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alias07

Hi, I'm hoping someone can give me some advice please. My husband has had no work (normally contracts) for a while, although there is one contract with a large company almost ready to go (mind you it has been for a long while - it's moving very slowly). I am in full time work; however we have a lot of debt (stupidly) and have not been able to afford our payments for a few months. We sent letters a few months ago, with a statement of affairs and offering a token payment of £1 until circumstances improve. Almost all the companies accepted this (with regular reviews). We have an agreement with our mortgage company to pay a little extra each month to catch up on arrears and a secured loan that we are up to date with. There is possibly £10,000 equity in our house - but that does not cover the amount of the secured loan.

Northern Rock have never accepted the £1 token payment (although we have sent cheques that they cashed, and now pay by standing order each month). When they threatened to take us to court we got advice, and were told to re-send our letter and statement of affairs, and were told even if it did go to court , the court would not make us pay more than we could afford. Suffice to say, we were sent a letter asking for £200 more per month than the original monthly loan payment! We sent an official court form challenging this and then received a temporary charging order with a date for the hearing in London. I sent a letter back saying I wished to attend and contest this but nearer to home. Since then my husband's contract has come nearer to fruition, but still not quite there. In a stupid head in the sand way, I was hoping the contract would commence before a new court hearing date arrived, and we could try and make an agreement with Northern Rock to clear the arrears over the next few months. Anyway, the new date arrived on Tuesday and is set for a week on Friday. And of course the contract still does not have the start date officially set!

So, we are not in a position to afford legal representation, and I really need some sound legal advice rather quickly in order to try to stop this charging order going ahead. I know this is really late in the day, it was pretty stupid hoping that the cash flow would improve rather than arming ourselves ready for the worst case scenario.

With thanks
ali

d0rk_

I don't know where to start but I am in deep trouble... I'm 22 and live with my parents ... my spending got out of hand and now I really do not know what to do and who to turn to.

I don't even know where to begin about explaining them so perhaps just list my loans?
I'm slowly paying of Vanquis credit card..minimum payments are 60 a month and it's a very high interest rate. I have had numerous missed and later payments with them
I have Catalogue loans with Very and Littlewoods totalling almost 100, these payments have been missed, and late but at the moment i'm upto date
I stupidly took out payday loans, which hopefully I will be able to pay off next month but I've ended up in a vicious circle from borrowing from others and using them to pay other loans

The most stupid thing of all is i took out a log book loan last year on my car, I wanted to go on holiday and i really didn't think of the consequences the repayments are 200 a month and I really cannot afford to pay anymore

Im stuck, i really don't know what to do. Borrowing money from my parents is not an option...they know about the "normal" as you may say it loans but not the logbook or payday

im not sleeping, im stressed I really really need some help

creditcrazy

Hi,I am in the process of setting up a dmp with cccs,have sent off pape rwork and am now waiting to find out the next step.Have sent all creditors letter from cccs pack informing them I am going on a dmp.
When my dmp finally gets up and running do I have to send more letters regarding freezing interest and stopping charges or do cccs do this??I have searched the forum but cannot seem to find the info Im looking for.Would just like to be organised with these letters if I am to contact them myself. Sorry if posted in the wrong place but am still fairly new to this site,thankyou!!

gonebroke

Hi, I have just received a Claim for a debt that I had a CCJ registered against me about three years ago. It is with the same creditor (so debt not sold) but different solicitors.

The debt an unregulated car loan with over £30K outstanding. Previously we reached a Consent Order that I would pay £20K but the money I was expecting never came through.

Over the past couple of years I have received Stat Demand (12/09) and other letters. I have ignored them all. This action is now with a new solicitors.

The loan was taken out im mid 2005 and defaulted in early 2007.

My question is can they CCJ me again for the same debt? The sum is still the same with no interest added since 2007.

StepChange_Pavan

gemmac86 wrote: »

Hello im hoping someone can help me in total me and my partner have £4500 worth of debt via overdrafts. we used them to pay fees when we bought our first house last year and havent been able to get out of them. This might sound mad but were getting married next year and have been saving each month for the last year and have £4500 in our wedding account so we know that we can save and are financially able to. Ive been keeping the current accounts with the overdraft and wedding account completely sperate as it was easier for me to get my head around. We are now at our overdraft limit and still have things to pay for so ive been looking into credit cards and loans to clear our overdraft debbt as although they are agreed overdrafts its still costing a fortune to have them. I dont know whether to get a credit card and do a super balance money transfer to the current accounts so my debt will be on the 0% credit card or get a loan. ive looked at the MBNA Platinum plus and just want to check the introductory offer is 0% on money transfers for 18 months so does that mean that if i transfer £4500 to my current account i pay 0% on the £4500 for 18 months?
Sorry if my post seems abbit vague im still trying to get my head around financial terminology.
Many Thanks

Gemma

Hi Gemma and thanks for your post.

Generally we don’t advise on taking out further credit as we’re a debt advice charity that advises on how to get debt free, and this can sometimes make the situation worse in the long term. However I can understand your reasons for wanting to do this.

I can see that you’ve already had some helpful advice from Tixy on another thread. I’d just recommend that you budget carefully and make sure that you can afford the new repayments comfortably before taking on any further credit.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

L_sendall wrote: »

Help!

My husband and I have for the first time i our lives got into money troubles. We spent too much trying to have IVF and now have a problem.

