Struggling with debt? Ask a debt advisor a question

StepChange_Pavan

millymollymoody wrote: »

Hi

I'm just wondering whether anyone could offer me advice on what to do. Three years ago, I had some savings and no debt (other than the mortgage), but had a disaster a couple of years ago due to two separate legal '!!!!-ups' which meant that I had to spend upwards of £20k in legal fees fighting for my home.

I now have a £15k bank loan, £6k on credit cards and a £3.9k overdraft and feel I am getting more and more into debt each month.

There's only about £20k equity in the house, so I'm unlikely to be able to re-mortgage and add the debt onto that, so I'm just not sure where to go.

I've got a relatively good income and quite a secure job, but the debt is starting to get me down.

I've been told by the solicitor I used a couple of years ago that I have a very good claim against the solicitors who made the original error, but I can't risk any more debt on legal fees and 'no win, no fee' arrangements only seem to cover accidents, medical negligence and unfair dismissal'.

I just seem stuck in debt through no fault of my own and it's really getting me down. Grateful for any advice anyone could offer.

Sorry if this seems a bit of a ramble!

Hi millymollymoody and thanks for your post.

We can’t provide you with legal advice about the claim so it’s best to speak to a solicitor that you trust and base your decision on that.

With regards to your debts, we can look at your situation in a bit more detail to be able to advise you on your options.

I’d recommend that you visit our online debt advice service Debt Remedy (http://www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu) to help you find a solution to your debt problem quickly.

Debt Remedy will assist you in completing a financial statement with information on your household, employment, income, expenditure and debts. From this the service will automatically determine your options.

To help you fill in the form, it’s best to gather together information about:
• Your income
• Your expenditure
• The creditors you owe money to

You’ll receive a downloadable advice booklet providing a tailored solution for you based on your current circumstances and advice on ways you may be able to improve your situation.

If you’re not confident with computers or would like to speak to an advisor then you’re welcome to ring our free Helpline on 0800 138 1111. We’re open Monday to Friday 8am - 8pm and Saturdays 9am – 3pm.

If you phone us it may be possible to refer you directly to a counsellor for immediate advice. Alternatively, we will arrange for an appointment to be booked at a time convenient for you.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

bradibaby wrote: »

hi, At the end of February i agreed a £15 a month repayment plan with Barclaycard ..they also agreed to suspend interest charges although they sent no confirmation of this ...the last three months they sent statements out saying i have made insuficiant payment and have continued to add interest .

I wrote to Barclaycard customer relations last month after interest was again added on and recieved a standard letter back with a few lines in it confirming that i am on reduced payment of £15 with suspended interest and refunded last two months interest.

Today i recieve my new statement and asking for arrears plus full monthy payment by 6 th June ( and that they have put me back onto normal rates as i failed the correct payments)

They have also phoned me 9 times over last two days asking me to pay remainder of what i owe over the phone. for the insufficiant payments. They put the phone down on me twice today when i did answer it and explained i had paid what i was supposed to and wouldn't listen when i read the letter out to them i recieved confirming i was on a new agreement .

Anyone know what the correct Barclaycard address is for complaints so i can get it sorted out once and for all.

Hi bradibaby and thanks for your post.

I just did a quick search and the complaints address is on their website: http://www.barclaycard.co.uk/personal/complaints. There’s some useful information on there too about what you should include which might help.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

Davidddd wrote: »

Hi,

I have around £50,000 worth of credit card debt which all defaulted around a year ago and I now have debt collection agencies chasing me, am behind with my mortgage and everything else. However, I recently started up in business and am now making a basic income, and I have around £35,000 worth of equity in my home if I price it competitively to hopefully sell it quickly. I also borrowed £3,000 from a family member to enable me to start up in business which I am keen to repay quickly.

My credit rating is such that it's impossible to get an additional mortgage on my home or any other type of secured loan, and I plan to sell it promptly, repay the loan to my family member and reach settlement agreements with the debt collection agencies. I have managed to come to an agreement with my mortgage company, am able to make the payments, and am about to do the same with the debt collection agencies until such times as I manage to sell my home.

However, I recently heard that credit card debts can be secured on the equity of one's home. My credit card debts comprise of two at around £ 18,000, one at around £10,000 and the other at around £4,000. As far as I know none of the agencies have taken any form of legal action yet, and I have been in touch with them all within the past couple of months and have come to an agreement in principle to pay nominal amounts on a monthly basis. I realise organisations such as CCCS arrange this sort of thing for people, but I'm quite happy to do it myself. My question is this: Could the collection agencies indeed secure the debts against the equity in my home, and how likely would this be to happen before or when I sell it?

