Need urgent advice Asap

TMO

Hello,

I am in debt, below is what I owe credit card companies;

Goldfish £3900 (£400 over limit due to fines)
Morgan £2100 (£300 over due to fines)
Barclaycard £500 (£250 over due to fines)
Gm £800 (£300 over due to fines)
Aqua £480 (£230 over due to fines)
Lloyds £1900 (£400 over to fines)
Capital £420 (£220 over to fines)
Halifax £1300 (£300 over to fines)

As you can see I am over my limit on every cc due to fines and interest charges. I do have an agreement with gold/morgan and barclay for monthly payments and they told me they would make my interest to o% and sent a letter to confirm but after 2 months of paying they were still charging interest, but as far as i am concerned they broke the agreement they made with me and i have not paid them now for 2 months....

However, i am a law student and i want to clear my debts before i do my masters in october. I have decided to go for bankruptcy a few days ago but now read about debt relief orders. I told a family member about this and they have told me they will pay off all my cc's and i just pay them a sum per month tills its paid off... So what i need advice on is what should i do?

1) Should i ring all the cc's and tell them i will pay off my balance but only if they remove all charges and go back to original balance and then remove around 20% more off the balance? So for likw goldfish i am 400 over due to fines, they should remove that so it goes back to normal balance of 3500 and then use that as a starting point and tell them i will give them 2500 to clear balance and close account? Will they go for this?

2) Or should i go for a debt relief order and have all my debts cleared but make any chance of me becoming a solicitor a little deficult?

3) Or finally a company called unfair credit direct have told me for £495 and £200 for each additional card they can write off my debt and if they do not win they will give my money back to me?...

So what option should i go for and why? thanks...

thriftymomma

Definitely not option three. These companies can do no more for you than you could do for yourself for free using templates from this site.
Defaulting or making an arrangement to pay with adversely affect your credit file so do take advice, maybe from CAB or CCCS before doing so.
You may also like to post on the Debt free wannabe section of this forum where there are lots of people far more knowledgeable in this matter.
Good luck. You'll get there.

TMO

thriftymomma wrote: »

Definitely not option three. These companies can do no more for you than you could do for yourself for free using templates from this site.
Defaulting or making an arrangement to pay with adversely affect your credit file so do take advice, maybe from CAB or CCCS before doing so.
You may also like to post on the Debt free wannabe section of this forum where there are lots of people far more knowledgeable in this matter.
Good luck. You'll get there.

True however as someone who has recently finished his law degree, i would prefer someone with more experience to deal with it for me, to get £9000 written off for £1100 is a small price to pay HOWEVER i read 2 weeks ago the high court judge had suspended 100,000 cases regarding unenforcable agreements and that there will be a few test cases. So as far as i am aware, no one has been able to claim there agreement unenforcable so far and no precedent has been sent and these trial cases could take anything up to next year and then there is appeals aswell which could drag it out.

Lol my credit rating cannot get any worse.

never-in-doubt

TMO wrote: »

True however as someone who has recently finished his law degree, i would prefer someone with more experience to deal with it for me, to get £9000 written off for £1100 is a small price to pay

I thought you said you're doing a degree in August?

Anyway, these companies are a scam and if you want to waste money then go for it. At the end of the day no experience is needed, see here for details: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=20459909#post20459909

Also, with the £1100 you'll waste on these muppets, pay your arrears! Unenforceability will have a profound affect on your credit and chosen career! PLUS with what you've stated unenforceability wouldn't count.

TMO wrote: »

HOWEVER i read 2 weeks ago the high court judge had suspended 100,000 cases regarding unenforcable agreements and that there will be a few test cases.

Nah, the judge at Chester 'wanted' a stay on cases but this was rejected as the law is quite clear - an unlawful CCA means it can be challenged for unenforceability. The 'stay' that was applied for would not affect you or anyone else for that matter.

TMO wrote: »

So as far as i am aware, no one has been able to claim there agreement unenforcable so far and no precedent has been sent and these trial cases could take anything up to next year and then there is appeals aswell which could drag it out.

What? who told you this? Utter rubbish! LOL.

For a law student I thought even you'd have heard of MBNA vs Rankine, but to name one very, very high profile case where they had over £100k made unenforceable. But then there are over 100 cases daily being made unenforceable but hey, just cos you haven't heard of it must mean there is no precendent set!

TMO wrote: »

Lol my credit rating cannot get any worse.

This is what happens when you get into debt, either way you'll not be able to obtain credit for 6yrs. So you either pay the arrears and have a few late payment indicators against your name which may affect you for the next 3yrs.

Try for unenforceability and you'll get no credit for at least 6yrs.

Also may be worth noting you won't progress far in your specialised work field if you cannot manage less than £10k of cards and especially if you're heavily in debt or have defaults against you.

Read this link to learn about unenforceability - it has nothing to do with the way they 'broke a verbal agreemant' and as a law student/graduate you should know this fact more than most.

One now ponders the validity of your post and wonder if it was a plug for unfair credit direct. (their names says it all, unfair credit - lol)

Read here and learn the basics:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=20459909#post20459909

ElkyElky

never-in-doubt wrote: »

I thought you said you're doing a degree in August?

He just finished his Degree. He is doing is masters in August. I believe that is one higher than Degree. :rotfl:

never-in-doubt

ElkyElky wrote: »

He just finished his Degree. He is doing is masters in August. I believe that is one higher than Degree. :rotfl:

lol missed that :-)

thanks :T