Been Naughty? Doing the right thing or not?

forgotmyname

December 2006 Had to quit work due to health issues.

Did not realise the amount of debt I had accrued at the time. Excess of £30,000. It was a big shock. Direct Debits paid the minimum & i would pay something extra each month. It was only after ending work and reading messages on the net that i found out the minimum payment was pennies more than the monthly interest.

On sick pay at 1st & tried to arrange a payment holiday or alternative payment plans. This was suprisingly hard work & failed when the figures they wanted exceeded the money I had coming in at the time.
After a few weeks I gave up talking to them The phone rang constantly, Letters arrived by the doormat full.
I switched the phones ringer off and piled the letters up unopened. It occured to me one day what if a letter arrives from a court? So i started opening them, Letters from companies i had never heard and did not have a clue which debt they were trying to collect.
Some were just please contact us we need to speak to you others looked more formal and some looked very official like court papers. Even had cards through the door saying i had missed a delivery & please phone to arrange redelivery. Thought that one was strange as my postman handed me the card and it was addressed to me with a stamp.
Letters and phone calls got fewer & fewer to a point where i didnt have my heart racing everytime the phone rang & hoping we did not have visitors when the answer phone kicked in & recorded the call but also plays whats being recorded.

3 years on and i am still off work on benefits, claiming incapacity and income support, We are coping with the bills at present but leaves nothing to pay towards the debts.
Gas, Electric, Rent, Water, Council Tax, Phone are all upto date with no arrears.

I also get low rate mobility which helps me keep my car on the road. We were starting to think what if it needs major work, When my father in law offered to help us purchase a car that would fit his wheelchair in. We bought a car worth just under £2000 using my car as part-ex approx £600 and him paying cash for the balance.

Was i wrong to ignore the debts and ignore the debt collectors threats, Finding the money to go bankrupt would be extremely hard.

Reading on here it seems quite unlikely for the debt collectors to actually take me to court as i dont have any disposable income unless they take the car away, That will leave me with a problem as i cannot use public transport as i have toilet issues, I dont get much warning that i need to go and have to carry stuff with me.

Is this post getting a bit long, Sorry.

Please be gentle with me, I know i should have done things differently but i am foolish and have learned my lesson, we do not have anything now unless we have the cash for it.
My partner knows my situation and did panic that people would turn up and take everything away but this website has shown her they cannot do that & never let anyone in.

Sorry, END...

immoral_angeluk

You need to get all the letters together and get some proper advice especially if you've got court papers. Check the dates on the court papers as you normally have strict time limits to reply to them. Take everything down to your nearest CAB and they will be able to help but you need to do it ASAP if they've started court action.

franwh

Firt of all, dont panic. If they were going to take you to court for your debt, they would have done so by now. Look carefully at your debts; are some catalogues, if they are, its likely you didnt sign a CCA with a catalogue company, and recovery of the debt is therefroe unenforceable. How old is some of the debt, some of it may well be Statute Barred; again this mean the debt can no longer be recovered. Take heart, as my wife once said to me when i was in tears from a threatening debt letter, 'they cant take what we havent got'. After that i stopped worrying, look into the ways ive mentioned, and be strong.

forgotmyname

immorol_angeluk, Thanks But i have not received any court papers just letters that look official with a list of fees a court will add if they did take us to court. Idle threats?

franwh, Thanks. All debts are from credit cards. I have read about some cards debts being unenforcable due to incorrect paperwork, But i have not paid anything to these companies since early/mid December 2006 and have not spoken or written to them at all since Late December 2006. I dont want to contact them for them to start phoning many times a day.
That was beyond a joke and talking to them was pointless and got me nowhere

I have received a private message from a member on here who has an advertising link in his signature & sent a link to a 3rd party company with a similar name. Should i report them?

Jacobs_Crackers

Hi there,
you don't need to apologise for anything, you've done well to come on here & talk openly about your issues - be proud of yourself, doing this is not easy!

If you haven't already, you could see if you are entitled to any other benefits - check out the website https://www.entitledto.co.uk or go to your local CAB.
I'm not the expert on statute barred or what to do about communications with creditors, but I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will post soon, or maybe ask the CAB that too.

I don't think they would be able to take your car from you because of your personal issues plus you are receiving mobility, so I shouldn't worry about that.

I think maybe you should report the other person who sent you the pm with the link, people are not allowed to advertise or promote like that.

Best wishes,
JC.
x

forgotmyname

Thanks, Having read a lot of posts on here over the time i know they can do little to get me to pay whilst in my current cirumstances.
I dont see any change in the immediate future. Hospital appointments take months and months to get appointments.

What can go wrong with me just ignoring them until my circumstances change & I can afford to go bankrupt or pay them something or until the debts are statute barred?
Whichever comes 1st I guess.

Property is council rented and other than the car i have nothing else of any value.

I feel the need to apologise & still feel a bit guilty as I think I should have done better.
Would feel embarrassed to explain my situation face to face somewhere like the CAB, Even though I know I wont be the 1st or last.
And knowing the only reason we have the money to pay the bills and fill the cupboards is because i have not paid these debts.

Thank you all again, I have reported that PM/member, if it worked. It is only because iI have read of some of the scams on here that i check websites.

I heard on watchdog or rogue traders? one company sent out missed parcel cards and it was a breach of their conditions or illegal or something, One debt collection company sent me emails offering electrical items cheaply, I presume hoping i would fall for their scam.
A whois search revealed it was registered at the same address as cabot robb something in the name who was also linked to cabot. Just checked what i think the site was called & seems it is now registered in the virgin islands.

Oops my mind is wandering, I spend way too much time on the internet.

Thank you all again.

carol01

forgotmyname wrote: »

immorol_angeluk, Thanks But i have not received any court papers just letters that look official with a list of fees a court will add if they did take us to court. Idle threats?

franwh, Thanks. All debts are from credit cards. I have read about some cards debts being unenforcable due to incorrect paperwork, But i have not paid anything to these companies since early/mid December 2006 and have not spoken or written to them at all since Late December 2006. I dont want to contact them for them to start phoning many times a day.
That was beyond a joke and talking to them was pointless and got me nowhere

I have received a private message from a member on here who has an advertising link in his signature & sent a link to a 3rd party company with a similar name. Should i report them?

hiya forgotmyname
dont feel ashamed you tried to explain your situation to these credit card companies and they would not listen so you have done nothing wrong seems like you are over 3 years into not paying or contacting them i would leave alone and try and go for statue barred as you have no assets there is not much they can do i dont think. this is what is wrong with these credit card companies when your circumstances change they should be a little more sympathetic and maybe people would not just ignore them or not pay them they have a lot to learn

forgotmyname

Thanks, I was thinking the same but was not sure if that was the right thing to do.

I have just read on here, as long as i make no payments or acknowledge the debt in writing and signed the debts will be barred in 6 years from my last payment.
Is that correct?
So am i safe in answering the phone? If they ask for me say sorry he is out can i pass a message on. Or will that encourage them to call more often?

Do i just continue to ignore all withheld, unavailable and unknown numbers?

Had calls at all hours, Had to cancel the BT text message service. They would text a message at 8:59pm and sometimes it would take ages to ring through, if ignored it would ring back every so often upto about midnight i think. Had calls at 2am unavailable or withheld, BT wanted extra money to block them whcich i could not afford & seems it doesnt work on all numbers anyway, Some systems can bypass it.
I dont want these calls to start all over again, It really was a nightmare.

Thank you all, You are all brilliant.

So glad i came here and asked.