HELP - How long can I stall...

emilybenjamin

:oGood evening all,

Please help, was feeling like I was in some sort of control and its all gone to pot....

I'll try and keep this short and sweet:

£23,860k in debt, spread over a variety of c/cards and loans
Set up my own DMP after calling National Debtline - filled in their SOA.
Income (after tax) £1558, money left for creditors £149.58. Does this seem exceptionally low?

Sent letters to all my creditors (template from Nat D/line), explaining my situation and making offer of payments. All creditors refused except 1 plus Virgin have never responded (letters were sent end of November )

I set up standing orders to all the accounts anyway, so they are still getting regular payments.

I am getting letters and phone calls from all of them everyday. I have no idea what to do now and would be more than happy to stay in bed with the duvet over my head and pretend that I didnt exist.

Finally, I am selling my house, as soon as it is sold I will offer them all full and final payments (not that I have told any of them this).

Help - if i keep ignoring them what will happen??? What is my best course of action??

Thank you all in advance.

emilybenjamin.

Poosmate

Hi and welcome.

I would say keep paying them what you can afford. They shouldn't take you to court because you are not refusing to pay them.

You could either ignore the calls till they realise they are not getting any more out of you at this time or you could talk to them and ask them every time to freeze the interest.

Don't tell any of them that you're selling your house and going to pay them off. If they default your accounts and then sell them on to a Debt Collection Agent you will be in a better position to make lower FULL AND FINAL settlements but make sure they are F&F and that they will mark your credit files as such.

Hope that helps,

Poo

emilybenjamin

Thanks Poo,

I did mean to say that I had received a few default notices in the post too! Oops. I might just pick up the phone over the next day or too - but its going to take guts!!

Thanks again.

Thesadhippy

Don't worry to much as the previous posts says. I have nearly double your debt and my marriage has failed which has put me in a postition of not being able to pay.

Just tell em straight,,,, only pay what you can afford. At first in December when all the calls started I was afraid then I just took the bull by the horns and told em straight, do there worse.!!!!!!!!!!! You can only have what I got. I work in a busy hospital acute department and when you see the people coming in and told they have a terminal illness and there life is going to end in the not too distant future, it puts debt in perspective. (People in there 20's 30's and 40's, ) they would swap you there position for your debt in a wink of an eye.

Don't worry emilybenjamin, I am never rude to them and in most cases they have been very nice.. Let them spend there money ringing you.

savingmummy

Your paying each month so why are they writing/calling?
You can ask for them to stop calling you and only communicate via post.

Your `money left over` is more then some people have each month, what does this go on? x

emilybenjamin

Thank you all for your advice - I don't feel quite so bad now. Also answered the phone today for the first time in about 2 months - and it wasn't so bad really. Was MBNA (owe them 7k) and they were actually pretty pleasant. When I was first made redundant in June last year I had some horrendous calls from HSBC - oone day I was £15 over my overdraft limit and they asked if I couldn't just borrow the money from someone and pay it in by close of play!! Now, I know that they're not supposed to do that, but I felt under so much pressure I caved in. Ended up not paying my mortgasge for 4 months because i was so worried about my other creditors!! D'oh.

Savingmummy - they are calling/writing because they have not accepted my offer of payment. Perhaps I should send them all another letter asking again?

The 'money left over' is basically mortgage, 2 children (one of whom is on a very special diet for a medical condition - tis pricy too as its all fresh meat and veg and a lot of it every day!) and all the basic utilities - nothing luxurous.

Thank you again...

slummymummyof3

Why don't you also post a soa so we can see if there is anywhere you can realistically make any savings from your outgoings so that you can put these towards debt repayments?

JA1000

WHY ARE YOU SELLING YOUR HOUSE??

Surely if you have plan in place then the calls and chasers will go, if you get rid of your house you will not be able to buy another one. This isn't an over night fix but you are being proactive. Don't sell if you don't have to.

Locke

Have you thought about asking them for your CCA to see if the debt is enforceable?