Time to grasp the nettle & deal with this mess

MattyA

Hi
I am a new member to this site and have traweld through hundreds of threads / posts & am getting confused.

There is tremendous help / advice out there - thanks to everyone who has contributed.

My issues are:
Massive unsecured debt - mainly on credit cards,many of which are long standing 10 years .
Have serviced them all until the last couple of weeks when I have quite simply run out of money and have had no option but to miss payments.

I really dont want to rollover & die after fighting on all this time.

In the meantime whilst reading the various posts I have now all kinds of questions re enforecability,ppi reclaiming,token payments / missed payments and how all this will affect my chances of wiping any debt / reclaiming any PPI etc.

Hope someone can help / advise which way to jump / what order I need to do things in.

Final point - Is there a way to bookmark threads / posts of interest so that I can return to them easliy? - I have already 'lost ' one thread that I found really interesting & would like to participate in.


Thanks in anticipation.
Matt

Rossy.

Hi Matt

I dont have any real advice for you as i'm no expert but maybe try a free charity helpline i.e CCCS or the CAB. I've read many times on here how highly regarded they are and how they offer solid advice and practical solutions

I didn't want to read and run but good luck mate

Sunnylooloo

Hi Matt

I am in a very similar situation my self - I spoke to CAB and national debline both a great help.

There is a great enforecability thread where if you talk to NID about it he will be able to help you should you take that route.

At the present - I have got short term agreements with all my creditors (something I did myself with template letters from National Debtline) For the most part they accept this payment for 6 or 12 months with a reveiw after then. Most of them have frozen charges and interest so although I am paying less I can see my balances going down. Please remember though this will shoot your credit history to bits - mine is awful now but I had no other choice.

I sent them all an I and E sheet and a covering letter and after a little bit of too and froing things were accepted.

It also stops chasing phone calls and letters and my debts are at present still with the original creditor.

Can adivse on the other option you mentioned but hope this is a bit of help

LL

dancingfairy

Just above your post there is a button that says thread tools. Click on subscribe to the thread and you can get emails sent to your inbox. When you check your emails you can then click on the links. It will send you emails daily, or whenever someone posts etc depending on what you set it to.
You can also go into your profile and see a list of threads you are subscribed to. On the toolbar above the one I was talking about before there is a button that says UserCP - which I think has options in to see which threads you have subscribed to etc. I can't check because then I will loose this reply!
df

MattyA

Thanks Sunnylooloo.
Were you up to date with all payments when you wrote to them all?
I am worried that as I have now missed payments (last couple of weeks only) & am ducking their calls, that they will not be open to such an arrangement with me.
However if they did such a thing it would help a great deal.
BTW are you in IVA or anything similar?
Matt

NorthernLas

There are a couple of sticky threads at the top of this forum (they always stay at the top). Here are the links

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/107280 how to start
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2077631 where to go for advice

Start by reading Martin's article on problem debts.
Then work out your income and outgoings (statement of affairs).
Once you have this then you can give people a good idea as to how much you owe and to whom and your personal circumstances (children, house etc).
You can get advice by telephone from CCCS and Nationaldebtline and you can put your figures into CCCS's debt remedy which will suggest a plan of action.

The national debtline website is also very good and well worth a look.

As you have said that the debt is old, you may consider identifying if the debt is enforceable. This will mess your credit record up, so the decision needs to be considered depending on your circumstances.

NorthernLas

There are a couple of sticky threads at the top of this forum (they always stay at the top). Here are the links

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/107280 how to start
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2077631 where to go for advice

Start by reading Martin's article on problem debts.
Then work out your income and outgoings (statement of affairs).
Once you have this then you can give people a good idea as to how much you owe and to whom and your personal circumstances (children, house etc).
You can get advice by telephone from CCCS and Nationaldebtline and you can put your figures into CCCS's debt remedy which will suggest a plan of action.

