Old debts versus current

Morgans_Dad

Hi ladies/gents,

My first post here so please excuse any errors in my logic. I've read pages of good stuff and have to say what a nice little place this is - much respect to Martin and the people that make this place tick!

I'm looking for advice as to what some of you with experience would do in my shoes. I will give as much info as possible to help you be accurate with this. Back when I was 18/19 (2000/01) had a good steady job and rather foolishly saw all my income building up in the bank (lived with parents so little outgoings) so thought taking out loans and credit cards would be fine... They were until 18 months later when I injured my knee and was unable to work. I ran out of Peter's to rob for Paul and after time in hospital where I couldn't get onto online banking I admit I buried my head in the sand after seeing the pile of threatening letters and voicemails at home when I got back

With hindsight not the wisest thing to do, but my parents were going through a divorce and selling up so I moved to other side of the country with my dad and just ignored everything knowing full well if I didn't register to vote or apply for credit they couldn't really do jack... I couldn't either I was living on his hospitality alone.

The best paying job I managed to find was with a bank. It used to be easy living near Halifax lol but I knew it would be trouble. Just wanted to get a income and IVA sorted to get back on track though so had to chance it. They did a credit check on me 2 weeks in and I got hauled into managers office and let go for what was on it - wasn't suprised but angry a bank had cut off my means to pay off my debts 2 weeks after letting me start. I'd only had time to start IVA proceedings, they wanted something sorted to keep me on, and I needed the job to carry on with the IVA - screwed you could say. Especially as the IVA and/or credit check brought my new address to the attention of all the old creditors so the letters started again.

By the by now anyway since then things have moved on, i've had more hassle with my knee been in and out of low paid jobs and moved house again. I've had a Step account with Natwest all along and have since realised they have been keeping my linked addresses upto date on Experian anyway - but for 2 years now i've not received any letters. I now have a son and am a single parent but still live at my fathers to keep costs down. I'm aware that for both our futures I need to get my credit file in order and get control of the past in case I need a mortgage in a few years - or in case bailifs come when we have our own council house.

Ok now just before Xmas 07 Natwest decided to give me a review. Amazingly they were offering me a normal account again, with £100 cheque card and £100 overdraft. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, grabbed it with both hands and have kept it straight. Later they give me £500 overdraft and allow me to open a seperate account with the same as well (I don't use them both fully but the first £100 of each is interest free so why not!). I put all this down to my internal behaviour score with Natwest.

Taking advice on board from here about building up actual credit file, and knowing my debts were pretty old I decided to give it a go. It's not like they didn't already have my current address so nothing to lose I guess? Anyway i've been on this project since January. Natwest first gave me a classic card at like 15.9/16.9% with £800 limit. This is how I know they are basing it on behaviour score but at least it helps the credit file.

I now have :
Capital One - £100 limit
Vanquis - £250 limit
Natwest CC - £800 limit
2xNatwest Current plus - £500 overdraft on each
Cashplus prepaid card with creditbuilder - 10 months remaining (don't think I needed this!)
oh and a Vodafone contract

Now this is all good you might think, and what am I worried about as plenty don't even have this much available to them. Well my questions and worries come from exactly how have I got all this with my credit file in the state it is in? And will the fact I have it make the old debts which I cannot possibly pay 'come back'? Upto now nothing has happened and i'm really suprised, but they still have a year or two to drop off my credit file.

Experian says :

Arrow Global - £1323 defaulted 10/02/2004 file updated to 25/05/2008
Barclays - £7348 defaulted 17/05/2004 files updated to 15/05/2005
FV1 Bank acc/loan - £8574 defaulted 26/03/2004 file updated to 12/05/2009
FV1 Credit card - £2298 defaulted 26/04/2004 files updated to 12/05/2009
O2 phone - £614 defaulted on 31/07/2004 file updated to 17/09/2006
Black Horse - £2563 defaulted 02/08/2004 files updated to 10/06/2009
Cabot finance - £5665 defaulted 23/07/2004 files updated to 10/06/2009

Plus the Barclays debt was the only one they went for a CCJ on so I also have Northampton county court £7303 date 01/02/2005.

Ok so one thing, are these creditors who haven't gone for a CCJ yet likely to do so just before they drop off - to basically punish me for 12 years or am I pretty safe to forget about these now and wait?

Whats with the 'file updated to' dates? When they stop updating have they given up or can they start to reupdate/chase again when they feel like it?

What is my best approach to this as i'm trying to be proactive here? Just keep exactly what i've got straight, keep silent about the rest and hope it works out? I'm hoping when this old stuff drops off my credit score will suddenly shoot up as all that will be left is green paid markers for the new stuff. My logic being that starting 'fresh' with a years worth of greens has got to be better than a empty file - but will I ever get to this point? Way it looks to me at least 2/3 of those creditors could go for a CCJ in the next year and i'd have a even worse looking file than before - for a whole new 6 years.