I have a personal loan and two credit cards and an overdraft totalling 12k. I am now 3 months into a new full time job (previously part time) and I can currently meet all the repayments just about ok and have done a monthly budget which I can stick to. BUT

I have gone each month a bit more over our overdraft limit since christmas while I was waiting to start my new full time job. This is accruing charges of about £175 to 200 a month and I cant meet these costs on top of our debt, for the last few months I get 175 to 200 a month worse off from bank charges - In december I was 100 over our limit and now I am 500 - its about what the bank have charged me.

I went to see the bank but they have refused another loan or increase in overdraft. I know its our fault and they are entitled to charge but the charges are so much and its the only thing stopping us getting straight.

I have checked my credit score and its 99, I have banked at the same bank (HSBC)for 20 years and never been in trouble before. I feel like they see pound signs and are making a fortune out of me.

as it stands next month I will be another few hundred pounds worse off again from bank charges so my debt will go from 500 to 700 and so on.

What do I do? I know we have been very stupid. We have equity in the house, its worth 210, with a mortgage of 130 but with our current level of debt and income I'm not sure they would let us get anything out of that.

HELP please

Hi L sendall and welcome to the forum.

It’s great that you’ve now got a sustainable budget in place and well done on getting the full time job. Although this must be a weight off your mind I can understand how the bank charges aren’t making the situation any better.

We don’t usually recommend taking out further credit but provided that you don’t use the overdraft again, is there any other form of cheaper borrowing that you have access to? For example could a family member or friend help you get on top of the charges so that you can start to make headway and repay them at a rate you can afford.

The alternative would be to offer each of your creditors reduced payments and ask for their consideration in reducing or stopping the interest and charges – but there is no guarantee that they will agree to this.

Either way I would recommend that you open up a basic bank account away from your existing debts. The bank could withdraw your overdraft at any time and if your income currently goes into this account, this would leave you with no money to live on. If you pay your money into a separate account, at least you are in control of your money and you can repay the overdraft at a rate that you can afford.

I hope this helps but if you’d like some more detailed advice, please give our free helpline a call on 0800 138 1111. Lines are open Monday to Friday 08:00-20:00.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

Sophieh wrote: »

Hi there, wonder if anyone can help. Bit of boring background first: My husband & I are on a DMP with approx 6months left (woo-hoo!) however, on contacting Payplan recently, I've discovered that the balances on our account are by no means up to date!! Having checked through a couple of recent statements which I had to hand, the Payplan balances were less than the statements! Now we're worried about NOT finishing our DMP in Dec '11( as we'd been thinking for the past 4.5 years). I have written to the 4 x creditors I know we owe the most to asking for statements/up to date balance and confirmation that no further interest or charges will be applied. I have since only received one response from Barclaycard asking me for £10 as I am requesting SAR ? Although I don't have the letter to hand right now, I DO understand what this is........but am confused that they are trying to put my account in that pigeonhole seeing as there is still a a balance on it which I am paying and that THEY just suddenly stopped sending me statements once we were on the DMP!! I just know both Barclays and Egg are also going to come back with the same stupid response!! Does anyone know if they can do this? Surely if the account is still being paid it cant be classed in the category where this SAR charge can be applied?? Any help offered greatly appreciated.

Hi sophieh and thank you for your post.

It doesn’t sound right that you would be asking for a SAR as this is a request for the information that is held about you under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Sometimes banks can charge a fee to send out a statement, but these must be stated in the terms and conditions. I’d recommend that you check this and if there is nothing about this you should make it clear that you are only requesting an up to date balance – and nothing else.

You may also be able to get up to date balances over the telephone so this might be a cheaper way of finding out. Either way, you should query why you need to send a SAR and see what they say.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

chickela wrote: »

Hi

i have been trying to sort out my credit report and i have a default notice with an old bank. i had paid this within 30 days of it being sent to a debt collection company but it is showing as a defalut balance. how do i get this changed to show that the amount is zero and as it was settled within 30 days should this have been lodged.

many thanks

ange

Hi Ange and welcome to the forum.

You usually have to pay the amount within 14 days for no further action to be taken - but this should have been stated on the default notice.

You can get a settlement note added to your file to state that the amount was repaid in full. This credit explained booklet gives you more information on how to do this.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

mbamber01 wrote: »

Hi, I am on a debt management programme and tried to contact my bank in order to cancel the PPI on my loan that is part of the Debt Management Programme. They told me that because I am in arrears and the PPI was a lump some at the start of my loan (originally completed on-line a few years ago) I can't cancel it. Is this right as it doesn't seem very fare me paying interest on PPI when I will never claim.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Michelle

Hi Michelle and thanks for your post.

I’d recommend that you check the terms and conditions of the PPI agreement. Sometimes if you pay something in a lump sum you have so many days to cancel and once this date passes you no longer can.

However, if you weren’t given this choice or the insurance wasn’t fit for purpose in the first place you could consider reclaiming the PPI.

There’s a fantastic reclaiming guide on this site which should give you all the information you need and this would get you the same result as cancelling if you’re successful.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

Sophieh_2

CCCS_Pavan wrote: »

Hi sophieh and thank you for your post.

It doesn’t sound right that you would be asking for a SAR as this is a request for the information that is held about you under the Data Protection Act 1998.

Sometimes banks can charge a fee to send out a statement, but these must be stated in the terms and conditions. I’d recommend that you check this and if there is nothing about this you should make it clear that you are only requesting an up to date balance – and nothing else.

You may also be able to get up to date balances over the telephone so this might be a cheaper way of finding out. Either way, you should query why you need to send a SAR and see what they say.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

Thanks, Pavan, I KNEW I wasn't going mad!!! I'll try ringing them in the first instance.