I have scoured the internet for information on this but have been unable to find much, and I'm uncertain of several things such as, would the debt collection agencies and/or credit card suppliers necessarily realise I am selling my home, and should I or should I not tell them I'm doing so?

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Hi Davidddd and thank you for your post.

You’re right that your creditors can apply to secure the debt against your property. You would need a county court judgment in the first instance, and if they then apply for a charging order, they would be going down the route of the debt collection process.

There’s no way of saying how likely or how fast this could happen. If you’ve already made them aware of your situation and offered what you can afford you’ve already done the right thing. Alerting them to the fact that you will be selling could make them follow the process quicker to try and make sure that they get their money back in full - but there’s no guarantee on this.

If you’d like more detailed advice on this, please get in touch.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

Pair_of_numpties wrote: »

Hi,

My husband and I have a joint current account with Lloyds TSB and we each have a seperate Lloyds TSB credit card account. I pay my cc by direct debit from our current account. My husband pays his cc manually.

My question: if my husband defaults his cc payment, will they try to take the money from our bank account?

Thanks.

P.S I will post our SOA when I've worked out the finer details - its a work in progress!

Hi there and welcome to the forum.

Yes, they can take money from any connected accounts. The safest option is to open up a new basic bank account where you don’t have any debts and have your salaries going in to there. You would also need to set up any outgoings such as direct debits etc from this new account too.

If you’d like some help with your SOA you can use our online debt advice service Debt Remedy (http://www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu) which will also help you find a solution quickly.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

PhishFood wrote: »

Hi, just have a quick question, can you go on a DMP with only one creditor? (it's a 10k loan but only have £60 a month free to pay towards it). At the moment this is being handled by frequent 'temporary' arrangements with the bank but I was wandering if an official DMP with CCCS would be an option. I have helped a few friends getting sorted onto a DMP but I am not sure about this and don't want to get friends hopes up if it is a non starter. Ta.

Hi PhishFood and thanks for your question.

We don’t usually recommend DMPs where there is only one creditor but sometimes people can forget other things like overdrafts or store cards which can also be included.

You can contact us to be sure – we can still help you to put together a budget and ensure that making reduced payments is your best option even if a DMP isn’t right for you.

Kind regards,
Pavan

StepChange_Pavan

ej2004bear wrote: »

Hi, can someone help me please?

I have quite a bit of debt, but have not missed a payment on ANYTHING for years. I have checked my credit file and it all looks ok really. The only problem is 2 missed payments for a £20 catalogue order that I was disputing 3 years ago. That account now shows as settled. Since the start of the year I have managed to pay off in full 3 of the higher interest debts, which I am quite proud of myself for! I am trying to do the snowballing thing - and so far it seems to be working. My balance on my biggest credit card is coming down quite quickly now I have increased the monthly payments significantly due to having some spare after paying off the other 3 store cards.

Anyway, today - I needed to renew my car insurance and went to AA which was the cheapest quote on 'go compare'. However, an experian credit search came back said that on this occaision I couldn't pay my car insurance monthly??? I don't understand. I have paid my car insurance monthly for YEARS without ever missing a payment. I have already cancelled my other policy due to finding this cheaper quote online (the £20 difference would have gone on my credit card!) and now I have to pay a whole year upfront - which the only way I could is to put it on the credit card I am desperately trying to pay off...

Can anyone tell me why this would be?

Many thanks

Why when I have significantly reduced my debt, and kept on top of all my other payments would I suddenly not be able to pay for my car insurance monthly? I have checked Equifax tonight, and all the details look correct.

Hi ej2004bear and thanks for your post.

It’s difficult to say why you could have been rejected so it’s best to ask the company directly or you could speak to the credit reference agency for advice.

You might also find this article useful which gives more information on how credit files work: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score.

Kind regards,
Pavan

Em-1

Hi there

I'm new to this so not sure if in right place but am just wanting quick bit of advice.

We have 47k in unsecured debt. We have never missed a payment but only manage to make minimum payments.

We can still pay everything although we are living on a shoestring. And to be doing that and working 12 hour days, its disheartening when our debt is even going down. As a result we have decided to put our house up for sale and sold it. After fees etc we should walk away with 25k which we intend to use to pay off our most expensive cc's. In doing so this will free up £800 a month in which we intend to roll over to try and clear the remaining 22k. We have also thought about a consolidation loan for the 22k although this is not something we are sure we could get

We have the money to pay all our household bills etc we just want to clear this credit card debt.