I do have morals and would have wanted to paid these debts off but the fact of it is I just couldn't. They wouldn't give me any rope after losing job, all they wanted to do was send default after default at £30 a pop. Half of this money I didn't even spend it all went in charges and fees. When I try the IVA route I get that door slammed in my face and really I don't see why they offered so much to a young man in the first place anyway - they must take some responsibility for my mess even though I know i'm the real cause as could have said no.

Thoughts, advice, comments all appreciated. Sorry it was so long but I wanted to give all facts now rather than spend tomorrow giving more to get a accurate answer.

By the way i'm aware I can probably claim back a lot of these charges and fees - but is it worth it if they aren't going to chase anymore. As I understand it I may have delayed the 6 year 'statute bar' by several years by trying to set up a IVA later - even though I never made a payment this will be classed as acknowledging the debt? I'm wary to do anything else though as even the IVA was at least 4 years ago... so that doesn't leave long that long to wait. I'd want to murder myself if I did something that reset the default dates to 6 years and then they could still CCJ me in 2015 and mess me up until 2021?

Thanks!

Morgans Dad

gettingbetter

hi morgans dad

your in the best place
the experts will be along soon

chin up chuck

kas xx

Ames

Has there ever been a period of six years where you didn't pay or acknowledge in writing that you owed the debts?

Has anyone been chasing you recently?

Morgans_Dad

Hi there,

Thanks for the reply and welcome.

Basically I didn't pay anything or really speak to them since before the default dates. There is only this one point around late 04/2005 where I tried to set up an IVA using a 3rd party company when I had employment. I believe they did get around to writing to request balances and dates but then when I lost my job they could no longer help so closed the case. I'm not entirely sure whether this classes as acknowledging or not, as I didn't personally contact them but I did give permission for 3rd party to act on my behalf so possibly/probably I think.

And no nobody has chased me recently at all, i've been at my dad's house over a year now, all current credit related stuff is registered here and nothing. It's almost too quiet if you know what I mean

Thanks,
Morgans Dad

Ames

Other people may well disagree, but I'd say to let sleeping dogs lie. If they start chasing you then you'll need to act, but at the moment I don't think you need to do anything. I know it's easy to get paranoid about it (I really am the queen of that!) but I don't think it's 'too quiet' and anything ominous.

Someone else will be able to advise you about whether the IVA restarted the statute barred clock.

Morgans_Dad

Cheers, yeah i've been getting a little paranoid recently as the plan was to never apply for credit again until I was sure this had all gone and was unenforcable. Natwest offering what they did at the time they did kinda threw me tbh! Now i've got some good banking facilites back I want to keep them :beer:

Have read all sorts of interesting stuff about how they can screw you for 12 years rather than 6 if they want - quite legally by leaving CCJ to the last minute. Thanks for help I just hope my original post wasn't so long people are skipping it lol.

Morgans Dad

Ames

If they apply for a CCJ then you can fight it, if it comes to that the people on here can give you loads of advice.

Morgans_Dad

Ok well i've worked out my dates a bit more and I reckon I started the IVA process mid-2004, as in the other long post my default dates go from 02/04 thru 08/04. As i'm not even being hassled by anyone at the moment i'll stick it out. I'm assuming my best option now is to add 6 years to the last default date as this ties in with when I think I know I last contact with the debt, so takes me to 08/2010. After this I claim its statute barred and this is as far as it can go? I know its snide but what else am I to do? Make stupidly small payments that I can't even afford and they won't even appreciate, bring loads more pay more or we'll take you to court type and ruin credit file again. I've learnt from my mistakes 100% and have kept everything paid off monthly since.

Is there anyone who's been in this situation though who can tell me if they like to leave CCJ's upto the last minute to make the punishment via credit file last longer? Or would they have done it back ages ago if they were going to?

It's all about these file updated dates on Experian that has got me thinking so can anyone tell me about these? I'm thinking are still waiting to do something because file is updated each month - whereas others stopped years back. What does this mean?

Please can someone help!

Morgans dad

gizmo111

Ok you have one CCj which at some point you are going to need to make arrangements to pay.
As for the rest I would ignore them for now, but save up as much as you can so if they go down the CCJ route you will have money to offer to stop proceedings.
The defaults will all drop off your file 6 years after they appeared paid or not. The CCJ will drop off 6 years after the CCJ date.

Morgans_Dad

Hi all,

Good advice so far but have now hit a problem. First letter came today from Ruthbridge Ltd addressed to the occupier... with no balance or other details just a request to call them. I didn't give anything away but established that its me they are after. They said there is recent credit activity on my file which is why they believe I live here LOL.

Funny thing is this has only happened since I took out the Vanquis card. I've had Natwest CC and Capital one for months and they were on Experian but nothing. Now 2 weeks after I get Vanquis this happens - suspicious?

Anyway what next steps should I take here? I don't know which debt they are chasing and of course don't want to restart the 6 year statute bar timer so do I just hit them with a CCA request?

Cheers,

Morgans Dad

LilacPixie

I would ignore ruthbridge until they send you something addressed to you with details of the alledged debt and then hit them with the 'I do not acknowledge this debt' letter to be found on here and on the NDL website.