Helpful hints and advice?

jmitchell1986

Hi, I'm Joe, a 23 year old in roughly £5 k of debt, spread over credit cards and store cards, overdrafts, loans, and a debt with my local council, which has utterly destroyed my credit score.

I have been struggling with this for a long time, the last couple of years, and it has been really stressful, but I am due to start a new job next month, which will take my earning from £11K to £17.5k, and I plan to inform the people I owe money to that I will be able to increase my payments from the minimum payments, to £100 a month for each of them. Do people reckon that the companies will be willing to accept these terms? Three of my accounts are in arrears, so I am worried that the companies will be unwilling to accept? I just want to know if anyone has any helpful suggestions of how to talk them into seeing my P.O.V?

Thanks in advance! And if more specific details are needed, feel free to ask!

Joe

gonzo127

Hi

well first thing to do in this situation is to write up a SOA (statement of affairs) this allows you to get your entire financial situation in black and white, so there are no nasty surprises (the link to the SOA is in one of the sticky threads at the top of this forum)

once you have done this you can post it up here and we can see if you have missed anything and if there is something which seems high etc which can help you find some extra savings

you can also contact one of the debt charities (CCCS, Payplan or CAB) these will talk to you about your debt and possible repayment ideas and if you are suitable can take out a DMP (debt management plan) in which they contact the creditors (people you owe money to) and try to organise a freeze on interest and charges and agree a set monthly amount that you will be paying to them (through the debt charity)

anyways hope this helps

GeorgeUK

Have you defaulted on these accounts?
If so then instead of increasing the payments you make, it may be worth saving up the extra money to make reduced full and final settlement offers.

Have the debts been passed over to Debt Collection Agencies yet?

jmitchell1986

Hi George - yes, I have defaulted on my 3 cards. I just rang one of the credit card companies and sorted out something called a Fixed Payment Arrangement? Basically i have to ring them at the end of the month and pay £75, which is less than I offered but was acceptable to them, so that's all good. Going to contact the others now and see if I can wrangle something similar? I have contacted CCCS and was in the preliminary stages of a DMS, but then I got this new job, which increased my earnings above what they could offer me help with? Something like that anyway! So now I am doing it all by myself, being brave haha!

GeorgeUK

There are quite a few people on the board doing their own DMP's so you're in good company. One thing i would suggest is to try to make sure you get written confirmation of the agreement - including if interest and charges have been suspended.

jmitchell1986

Hmmm, well Santander and Vanquis were willing to help me out a little but, but Capital One have told me unless I pay £43 by this time tomorrow, they are going to hand my account over to a Debt Collection Agency, which terrifies me - I don't have any money whatsoever, until I get paid! I explained this, and the woman on the phone got very aggressive and abrupt, so I just said that if she continued to speak to me like she was, I would hang up, and that just seemed to p**s her off even more, so I did. Not happy now, everything was going so well!

GeorgeUK

If they pass your account over to a DCA, there is a better chance that they will try to come set up a payment agreement. Try not to let it worry you too much.

gonzo127

dont worry the debt collection agency they will hand it over to initially is probably just another department within their company, and the best thing to do is to NOT talk to them on the phone unless you have a recording device (which if i was you would try and get hold of if i was you) and use the template on this site to request all correspondence be made in writing, the reason for a recording device is becuase this totally throws them off,

i once was given permission to talk to a creditor on a friends behalf due to them not knowing what to do, and as soon as i informed the person on the other end of the phone that i was recording the conversation for my records you could tell they was completly stumped and became surprisingly helpful and polite!

however just remember a debt collection agency have as much power as a paper boy when it comes to any of your assets! and the worst thing they can do is take you to court to get a CCJ, in which case a judge will not make you pay more than you can afford!