I realise we aren't actually going to be any better off BUT we will actually be making inroads into our remaining debt.

The reason I am asking for an opinion is that my parents disagree with us selling our house in order to clear a chunk of our debt and I'm starting to doubt myself!

Any basic advice would be appreciated!!

helpme12345

Hi everyone, i was hoping someone could advise me as im pretty worried about things at the moment. Last May/June i decided to face up to my debt problems and try to clear them, my parents offered to let us move in with them for £150 a month to help us out, my partner and i did this and everything has been going fine and making steady payments to cccs for the last year until this month. -- My parents have had to move away so my partner and i are having to move to new accomadation where the rent is £400 a month + we are now going to have to pay council tax etc. which we didnt at my parents. The problem is we cant afford this and the payment for ccccs and im really worried that the threatining letters are going to start again.
Any help or experience on someting like this would be appreciated.

curious39

Unhappy_little_bunnies wrote: »

Hello,

This is my first time, so please bear with me.

• We have £30,000 secured against our property - Loan
• We have a unsecured loan of 7,000
• We have £37,000 in equity in our property
• We want to sell the house to clear all debts because we cannot afford payments anymore
• The house is not selling

Questions:

• Can we force a repossession?
• Can we speak to the mortgage company and loan company and agree for them to take the house?
• If the house is repossed and sold for less than we owe, can they chase us for the rest of the money?
• Any ideas?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

ULB:A

They chase you more if you have assets. If you have no more assets they still chase you but are less rude and you can have fixed monthly payment without *the lovely phonecalls* all the time.
I was on the same boat as you , managed to sell the flat and get some money out of it, borrowed from a very conservative friend who kept cash under her pillow for years, to stop the pending court case repossesion but! don't be too open to the estate agents, they may like your house to be repossesed to be able to jointly buy it with other agents for less , i was sexually harassed by my estate agent so i got the list of all people who viewed the property and lied to him that i was not going to sell, than i have employed another agent from different burrow of london and lied to him that i was married and my husband was working in a law firm and was an american etc for them to back off ( they have no scruples when dealing with a single female ), than i made the deal with the buyer myself! without the agent negotiating, than the buyer wanted to lower the price but i took the risk and put my foot down, i sold it with profit, i have tormented everyone with not picking up the phone, had to pay the secured loan in full but negotiated with credit cards and got full and final settlements. I got the help from the CAB with writing to the debt collectors after the completion but the lady miscalculated and i am still left with one debt collector. rely on yourself and on your gut ! x

StepChange_Pavan

Em-1 wrote: »

Hi there

I'm new to this so not sure if in right place but am just wanting quick bit of advice.

We have 47k in unsecured debt. We have never missed a payment but only manage to make minimum payments.

We can still pay everything although we are living on a shoestring. And to be doing that and working 12 hour days, its disheartening when our debt is even going down. As a result we have decided to put our house up for sale and sold it. After fees etc we should walk away with 25k which we intend to use to pay off our most expensive cc's. In doing so this will free up £800 a month in which we intend to roll over to try and clear the remaining 22k. We have also thought about a consolidation loan for the 22k although this is not something we are sure we could get

We have the money to pay all our household bills etc we just want to clear this credit card debt.

I realise we aren't actually going to be any better off BUT we will actually be making inroads into our remaining debt.

The reason I am asking for an opinion is that my parents disagree with us selling our house in order to clear a chunk of our debt and I'm starting to doubt myself!

Any basic advice would be appreciated!!

Hi Em-1 and welcome to the forum.

It’s difficult to say whether selling your house is your best option without looking at your situation in a bit more detail. However, from what you’ve mentioned it does sound like a sensible option, and like you say it will help you towards a debt free future.

You may want to clear the debts in full but you could also consider making full and final settlements, where you would offer the creditors a lump sum for less than the amount outstanding. There’s no guarantee that they would accept it but it could be worth thinking about. You can read a little bit more about this on our website (http://www.cccs.co.uk/InfoCentre/EnglandandWales/Debtsolutions/Settlementoffers.aspx) but if you’d like more detailed advice you can contact us for further advice on 0800 138 1111 or http://www.cccs.co.uk/ref/drcu.

It’s a big decision to make so it’s important that you look at all your options first.

I hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Pavan