

any advise would be very helpful

thanks

Tixy

Hi Crystal

The ususal advice on here is to use a non-fee charging DMP organisation. Gregory Penningtons are charging you for the service they provide and taking a fee out of your repayments. You can get the same service for free from a number of organisations (CCCS, Payplan and others). This means that all your monthly fee is going to reduce your debt.

With regard to debts being unenforceable. This relates to some debts taken out pre April 2007 where the creditor does not have/ or cannot supply a credit agreement with the legally required terms. This is useful as it can give you some 'leverage' with the creditor if any of the below apply

a) the creditor is about to take a CCJ out against you
b) the creditor is being difficult about accepting your reduced payment on your DMP
c) you are considering making a reduced full & final settlement payment for the debt.

Even if an agreement is un-enforceable in law it does not mean the creditor will write off your debt or that the account will disappear from your credit record.

Hope this helps.

stressedgirl_2

Hi Crystal9

I'm just going to repeat what I've read many many times on this site, which is its best if you use a non-fee paying company for your DMP so that all the money you can afford is going towards paying off your debts and not lining the pockets of a profit making organisation, which I believe yours is? I myself am with Payplan, but you could also use CCCS.

Someone else was sure to say it so just thought I may as well .

As regards unenforcable debts - I believe this refers to debts for which no signed and correct CCA is available and which were taken out before a certain date - can't remember which though, v sorry, think its April 2007. Also I think if a debt is older than six years it is unenforcable - but please wait for some of the other founts of all knowledge to post as they know much more than me!

Good luck with dealing with your debts - there are loads of letter templates and stuff on here for requesting CCAs etc etc

Just wanted to give you a quick heads up on things

Jesthar

Heya crystal,

First suggestion is to ditch Gregory Penningtons as soon as you can and switch to a DMP run by one of the Debt Charities, who provide the same services for free - that way ALL your money goes to paying off your debts rather than a significant chunk being wasted on management fees.

Secondly, people here will need to know a bit more about your type of debts before advising you on whether or not you could investigate their validity with a CCA request, as not all types of debt can be challenged in this way.

~Jes

RAS

Crystal

here is a list of debt charities http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/debt-help-plan#help. Please switch to one of these or Payplan, all of whom do the same thing as GP for no charge, which means that all you payments go to yuour creditors.

With respect to the CCA, if you have catalogues, loans or CCs taken out before April 2007, and the correct documentation is not available, then the debt is unenforceable. This means that if you have already received a default notice there is nothing more the creditor can do to affect your credit rating or to take legal action, as long as you defend if they try it on.

the 6 year rule is not relevent if you have been paying via a DMP.

Do you have any PPI or late charges you can reclaim?

crystal9

hi and thank you so much for all your advise.

our loans and credit cards were taken out before april 07.i will provide any info that ppl need to help me i just wasn't sure what info to post.

with regards to changing our dmp we were going to do this as soon as we found out about them but wanted to wait a while as things were all changed again when my husbands work situation changed but we will look into doing this as it will save us about £4300 per year.

I have claimed my bank charges back about a year ago thanks to reading the threads on here.We tried claiming ppi on my husbands cc but had no joy with that.

thanks again

RAS

A good basic guide here

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1496721

crystal9

thank you ras i will get my husband to read through that link