The national debtline website is also very good and well worth a look.

As you have said that the debt is old, you may consider identifying if the debt is enforceable. This will mess your credit record up, so the decision needs to be considered depending on your circumstances.

Sunnylooloo

MattyA wrote: »

Thanks Sunnylooloo.
Were you up to date with all payments when you wrote to them all?
I am worried that as I have now missed payments (last couple of weeks only) & am ducking their calls, that they will not be open to such an arrangement with me.
However if they did such a thing it would help a great deal.
BTW are you in IVA or anything similar?
Matt

I missed one lot of payments - which resulted in all the calls etc... whilst I was getting my act together in writing to them.

I personally found the allowances for a DMP or IVA were ridiculous and I know I would have ended up failing it, so I did myself a relaistic budget and sent to all with what I had spare and they all accepted it. The National Debtline had all the templates - I did also call them to have a chat so I got a reference number, as many of the companies will try "o we will only deal with a DM company" - this is rubbish they can deal with you directly.

I guess it is up to you if you feel like you can handle it yourself.

Also if you do speak to them tell them you are seeking advice they then usually leave you alone for 14days.

Feel free to PM if you want to ask me anything else.

LL

MattyA

Tonights the Night!(Stage 1)
After several days reading through the posts on here & much help / guidance / sharing of experiences from other members(A big thank you to you all - you have given me hope) who are or have been in a similar position,I have decided my plan of action & will draft up letters tonight to all my lenders ,informing them that I am experiencing financial difficulties,unable to make the minimum payments they are asking for and that I am seeking proffessional advice on the matter.
This will 1 make them aware of my current position ,2 buy me some time while I get my act together and go down the UE route & 3 get the ball rolling.
Lets see what happens.

I also have a telephone interview with CCCs tomorrow so I will have to wait to see what they say.

Would anyone advise that I offer to make a token payment of £1 per month per account - is there any worth to this?

Matt

dancingfairy

Say they take you to court for not paying - if you've written to them, offered them a token payment whilst you sort yourself out and then written to them saying what you can afford and consistently paid what you have offered it's going to look a whole lot better than if you get before the judge and it's a case of well you haven't bothered trying isn't it.
Yes token payments will affect your credit rating but if you haven't got the money to pay then you haven't got the money to pay and your credit rating might not have been that great before if you have been robbing peter to pay paul or odd missed paymentrs or just because of the amount of debt you have.
Oh - the whole token payments thing is only for unsecured debts not for secured loans and mortage etc as if you were to stop paying them you could be in a whole lot more trouble and put your house at risk.
df

MustBeatThis

MattyA wrote: »

Tonights the Night!(Stage 1)
After several days reading through the posts on here & much help / guidance / sharing of experiences from other members(A big thank you to you all - you have given me hope) who are or have been in a similar position,I have decided my plan of action & will draft up letters tonight to all my lenders ,informing them that I am experiencing financial difficulties,unable to make the minimum payments they are asking for and that I am seeking proffessional advice on the matter.
This will 1 make them aware of my current position ,2 buy me some time while I get my act together and go down the UE route & 3 get the ball rolling.
Lets see what happens.

I also have a telephone interview with CCCs tomorrow so I will have to wait to see what they say.

Would anyone advise that I offer to make a token payment of £1 per month per account - is there any worth to this?

Matt

Hi, me from the UE thread... I also had advice from CCCS and they advised us to make token payments. Some of my CCs didn't want to accept, some did. But I made payments in cash at the bank so they couldn't not accept - did this for quite a few months!

Most of mine got sold on to DCAs and these have been, mostly, a real pain to deal with. RMA was by far the worst, with hindsight I should have reported at least one of their reps. I just found they took absolutely no notice of anything I said. While I oculd only make £1 token payments most of them wouldn't accept these at all so we had stalemate.

Over the last couple of months, finances have improved a little so I've been making bigger token payments.
Good luck!